Cary Peden

The last couple of days we started making our way back to Nairobi and eventually the airport.  I can’t believe it is over as the time has gone so fast.  We certainly packed a lot into two weeks.  I decided not to blog about the last two days as it was just travel, a couple hours of shopping and we spent a ½ day driving through Nakuru national park.  That was exciting however – we saw gazelles, monkeys, water buffalo, giraffes, baboons, rhinos and even pulled up right next to a pride of lions – but that is not the reason we came and not the important work that we did.  Still we are thankful for a little enjoyment after such a long journey and mission.

So instead of blogging about the day…or days…I wanted to give some closing thoughts of our journey.

Michael, our guide from Heart For the Land, told us to keep in mind that missionaries have three…

1. Learn the culture
2. Serve the culture
3. Live to tell the story

Well we have done our best to do all three of those things (and we are maybe especially thankful for number 3 being true.)

So I guess my thoughts will be centered on those areas.

Learn the Culture

I don’t think you can learn a culture in just 10 days.  There are things that we did learn, differences that we noted, but to say we understand it all would be very far from accurate.  We did learn some things however and trying to compare and contrast these observations with our own culture gave me interesting things to ponder.  For one thing, the abundance of need and lack of resources seems to have created a real negative type of competition.  There is a type of competition that actually helps a person aspire towards greater things.  Two racers in a competition push each other faster and faster.  Two businesses across the street from each other in competition for market share can help both the customer and the businesses by improving products, innovating creative solutions or increasing customer service.

But the kind of competition we experienced in Kenya seemed to be created by too many people all fighting against each other to get their portion before anyone else might take it.  We noticed it in the market place, the neighborhoods and even in schools, churches and ministries.  Just driving down the street was a battle with almost no organization what-so-ever.  Each driver was fighting for their position on the road with no regard to laws, pedestrians, right-of-way or traffic signals.  As we visited the community it seemed like everyone we met was trying to work some angle on us to get money.  I said it felt like a two-week long time-share presentation.  Edina told us many stories of schools constantly hassling her for money for school fees even though they cannot produce fee schedules, account balances or receipts.  Corruption, lying, theft and price gouging is daily life and considered normal.  We watched as Edina caught a school principle in lies for money.  Michael told us that people like to start churches because they can collect offerings not because they are called into ministry.   Even the orphanage we visited with the 80 children fell victim to a man that worked with them for several months then suddenly pulled out and took everything he could including their farming tractor.  It is unthinkable.

There was a lot of beauty to the culture, their love for their country, the tradition and history, the bright colors in their clothing and dance in their music.  But it seems like they will always struggle until they find ways to work together, work smarter and work harder instead of the selfish taking what they can before some other guy gets it.

Serve the Culture

In the short time we were there I’m not sure what we did to serve the culture other than show up.  They are a very relational culture so we shook thousands of hands, greeted more people than we could ever account and had an almost daily schedule of home visits and meals.  Other than visiting the children of the SHIM project we did not have any time to do any work, have meetings, or clean up the neighborhood as we brainstormed that we might do.  Still I’m very confident that we served the culture.  It might not have been our idea or agenda but that is the point.  We entered into relationships.  We met together, broke bread together, heard and told stories together, prayed together, shared ideas and tried to leave blessing and thankfulness everywhere we went.

When it comes to trying to change the culture, bring enough support to fix the problems, or find solutions to very complex problems it felt a little like we are trying to sink a battleship with a BB gun.  Certainly we are seeking God’s help in any work we might set our hands too but still the needs are overwhelming.  But if we think of it as serving the culture, just doing our part, I am confident that we can and we did make a difference.  We will continue to serve, providing the best support and guidance that we can.

Live to Tell the Story

We are on our way home now.  The time went so quickly and we can’t believe it is over.  Two years of preparation, work and then the long trip…and now it is over.  But we have much to share.  We have the stories, the pictures, the memories and more but what we bring back is so much more than the retelling of the adventure.  We bring passion, renewed commitment and even a stronger sense of God’s hand guiding and providing in our lives and in this work.  We saw His heart as our eyes where opened to His work and we even saw miracles that helped us along the journey.

Now we hope to share the moments that we captured but also the living presence of God that we encountered.  It would be my prayer that as we share our story it would ignite in others this kind of service unto the Lord in the calling He has placed on each hearer.

In Closing

Perhaps the most important lesson from the whole trip came into focus while we were sitting in the Nairobi airport waiting to board for the trip home.  Actually Jessica mentioned how crazy it was and how confused we were when we arrived here two weeks ago.  After landing we exited out the back of the plane, down the stairs and started following the crowd because we had no idea what was going on.  Next thing we know buses started showing up…so we got on those.  Our team jumped on but I got separated and I was trying to squeeze on as we had no Idea what was happening next and we obviously hoped to stay together.  I was the last person to jump on that particular bus load and the doors closed behind me.

That was the beginning of two weeks of just going here and there without any idea of what was happening next.  We didn’t know which direction we were going, what the strategy was, who we would be working with.  Nothing!  However, our host organization Heart For the Land had a full schedule, a great plan, and everything worked out perfectly.  There was a grand plan taking place in the background every step of the way even if we did not know what it was.

I pondered this for just a moment when it struck me that our everyday of my life is like that.  Oh I have appointments, plans, goals, assignments and such all the time, but there is grand plan that is taking place behind the scenes.  We don’t always know exactly what is happening but God does.  We see glimpses from time to time of His perfect working in and around us and so we simply trust Him.  We decide every day to allow Him to lead our lives.  I guess that in Kenya I could have tried to fight the plan.  I could have tried to argue with our host, or walked down the street leaving the taxi behind.  I could have refused to visit homes that we were invited to or taken a nap when opportunities came up.  But instead I just went along as opportunity arose…and I was blessed every time.  I pray God uses each encounter exactly as it needs to be.

It is time to start saying our good byes.  Unbelievable how quickly our time has gone, how much we have done and all that we have seen.  We packed a lot of stuff into a short time.  It is amazing that something didn’t blow.  But God has been faithful to us.  He has provided and protected and we are so grateful.   We have experienced His very real presence and want to continue in Him as we leave.

We finally had a leisurely morning.  We rested a little, made a nice breakfast, and got caught up on some work. Then we left just after noon to go into Kiminini and visit Pastor Barasa, his family and some of the community.  We visited a little but Pastor and his wife Florence where a little uncomfortable because they did not provide us with a meal.   Even though we had arranged with them that we did not have the time or need for them to cook us food they still did not know what to do with themselves without providing it.  However, they presented gifts to each of us which we did not expect.  The hospitality continues.

We visited a while and we were able to share some closing thoughts together.  They like speeches.  Each family member of the Barasa’s had prepared closing thoughts for us.  They took turns standing, giving a speech and then handing over the conversation to the next one.  It was actually much more formal than we expected.  So we attempted to reciprocate our thoughts by giving them thanks, blessings and encouragements.

After that, an impromptu yet one of the finest moments of the whole trip happened.  Pastor’s son Emmanuel was telling us that he likes to be called by his new name that he picked out.  He wanted to be really cool and have an unusual name.  He wanted an American type name that was not common here in Kenya so he decided to be called…what for it…almost there… ok his new name is ”Bob.”  Awesome!!!

So we were saying goodbye to “Bob” and I said, “I really like that and I would like a Kenyan name.  Can you help me with a new Kenyan name?”

That started a process of the whole family working to think of character traits or roles that they saw in us these last two weeks and giving us the Swahili word that carried that meaning.  They went around to each team member, discuss a trait to honor them, gave us the name, and then told us the meaning.  It was a real honor for us that they would spend that time considering our roles and looking into our character.

So my new Kenyan name is “Wakasa” which means “harvesting.”  They said that I was there to harvest the work of the Lord.  Everyone else received a name too but I will let them share their new Kenyan name.

We finally said goodbye, loaded up the van and made our way out.  Since we were also here for meeting the children we took the opportunity to stop at the public school on the way back to allow Cameron and Jessica to say goodbye to the child that they are sponsoring.  That worked pretty well since we could not possibly go around to the other kids.  At least we said goodbye through them as our representatives.  They were allowed to have Desee come to the head teacher’s office and they hugged, encouraged her to work hard, told her they loved her and where praying for her.

After some tears it was time to leave.

The rest of the evening was spent going to grocery store, dealing with some last business, cooking dinner and doing some cleaning of our quarters.  We also took the opportunity to huddle up as a group and spend some time in the scriptures, praying and then sharing our take-aways from this experience.  I think we are all leaving a little different than when we came.  Everyone shared very insightful thoughts of how they experienced God who was revealing things to them personally.  It was a powerful time.

For me, my biggest take-away (Kairos we call it) was that God has given me opportunities to lead in my   home, my community, my church and now in an expanding international ministry.  To do that well it is important to step into a position of authority and lead well with confidence and faith.  Some lead through a position or title that they have been given.  Some lead through arrogance of selfish pride.  Others lead through anger, frustration and emotion.  But none of these are godly.  This is what happens when we try to live our lives with selfish ambition and on our own strength.  I hope to lead because God has called me and given me certain opportunities and talents to serve Him.

God has given all of us talents and opportunities to serve Him and His Kingdom.  Then He calls us to step into the gifts that are entrusted to us and work to maximize those opportunities and bring increase.  Jesus taught us the parable of the talents and that one day the master will return to inspect our work.  It is vital that we are found busy and diligent and that we have not hid our talents in the ground.