19 February 2009

The good news this week is that I (Stephanie) am feeling much better, about 95% recovered from my nasty concussion and hospital stay over Christmas. The bad news is that now I have to go to Nigeria. Well, Nigeria itself probably isn’t so bad, it’s the Lagos airport that’s the killer. It has the worst reputation in Africa after Kinshasa, Congo, for chaos and thievery. So I’m not particularly looking forward to my trip there this Sunday morning (22 Feb). Please do pray that I get to the right place with all my belongings intact!

The trip to Nigeria is for an on-site accreditation visit in my role as Accreditation Officer with the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA). I’ll be leading a team of seven other people—four Nigerians, one American, one Zimbabwean, and one Togolese—to take a look at Nigerian Baptist Theological  Seminary (NBTS) in Ogbomoso, from 23-28 February. Since NBTS has asked ACTEA to accredit their undergraduate diploma and degree, masters programs and doctoral programs all at the same time, this is a bigger, longer and more complex visitation process than ACTEA’s ever done before. Pray that I’ll be able to stay on top of all the details! And please pray that all the preparation I’m responsible for comes together by Monday when the on-site assessment begins. I’ve run into all sorts of logistical snags trying to organize this visit. I told you last time that a key team member had dropped out and I wasn’t sure how we’d find another qualified person with only six weeks’ notice. The solution turned out to be Facebook! When I mentioned on my facebook status that I needed someone to go to Nigeria, a former seminary classmate teaching in the US took it on himself to find someone—and came up with a person more qualified than the original team member. Thanks, Greg! This week’s challenge was when John from Zimbabwe said he didn’t know if he’d be able to collect his air ticket because the owner of the travel agency had just been murdered and he wasn’t sure they’d be open for business on Monday. (I guess this is what passes for normal in Zimbabwe these days.)

Once we get past this Nigeria trip, I have two weeks at home before traveling to Ethiopia for a week to coordinate a faculty development workshop ACTEA is sponsoring with a group called GATE (Global Access for Transformational Education). GATE is the project of several Christian Education professors from the US, to help theological educators in the developing world learn how to teach more effectively. I’m eagerly anticipating the workshop in Ethiopia (18-21 March) because we have the faculty members of all the key theological colleges in Ethiopia coming together—the first time that I know of that this has happened. They’re very excited about the workshop content, and I’m very excited about the institutional relationships that will be strengthened as a result of the workshop. Then immediately following that, the GATE guys and I will be in Kenya holding a similar workshop involving eight theological institutions from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda (23-25 March, in Nairobi).

Here at home, I’m enjoying teaching my class of ten intermediate Greek students at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST). This term we’re doing New Testament Greek narrative, so we get to read lots of Gospel stories and talk about Jesus. (Always a good thing!) More importantly, Bill has managed to survive—just barely—teaching three courses in three different departments at NEGST this term: Christology, Soteriology & Pneumatology in the Theology department, The Ministry & Mission of the Church in the Pastoral Ministry department, and The Reformation to the Modern Church in the Church History department. Each class has 35-50 students, so Bill has had his hands full. The good news for him is that someone else is now taking over the church history lectures for the rest of the term, so that should give Bill some breathing room—but Bill will still need to mark papers. For the Pastoral Ministry class, Bill’s been organizing field trips to visit other church traditions the NEGST students may not be familiar with. Last Saturday they went to a Seventh-Day Adventist worship service (although we do have a few SDA students at NEGST), and early this morning he took some of the class to Divine Liturgy at the Greek Orthodox seminary near us. (Did you know there are hundreds of thousands of Orthodox converts in Kenya? I sure didn’t!) I’ll attach some photos of both so that you can see what Bill’s been up to.

So those are the highlights here. Linnea (20) and Caroline (18) each report they’re having a good semester at the University of Virginia, enjoying friends and classes. Linnea’s looking forward to a quick trip to London for spring break—seems there are some great airfare deals these days... Caroline continues her crash course in American culture, after so many years in Ethiopia. A couple of weeks ago she emailed us, “It hadn't occurred to me that waking up in the middle of the night to watch the Super Bowl was just what we did in Ethiopia because of the time difference, so when I got the facebook invitation to the Agape Super Bowl party that said it would start at 6:00 pm I was like 'wow, that's such a normal, convenient time to have it'... and then I was like ....ohh. hahah.” The classic missionary kid learning curve!

That’s our news, and here are our current prayer requests:

• Praise for Stephanie’s nearly finished recovery from a severe concussion at Christmas time. Still some dizziness and tiredness, but continuing improvement.
• Prayer for Bill’s heavy teaching load at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST) this term: Christology, Soteriology & Pneumatology (Theology department), The Ministry & Mission of the Church (Pastoral Ministry department), and The Reformation to the Modern Church (Church History department).
• Prayer for Stephanie’s work as Accreditation Officer with the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA), especially her travel to Nigeria from 22 Feb to 1 March for an on-site assessment of a theological seminary there.
• Prayer for Linnea (20) and Caroline (18) at the University of Virginia, and for Linnea’s travel to London for spring break, 1-8 March.

This update is a bit shorter and more hurried than usual, but I need to spend the rest of today preparing for the Nigeria project. Please do pray for that. And we look forward, as always, to hearing your own updates and prayer items as well!

blessings,

Stephanie

for Bill, Linnea and Caroline Black

“The Ministry & Mission of the Church” – Field Trips

Last Saturday (14 Feb) Bill took some of his students to visit a nearby Seventh-Day Adventist church.

Oloo, one of our NEGST students, preached (it’s his church)

The rest of the students asked questions and interviewed church leaders to learn more about the SDA tradition

Dikki from Nigeria checks out what’s for lunch after church—this is not what he eats at home!

Bill and these eight NEGST students represent six countries. Below, from left: Mweemba (Zambia), Madut (Sudan), Bill (USA), John (Cameroon), Dikki (Nigeria), Kennedy, Jane, Geoffrey, and Oloo and his family (all from Kenya).

Then on Thursday morning (19 Feb) Bill took some of the class to Divine Liturgy at the Orthodox seminary. This was definitely a new experience for them.

After worship, more questions and get-to-know-you time

Then discussion and breakfast with Archbishop Makarios

A unique event for Bill’s students! From left, Prosper (Benin), Kennedy (Kenya), Dikki (Nigeria), Sammy (Kenya), Archbishop Makarios (Cyprus), Archimandrite Neophytos (Kenya), Fredrick (Kenya), Bill, Archimandrite Anastasios (Kenya)

SIM Kenya

Bill and I spent our mid-term break, 5-8 February, at SIM Kenya’s annual conference. Since we’re on our own at NEGST, it was the first time we’d met many of our new SIM colleagues. After 7+ years in Ethiopia, SIM’s largest field (about 150 workers), it’s a different experience to be part of a country team where you can fit everyone, including kids, in one photo!

That’s Bill & me toward the center (me in the print top and Bill behind me in the orange shirt). Our SIM colleagues in this photo come from America, Germany, Kenya, South Africa, Sudan, Switzerland, Taiwan and the UK. I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone—we met a lot of new people…

11 January 2009

Well, it wasn’t quite the Christmas we’d planned. As some of you already heard, I (Stephanie) ended up spending Christmas in Nairobi Hospital, after a bad case of influenza led to a black out and fall early on Christmas Eve morning (two falls actually, says Bill—I don’t remember), which left me with a gash on my head requiring stitches, a nasty concussion, and vertigo and balance issues, the net result of which was the five-day hospital stay. Hmm, one of those life events you don’t quite expect. But I can report that when they tell you it takes two to three weeks to recover from a concussion, that’s just about right. It’s only in the last couple of days that my head has almost entirely cleared from the fuzziness and I feel like myself again. Praise God, it wasn’t more serious, and I feel better each day. Poor Bill says he has flashbacks of his wife lying on the floor with lots of blood, but of course I don’t remember that part. The main impression it’s left on me is the wonderfully competent and cheerful hospital care available in Kenya. Nairobi Hospital is the closest one SIM uses for medical evacuations from Ethiopia, so we’re grateful to be just down the road from it now, instead of a two-hour international flight when we lived in Addis Ababa. And, compared to the ever escalating price of US medical care (no NHS…), it’s incredibly cheap: $85, or about £50, for a 20-mile ambulance ride, just under $2000/£1300 for emergency treatment, a CT scan, X-rays, and five nights in a private room, $300/£200 for the ENT physician’s bill, and $500/£320 for the cardiologist’s bill, including an extensive cardio work-up. Amazing.

However, as you can imagine, all this significantly complicated the Christmas holiday for Linnea (20) and Caroline (18), who were making their first visit to our (their???) new home in Kenya. It’s hard enough when your parents move to another country where you don’t know anybody, much less to have your mother in hospital, AND miss the beach holiday at the Kenyan coast we were all looking forward to. Bummer. But Caroline and Linnea rallied nicely. By the end of their three week stay they’d mastered Nairobi’s local transport system so they could get out and about on their own, and found ways to soak up Kenya’s lovely sunshine even without going to the beach. Christmas Day was a bit crazy, though. It was the girls’ first experience putting together a big holiday dinner for guests (missionary friends we knew in Ethiopia), with Dad reading turkey roasting directions out of a cookbook and Mom coaching by mobile phone from her hospital bed. They did great! But since we didn’t get to open presents on Christmas morning, several days later they were so eager to unwrap their gifts that they hauled everything to the hospital and we had Christmas again there. Last night Linnea and Caroline boarded the plane to head back to the University of Virginia, where classes resume on Tuesday. Still waiting to hear if they arrived safely, but by now they—like most missionary kids—are such seasoned international travelers that I’m not worried. Well, not too worried…

Bill’s and my new term at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST) started last Monday. We sort of inched into it slowly last week, because of my health issues and having the girls still here, but this week we need to go full throttle. Especially Bill, who suddenly has three large courses to teach because he’s just been asked to pick up a third course from a missionary colleague who’s had to leave for urgent medical treatment. So now Bill is teaching Systematic Theology II: Christology, Soteriology & Pneumatology (43 students), The Church’s Ministry & Mission (about 35 students), and a church history course which covers The Reformation to the Modern Church (48 students). Whew! I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone teaching post-graduate courses in three separate faculty departments at the same time—theology, church history, and pastoral ministry—but somehow Bill has managed to achieve this. Considering that we came to NEGST because they had a biblical studies position open for me, but nothing specific for Bill, the college certainly has figured out how to make use of him. Please do pray for Bill, though, because this is quite a heavy teaching load, especially with the number of students in each class.

I, on the other hand, am only teaching one course at NEGST this term, because I have a long list of projects for the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA). My NEGST course is on exegesis of Greek narrative (my PhD topic) and I had this same group of ten students last term for Intermediate Greek, so that shouldn’t be too bad. Which is fortunate, because the ACTEA work is huge at the moment. My biggest challenge right now is organizing an on-site accreditation visit for a large seminary in Nigeria at the end of February. Because they’re asking us to accredit their undergraduate, post-graduate (masters) and doctoral programs all at the same time, it’s probably the most complex visitation ACTEA’s ever done. I’ve been putting together a team of seven people with appropriate academic credentials, that I’ll lead for the on-site assessment. But it’s one of those situations where everything is taking longer to pull together than you think it should and the whole process has been plagued by a series of set-backs. The most recent one was when a key team member dropped out last week—not sure how I’ll find another qualified person who can drop everything and go to Nigeria with only six weeks’ notice, but I’m looking. Please do pray for that specifically! I’m also scheduled to travel to Zambia next week for an ACTEA staff meeting (I’ve been waiting till the last minute to confirm that, to see if I’d feel well enough, but I think I’ll be 100% fine by then). And I’m coordinating a pair of training workshops in Ethiopia and Kenya in March. (Those are going OK so far, just lots of details to stay on top of.) In addition I have a backlog of ACTEA accreditation applications from various schools to evaluate and reports to edit, revisions to draft for ACTEA’s accreditation standards and to shepherd through some sort of revision process (may have to invent that), and the normal daily email correspondence to keep up with. And this is meant to be a one-third time position! Fortunately I enjoy the work—or at least most of it, except for this problematic Nigerian project—and believe in its value. But no wonder I barely have time to teach.

The only other news I can think of to tell you is that after a lot of looking around we’ve settled into a nearby church, Karen Vineyard. Never thought we were really the Vineyard type (!), but this one’s fairly low key. What interests us is that they focus on outreach to the local ‘white Kenyan’ community, they attract a wide variety of internationals, and they have a good small group/home group system we can join. I’m also interested in their ministry at a women’s prison. I went along to a Christmas event the church sponsored at the prison in December, and hope to continue with that. Mostly, after months of feeling new and disoriented in Kenya, it’s nice to have a church family to be part of!

So that’s where we are at the moment. Here’s a summary of our current prayer items, before I include a bunch of Christmas holiday photos:

• Praise for God’s protection during Stephanie’s illness and fall, for great hospital care in Kenya, and for no lasting ill effects.
• Praise for good family time during Linnea (20) and Caroline (18)’s three weeks at ‘home’ in Kenya for Christmas, and prayer for each of them as they start a new semester at the University of Virginia.
• Prayer for Bill’s heavy teaching load at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (NEGST) this term: Christology, Soteriology & Pneumatology (43 students), The Church’s Ministry & Mission (35 students), and The Reformation to the Modern Church (48 students).
• Prayer for Stephanie’s work as Accreditation Officer with the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa (ACTEA), especially the many challenges she’s facing putting together an on-site accreditation evaluation at a large seminary in Nigeria in February.
• Prayer for the Lord’s continuing guidance concerning how long we should stay in Kenya and where we should go next, along with a satisfactory resolution to the family conflict over selling Stephanie’s late parents’ house (which needs to be done before we can buy a house for ourselves in the US).

Let us know how you’re doing as well—we love to hear from you! (Find us on Facebook!)

blessings,

Stephanie

for Bill, Linnea and Caroline Black

Christmas 2008

At the beginning of the term break in December our NEGST students’ and faculty wives group visited Amani ya Juu (‘Higher Peace’), a development project for refugee women where they learn reconciliation skills, as well as how to make gorgeous quilted needlecrafts.

Me & some of the NEGST wives—a fun day out for all.

Linnea & Caroline Arrive for Christmas

“I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills…” Caroline shows off the view of the Ngong Hills from Karen Blixen’s house, near where we live.

One afternoon Bill & Linnea & another friend climbed the Ngong Hills. (That’s Linnea in photo.)

We love Kenya, but we’re still convinced that the best food in Africa is Ethiopian! Linnea (right) eagerly anticipates the injera b’wet at an Ethiopian restaurant in Nairobi.

Our kitchen on Christmas Day—a little crazy, with mom in hospital… From left: Bill coaching, Linnea cooking, and our friend Jimmy Cox carving.

Later that evening they all brought me a plate of Christmas dinner. (From left: Bill, Caroline, Jimmy Cox, me, Linnea, Roxanne Cox, David Cox, Stephen Cox.)

When we still hadn’t gotten to open our gifts several days later, Bill & the girls packed everything up and brought it to the hospital…

…and we had Christmas again.

While I recuperated, Bill & the girls explored Nairobi. One of our favorite places is the giraffe research centre near our house.

Then they decided to take our little Toyota Corolla on safari in Nairobi National Park.

They saw more giraffes…

…and zebra…

…and warthogs, ostriches, various sorts of antelope, etc. But no big predators that day. When Linnea realized how close we live to the park, she said maybe it’s a good thing there were no lions!

A street sign we’ve never seen in America:

Before they left, Linnea & Caroline managed to get an invitation to the Ford Models Kenya Supermodel Search finals (sort of like the finals for Next Top Model).

Caroline says that unfortunately her shortness is accentuated when standing next to models.

Bill relaxing at home.

Believe me, he deserved a rest after serving as ‘cruise director’ for the Christmas holidays while I was ill. Thanks, Bill!