Welcome to Kenya.
Rolling red earth hills, every shade of green trees, and the bluest of blue skies. This is Kenya, and it will be one of the most vibrant places you’ll ever visit.
It’s also a place of friendly people, happy to wave and smile at strangers. Some stare, their faces displaying a clear interest. Others might not give a westerner a second glance, and you’ll feel totally innocuous and ordinary, until you realize that you’re the one staring.
Exchange more than two words with someone in Kenya and they’ll start teaching you Swahili, the most popular language. They’ll teach you words like “asante sana” (thank you very much). Or if you’re lucky, they might teach you a local language or dialect like the words for “peace” or “home,” which you’ll repeat multiple times to their joy, hoping you’ll remember them, only realizing an hour later that the words have entirely escaped your memory.
Pastor Lydia, and her youngest son
You’ll learn turns of phrase that mean the exact opposite in American English, like how “fed up” just means “I’m full” after a meal. So, when someone says, “I’m fed up,” they mean it as a compliment, not that they’re sick of it! Which will give you something to joke about mutually.
As you travel on the speed bump littered highways, your driver will eventually point to a town on the side of the road and say, “That is where I come from,” and they’ll say it with such pride that the smile stays on their face longer than you’ll understand.
When the Kenyan people talk about God, they’ll thank Him for the start of each day, for their health, their children, and for you. Listening to them speak about God will make you feel like an insincere Christian, and you’ll realize how much more they rely on God than you do.
If you’re in a conversation with them long enough, you’ll learn that our pastors work hard, and that there is much hard work to do. You’ll be able to empathize with them about the state of the Kenyan church, where stalwart and upright pastors from small towns are doing their best to shepherd their people before the Lord, even in the face of larger ministries with more money who often do inauthentic work.
The people are also honest, which means they can be direct or blunt, especially in business dealings. So, after you’re fed up, make sure to pay up.
On the other hand, you’ll be handed bag after bag of fruit as a gift from generous and kind people. Mangos, Papaya, and Bananas are the staples, but tomatoes and onions are common too. Kind older women will then dote on you, asking if you ate dinner the night before, and if you did, whether or not you really ate enough.
And when all is said and done, and you’ve packed your bags to leave, you won’t miss the tiny lizards bolting along the walls when you turn on a light, or the mosquitoes gathering on the window screen at night, but you will miss the people.
You will miss the children waving at you as they walk home from school, and the playful humor of your hosts poking fun at you while bending over backward to make you comfortable. You’ll miss how the people of God joyfully cling together in every season and through every hardship.
And they’ll miss you too. So make sure to come back just as soon as you’re able.
In the meantime, you can always support our Kenya Field by giving to specific needs, here: Support Kenya Pastors
CGGC eNews—Vol. 19, No. 9
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