Congrats!

Sending a warm congrats to the RVA alumni who just wrapped up their college careers this Saturday. This class has a special place in our hearts because they were the first group that both Heather and I taught when we came to Kenya in 2005. She taught World History (mainly to sophomores), and I taught 10th grade English. It's hard to believe that our missionary careers have existed long enough to see our first kids graduating already.

We're so proud of them. We send them off again with the same commission that we did when they left RVA.

Follow Christ. Change the World.

BYOB

Rising healthcare costs are an ongoing concern worldwide. I know for us, as missionaries, a good 15% of what we have to raise financially to work here in Kenya goes straight to our medical insurance. It's a necessary evil for Americans. You're definitely glad you have it should some major issue arise in your family.

We hire a few Kenyans to help us with our ministry here. Samuel has done yard work and maintenance for us for over five years. We pay him the going rate here in Kijabe (peanuts by American standards), but of course, no retirement or medical is included. A few weeks ago, his wife came down with major swelling in her neck. It required medical tests and scans, plus numerous checkups. As his employers, we felt compelled to help them with this "above and beyond" need. Along with the two other families on campus that employ Samuel and his wife, we were able to help him with most of his medical expenses.

But last Thursday, the day before her surgery, we needed to "give" a little more. They ask all surgery patients requiring blood transfusions to provide their own blood for the procedure. Direct matches aren't necessary, but a pint for pint trade is requested or your hospital bill goes even higher. I was able to donate a pint for Samuel's wife, as were two of their other employers.

A new definition of BYOB.

(Congratulations to the staff of Strangers In Kenya for their tireless work these past seven years. This is post #300!!!)

A Sunday in Kijabe

Once a month, the RVA student body and staff members join the local African Inland Church in Kijabe for worship. It’s a lively service with a mostly Kenyan worship team as our six hundred people join their two hundred people. It also gets a little crowded. I started on one side of a pew by myself, only to be joined by a Kenyan friend. And then his wife. And then his sister and brother-in-law. And then his mother. I was hanging on to the opposite edge of the pew by the end of the service.

There were a few nuggets worth sharing from this morning.

1.     The Kenyan elder greeted everyone after the worship team finished. He said, “This is your Father’s house. Feel free here. Feel free to sing and dance and wave your hands. Feel free to do whatever you want. But you are not free to sin.” Thanks for the reminder.

2.     The rain started a few minutes after the service started. As I sat with my legs crossed in front of me, a drop of rain leaked through the roof onto my boot. Over and over again. It was sweet how my boot caught dozens of drops. It wasn’t sweet when a leak sprung up over the soundboard. Unlike me with my drop-catching footwear, they felt compelled to move the electrical device.

3.     The pastor spoke on David and Goliath. While it’s always a challenge to say something new about that time-tested story, he made an intriguing point. In churches today we are always trying to do something new and exciting to bring people to God. But David didn’t wear other people’s armor. In fact, he wore none. He went into battle with only a sling shot and five stones from a nearby creek. God will and can use what we have and who we are, not what we don’t have and who we aren’t. If we will simply abide and pray and give whatever we have, He’ll use us. He used David’s simple stones to win a war; we should have that same hope and faith in God’s work around us.

First-child syndrome

Micah, our eldest, has trouble sleeping sometimes. It seems he's worrying about college. This would be pretty normal for some kids, but not ours. Our kid is EIGHT.

I guess we can chalk this up to him being a first child. So serious. So focused. So intense. So analytical. So worried.

To help him calm down before bed, his mother told him to write out his blessings. This is what he interpreted her to mean.

"College -- Bad

No parents

No mony

No frends

No night light

No sond mushen (sound machine for white noise)

No stuft animols

No toys

I won't now anyboty

No pets

No vucashen

College -- Good

A car

A room

I get to stay up

Swimming pool?

Candy

A phon

A computer

A bed

A closet

Food"

Pretty compelling list. I'm not sure if it'd help me to sleep, but it seemed to ease his mind. For tonight at least.

The package of Easter

Harry Kraus, a missionary doctor and prolific author, spoke this morning at our sunrise service in Kijabe. He retold the story of the above commercial in his message. And then this was the application.

Sometimes we go through life like the FedEx delivery person. We focus on doing the right things, doing our "job," and upholding religious practices. Like the FedEx guy, we carry around the box of Christianity and celebrate the package of Easter. We think it's enough to be associated with the faith and the holiday.

But the real message of Easter is what's inside the package. Christ paid on Good Friday for the present we are supposed to open on Sunday.

How foolish are we who know Christ if we don't daily acknowledge the present of the Holy Spirit? How tragic for those who will never open the package of the Holy Spirit?

Like the guy in the above commercial realizing that his comfort and salvation on the island were in his fingertips the whole time, we could come to the end of our lives and never experience the pure joy and ecstasy of the forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ!

Let it not be so. Open your present today.

Happy Easter!

Be prepared

This blog covers two topics that have been near and dear to my heart this past month as a basketball coach--the game itself and Christian leadership. Thanks to Rod Schaubroeck for sharing this with us. His daughter was a former student of ours at RVA (now at Harvard) and his son is a great Buffalo basketball player (who was accepted at an evil school that is even named for Blue Devils...ugh).

“Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labor.” – Proverbs 12:24

"The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare." – Thane Yost

Linsanity is sweeping two continents. Jeremy Lin graduated from Harvard last year, but instead of heading to Wall Street or academia, Jeremy wanted to play professional basketball in the NBA. Unfortunately for him, no one in the NBA wanted Jeremy Lin, and he went unrecruited and undrafted. He impressed enough people in summer league, though, to get a couple of tryouts, and eventually the New York Knicks took him on as a backup’s backup, and he wound up down at the end of the bench as twelfth man. Jeremy has a few things going against him. Up until last week, no Asian American had ever started an NBA game. Harvardians are almost as rare and exotic in the NBA as Asian Americans with only three ever stepping on the hardwood court – the last one having played in 1953. And for the perfect trifecta, Jeremy is also an evangelical Christian – less rare, no doubt, but still a significant minority in the realms of the National Basketball Association. In the last few weeks, the Knicks were struggling and losing games, and three players were out with significant injuries, so coach Mike D’Antoni decided to “shake things up” and play Jeremy at point guard against the visiting New Jersey Nets. Lin was a revelation scoring 25 points to go with five rebounds, seven assists and two steals; most importantly, the Knicks won the game. That game earned another start for Lin, and he and the Knicks have taken off with a five game winning streak. Asian Americans are tuning in to the NBA for the first time, television stations all across Asia are picking up the Knicks games, and most shockingly, an entire campus in Boston is rooting for a New York team.

It’s fun to prove the naysayers wrong. It’s fun to explode harmful stereotypes. It’s fun to successfully pursue your dream. Jeremy needed courage and determination to be sure, but the quality that most enabled him to succeed in all of these things is preparation. Lin was ready when he got his one big chance, his moment to shine. As leaders, we are called to visualize the future and then begin to prepare ourselves and those we lead for that future. In order to move through our future windows of opportunity, we have to be willing to slog through thousands of unglamorous hours of grunt work, planning, practice and preparation. We work not for the applause of thousands of cheering fans but for the applause of One. The NBA glories of Jeremy Lin will be short-lived, but we labor for eternal glories whose names are written in the book of life. Work hard; prepare; be ready. It will be worth it.

Teachers-Smart or not so much

Basketball season has been crazy busy lately, but here was a great nugget from last week.

I walk into class, ready to collect an outline for a paper that is due this upcoming week. Before I can even ask for the assignments, an excited student raises her hand with a shocking testimony:

"This assignment actually helped me! I had planned on doing it just to get the points, but when I started to write things out, I actually started to understand what I am going to write in my essay!"

An assignment that actually helped a student learn? What?

I didn't know whether to smile or cry.