Theology on Safari: 4 April 2012

Last night Bill and I (Stephanie) found ourselves in a rather spartan dining hall at a Catholic retreat centre about 40 minutes from our house in Nairobi. The last time I was in that room was 26 years ago – the summer of 1986 – when we were directing Inter-Varsity’s Overseas Training Camp (OTC), a mission immersion project for 20+ US and Kenyan university students and a handful of Inter-Varsity staff. We used that retreat centre as our base of operations. But last night we were there again to celebrate.

Many of you know that when Bill first came to Kenya in 1980 as a university student, he spent two months living and working with a rural pastor and his family. When Bill and I returned to Kenya to direct OTC in 1984, 1985 and 1986, we spent part of each summer with our Kenyan family. Over the years we’ve kept in touch with Pastor Samuel Ngarachu and his wife Esther, watching their three kids grow up as they’ve watched ours, and we’ve been together numerous times. Pastor Samuel loves to tell the story of how in 1980 Bill’s original placement fell through at the last minute and because Samuel happened to be with the missionary supervising Bill’s programme when that information came through, he ended up bringing Bill home and presenting him to a very surprised Esther (“You know, there were no phones in those days, so I couldn’t tell her we were coming”) as a guest in their tiny home for the next two months. They’d never had a white person stay with them before so this was a rather daunting undertaking for a young family. As Esther told me a few years later, at that point she was “fearing”. She wondered if it was really possible for them all to stay together.

Bill may have been Samuel and Esther’s first student but he wasn’t their last. Bill had such a rich experience with the Ngarachus and they turned out to have such God-given mentoring gifts, that Inter-Varsity has continued to ask them to host students. In the last 30 years Samuel and Esther have hosted more than 60 students through OTC, now renamed the ‘Kenya Global Project’, and Samuel has been involved for a number of years in training other host couples. Can you imagine – 60+ eager but disoriented young people from backgrounds completely different to yours, sleeping in your small electricity-free house in the countryside, eating your food, and following you around day in and day out? It takes a special sort of family to do that.

Last night, as part of celebrating the Inter-Varsity Global Project’s 30 years in Kenya, Bill and I were invited to a special presentation appreciating the huge contribution Samuel and Esther have made. There was a cake and speeches and a beautiful plaque – which Samuel whispered to me he was going to show off to some of the other pastors in their rural community to motivate them to want to be hosts, too! Who would have thought 32 years ago, when Bill arrived as a gangly young student, that years later we’d all be here together like this? Who would have thought? Well, God thought, of course. Esther’s thank you speech last night focused on Psalm 139:13-16: “You knit me together in my mother’s womb… All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” She’s told me before how amazed and happy she is that God planned things so that a ‘simple’ person like her, with no education to speak of, would be given the privilege of such influence in the lives of people around the world.

But wait – there’s a sidebar to this story. Bill’s parents Joe and Kaye and his sister Marsha visited us for a couple of weeks in March, the first trip to Kenya for each of them. Alongside all the usual excitement of going on safari, touring development projects, visiting animal conservation centres, and enjoying the sights and tastes of Nairobi (come visit us and we’ll take you, too…), our American family and our Kenyan family finally got to connect. Bill’s dad Joe and his ‘other dad’ Samuel have been hearing about each other for the past 32 years but never met in person. Imagine how wonderful it was for us to have Samuel and Esther, their oldest daughter Salome and their little granddaughter Abby spend a day at our house, weaving together our stories after all these years. God is so good!

So that has filled our hearts, and other things have been filling our busy days. Several of you have kindly mentioned that you may have fallen off our email list. But the honest truth is that we (uncharacteristically, I hope) haven’t sent anything since December. On the one hand, we continue to be in a great deal of transition and uncertainty in the wake of Bill’s conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy so it’s hard to tell you anything definitive. On the other hand, there’s so much going on in our various activities that it’s been hard to know at what point to push ‘pause’ to give you an update.

Bill’s news is that the Sunday before last he was ‘tonsured’ (sort of like ordained) as a ‘reader’ in the Orthodox church. That’s the most basic level of clergy, responsible for helping with the liturgy, reading scripture in the services, etc. It’s a great affirmation by the church of Bill’s commitment to Orthodoxy, and opens up future doors for involvement. Another piece of good news is that Bill has been formally appointed as an adjunct lecturer at St Paul’s University near Nairobi, where he’s been teaching intensive modules in their MTh Theology and Church History programmes. Now we’re hoping for a full-time appointment, the piece we need to regularize Bill’s immigration status in Kenya. But the university isn’t scheduled to process applications for new full-time positions until perhaps July – definitely a matter for prayer. Bill’s also continuing to work on his book writing project. And just for fun, he’s started singing with an ensemble group doing rather intricate renaissance choral music. His first concert with the group was this past Thursday night and (in my humble opinion) they were fantastic. For the music aficionados among you, I’ll mention that the programme included Durflé’s ‘Ubi Caritas’, Allegri’s ’Miserere Mei Deus’ and Schutz’s St John Passion.

As usual I’ve been fully immersed at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST, now part of Africa International University), teaching two sections of exegesis of Greek narrative this past term and getting more and more involved with the Biblical Studies PhD students as they work on the proposals for their doctoral theses. I love the challenge of helping these gifted young African scholars develop the unique voices they bring to biblical research. (Me to Sudanese student: “Think about it. What can you as someone from South Sudan studying the book of Judges tell me about a tribal- and clan-based semi-nomadic group of people, who have just fought a war for territorial independence and are trying to constitute a national identity but are having trouble with leadership issues?!”) I’m currently supervising several MA theses along with one doctoral student who – God willing – is in the final stages of writing his thesis. I’ve also been finishing up a couple of projects for the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA) after stepping down as Accreditation Officer in December. I spent a week in March leading an ACTEA on-site assessment team for a college elsewhere in Kenya pursuing reaccreditation. And I’ve been trying to figure out my new role as Ministry Head for a team of about 20 SIM Kenya missionaries who are education and healthcare professionals seconded to various colleges, hospitals, etc. in Kenya and Uganda.

We’re on term break at NEGST at the moment. (Which is why you’re finally hearing from me now. Well, actually, it’s because I’m trying to avoid marking papers…) After slowing down for a couple of weeks with Bill’s family here, I’m scrambling to get ready for the new term starting on 16 April. I’ll be teaching Greek exegesis of Ephesians for the MA/MDiv students, which is fine because I’ve done that one before. But I’m also teaching a course on the Septuagint for the PhD students. A bit problematic because (a) I’ve never taken a PhD class myself, since my PhD didn’t have taught courses, and (b) I don’t actually know that much about the Septuagint. Very steep learning curve ahead. The reward is that in June I get to go to Israel with the PhD students for their study programme at Jerusalem University College. Can’t wait, as I’ve never been to Israel! (All dependent, however, on the Israeli government granting visas for our African students, which is not a sure thing.) Then in August I’m scheduled to return to Bangalore, India, to teach a module on hermeneutics at the South Asian Institute of Advanced Christian Study (SAIACS), the same course I taught for them in 2005 and 2008.

What we’ve been up to…

Stephanie (far right) on a fun day out with the NEGST Ladies Fellowship – students, student wives, women faculty, faculty wives and staff

Archbishop Makarios ‘tonsuring’ Bill as a reader in the Orthodox Church

So excited to have Bill’s stepmother Kaye, dad Joe and sister Marsha with us in Kenya for the first time!

Bill’s family bravely setting out to cycle through Hell’s Gate National Park. Note baboons ahead. Also note that I (Stephanie) volunteered to drive the chase car instead…

Roadside zebras in Hell’s Gate – still my favorite

Then to Elsamere, the former home of Joy Adamson (‘Born Free’), where we thought to have a lovely afternoon tea. Until we encountered Angry Birds…

…and a colobus monkey determined to have the snacks off Bill’s plate

On another day we headed south toward the Tanzania border

Heavy traffic on the southern highway

Destination: Lake Magadi, an alkaline Rift Valley lake that the Magadi Soda Company mines to produce soda ash (When you’re traveling with your sister-in-law who’s an environmental biologist studying water systems, you do things like this)