2 December 2012

Christmas greetings from Kenya! Fortunately, once the regular teaching term is done the rest of our work – marking papers, preparing next term’s courses, developing new ministry opportunities – is fairly portable. So Bill and I (Stephanie) are about to take our work on the road and spend the month of December in the US. If we travel early enough in December it costs about half as much, so we’re leaving tomorrow night. Yes, we’ll be that middle-aged couple lugging computers, books, and stacks of student papers all the way from Africa via London to America through endless rounds of airport security. But oh-so-worth-it to spend Christmas with family! First we’ll be with Linnea and William in their home in Fairfax, VA, then with friends in Charlottesville, VA (and a quick check on our house there), then in Athens, GA, with Bill’s sister, and finally Hilton Head, SC, with Bill’s parents and Caroline, Linnea and William for a real family Christmas. The last time we spent Christmas in the US was 2009, and before that, 2003 – it’s a rare treat. I have to confess, I’m not sure whether I’m more excited about the holiday food, or the post-Christmas sales!

Bill’s teaching term at St Paul’s University ended last week and mine at the Nairobi Graduate School of Theology (NEGST, part of Africa International University) ended the week before. Which is why those exam papers and final projects are flooding in at the moment. Bill’s new position at St Paul’s has been one of the biggest blessings for us in 2012. Not only is he teaching in both the Church History and Theology departments, but he’s also been given responsibility for the new PhD programs St Paul’s wants to develop. This past month Bill’s been busy brainstorming curriculum for the PhD’s in Systematic Theology and Church History and trying to get all his colleagues and department heads moving forward together. (Is this why they say working with academicians is like herding cats?!) And he’s found he really enjoys the St Paul’s students. Here’s a bit about one of them that Bill wrote for The Antioch Partners’ Facebook page:

Isaac is a student in my Masters-level class on Theology and Religious Traditions that I teach at St Paul’s University’s downtown Nairobi campus. But Isaac is much more than just a student. Isaac comes from northern Malawi. He’s a husband and a father. And he is a Presbyterian minister serving Christ in the Presbyterian Church of Malawi. In order to get the education he needs, Isaac had to leave his family behind in Malawi and come here to St. Paul’s. Getting a credible theological education is costly for Isaac, but not nearly as much as if he had to travel to the US or the UK to do so. That’s why I am here. I’ve got a PhD from the University of Cambridge and I’m a senior lecturer in Theology and Church History, but I’ve come to Kenya to help my colleagues boost the academic credibility of this nascent university so that the best African Christian leaders stay in Africa and give their lives to serve Christ and his people here. Many of the African students who have their ways paid at great expense to study for the ministry in the US never go back home, or if they do, they discover that their education is irrelevant to the cultural context from which they came. I am part of a growing group of people committed to provide credible theological education for African church leaders that’s relevant for our African context. We still have a ways to go on many levels. But when I see students like Isaac in my class, hope grows that we will see a new generation of African Church leaders equipped in Africa to be engaged and relevant in the service of a gospel that touches the real issues and needs of people who live on this continent rather than having to make do with an ill-fitting imported brand.

However on a sad note, I’ve been grieving this month the deep and unexpected loss of one of my key African colleagues. Dr. Douglas Carew, the Vice-Chancellor (= president) of Africa International University died suddenly in his sleep on 9 Nov. He was 56. I first met Douglas before we moved to Kenya, in his role as chairman of the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA), my other ministry focus. I was so impressed with his giftedness as an organizational leader and with his personal thoughtfulness and integrity that I wanted to work for him. When this teaching position opened up at NEGST, the school Douglas was head of, I jumped at it. Since then I’ve appreciated Douglas’s leadership at NEGST/AIU, but even more especially and personally in ACTEA. I told you last month that the ACTEA leadership had agreed to move forward with some long anticipated restructuring, and that they asked me to return to my accreditation officer role, and that assuming all the new plans were in place I’d agreed to do that in September 2013. Well, Douglas was the key driver and implementer in that restructuring. It’s an open question who can or will step into his shoes, both at NEGST/AIU and in ACTEA. So in both of my ministry areas, I’ve felt the ground shifting under my feet this month.

In spite of this loss, 2012 has ended well for Bill and me in terms of the many opportunities we continue to have to serve God’s kingdom in Africa. What an incredible life we’re privileged to lead, in an incredible place! And we’re so grateful for those of you who share with us the great feeling of being involved in this Kingdom work. Thank you from our hearts for all you do to help.

But I hope the rest of you don’t mind if I remind you that this past fiscal year is the first time in all our years in Africa that we’ve finished the year underfunded. We’re in the process of asking God who the new partners he’s bringing onto this team will be. Our current list of partnership opportunities are in the bar to the left for any of you who in tough economic times might enjoy the ‘affordable luxury’ of having a direct impact in the lives of the next generation of African Christian leaders.

As Bill and I anticipate the joy of traveling to the US to celebrate Christmas with family, may you also be blessed with joyous holidays and the knowledge of God’s love in Jesus Christ given to each of us as the greatest gift of the season.

Looking back at 2012 – Highlights

We loved having Caroline with us during her semester break in January and making the rounds together of our favorite Nairobi tourist spots

Sheldrick Trust to visit the baby elephants rescued when their mothers are killed by poachers or human-wildlife conflict…

...and the Giraffe Centre, where you get to feed and pet the giraffes – if you’re not too nervous!

We also took the opportunity to explore some new-to-us territory – remote Lake Baringo in the Rift Valley…

… and appreciated Caroline’s patience when her parents made the inevitable wrong turn and two-hour unintended detour en route (Yes, this is a traditional part of each trip we drag our last-born daughter along on)

In March Bill was ‘tonsured’ as a reader in the Orthodox Church in Kenya, which means he helps with the liturgy in the services…

… and is part of the choir at the Orthodox cathedral – here on a trip to sing at somebody’s wedding (not entirely sure whose)

March also brought Bill’s parents and sister to visit us in Kenya for the first time – a treat for us to show them our beautiful surroundings

Back to work – here’s Bill presenting a paper in April at a conference in Nairobi sponsored by the Dictionary of African Christian Biography

May’s highlight was Caroline’s ‘faux-mencement’ at the University of Virginia, celebrating the end of four years of undergraduate study

We couldn’t be there for that one, but we’re looking forward to the real thing in May 2013, when she receives her BA and her Master of Teaching degree simultaneously

In June Stephanie made her first ever trip to Israel, accompanying PhD students from NEGST/AIU

Masada

Jordan River baptism site

Camels are just as uncomfortable and smelly to ride as you might think

In July Linnea and William celebrated their first anniversary – in Jamaica, poor things!

We feel so blessed to see them enjoying married life, following the Lord, working hard, and settling into a fruitful life in the Washington, DC, area

Meanwhile, Caroline (back left in this photo) spent the summer in Colorado, helping to lead Cru’s cross-cultural orientation for kids moving to new countries with their families

In August Stephanie traveled to  western Kenya to teach New Testament Greek  at AIU’s extension site

And in September, Bill’s faculty position at St Paul’s University became official and full-time

Since then we’ve just been teaching our hearts out – Stephanie at NEGST/AIU, Bill at St Paul’s, and Caroline doing her student teaching (practice teaching) at Walker Middle School in Virginia. I think all three of us are more than ready for the Christmas break!

1 November 2012

This week I (Stephanie) had one eye on the Weather Channel online watching Hurricane Sandy smash into the mid-Atlantic and drop snow on the Appalachians, but outside my office window in Nairobi it was a series of warm spring days. I grew up thinking of spring as the time when winter-bare deciduous trees finally pop out in green leaves. Doesn’t quite work like that here in the tropics. But I know it’s the Nairobi version of spring time when the tall elegant jacaranda trees all over the city, with their slender trunks and branches, suddenly erupt in purple blossoms. It’s my favorite time of the Kenyan year. I look forward to this couple of weeks when I walk to work over a carpet of purple flowers that have drifted from the treetops to the ground. 
 

Things have been a bit like that for much of this year in terms of my own ministry: bare branches as I’ve drawn back to contemplate what directions the Lord has for me next, waiting to see what might emerge. You may think that being a missionary in Africa is one extended wild ride (and sometimes it is – particularly in Nairobi traffic!), but it’s just as easy for me to be lulled into an unexamined comfort zone as it might be where you are. I absolutely love living in Kenya and teaching biblical studies at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST). But every so often I have to pull back and ask… Is it OK if I keep doing this? Am I just doing the same old thing because it’s convenient and familiar? What’s the Lord trying to say to me at this point in my life and ministry?

Months and months of not much happening in terms of answering those questions, and then recently I’ve had my own ‘jacaranda moment’, with new possibilities popping out in a flurry. In addition to Bill joining The Antioch Partners earlier this year and his new position teaching theology and church history at St Paul’s University which we’ve told you about in our last few letters, here’s what’s suddenly new in my own ministry zone…

First, believe it or not I’ve just been accepted to do an online part-time MA in Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at the University of Nottingham in the UK. That move came just as much out of the blue for me as it might seem to you. I’ve been wanting to do further research on cross-cultural variations in academic writing (‘intercultural rhetoric’ they call it) to help our AIU PhD students explore what an African academic writing voice might be like and how their African voices can find a place in international scholarship. On the other hand I’ve also been thinking that someday (age 60+?) I’d love to be able to spend some part of each year in the US closer to family, but I don’t have a marketable professional qualification that would make that possible. (I can imagine you’re wondering why, when I already have a PhD, but the sad truth is that after spending our whole career in Africa, and higher education employment statistics being as bleak as they are, Bill and I are not very likely to find university positions in the US.) I was having lunch with friends and explaining these two – separate, I thought – big issues in my life, when we suddenly realized there was one answer to both questions. The online MA will give me the academic context and support I need to do the research on intercultural rhetoric for the benefit of our students here. The EAP part of it is likely to open all sorts of doors in terms of part-time employment if and when we need it down the road – a meaningful re-entry and retirement strategy for career missionaries. And in the meantime the SIM Kenya leadership believe both the intercultural and EAP aspects have a huge range of possibilities for applications in various mission contexts, so I’ve been given permission to raise the funding for the MA through my SIM account. It’s a win-win-win!

The second development is that the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA) is moving forward with some long anticipated organizational restructuring, and a couple of weeks ago they asked if I’d consider returning to the position overseeing accreditation for theological schools all over Africa that I stepped down from at the end of 2011. I love the accreditation work and believe deeply in its value, so I’ve told them that assuming the hoped-for new Director is in place by then, I’ll rejoin ACTEA in September 2013. That means I’ll split my time between NEGST and ACTEA just as I’ve done before. So now let’s all hold our breath and pray that changes happen as planned for ACTEA.

And… I’ve been invited to spend March-April 2013 in Addis Ababa, teaching at the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGST) for the first time since we left in 2008. I hadn’t been to Ethiopia in 3 ½ years when I went for a few days in August to do a small project for ACTEA. I was there just long enough to realize that it’s time to go back, reconnect with people, and reacquaint myself with the place I lived longer than any other in my life. (I was a Navy kid, so 7 ½ years in Ethiopia holds the record!)

And… for several years I’ve been dreaming of organizing a conference for women in evangelical theological education in Africa, under ACTEA’s auspices. Travelling around Africa I’ve discovered that many theological schools have one or two women on the faculty. But because they’re rarely the principal or academic dean, they don’t get to attend the few pan-African events for theological educators, and they end up quite isolated in their own ministry contexts. Can you imagine how energizing it could be to get a hundred of these women together for a week and see what sorts of connections and momentum come out of it?! It’s a great idea, but I’ve been stalled from taking it further because I haven’t known how to pull together the right team. Long story short, just recently two dynamic women theological educators, one from Angola and one from Kenya, looked at me and said, “What are you waiting for? We’re in. Let’s do it!” So now I’m about to be launched into all the planning, grant writing, and logistical arrangements such an event requires – but with a great team around me. We’re hoping to hold the conference in 2014. Watch this space…

The remaining question is how the Lord is going to make all this happen. The fiscal year that just ended in September is the first time in all our years in Africa that Bill and I have finished the year underfunded. Just a bit under – no worries, we’re not going hungry yet – but it was a welcome reminder that as God stirs up new ministry directions we also have the privilege of meeting the new partners he’s bringing onto the team. Many of you already share with us the great feeling of being involved in this Kingdom work. Thank you for everything you do! There's a list of opportunities on the bar to the left for those of you who in tough economic times might enjoy the ‘affordable luxury’ of having a direct impact in the lives of the next generation of African Christian leaders. We’re so pleased to have you join us in this adventure!

 

What’s happening in Nairobi…

Me (Stephanie) doing what I do. Here’s my Gospel of Luke class at NEGST yesterday morning. Such a great group of students!

 

I spent one weekend in October playing hostess to four ninth-grade SIM missionary kids on mid-term break from Rift Valley Academy. It’s been a long time since I had to figure out how to entertain 14 year olds!

Breanna and Sarah from Malawi, Matthew from Ethiopia

Should I have been surprised that what they were most interested in was food?!

…including a taste of home – Ethiopian food for Matthew

Kissing giraffes was a big hit, too

But the favorite event was climbing to the helipad on top of the Kenyatta International Conference Centre where we could see all of Nairobi – with ‘Mrs. Black’ yelling “Stay away from that edge!!!”

  

Lest you think Nairobi is all high-rise glass and steel like the central business district above, here are some shots I took through the car window driving through one of the poorer sections of the city. Real people, real life.

 

 

And here’s one quick photo of Caroline (22), taken before the cool weather arrived in Charlottesville

Caroline’s finishing up her student teaching – loves those crazy 6^th graders! – and will return to UVA classes for one more semester before graduating in May. Then on to… what? Teaching in Virginia or somewhere else in the US? Teaching in an international school? Teaching in an MK school overseas? Working with MKs for a large mission organization (an opportunity she’s been offered)? Prayers for future direction appreciated!

21 August 2012

It’s a whole new phase of life… Our children are now young adults and involved in ministries of their own. This time we decided to ask Caroline (21) to tell you about what she did this summer teaching kids to move into new cultures and global contexts with their families. Here’s her story in her own words. Enjoy!

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This summer, I got the chance to work with Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) teaching the kids’ program for their pre-field training for missionaries, called XTrack. As XTrack was something I had never even heard of before my team leader, Polly Anthony, emailed me out of the blue to ask me to consider it, it’s easy to see how it was God who led me to this job – and then brought me so amazingly through it. So, knowing both no one and essentially nothing about Cru (I did all four years of college, but we even called it something else, and currently have no staff… so we are kind of our own thing), I arrived in Fort Collins, Colorado, on June 10, welcomed by an ominous column of smoke billowing across half the sky, looking increasingly eerie as the sun set through it.

It turned out, though, to be wonderful, the main reason, being that I had the most fantastic team to work with.  Another reason it was great was just how amazing the kids’ program, MK2MK was. It was something Polly had collaborated on over the past eight years, culminating in a color-coded binder about 4 inches thick full of curriculum. And we had 24 MKs aged 5 - 14, split into kids and teens (well, our teen program was for middle- and high-school, so it turned out that three of our ‘teens’ were eleven-year-olds going in to 6^th grade) who were a crazy, fun, earnest, hilarious and incredibly competitive group to teach. XTrack is intended to prepare new missionaries to head out to their field countries (most of them have already spent a year or two overseas – what Cru calls ‘Stint,’ or ‘Short Term INTernational’). One of the neat ways they do this is by having families who have already lived overseas – who either still do or are back in the States, but still working for Cru – come and serve as ‘coaches’ for the participants. For the adults, their mornings were spent in sessions learning about various cross-cultural things, and in the afternoon they’d meet one-on-one with coaches to talk it out.

What we taught the kids was essentially the same things the grown-ups were learning – just aimed at a younger audience and most likely a lot more fun. Our curriculum covered a range of things pertinent to life as Third Culture Kids, from different people groups to dealing with transition to leaving well to managing your emotions and stress to how to be a good friend. The lessons were so creative, though: we used a plant to teach about transition, three colors of play-doh to explain what a TCK is, balloons to talk about how to manage stress, ping pong balls to talk about prayer, and a tray of candy to talk about attitudes and choices. Some of the activities were geared at helping the kids understand their parents’ world. For example, they had to ‘raise support’: each kid was given a continent, and they had to go door to door getting people to give them a certain number points so that they could be missionaries there. (I was pretty stingy with my point-giving – I told them I'm just a grad student with no income, and I only had a certain number of points to give away so I had chosen only to give to kids going to Africa because it is my favorite.) Then the kids had to follow up by writing support letters and thank you letters. During our last week, we had an airport simulation, where the kids had to pack a bag (really a manila envelope packed with pictures of what they were bringing), then go through security and customs, get their passports and visas, get a medical examination and pay a tax. Us leaders were the airport personnel, and we made things purposely frustrating for the kids, who weren’t sure of where they were supposed to go next or where to find each thing. It was actually quite fun to bark orders at the kids all day in various accents – my co-teacher, Emily, was incredibly hilarious with her fake moustache and fake Russian accent (which sounded more like the guy from Despicable Me. And, actually, she used this accent most days.).

Another main focus was observing and adapting to a new culture. We learned the skills for this (Look, Listen, Ask, Think, Do) and put it into practice in a field trip around Fort Collins. The kids had to observe what they saw around town (for example, there are a number of brightly-painted pianos just randomly around the city), make an assumption about why this was the case (“People in Fort Collins must like music!”), and find someone to ask if their assumption was true. On another day, we did one of my favorite activities, called ‘A Meal’s A Meal’. We had a meal made up of five separate courses, and each course had a different ‘culture’: different rules to follow, different ways of saying yes and no, different ways to speak. For example, during the bread stick course, you had to sit on your right hand and only use your left hand; you couldn't bite off a piece of bread stick, but had to tear it then put it in your mouth; boys could only use the white sauce and girls could only use the red sauce; you said yes by snapping and no by rubbing your nose; and you had to sing everything you said. When the kids came in, my co-teachers and I were already eating according to these rules, and the kids had to watch until they felt like they knew what was going on, then join in. We had the best time making up each of the different ‘cultures,’ and even more fun having the kids do them – for example, in one course you had to hang a spaghetti noodle over your ear to signal you were done, and in another, you had to eat Skittles off the floor and get approval of the Skittle color before you could swallow it.

One weekend we took our teens camping, and the next week the kids performed a musical for their parents (called ‘Kids on a Mission,’ of course), and as a reward we surprised them with a Christmas in July party the next day! As you can probably imagine, in the middle of all of these fun (albeit sometimes exhausting) things going on, I was having the best time. And the neat thing as that it wasn’t only the kids and the curriculum that I found so great – but every part of living at XTrack. We got to know and hang out with the participants, and became pretty good friends with some of the young, mid-twenties participants, who are headed to places as varied as Hungary, Lebanon and East Asia! I really enjoyed being part of an internationally-minded community again, and especially loved that my past experiences as an MK were useful and valued – not just with the kids, but for the adults too. One of the neat things we got to do was share with the adults about what a TCK is, and then do a panel answering their questions about our lives as TCKs.

I loved my summer in Fort Collins, not only because I made some life-long friends and got to hang out with some really, really great kids, but because I know it had an impact. The impact on the kids and families I got to teach was fairly obvious, but it also had an impact on me. I honestly think working at XTrack this summer was one of the best ways to prepare for the student-teaching I am about to be doing this fall, both in the practical aspects like getting used to working with kids from 8am – 3pm every day, but also in the attitude it gave me about how I was interacting with these kids. One thing I loved about working with MK2MK was how they encouraged us to really get to know the kids, to form heart relationships with each of them, and even to hang out one-on-one with the teens outside of MK2MK. We also started off every morning by praying as a group. I know a public middle school is going to be different than this, of course, and I won’t be expected or asked to do these things, but I can still have these attitudes and goals about how I interact with the kids I’m working with for myself, which will enable me to reflect Christ during my student teaching. Furthermore, spending my summer in this way further reiterated my desire to work with this demographic of kids (such as international or Third Culture Kids) in the future, as well as to work in ministry. We’ll see how that continues to unfold!

I loved the adventure I had this summer, but now I am moving on to my next adventure: spending the semester student teaching in a 6^th grade classroom at Walton Middle School in Charlottesville, Virginia. This is part of the Master’s of Teaching I am working towards, and will receive at the end of this next school year. I‘d appreciate your prayers this semester, as I know I’ll be stretched and challenged in all sorts of ways!

Thank you,

Caroline

MK2MK at XTrack

With Cru co-staff and friends on our teen camping trip (2^nd from left)…

…and with all 24 kids on a field trip around Fort Collins (back row, far left)

Kids color in maps of the 10/40 Window (the area of the world where most unreached people groups live)

Getting the kids ready for a relay race having to do with learning about unreached people groups

Using play-doh to explain what Third Culture Kids are

Using balloons to talk about managing stress – and how it’s easier to do so when your family-members and some grown-ups help you out

Kids try and catch on as Emily demonstrates the right way to eat Skittles in this course of ‘A Meal’s A Meal’

Some of our kids show off their ‘RAFTs’ – a way to help them remember how to leave well (Reconciliation, Affirmation, Farewell and Think destination!)

Emily as an airport security agent as kids fill out their passport applications

Hanging out with the teens

The kids rocking out as they perform their musical, ‘Kids on a Mission’

A surprise ‘Christmas in July’ party for the kids, where we watched Elf and ate spaghetti with syrup and candy in it

Emily and I hanging out with our kids at XTrack’s commissioning ceremony

All the MK2MK kids in downtown Fort Collins