We are bad bloggers...

Sorry about the long silence. Charlotte and I have both had a busy week. This is probably a good thing. The short of it is we moved on Monday, I sat in on some PhD lectures, Charlotte started working for the school, I had to read for my real classes (we are paying for them), Charlotte played home maker, I went to class, Charlotte continued to work for the school and here we are. And now for some details.

Last Sunday we attended Nairobi Chapel, an evangelical church that has a healthy (in my never humble opinion) amount of charisma (energy). The back story of Nairobi Chapel is worth telling, I will do my best to summarize. A dying (losing numbers, aging) congregation asked for help from a healthy local church. Local church sends a young NEGST (where I am studying) graduate to lead as a pastor. He has a strong emphasis in discipleship and leadership development. The church grows, and is good about making clear to attendees the beliefs of the church, and the expectation the church has of its members to be involved. The church grows to the capacity of its building (5,000ish with multiple services). The church simultaneously develops 5 ministry staffs ie senior pastors, worship leaders, Christian Ed, etc. Each team takes turns leading, and on the same Sunday the church splits into 4 new sites as well as the original site. 1 church into 5 like that. Rather than permanent buildings, each new campus is a collection of very large tents, with between 3,000 and 5,000 attendees per site. So that is a brief history of Nairobi Chapel. Anywhy, we worshipped at the Nairobi Chapel on Ngong Road. This was an excellent 2 hours of lively worship, (by lively I mean we were instructed to dance, which we did, it was hard not to), and sound teaching. One interesting aspect of the tent (think the Peninsula Greek Festival x4) is that it feels accessible to any regardless of their background or status.

Looking out the window in the office, the local school and playground

On Monday we moved into our new apartment. I'll leave Charlotte to do a write up, but it is nice to be getting settled in. We are living in student housing, which is full of children. From the time school lets out at 3 until its dark around 7:30, the courtyard is full of laughter, shouting, and some crying. There were several evenings in a row where groups of girls would get the courageous and introduce themselves to their new(read white) neighbors. It is a fun atmosphere. I am glad to be living in student housing, as it is giving us more opportunities to interact with fellow students, and to live in community.

So I mentioned sitting in on PhD lectures. Africa International University has brought on Andrew Walls as Research Professor for Global Christianity. For every reader of this blog except for Charlotte's dad, this means very little. Professor Walls is the foremost living expert in the field of Global Christianity. It took some effort, but I was able to blackmail my way into his lectures (amazing what photoshop and google images will do for you). Prof. Walls teaches by telling stories from history. He emphasizes the story, crafting it in such a way that his point rarely has to be stated or clarified. I learned a great deal, and am still chewing on much of what he had to say.

I have said a lot but there is still much more to say. I would like for us to write more frequently, but in shorter bursts. We'll see if we can manage this. Also Tennessee plays football against Florida today. 3:30 pm Eastern 10:30 Kenyan. Pending the outcome I will write about the difficulties of trying to stream sports here and methods of staying awake in church after staying up until 2am, or I will write about how sports can be an idol in my life and that I am thankful that I have fewer opportunities to be distracted by said idols while here.