Having a Blast

Today was very fun. I had a small party at mom and dad's house. Basically it was to say thank you to the guys who became my friends during Msafara. 8 people came (out of the 9 I had invited) and we had lots of fun, eating, talking, looking at pictures, taking pictures, watching video clips, and generally hanging out. If any of you happen to read my blog – thanks so much for coming and making my day great. It meant a lot to me. Here are some pics from the day. I think you will agree that we had fun.

Gedion behaving like a five year old with Jed's bike and I joined right in as he "carried" me on the bike.

From left: Gedion, Njeri, Myself, and Ken

In the "tree house"

From left: Roselynn, Cornelia, Njeri, Myself, and Nancy

The Gang posing

Having fun with the camera

Clockwise from me: Roselynn, Nancy, Daniel, John, Njeri, Gedion, Cornelia and Ken

Such fun and such great friends!!

Realignment

I remember back when I owned a car, I had to get the tires changed and I was asked if I wanted to have them aligned. Honestly because I'm rather on the clueless side when it comes to auto mechanics, I have no idea why tires need to be aligned or realigned or how they get out of alignment, but the term fits my life at the moment.

I feel like the past few weeks I have been undergoing realignment. As is usually true in life thing like this take a lot longer in humans than they do in cars.

So what do I mean by realignment? I mean that somewhere along the past few years my life has gotten out of alignment. Although I'm still running in the right direction, I'm no longer running in sync with God. I'm still following him yes, but certain things have turned me slightly off the path making it more difficult for me to stay on it. As I understand out of alignment and realignment – the tires on a car while still going in the same general direction that the car should be going aren't quite running a straight path, aren't quite all pointing in the exact same direction. That is how I feel I've been. I'm just been missing something. It not that I'm not a Christian or even that I'm not living the Christian Life, its that because I'm out of alignment its been that much harder to live the Christian Life.

I believe that the entire Christian Life is an exercise in realignment – we are taken from this world and slowly God moves us into perfect alignment with His Kingdom. Yet I also believe that there are times when the realignment exercise is more vigorous and pronounced. I've been going through one of these times.

I'm not quite sure when I should say that it started because it moved from the subtle to the obvious without my acknowledgment. For sure I can say that it had begun by the time we started Msafara. For sure I can say the first obvious movement in my life towards correct alignment came on the trip from Mombasa to Nairobi. The conversations I engaged in jolted me probably not into alignment but definitely from the position of out of alignment I had been in for a few years. That conversation was just the beginning, conversations, sermons, things I've been reading in the Bible and otherwise, thought processes, circumstances are a few of the things God has been using to get me realigned.

What will realignment look like in my life? I'm not entirely sure. A few possibilities include writing more but caring less about where that writing in published; writing more about specific things and less about just anything; learning to say NO more often; caring less what others think about me and much more what GOD thinks about me; caring more about relationships with others yet depending less on those relationships; planning less and living more freely and spontaneously. Those are a few general things that I believe God has been realigning me towards. One specific thing is the idea to start writing clubs in impoverished areas like Kibera slums. I believe that writing, photography, videography, art, music and the like can be used to help these young people cope with and possibly even change their surroundings. Of course in some ways this comes out of the school visit I did on Friday but it has been in my heart for longer than that – it was definitely one of the areas where I was out of alignment.

Short…I Hope

This needs to be short coz I need to sleep (its 10:30 pm) but knowing me…well that's always difficult.

Today was amazing. A while back I got an email from World magazine. Apparently someone had seen my article in World and wrote them asking for my email address. World being ever efficient forwarded the email to me for my response. The email intrigued me so I replied. It was from a lady here in Kenya, looking for a journalist to talk at a high school in a "slum" area. I certainly was flattered since I haven't been a "real" journalist very long and personally don't feel quite qualified to speak as a journalist just yet. But it was an offer and opportunity I just couldn't resist.

So today I visited a part of Nairobi I've never been to and found that there are informal settlement areas in places I didn't know they existed. (One interesting little God twist to this story – the school was started as a ministry of a church called Karura Community Chapel and during Msafara the pastor from this church, Pastor Ngari, headed up the Community Networking department – read the department in the office across the hall from the Media department office – interesting huh).

The students (form 3 – 11^th grade) were amazing. They welcomed me with "open arms" and tons of questions. I don't think I've ever heard so many questions from a group of Kenyan students. I shared with them for an hour and a half and they were still asking questions when the time was up. It extra special to me because I have sat in a classroom similar to theirs and I understand their education system, the struggles and challenges and could even chat with them in Swahili. I definitely had missed playing the role of teacher (its been almost one year since I was last addressed as Mwalimu – teacher).

After sharing with the form 3 class, I spoke with the Journalism club – about 30 students. They are new and really didn't have a vision or goal so I challenged them to decide what they envision for their club. I gave them some tips on writing stories and some ideas for ways that they could do a small school/community publication. I also gave them some thoughts on activities they can do to improve their journalism skills – things like analyzing newspaper articles, interview each other and writing a report based on the interview, writing about things they would like to see change in their community and ideas of how to implement that change.

Honestly I can't remember the last time I felt that fulfilled at the end of the day (the day ended with me standing out in the rain for a while and finally having my dad come pick me up coz there was a huge traffic jam and literally no public transport vehicles J ). Actually I do remember the last time – when World published my story about Pastor Simon Waiti. I've acted upon a part of my dream that I thought would be a far in the future deal – helping the voiceless find their voice through writing and journalism.

An addition to this story (which is by the way getting way too long) is that on Wednesday I was talking with Ken (just get used to his name – look at the pictures below if you want to know what he looks like – coz I have a feeling he will play a big role in many of my future blogs). He was telling me about training some youths in Kibera in videoing and how he wanted to go back and do it some more. So I shared with him that I would like to do something similar with writing but sometime in the future and he responded. "why the future, why not now?" Interesting conversation especially considering that it was only two days ago – a God thing? I think maybe. I have already suggested to him that we team up – he can teach about video and photography (and I can help some) and I can teach about writing (and maybe he can help some because he is also an excellent writer). I think it is a huge need in cultures like Kenya where young people have little voice and few means to express themselves. It means that we are raising young people who when they get older still can't find their voice and still don't know how to express themselves. Can't we do something to change that?

By the way if you would like to better understand what I'm talking about, check out the movie Freedom Writers. Although many of the details are very different than what I'm talking about, in many ways that movie has inspired me and explains the heart of what I'm talking about.

Well I wish I could post some pictures but sadly I didn't take any – how could I miss an opportunity like that???

Msafara Pics

Here are a few pictures and well I like them they probably aren't my absolute favorites. However, they were some I used to make a powerpoint and they were easy to access and upload to the internet. Enjoy.



Arrival in Mombasa

Church burnt to the ground in Eldoret

Pastor Gowi Praying with a street boy

Pastor Oscar filled with the spirit of dance in Kisumu

Pastors from different tribes hugging each other

Praying march in Mombasa

Tears!

The IDP camp in Nakuru

Kanjii (Mavuno worship leader) leading worship in Nairobi

The Convoy entering Naivasha

Wasafiri dancing with street boys in Kisumu

Unloading Hygiene packs in Naivasha

We believe that peace has come to Kenya once again