Stumps and Sticks, part 2

The second off-campus experience we were able to have on our day off last Saturday was dinner with my long-time Kenyan friend, Pastor Earnest and his wife. Earnest and Winnie served us our last authentic Kenyan meal before we left Kenya in July of 2009, and they served us our first one last week.

As we caught up on our lives and shared how God had blessed and taught us in our year away from each other, Earnest marveled at how big our boys had gotten. He also was somewhat envious, as boys are a sign of blessing in traditional Kenyan culture.

He told me that my boys would be able to “carry my stick” someday and explained the cultural allusion. When a man becomes an elder he has respect and authority in Africa. The stick that he uses to help him walk securely is a symbol of his age and power. If he has a son, the son may be given his father’s stick to symbolize his ability to carry out business in his father’s name. When a son has the father’s stick, it signifies that he has equal power and prestige as the father.

I was a bit humbled by his “vision” for my sons. Here I was hoping my boys would keep their dirty feet off his furniture and would not spill their drinks all over his floor and a variety of other worries that parents of small children deal with, while he was appreciating the blessing of children, and particularly boy children from his cultural point of view.

Another lesson I took away was the eerie similarity to John 14 and other sundry passages in the Bible. Jesus says that he comes “carrying the stick” of his Father—doing the work, acting on the authority, speaking on behalf of his Heavenly Father. Of course, the analogy doesn’t hold perfectly, as a Kenyan son and his Kenyan father are never in essence “one” with each other as Jesus the Son and God the Father are, but it is a cultural picture that gives us a glimpse of who Jesus was here on Earth.

Lots of wood last Saturday. I carried stumps in the morning; I learned about the joy of having sons to carry your stick in the evening. It was a well-rooted day off.

Stumps and Sticks, part 1

Last Saturday, we had our first day “off” in about a month. Of course, even a day off is never totally a day off in the missionary life. In the morning, our school had a huge outreach day where staff and students serve the community around us with our time, strength, and money. My outreach particularly emphasized the strength.

Deforestation is a huge problem in Africa. Wood is one of their few sources of fuel, and the unprotected forests are a prime target for poor and opportunistic people. They chop down trees and branches, burn them into charcoal, and sell the charcoal to make money illegally.

Another problem is a lack of water. There are few rivers and streams in Kenya, and in many places, little rain. Certain trees are particularly absorbent of water, like the gum trees. So, a decision was made in our community to strip a particularly wood of its gum trees and replant trees that are less water-needy. The trees and stumps were then sold to buyers who could make eco-friendly (and legal!) charcoal.

The outreach project I participated in helped a man remove stumps from the woods. We loaded dozens and dozens of large stumps (ranging from 50 pounds to many hundred pounds) onto a truck which then transported them to the place where the man would make charcoal.

It was an exhausting morning for the 8 RVA team members and the 6 Kenyan men who worked with us, but in the end, we were glad to be able to help Kenyans act responsibly toward our planet, taking care of God’s creation while also providing them with a means or survival that is morally sound.

Tomorrow, part 2…

Live by the Internet, die by the Internet

So one of the most pleasant surprises we’ve had in returning to our school in Africa this summer has been the Internet. A team of short-term missionaries from Chicago installed wireless routers throughout our campus and the school tapped into Kenya’s DSL line, so we actually have wireless Internet throughout the school campus and homes. Well, we should.

Although it worked perfectly through our first four weeks, it crashed hard this weekend. From Friday night until Sunday it’s been down. And what a weekend to be without!

First off, my juniors have a big Internet research project on the “American Dream” due on Monday. Scratch that. I’ve pushed that due date back at least one day.

Secondly, we had our first “day off” in a month on Saturday. We’d hoped to get caught up on email and do some Skype calls to family and friends in the U.S.. Forget that.

Thirdly, and most importantly, Penn State played one of their biggest football games in years Saturday night, and without Internet, I couldn’t listen to or read about the game. To REALLY pour salt in a wound, Micah (our six-year-old) woke up at 2am throwing up. I was up with him from 2am-5am—the EXACT hours of the PSU-Alabama game which I couldn’t listen to. Cruel, cruel irony.

Technology is great, when it works.