Caribu from Kenya!

Hello,

I have made it safely to Kenya and haven’t really been able to sit down and write because I have been quite anxious and it has made me very emotional.

I have been here for three days now. It is so beautiful here. The compound is beautiful and is the home to a lot of different organizations. Maxwell Academy of course, Adventist University of Africa, which is actually a seminary, the Eastern African Conference, the ADRA headquarters for this part of Africa, and a Maranatha Headquarters is currently being built. Scattered around the compound are beautiful houses where the faculty and staff live. The compound is huge like so big, I don’t know how to tell you how big it is. From my apartment, to the cafeteria is half a mile, uphill. I am serious this is not one of those “I walked 5 miles to class everyday uphill both ways” jokes. I literally have to walk half a mile up hill to get to class everyday, a really steep hill. It takes me way longer than it should to get anywhere but I will be really fit when I leave. 

I have learned so much since arriving, a lot about Africa, and a lot about development (of course). 

The people here are soo incredibly sweet and are teaching me so much about the culture and language and they make me laugh so much. 

One of the most shocking things I have learned is that adventist pastors are EXTREMELY overworked. The average pastor is in charge of 18 churches, let me say that again. 18 churches, with congregations as large as 800. Not to mention most members will not attend church unless they receive regular house visits from their pastor, so the pastor spends his days making house calls to all his members, and then doing administrative work like accounting in the evenings. I am just blown away how blessed we are in the states, some churches have 3 pastors! I met a pastor the other day that has 18 churches, 5,000 members, and 700 children in his pathfinder program. He is taking 42 of them to Oshkosh next year so be on the lookout for them. 

Just talking to these guys about their lives makes me feel completely overwhelmed and exhausted, yet they are so happy and they know they are doing the Lord’s work. The things they have to deal with as well is just unbelievable. So much demon possession and active spiritual warfare. I am so inspired by these men.