Sunday

Day 7

Well, I think I can say I am feeling a little more settled now. It has actually been a week now, and finishing up the week with a Sunday has been good.

I woke up earlier than I had wanted to... but you can't tell monkeys that its too earlier to be running around on the roof. Haha. Its like clockwork, between 6-6:30 they start bouncing around on the tin roof that is right by the head of my bed (which is not nearly as soothing/comforting as the rain falling on the roof). It isn't that big of a deal to wake up early on a Sunday here because the English service starts at 8:30, and again.... the church is a hike up the hill. I took my time getting ready this morning and had breaky with Tracy (a wonderfully lovely lady from the States who is staying in the room next to me, and is teaching an environmental biology class for the students at Moffat). I gulped down the last of my tea at five to eight, ran upstairs and got changed, then waited for Dorothy and her husband at the gate. But they never came. She had told me to go and knock on their door if they were late. Tracy was so sweet and walked over to what I hoped was their house and timidly knocked on the door. No one answered. Oh well, at least I wasn't going all alone.

Tracy and I started the trek up the hill together. Everywhere you go from here is uphill on the way there. Good for the legs :) Church was PACKED this morning. This week is the centennial anniversary for Kijabe and mission, so I think this was kinda of a celebration service to kick off the week. There was worship time (very north american in nature - and lots of unfamiliar songs). Then there were announcments and a time for visitors to introduce themselves (I totally chickened out). Allthe visitors were supposed to stand up, wait for a mic to be brought to you and then introduce yourself to the congregation. My guess is that there were probably 700-800 people there today. I know, I know... I should have just mustered the courage and stood up, but I didn't. Maybe next week... MAYBE.

After that there was a kids choir that sang a song, the a group from the girls highschool, then a womens group. Then more announcements, and a long prayer. Then more singing (mostly the same songs that had been sung earlier in the service) and offering were taken. By the time the guy who was giving the sermon finally made it on the stage, it was just about time for the service to finish (he had 5 minutes, and the nect service was going to start in 35min)... He took the whole 35 minutes. Haha.

I'll be completely honest, I didn't really get (or agree with) what he was preaching. I think maybe he was feeling rushed, and wasn't sure how to condense everything he wanted to say. He was going over Acts 22-26, which was a lot of content to cover, and he kept jumping all over the place instead of following along in chronicological order. Then he summarized his preach by saying "God usually uses suffering to teach us things" and commented often throughout the preach that we are wicked, sinful beings. It just didn't sit well with me. For sure I believe that God can use challenge and hardships to reveal his greatness and draw us closer to him, and that sometimes those are the most impactful to us... But I also belive, have witnessed and have experienced his power, blessing, and learned SO much through his incredible grace and favour. The other thing... I believe that we are holy, righteous and divine beings, however... we have fallen. God created us in his image - so we can't have been designed to be anything but perfect. When we step outside of God's plan and purpose however... that is where we run into trouble. So we must always be drawing in, getting closer, allowing God to refine us into the perfect, holy and righteous beings he designed us to be.

Yesterday I was reading in Romans 6:15-23, and it hit me...

We often think that living in "freedom" from the rules of righteousness is good and easy. But really, we have only allowed ourselves to be blinded by sin-goggles - we see that freedom from the rules of righteousness as freedom from the law the way that the Pharisees saw it. But that also isn't a correct representation of what God's righteousness is.

The fact is that the righteousness that we are called to (the righteousness that leads to to holiness and the gift of eternal life) is not something that can be bought, earned, fabricated or attained by human striving. It is a gift that comes with surrendering. The ability to obey and be righteous can only come through relationship and closeness with Christ. So draw in, get close, spend time in prayer, stop working so hard, accept the gifts that are offered to you, spend time in fellowship with othed believers and look only to God to receive righteousness, holiness and eternal life.

Anyways, after the service as we were all filing out of church I looked up and saw Miriam, one of the nursing students I had worked with in MCH on Friday. As we walked down the hill together I asked her questions about where she lived while going to school, and what she does on weekends (what her plan was for the rest of the day). All the students live in dorms (she called it a hostel) right beside the hospital, and can only really eat at the hospitsl cafeteria (which apparently is really terrible food).

I asked if sometime I could see where she lived and she invited me to come over right then. First we stopped by the maternity ward where her sister was recovering from having a c-section on friday and as nursing her beautiful little baby boy. After stopping in to see her Miriam went to the cafeteria to get a couple medasi (not sure if I spelt that correctly) and then brought me to her room. Medasi tastes a lot like my mom's rollkuchen to me. But instead of being thicker and knotted, it is rolled out into a triangle about the size of my hand. For those of you who don't know what rollkuchen is either... Well, both these things are a soft, sweet, deepfried dough. Delicious, and not at all healthy. Haha.

While in school she shares a tiny room with three other girls. The room has one tall window sandwhiched between two bookshelves and above a desk with room for two chairs. There were two bunkbeds and two closets. Very tight quaters to be living in for three and a half years. There are very strict rules about what you're allowed to do, where you can go and what you can wear as a student here. She told me that if you get pregnant while in school, youre kicked out. (Also, because it is a Christian hospital, if you are pregnant and not married, you are fired) She was shocked to find out that there are people back home who have stayed in school all throughout their pregnancies, and even allowed to bring their babies to class sometimes. She said that because of the strict rules about pregnancy here, many of the girls end up having abortions so that they can remain in school. That just broke my heart.

We had a wonderful visit and it was so encouraging to me to be able to spend time with her. I also found out that she likes to run! Yay!!! It still isnt safe for us to run around here alone as girls, but I will bopefully be able to bring her into RVA with me sometimes. AND we have the same size feet, so I have someone to give one of my pairs of runners to when I leave. She also told me how much she misses cooking, so I invited her to come over to the guesthouse and teach me how to cook a Kenyan meal.

Her parents came from Nairobi to visit her sister, so I left to go home and eat lunch, and she went back to the maternity ward to visit with her family. It is only 2 o'clock here and it is already quite dark. After two days of beautiful sunshine the clouds and rain are back. As a last minute addition to my backpack I added my down slippers, and I am SO glad that I did. It is actually quite cool here, like a normal fall day back home. Another group of people just arrived, and I think still another group will be coming later this evening. It will be good to be around more people my age, and I am looking forward to getting to know them.