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I (Stephanie) was a happy Greek teacher last Saturday afternoon, sitting at the Karen Blixen Coffee Gardens (part of the original ‘Out of Africa’ coffee farm near our house) drinking tea and marking papers. I was happy partly because I’d convinced Bill to take me to such an elegant spot—where they charge you twice as much as anyone should for a cup of tea and a couple of scones—so that I’d have some motivation to mark the stack of papers that had been sitting on my desk for nearly a week. But I was especially pleased to see how well the two students who’ve been struggling most in my Intermediate Greek class at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST) did on the assignment. While the rest of the class have been making mostly A’s & B’s all term, I have two who’ve been hovering in the C-D range. I offered to give them some extra tutoring and the three of us spent a lot of time together the week before last working through passages in the Greek New Testament. When I marked their assignments on Saturday I was amazed to see that one of them had made a solid B. And the other one had the top mark in the class. Yes!! I was probably nearly as excited about this as the NEGST students were about the fact that NEGST won the Nairobi Fellowship of Theological Colleges football (soccer) championship on Saturday for the first time in 31 years. A great day at NEGST for sports—and Greek.
What makes our work here so satisfying is this chance to help gifted emerging African leaders make the next steps in developing the intellectual and spiritual capacity God’s given them. Bill’s been happily engaged in teaching his classes at NEGST this month as well. He’s been walking his Systematic Theology students through the implications of the Trinity in our understanding of salvation, and trying to help his Pastoral Ministry students fathom the different expressions of ‘church’—eucharistic community, community of the Word, and community of the Spirit—and what the strengths and challenges of each are. A couple of Sundays ago he organized a field trip for a group of them to the Orthodox cathedral here in Nairobi, something he’s done before. Bill finds it fascinating to watch the students come face to face with a completely different way of doing church and practicing one’s faith than they’ve ever encountered before. It pushes them to consider the strengths and shortcomings of their own church traditions—something they’ve probably never consciously thought about, and a significant step in their own maturity as church leaders.
The last time I wrote to you I was about to fly to Hungary for the triennial meeting of the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE), part of my work with the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA). The theme of the conference was how to make theological education more relational and community-centered. Which was a great concept, but for some reason they sat us in rows of chairs the whole week so that we could listen to lectures and academic papers and panel discussions about being more relational. Fortunately the conversations over meals were more productive. And genuinely relational. And in spite of the tightly structured conference schedule, plus the several days before that when I represented ACTEA at the ICETE board meeting because our Zambian director couldn’t get a visa, I managed to escape to Budapest for a day of sightseeing—certainly one of the prettiest cities I’ve ever seen. The conference itself was held in a hotel deep in a thick Hungarian forest. I made sure to drop bread crumbs so that I could find my way back. In the midst of all that, I did get to know a number of people who can give me good advice and help in my role as ACTEA Accreditation Officer. So a useful week, if not for the reasons I anticipated. No more ACTEA travel for the rest of 2009, but I expect to be in Zambia in January, Tanzania in February, and Ethiopia in March.
However, this Thursday I leave for the USA. I need to attend a court hearing in Virginia next week (18 Nov) concerning my dad’s estate, my late parents’ house and the complications caused by my brother’s death in September. And I need to sort various other issues related to the house. I have not been looking forward to making this trip. Fortunately I’ve been able to put it off till the end of the teaching term at NEGST. My last class is Thursday afternoon and I fly out Thursday night. And as long as I have to go anyway we decided that Bill will join me in December and we’ll have Christmas in South Carolina with Bill’s folks and our daughters. All of which means I’ll be in the States for seven weeks, after already having been there for nearly two months this summer during our regular furlough. Really, could I please just stay home? (And—a more fundamental question—where is home…?) But I do appreciate the kindness of so many friends and acquaintances in Virginia who’ve offered me a series of beds, meals and cars while I’m there. God is good, and I’m trusting that he’s at work in all this—just not sure yet what it is.
One of the positives about our upcoming trip to the States (a negative being how much it all costs—ouch!) is that we’ll get to see Linnea (21) and Caroline (19). They’re each thriving at the University of Virginia this semester, and we parents enjoy seeing the photos of friends and activities on facebook. I’ve noticed there never seem to be facebook pictures of anyone actually studying or going to class, but I’m choosing to assume those things happen, too. Later this month Linnea’s going to a formal ball at Virginia Military Institute with her boyfriend, a cadet at VMI. Those of you not from the former Confederacy will just have to take my word for it how much southern tradition this represents. The dates are required to wear white floor-length gowns and elbow-length gloves. All uncharted territory for my Ethiopia-raised, European-educated missionary kid. But clever girl—to save money she tried on a number of styles to decide what she liked and then went online and had a dress custom made in Hong Kong. Classic ‘third culture kid’ ingenuity! Her dress arrived last week and she reports that it looks great. Caroline is in the process of planning her own international adventure, a trip to China during the January break to visit one of her UVA housemates whose parents work there. Since one of Caroline’s aspirations in life is to travel to as many countries as she is old, this should bring her up to date, at least for this year.
That’s what’s happening with the Blacks this month, and here’s a summary of our current prayer requests:
- Praise for a good term at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST): Bill teaching Systematic Theology and Ministry and Mission of the Church; Stephanie teaching Intermediate Greek.
- Prayer as we prepare our courses for the new NEGST term beginning in January: more Systematic Theology, and Contemporary Theology for Bill; Exegesis of Greek Narrative and 1 Corinthians for Stephanie.
- Prayer for Stephanie’s trip to the US this week, the court hearing on 18 Nov regarding her dad’s estate and late parents’ house, and all the logistics and travel as Bill joins her in December and we spend Christmas in the States with family.
- Prayer for Caroline (19) and Linnea (21) at the University of Virginia, for their continued growth as young women of God, for Caroline’s trip to China in January, and for the plans Linnea is making to do her field practicum in Kenya next summer for her Global Public Health minor.
Thank you so much for all your prayers, gifts, encouragement, emails and other forms of support. We do feel buoyed up by all the saints who sustain us in this work. Hope to see many of you in the next two months!
blessings,
Stephanie
for Bill, Linnea and Caroline Black
October Adventures
Stephanie in Hungary with theological educators from India, the US, the Philippines, Singapore, Brazil and Japan. (This is one of the times we escaped from the conference hotel…)
Beautiful Budapest! The ‘Castle District’…
…and the Hungarian Parliament, seen from the Danube
Bill and his Pastoral Ministry students getting ready to explore Orthodox worship in Nairobi
Inside the Orthodox cathedral on Sunday morning
Stephanie shopping in Nairobi’s main used clothing market. We were looking for nice used baby clothes to give the NEGST student families who have new babies.
When people in richer countries donated used clothing, it ends up here. The stall holders mend and wash and iron the clothes, making a small income, and people get to buy nice things for very low prices—anywhere from 30 cents/18p to $1.40/85p for a baby outfit.
Successful shoppers!
We were so pleased to have friends from our supporting church in Hilton Head, SC, at our house in October. Thanks for coming, y’all!
Bill giving the visitors a tour of the NEGST campus. (Really I put this in to show you my favorite jacaranda tree—the big purple one in the center.)
A chance for our guests and some of our students to get to know each other over dinner
And this month’s family photos… Linnea and her boyfriend William hiking in the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia
Caroline (third from left) with some of her UVA housemates
