In another post I said I would work on this one, so here it is.  It is a tough one though, so be warned.

God gave you everything, without Him, you would have nothing.  I do not think that should be too hard to accept.

Living here has taught me that a lot of things I thought I needed, I do not really need.  Not that we have it hard at all, but life is not the same.

So, what I mean to say is, “You do not need it.”  Seriously.  Start listing some things in your head that you need…

If you get past water and food, only occasionally, you have gone too far.

So all that stuff you have, that you do not need, God wants you to use it for Him.

We are made in God’s image, His name is on us (sermon notes on the subject).  Render unto God what is God’s.

The whole purpose of life is serving God. I just finished a morning devotion here at AIM-IS on the subject, and it is amazing how woven through the bible the subject is, but it receives very little attention.

Genesis 2:15 God put man in the Garden to serve, the curse broke this relationship.

Exodus 8:1 The purpose for freeing the Israelites was so that they might serve God. The passover accomplished this.

We are supposed to “wait on” the Lord.

Wait on:  to perform the duties of an attendant or servant for.

Luke 1:74 The reason for God sending a savior was so that we would be restored to a right relationship with God, to serve Him.

Hebrews 9:14 The reason for Christ’s death was so that we could once again serve God.

Revelation 22:3 Once the curse is gone, we shall serve God for eternity.

If that is our purpose for being here, then everything we are, everything we have, is meant to serve Him.  If the stuff you have, the time you are spending, is not serving God, then it is a misappropriation of His resources.  You are stealing from God.  So get busy using it for Him, or get rid of it.

It was my birthday, and I had bought myself a Dr. Pepper.  They are only 79 Kenyan Shillings per can! (Ski resort prices…)  Cammy made pizza, but we are still searching for the right kind of cheese.  This stuff didn’t grate or melt… yet it almost tastes like cheese.  Go figure.

I went to Lokichogio this week to help out a little at the AIM Air base there.  They had a couple of computer issues that I wanted to look into as well as understand how their operation works.  I had done a similar thing in Entebbe a few weeks back (I still need to post the pictures from that trip).  Unfortunately, the pictures were all taken with my phone, which does not have a very nice camera.  But at least it is better than nothing.

I got to ride up in the jump seat on the DC3.  I call it the flying rivet machine.  It is just about a 2 hour flight and we landed in scattered showers. I had been told that Loki was hot and dry, but my visit left me with the wrong impression.  Everything was soaking wet when we landed, and the river was rushing.  I have been told most of the time it is dry.  They said it had been a particularly wet year and everything was so green and there were bugs everywhere.  I even got to play with some kids catching katydids and grasshoppers.  I even managed to catch a butterfly with my hands, but that was a mistake because then all the boys wanted one.

Thursday was declared a national holiday in Kenya to honor Obama’s victory in the US presidental election.  So I decided to take a walk through the town.  The local people are the Turkana, and every male seemed to be carrying a stick and a ekicholong (a stool/headrest).  All the elder men were sitting in circles discussing things.  Later in the day when we drove through town, almost no one was around.  I think because of the heat, they do business in the mornings and late afternoons.

On the flight home we landed in Kitale and then headed back to Nairobi. I was able to get a great view of our home and Kibera from the left side of the DC3.

Today was Kenyatta Day, a national holiday in Kenya, honoring the first president. Paul had the day off of work so we visited Morning Star Children’s Home. We delivered some letters that were mailed to us from Calvary Chapel of El Cajon, our home church in America. Our boys decided to write cards for each of the children that didn’t get a letter from America so no one felt left out. Petr and Andrej decorated the cards with bright colored stars and had me write, ‘Jesus loves you’ on them. We also brought some tennis balls to give as presents for the children to play with. They were so excited to get their personal letters from the kids in America and cards from our boys. The children walked around holding them for the rest of the day. I noticed that the four kids who received letters from America were passing them around, proud that they had a special friend in America who loves them. We also came with a special gift of money from Gabriel Serban, one of Petr’s best friends in America. Gabriel is the son of Jenny Serban, one of my best friends from high school. When Gabriel heard that we were moving to Africa and going to be spending time with the children at Morning Star Children’s Home, he went to his room and found money that he had been saving. He handed the money to his mom saying, “This is for the children in Africa.” The money turned out to be $1.10 in coins. Gabriel gave all that he had. And it was more than enough. Today we handed the money over to the Matron of the home. She was deeply touched by a five year old boy’s heart to give. We had Petr hand the money over for the symbolism of a giving child. I will never forget how precious the moment was – a child giving to children in need. Thank you so much Gabriel! You touched hearts today!!!!

Life here is very different.  I cannot explain it in a blog post, I am not even sure I can explain it at all.

As humans we tend to like to simplify things.  So coming here, the idea that life in Africa is slower is an easy one to get your head around.  Some things are slower, much slower.  It is true that everything moves at a different speed, but it is not uniformly different.  Some things actually move faster (including, but not limited to, public transportation).

We finally have a fuel cylinder for our stove.  We purchased a stove that is half electric, half gas.  This give us the flexibility to cook if we have no gas, or if there is no power.  Everyday for about 2 weeks I went to a grocery store on my way home.  Each day he assured me they would bring it tomorrow.  Eventually, he was right.  That is just a little story to set the stage for what I want to say.

When everything changes, your basis for what is normal, and what is acceptable begins to float.  It has no anchor.  It is going to take a while to even understand what is normal and acceptable here.  When I am driving, sometimes I feel like I’ve really angered someone and they do not seem to even notice.  Other times I will do something I think is normal and get lots of honks and hands waving.

All of this points to more of the same cultural things that I have been thinking about and what we talked about extensively at ABO.  But it is not just about culture, it is about what you think is normal, or acceptable.  Much of what we think is not informed by God, but by our experience.  Not that all experience is bad, but we need to be careful about how we construct our normal and what we accept.

It boils down to, “What does the Bible really say?” And since that is a very complicated question, it would behoove us all to spend more time figuring it out, and for every context in which we find ourselves.

I finished off my first week at work last week and it was an interesting time.  I have not been to “work” for over 2 months and it felt nice to sit at a computer and hammer out some things. IT is completely different now.  Not only am I in Africa where many things work differently, but I am working for a missions organization where there is no profit motive.  That changes everything around.  It is going to take me a while to figure it all out, not technically, but spiritually.

We finished off the week by going back up to Harvesters in Karuri where I was priviledged to preach.  I guess I am getting more accustomed to being here, I did not even have a watch or a clock and no one commented on how short it was (anything under 75 minutes is considered a short message, especially  outside Nairobi). I had been preparing a message, but Saturday night it did not seem to be the right one.  So I started with a different one sort of feeling lost, but after worship and hearing from the visitors to the church I knew God had given me the right one.

After church we were able to have lunch with the translator and his wife and the wife of another Pastor who was preaching at Umoja.  It was a special time because the house we ate in was partly paid for by the sale of our house in La Mesa over a year ago.

Mungu ni mwema, wakati wote. (God is good all the time)

In a past post I mentioned culture and how things need to be translated.  However, I now see that it goes much deeper.  We have to see beyond culture.  The cultural derivative (like the moral derivative) is the world view.  What you see is a product of what you do not see.  You cannot successfully address what you see.  You must engage what you do not see.  However, you must first learn and understand what you cannot see.  You have to understand what informs the behaviours and actions you observe.  Do not say, “Why do they do that?”  But rather, ask, “What are the values cause them do choose that?”

What is right and wrong in a certain context?  Who is it that determines that in that context?  What informs that determination in that context?  It is only then that you can begin to rightfully address the situation.  However, you also must first come to an understanding that all of your observations are colored by your world view (which is probably not biblical either).

Another thing that hits me when I travel is how different culture is.  We just took a trip to Texas and it is amazing how different life is there from California.  I guess I assumed there were less differences than there are, and that is the point of this post.

There are many things that go into making culture the way it is.  Geography is one.  We went to Norway in 2002 and the impact of geography is amazing.  Even the Norwegian language is fractured along rivers, lakes, mountains and fjords.  Weather is another.   People make few new acquaintances during the heat of a Texas summer, and in Norway some places are easier in the winter, others in the summer.  The list goes on: types of available food, clothing, individual and collective history…

Of course every culture is different.  I am sure none of this comes as a surprise to anyone.  The important part is that you learn a lot about your surroundings and people by just being around them.  However, almost everything you pick up is based off of assumptions.  Sure, there is some verbal communication, maybe even in a language you understand.  However, consciously or unconsciously, you fill in all the gaps with assumptions.

When meeting new people this is very helpful.  You can learn a lot about them without having to ask every little detail.  You fill in the gaps.  We grow up learning this ability and use it a lot.  Think about driving down the road.  You come across a car, you take into account its make, model, age, cleanliness, and any stickers it might have.  In your mind you might already have a picture of what the driver looks like, and I bet you are often very close.

There is a problem with this when you go outside of your culture, you keep making those assumptions.  And they are all wrong.  Like a child, you have to relearn everything you think you already know.

Why is this important?  Because when we talk about God and His plan it needs to be translated.  Not just in language, but in culture.   Just as Hebrew and Greek need to be translated, so does the culture.  Just as we cannot water down or adulterate the language we also must translate it culturally in a way that is not changing the meaning.

This means that to be effective in ministry, one needs to understand the culture.  Wherever that might be, be it Texas, or Kenya.