Into the Unknown City

Nearly a full week of orienting under my belt! My head is spinning from the mass quantities of info, excitement for my ministry and how quickly tight relationships form. Some kind of solidarity unites adventuresome, foreign, brothers and sisters in Christ on a self-sustaining compound—who’d a thunk?

I’m wading through Lent in this new environment. As I was leaving Dallas, I reflected on how this experience would affect my Lenten commitments and intention. Now, sitting amongst the Nairobi traffic, Lent has surprised me with an AfricanEllie parallel:

I am in a Matatu, a public minivan outfitted with neon plastic seats, blaring the best of Kenya radio. The excitement for reaching the city center is building while I jostle among a throng of Kenyan bodies. I am travelling to inner Nairobi for the first time. The unknown.

In a broader context, the anticipation to get to the coast is building! Not only have I learned there are 8 newly trained (a few months new) women coaches in an area where women’s sports have never existed, the coastal planting season for maize is nearly upon us!
Now, Lent, a time devoted to travelling deeper into God’s unknown city, is palpable. As I pursue depth in my Lenten discipline, my anticipation for Eastertide magnifies. My understanding of sacrificial suffering holds new weight. My hope in the resurrection becomes more resolute!

A hunger to get out there to share sports and agriculture grips me. I am not ignoring the challenge to come, rather, I’m revitalized by the importance of dying daily to be with these people, playing hard for this village and, and breaking my back in labor.

 

Bring on the grit, sweat, exhaustion that is the unknown.