Postscript and Thank Yous from 2014 Kenya Trip

Hello there everyone,

This will be my last writing about my short term mission trip to Kenya. It has been a wild ride yet we certainly have been blessed by the responses from the people we reached out to. And it is clear to me that you as my sponsors deserve much of the credit for this, since without your support I could not have traveled there. So thank you again for your prayers and financial support that made my trip possible.

Our team has talked at length among itself as to how well the pastors in Eldoret and the students and faculty of New Dawn responded to the themes of our teaching. These themes were voiced so convincingly by Miriam even last December that we chose to run with them. These themes were about a healing ministry through the arts and scripture. The education team, under the leadership of Maggie, Judy, Lance, and Ann, chose to work by reaching out to the students at New Dawn through painting, drama, song, and poetry. I tried to address woman’s issues, especially sexual abuse, through lessons based on stories from the Old and New Testaments.

We were all amazed how well the students and faculty at New Dawn and the Pastors and workers from the Rescue Center in Eldoret responded. Clearly this was because abuse of women in every possible form is endemic in the slums of Eldoret and Nairobi, yet training of social workers, pastors and teachers to help victims is woefully inadequate. The tragic consequence of this is that young people of every age who are being or have been victimized do not get the professional help they need. This is why I am so happy that at least in Eldoret, the Rescue Center is now going to write material that will educate Pastors in the region on how to deal with sexual abuse. At New Dawn, Pastor Sammy confessed that he had been radically transformed by the teachings on sexual abuse and women’s issues. From now on he said his dealings would certainly be based on how to express compassion to its victims.

So once again thank you for your faithful support,

Hans

Below are transcripts of just a few of the thank you notes received from students in Eldoret and Nairobi:



Thank you Hans and Lois,

You really portray a genuine self, your warmth has a certain healing touch that chases away all the gloom. Lois thank you for allowing Hans to be a blessing to us even when you needed him most by your side especially now.

You inspire my life so much and my heart loves you all.

Thank you very much,

From Milly and my family (Milicent is, I believe, the director of the Rescue Center in Eldoret.)



Dear Hans,

You have no idea how I was looking forward to your teachings. I have learnt so much even more than I expected. I have been challenged to be careful not to sin in my thought world, as God sees my evil thoughts as sin. I have also been challenged not to be judgmental, but to accept others as God accepts (them) with compassion and love.

May God give you all the wisdom and strength to continue sharing God’s word with others both for the Christian and non Christian.

God bless you mightily!!

Leah



Hi Hans,

I may not have enough words to express my gratitude of love to you. I want to let you know that I am totally transformed (in reference to women’s issues) by the words of your teaching. My attitude towards those who may look downcast (is that) through the teachings of the Bible I feel I have been created to always provide a shoulder for them to cry on. You have been a blessing to me, and (even) more a blessing to our church by the sermon you brought to us last Sunday.

God bless you Hans, may his face always shine on you and your family!

Blessings to you from yours in the Lord’s service,

Pastor Sammy

Amboseli Photo Safari

This weekend was our R&R time, and having been very involved with teaching for 12 days in a row, I was ready for it. This year again we went to the Amboseli Park where we stayed at the Serena lodge. To get to the lodge from the main road you have to take a dirt road, which is the worst kind of washboard you can imagine. The worst thing is that it takes almost an hour of the most incredible shaking, as if you are sitting in a giant vibrator. The closer you get to the Lodge the more wildlife you see, so I was really peering intensely among and into the bushes that dot the landscape when I saw what I knew to be a gerenuk. This is a very rare gazelle which I somehow remembered from seeing pictures of in a book. So I looked twice and was sure I had seen it but believed they were not present in this dry Savannah land. After a minute or so I thought I should ask Washira if it was indeed possible I had seen a gerenuk. Well he just about dropped his teeth, and said, "Why didn't you yell stop, I have been on the lookout for one ever since we hit this dirt road." But by then it was too late. We could not go back and try to find it among all dense bushes.

This lodge is incredible. It is designed to look like the ranch of an early settler and was built with rough hewn logs. It is very attractively decorated all with African and perhaps mostly with Masai motifs. This is truly a luxury resort, which Kizimani gets at a huge discount negotiated I believe by Washira's wife who does that sort of thing for her husband. The luxury impression starts when you arrive and a servant (they seem to stand around every 20 ft) presents you with a warm wet towel to wipe the dust from face and hands, and believe me, you are really dusty because you drive in a virtual dust storm if you drive behind the lead micro bus. Then another servant takes your bag and brings it inside, where it is stored while our team goes for lunch, because we are ravenous and thirsty.

The lunch is buffet-style and we can hardly believe our eyes seeing all the choices we have to face. You can make an incredible salad using lettuce, sundried and regular tomatoes, capers,olives, chopped onions, cut pickled beets, pickled mango, pork and chicken pieces mixed in a macaroni salad, wonderful breads, all kinds of fresh fruits--there is no end to it. It is incredible! You may also choose to eat a wonderful hot lunch, with just as many ingredients as from the salad bar, and finally, one may choose to have a lunch made up from multiple stir fried ingredients. Of course there is a long bar with dessert items that won't quit, so basically we all overate. And finally there was that wonderful cold Tusker Beer to wash everything down. Then it was time for an afternoon nap and all I can say is that I was out before my head hit the pillow.

We were going to go on a late afternoon photo safari at 4:00 PM, and fortunately I woke up from Lance, with whom I roomed, who made a some noise when he left our room and so I was up in time to catch one of our micro buses. The wildlife we saw was amazing, from many different antelopes, giraffes, elephants, buffaloes, and even a few cheetahs. When we returned we took a shower and changed, because the dust makes your hair stand out and causes your teeth to grind.

Afterward, I returned to the main Lodge building with most of the rest of the team where we enjoyed a few drinks before we had dinner. Dinner too is an indescribable experience there at the Lodge. Everything is set up in a big open space which is lined with tables all around and with a big rectangular table in the center. Each table is covered with all kinds of meats, vegetables, condiments, fruits, breads, desserts, you name it. So once again I--rather we--overate.

After dinner we sat with coffee on the terrace to wait for the Masai to show up and perform their unique dances. The Masai men are dressed in their traditional red blanket and a stick for a spear, while the women are dressed in their own red blanket but also are adorned with their beaded neck shields and arm bands. Both the men and the women form one long line with the men on the left when facing the audience, and the women on the right. The men begin the performance by singing and dancing in place while the women shake their torsos covered by the beaded shields around their neck. Then suddenly one of the men steps forward and jumps vertically straight into the air, at times reaching a height of about four feet. Like last year some of our women filled out the line of Masai women shaking their torsos with the best of them. Since we had few young men in our team this year, only Lance was willing to join the line of Masai men. I am happy to report that he did not embarrass West Hills, though he did not reach the height Tim Pham reached last year when he basically beat the Masai at their own game. After the Masai performance was over most of us went to bed simply because we were exhausted. I can't remember anything after I hit my pillow.

We got up at 5:40 AM to dress and rush out to get a cup of coffee before we drove away in our micro buses for the morning photo safari. In some respects the morning outing was not as spectacular as last year, since lions had not been spotted in two days and so nobody knew where to look for them. We too never saw them, and so we just observed the many other species of wildlife. Basically the only additional species we saw were hippos. They are impressive animals for sure, and surely to be feared.

After the morning photo safari we ate once again an incredible lunch and left after quickly packing our stuff. The plan was to be back at the guest house at around 3:00 PM. Well, the traffic on the only major east-west highway is a mess and one really learns to appreciate Washira's driving skills as he drives his micro bus ferociously through that traffic, passing endless streams of big Mercedes diesel trucks that haul freight from Mombasa on the coast of the Indian ocean to inland Africa. He is truly an artist at work as he passes truck after truck with inches to spare. Because of his driving we arrived back at the guest house an hour before the other two buses arrived.

Then we went to the mall to buy souvenirs at the Masai market where I got the last few things I needed, which was good, as I seriously dislike the haggling experience. However, it is what it is, and the Masai actually produce many beautiful things besides cheap trinkets. After we returned from the market, and a Skype session with Lois, we had dinner and now I am finishing this last report. Tomorrow we will pack while some of us will still have to buy a few more souvenirs. But then finally we take to our buses and rush to the airport to fly home via Amsterdam.

It has been truly a wonderful two weeks, I do believe this has been the best trip of the five I have made.  This was perhaps mainly because with a little direction from Miriam last December,  both Maggie, Judy, Sanna, and Lance's team, and I by myself, put together a teaching program that really resonated with the people here. Theirs was referred to as the "Healing Arts", while I chose and prepared a number of lessons that would foster a biblical discussion about violence to women and women's issues.  The result has simply been outstanding. We really saw how the high school kids at New Dawn were helped by the Healing Arts and also how the pastors in Eldoret and the teachers of New Dawn in Nairobi were really helped to begin a new focus on women's ministries and especially how to begin training for and practicing how to deal with women who have been traumatized in one way or another.

Well it has been great. I just hope the flight home is uneventful and that we will arrive on time on the 19th at around 11:30 AM. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support.

God bless you,

Hans

Nairobi: New Dawn #7

Hello there everyone,

Today Richard took me back to New Dawn where I arrived at about 8:30 AM. to teach about the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn. 4:1-38). No teachers were there yet so I could spend time writing some phrases and thoughts on the white board that I could use to reinforce the teaching of the day before. It was then that I had tried to teach them what the term "living water" meant in Jewish/Samaritan culture. Living water normally means water from a flowing stream or spring in contrast to water from a well, like Jacob's well in the story, which is not free flowing but stagnant. They as well as we would actually prefer water from a spring. Now Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." The kind of water Jesus is talking about here is spiritual living water. The woman, not understanding that yet, rightfully says, "You have nothing to draw water with. And in any case, where would you get 'living water' (that is free flowing spring water) since there are no springs nearby. Besides, are you thinking that you are greater than our forefather Jacob who dug this well and whose family and flocks drank from this well, that you can refuse to accept water from his well?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks from this well will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks the (spiritual) living water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, that water will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman, now kind of kidding and not quite being serious, says, "Sir, give me this (living) water so that I won't get thirsty and will not have to keep coming here to Jacob's well to draw water." She says this, because though she probably understands at this point that Jesus is offering her spiritual "living water," she does not really want to buy into that, and keeps talking as if Jesus is offering her living spring water, which he can't give her.

So Jesus decides to change tactics, and says to her, "Go call your husband, and come back." To this she replies, "I have no husband." To this Jesus responds, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your husband. What you have said is quite true."

Now because this revelation about her private life hits home deeply, and makes her understand she is washed up and running out of aces, she does a very common thing--she switches the subject. "Sir," she says, "I can see you are a prophet." Now in her culture it was understood from Dt. 18:15, that when Moses said there that, after him, "a prophet would come to whom they should listen," Moses was talking about Messiah and that no other prophets would come between the two of them. It is believed that this was also held by some in the Jewish faith. So what the woman really was saying in her belief system was that, because of what Jesus had revealed about her, he had to be Messiah. Now it is probably true that she could not quite process that in her mind yet, so she tries another tactic just like Jesus had done earlier.

She asks him, "Our fathers worshiped here on this mountain, that is Mt. Gerizim, the mountain of the blessings, but you Jews claim that the place we must worship is Jerusalem."  This was a theological hot potato that she handed Jesus, really an unsolvable dispute between two countries. But Jesus deftly ducks this debate by saying, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming that you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know, we (the Jews) worship what we do know (by means of revelation), for salvation is from the Jews. He continues, "God the Father is Spirit and he must be worshiped in Spirit and in truth."

This revelation pushes her over the top and she says,"I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes he will explain everything to us." Remember Jesus had explained several things to her: who she really was--that is an immoral woman who had gone through five husbands, where and how to get "spiritual living water," and where and how God the Father was to be worshiped. So suddenly she gets it: he is the prophet who explains everything to her, so he truly is the Messiah. To this, seeing her faith, Jesus responds by saying, "I who speak to you am he!"

What this means that the first time Jesus reveals himself to a person as Messiah, it is to a Samaritan gentile who is an immoral woman living in sin. And this is why I spent so much time to make this clear. He does not reveal himself first to a VIP in Jerusalem.

There is much more to be said about this story, chief of which is that it is Jesus' personal evangelism that reconciles a Samaritan village and the twelve Jewish disciples to God and to each other. They actually spent two days together.

The other story I did is the one I preached on in Sammy's church last Sunday, where Jesus is anointed by a sinful woman (Lk. 7-36-50). This was incredibly well received by the teachers and I wish I could attach my sermon to this e-mail, but this computer does not allow me to get into my home files. Maybe Karen can. (Note from Karen: Nope--I'll have to post this another time.)

After I was through with this lesson we had a long prayer time wherein each teacher expressed why he or she was thankful for this week of teaching, which was very moving. Then they handed me a huge card with a personal thank you note from each teacher, which was truly very nice indeed. After this we had lunch together. It has been wonderful how special and kind they have been to me this week and how sincerely they prayed for Lois every day. They were just wonderful. Then after lunch we took pictures and said goodbyes till it was time to to leave because Richard my driver arrived.

So now I am here in the Guest house writing my last report on my teaching experience here in Kenya. Tomorrow we will go to the Amboseli game park where we will stay till after lunch on Sunday, when we will return to Nairobi to pack and buy souvenirs at the Masai market on Monday morning. Then late that afternoon we fly home.

God bless you all,

Hans

Nairobi: New Dawn #6

Hello there everyone,

Today was quite a day. This was mostly because it was the last day of the special education team with Maggie, Judy, Sanna, Ken, Lance, Ann, and Nina. They had been at New Dawn since Tuesday morning and had split up in 4 groups to work with New Dawn students who specially returned from vacation for this. The four areas they were going to cover were Art/Painting, Drama, Poetry, and Singing. The first reports I heard were that each team was somewhat slow to start in their particular area, but judging by the end result they were truly incredible as they performed for the special education team and for the teachers. Truly every area they presented was exceptionally well done, but for me one girl stood out, Her song was based on what happened to her during the election 6 or 7 years ago, when her mother was hacked to death before her eyes in the election violence. Her father apparently had died when she was about three years old. In any case, she survived and was lovingly taken in by an aunt and uncle in Nairobi. That lasted just long enough for the uncle to win her trust, after which he raped her. The song she had written about this was just so moving. I had tears in my eyes. The team had done an incredible job of guiding and encouraging these students; they were truly awesome. I am sure Maggie, Judy and Lance will write much more about this and share pictures, so be sure to check out their blogs. (Click on their names to link to their blog posts).

This once again confirmed the theme of my teaching, which had been to teach biblical passages that deal with violence against women and women's needs, as well as to teach passages that highlight strong and bright women in the Old as well as the New Testament. So today I finished teaching on the widow at Zarepath and Naaman. Their stories were chosen because of their incredible statements of faith they make to Elijah and Elisha respectively and in doing so they belonged in my mind to the group of characters I had already taught about: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. All three of them were Gentiles and so were the widow at Zarepath and Naaman. Now where the last two get to be even more interesting is when Jesus, early in his ministry, reveals in the synagogue of the Gallilean town Nazareth that the Messianic passages from Isaiah he just read to them have been fulfilled in their hearing. This has just about the same effect as if Jesus had set off a bomb in that place. At first the congregation is truly excited until they realize that the one saying this is the son of Joseph, the town's carpenter. It is then that they begin to be agitated and Jesus, knowing that they are thinking"This man is crazy," responds by saying, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me, 'Physician heal your self! Do here in your hometown what we have heard you did in Capernaum.' I tell you the truth," he continued. "No prophet is accepted in his hometown. Then, (referring to our two characters the widow at Zarepath and Naaman) he says, "I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when there fell no rain in three and a half years causing a severe famine. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a gentile widow in Zarepath near Sidon. And there were many leprous in Israel (the northern kingdom wherein Nazareth was located) in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed - only Naaman the Syrian." Then the whole synagogue erupts in anger and wants to kill Jesus, not because Elijah and Elisha went to the Gentiles because of the hostilities the Jews directed at them, but rather because Jesus our Lord said that God sent them, and that they could not handle. Sadly there is very little scriptural evidence that the Jews ever wanted to be or actually were a light to the Gentiles.

Then we did the lesson about the good Samaritan, which deals with a lawyer (who is not a teacher of the Law) who loves to debate the Law. Jesus has him explain what he thinks the Law teaches about what he must do to obtain eternal life. When he answers, "Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself," Jesus tells him dryly, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live!" This makes the lawyer think for the first time perhaps what "do this" implies, and he suddenly realizes with a shock that he has no intention to accept just anybody as his neighbor. So he wants Jesus to tell him where to build his fence. This Jesus does by means of the parable of the good Samaritan, who in this parable proves to be a neighbor, whereas the Jewish priest and Levite do not. So in fact, because the Jews hated the Samaritans so much, Jesus is saying with this parable that since the hated Samaritan proves he can be a good neighbor, we can't put up a fence anywhere. This Jesus proved convincingly at the cross where he died for all who believe. See Jn. 3:16.

Finally I started to teach on the Samaritan woman at the well but since I did not finish that lesson I will teach, and write, on that tomorrow.

Tonight it was good to welcome back the medical team that went to Kangundo, so all of us are back together. Tomorrow the whole team will go back to New Dawn and be treated to a tour of the facilities there, after which they take the senior class out to the Giraffe Park. Since I have been there already and also because my teachers and I wanted to still do a morning of teaching, I will stay at New Dawn and continue to teach my class till 1:00 PM.

So I will talk to you again tomorrow, God bless you all,

Hans

Nairobi: New Dawn #5

Hello there everyone,

Today things went much better with transportation. We left on time--8:00 AM, and arrived at New Dawn at 8:40 AM, which is pretty good. Then I got a real surprise. Most of the teachers were already there, and at 9:00 AM they were all there save for two! I have never had this happen before, and after lunch they were all there 7 minutes before we were to start up again. So it appears that my somewhat stern talk yesterday has borne fruit. Anyway it was a very good beginning.

We were to finish just a few summarizing questions about my lesson on David and Bathsheba, like What do we learn about David from this story and why do you think that Bathsheba is mentioned in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew chapter 1? David is, of course, a very complex figure which they now are pretty much able to describe in detail. He was certainly a gifted prophetic poet who wrote incredible psalms. Then he was a gifted general, and a very charismatic leader, but clearly he was also an adulterer, murderer and an indecisive absentee father, who failed to discipline his sons Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah. Each of these sons were unfit to sit on the Davidic throne, and yet David apparently failed to heed the prophetic word that Solomon was to succeed him until Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan confronted him with that fact. Only then did he take the necessary steps to have Solomon succeed him. Then also he seemed to have had a problem controlling Joab, even after Joab killed the successor who had been appointed by David to replace him. Finally, David still did not deal with Joab after he joined Adonijah in his attempted palace coup; he instead left Joab to the judgment of Solomon. Was it because Joab had saved the letter David wrote him to have Uriah killed in battle, which he perhaps had threatened to release to the public if David would dare to come after him? It is interesting to contemplate.

The students are now clearly able to see Bathsheba as a victim of David's lust. There had really been no way that she could have refused the command of the king to come to the palace. Then she lost her husband, a God-fearing man of incredible integrity, and her firstborn son. In addition, she probably was haunted by palace gossip about her baby not being her husband's. The fact that Bathsheba mourned for her husband is enough proof that she loved him. Finally, her grandfather Ahithofel committed suicide after his sound advice to Absalom was not followed and he realized that Absalom was going to be defeated by David and Joab. He realized that perhaps he would be executed for joining Absalom's coup to take revenge on David because he had killed his granddaughter's husband and so he committed suicide. All of this was pretty interesting.

Then we did the rape of Tamar which was really very well received, and later the class shared that rape and incest are a serious problem among the girls who study at New Dawn. Last year Irene was able to open a house for a number of girls to sleep at night, supervised by one of the teachers. This was because they could not in good conscience be sent home to be subjected to abuse. So the teachers were very interested to get a biblical perspective on rape and really any form of violence against women. The rape of Tamar provides us with a very good insight into how scripture exposes the different human reactions to this sad affair that are still all too common.

There is Amnon, who is the callous rapist who thinks he can get away with it because he is the spoiled crown prince. His indifference to Tamar's frantic pleading is just beyond the pale. While the attitude of Absalom toward his sister's pain is so unbelievably and cruelly indifferent that it is just beyond words. The only way this can be explained is if he secretly delighted because it gave him a an opportunity to act as the self appointed "avenger of blood" and kill his half brother Amnon, which made him the next one in succession to the throne. And David is angry only because he now has to deal with a family scandal that leaves a blemish on the reputation of his beloved son Amnon as the current heir to the throne. Tamar is forgotten and ignored by all. Nobody cares about her needs--she is now a throw away item. Nobody wants her.

The class clearly was able to see that these attitudes are just as prevalent today as then. So often rape and incest are swept under the rug to protect important family members or leaders in the community. Especially Leah, the school's counselor, was really excited about this material and felt she could use the lessons to help victims she counsels. So basically they really are excited about the lesson material just like in Eldoret, which makes me think that perhaps Leah can give a follow up seminar to the teachers of New Dawn.

Finally, today I taught about the widow at Zarephat, and the Aramean commander Naaman who is cured from his leprosy. Both characters are important because they are gentiles who express their faith in the God of Israel in amazing statements. These two are held up as amazing people of faith by the lord Jesus when he is challenged by the Jews in the synagogue of Nazareth for proclaiming to them that he has come to fulfill Isaiah's prophecies that apply to Messiah. Then when Jesus says, "I assure you that the prophets Elijah and Elisha did not go to the gentiles because of the hostilities of the Jews in ancient Israel. No these prophets went to them because God sent them." This is when the people in the synagogue of Nazareth became enraged and tried to throw him off the cliff.

Well that was a full day, tomorrow I only have the morning to teach because the education team of Maggie, Sanna, Lance, Ken, Ann, Nina, and Judy will have their kids give a performance showcasing what they have learned the last 2 1/2 days. So my teachers and I will attend their performances. I will lose a whole afternoon I had not counted on, but it is for the best so I'd better show them my newly found flexibility.

One thing that is really fortunate is that tomorrow we will be driven by Richard and one of his drivers in two cars, rather than the bus we used the last two days. I am sure we will get home faster.

Well have a great day, and God bless,

Hans

Nairobi: New Dawn #4

Hello there everyone,

Today was my second day of teaching at New Dawn and once again it went well. We were scheduled to drive in Washira's bus which was just big enough to seat us all now that Maggie, Sanna, Judy, Lance, Ann, and Nina are back from Kangundo and will be working also at New Dawn. We did get a late start because we had to stop at a supermarket to buy water first. Then once we got to New Dawn, the person who had the key to the computer lab where I am teaching did not show up so we could not get in and we had to wait. I am really learning to be patient and take it all in stride. This is Kenya, after all. Well, finally he arrived with the key, but then it turned out that the lights were off and could not be turned on for some obscure reason, so I decided to open the curtains wide and use the natural daylight. It was darker than I wanted it to be, but it was good enough.

Today I was to finish the book of Ruth since we got only half way through it yesterday. They all loved this book which is so special since it deals with three people--Naomi, Ruth and Boaz--who are delightful and give us an opportunity to look in detail at what we can learn from them. We spent some time sharing our insights. Then I asked the men to share (most are not married) what characteristics they would expect to see in a woman of integrity. Then I asked the women what a man of integrity would be like. This spawned some interesting thoughts and good discussion.

Then we began to study David's adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah. This too led to a pretty good discussion, especially between those who said that Bathsheba should just have said no and others, like me, who believe that she has no choice in the matter. Later most all of came around that at that time in that culture the wish of an absolute monarch like David would be a command that could not be ignored.

They were very interested in the little poem that Joab gave to the messenger to report to David that he had complied with David's wishes and that Uriah had been killed in the manner David had suggested. This is found in II Sam. 11:20b-21a, where Joab instructs the courier to say to David: 

     A- Why did you get so close to the city (wall) to fight?
     B- Didn't you know they should arrows from the wall?
     C- Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth?
     B'- Didn't a woman throw a millstone on him from the wall? (so that he died in Thebez)
     A'- Why did you get so close to the wall?

The Chiastic structure of this little poem is named after the Greek letter X or Chi. Joab used this poem to let David know in a very subtle way that he understood that, just like Abimelech who was killed by a woman throwing a millstone down from the wall of Thebez, Uriah was killed by an arrow shot from the wall of Rabbah because of a woman. This woman was, of course, Bathsheba who was now pregnant after David had committed adultery with her. So he decided to have Uriah killed in battle to be able to claim the baby as his own. Anyway this little poem is very interesting and clever.

We got as far as the prophet Nathan rebuking David with his little parable about how a rich man takes the pet lamb from a poor farmer to cook up a feast to impress an unexpected guest. When David says this rich man deserves to die Nathan springs the trap and says, "You are that man!" David then becomes the David of old and in the crowded court room confesses, "I have sinned against the LORD!" Then the LORD says, "Your sin will be forgiven, but there will be consequences. The sword will not depart from your house, someone close to you will lie with your wives in public (Absalom), and the baby in Bathsheba's womb will die."

That is where we left it for the day and so tomorrow we will finish this story by looking at what it is we can learn from this.

When we got home it was good to find out that Lois had been discharged from the hospital and was now back home. But then when I tried to call her we found out that somehow Lois had left the phone off the hook making it impossible to get through to her. But Jon Straalsund came to the rescue and drove over to help Lois and her friend understand what was the matter and soon we got connected and had a good talk.

So life is looking up, Lois is back home, and we can talk again by phone.

God bless you all,

Hans

Nairobi: New Dawn #3

Hello there everyone,

Today was my first day of teaching at New Dawn High School, and it went well. This morning started out badly because my driver Richard did not show up, but fortunately I had his business card and so I had the office of the Guest House hear call him on his cellphone to ask him when we could expect him to arrive. Well fortunately he was relatively nearby so he said I could be there in 15 minutes. Well when he arrived he told me that he hadn't received a call so he just did not know.

Anyway I arrived at 9:30am at New Dawn, which was half an hour late, but certainly more than half of the students were not there yet, which I had expected. After all they are on "Kenya time" and that is the prevailing time everywhere here. Before I could really start class I had a few minutes to talk to Sammy and he started gushing about yesterday. He said that both my sermon and the songs Sanna and Lance had played and sung had been big hits and that his congregation was truly excited about what they had seen and heard. They had just loved it.

Then we got the laboratory ready for teaching. It is the same place I taught last year, which is not ideal, but the problem is that tomorrow the educational team will be back (they are now in Kangundo) and so they need the assembly hall. So I will just have to take the next best place that is left and that is the laboratory.

There are apparently 12 teachers slated to attend my class, but 4 will be taking courses to upgrade their certification. They will be back on Thursday. Also I have two others, Pastor Sammy, and Leah, who was in my class last year, and mid week Irene will be joining us. Leah is the school counselor and she is clearly well educated. We talked over lunch and she said she had received four years of theological training, but that she was just turned off by the teaching in the churches here. Yet last year she had also been in my class and had loved it and so she was once again looking very much forward to this year. She was very interested to hear how things had gone in Eldoret, when she heard I had just spent a week there and had taught the same material as I had planned for New Dawn--material that deals with good and bad experiences of women in the Bible. Being the school counselor, she is very interested in this indeed. In today's class she and Margaret were just great, also Pastor Sammy. It is great to be able to depend on three people in the class that like to participate so eagerly in the discussion and do that with good comments driven by common sense.

There are several new people in the class that are becoming acclimatized quickly so it looks like we are going to have a good class, especially when Irene Tongoi, the director of New Dawn, will join us later this week. She is very keen on application and that continues to be my weaker side, since I thrive on understanding the content of a passage, and the deeper the better, so that is what I mostly emphasize.

Today I taught on Judah and Tamar, which went over very well and I was happy to find out that since I had taught that passage 5 years ago they remembered much of it (that is the few that were there at that time), which was very encouraging. Then I taught the passage on Rahab the prostitute/innkeeper who, by saving the lives of Joshua's spies, is saved from the destruction of Jericho. Then when later she marries into the line of Judah, she becomes one of the four women in the genealogy of Messiah. Then I started on the book of Ruth which I had to skip in Eldoret because things were going much slower there given that the the students there generally had less education than the teachers of New Dawn. The book of Ruth is a little gem that also, just like the story of Rahab, deals with the Leverite marriage, which I have tried to explain in an earlier e-mail. Anyway they are pretty impressed by the different characters like Naomi, Ruth and Boaz, who are truly a delight to get to know.

Well I will be joined this evening by the education team that is returning from Kangundo. They will arrive late after a very tough trip. To travel the road to Kangundo in the morning and back at night leaves you with a very sore bottom and rattled nerves from the crazy traffic here. Pray for safe travel for all of us every day. So tomorrow we drive together to New Dawn where they will be working with some of the students while I will continue to deal with their teachers.

Well this must be it for the day,

God bless you,

Hans

Nairobi: New Dawn #2

Hello there every one,

Well today was my big day to preach in Pastor Sammy's little church just below New Dawn inside the Huruma slum. We arrived just when the church's Bible study was wrapping up and later Pastor Sammy explained to me that the commentaries he received are really helping him in his teaching and preaching. He started both his teaching and preaching in Genesis and is now in Exodus chapter 32. When he was saying that a couple of elders were beaming with joy and saying yes, yes.

The service began with a worship team that was singing full blast so that I was sorry I did not leave my hearing aids at the guest house. Our team participated even at first, but once they warmed up they clapped and danced almost like real Kenyans. Then it was time for the Jr. Sunday School class to come forward and they did all kinds of "motion songs" as I call them. The only one I knew was from the Jamii video of last year--"Making Melody to the Lord." It was really fun to see the little ones sing and dance. Then came the Sr. class (the church is so small it has only two Sunday school classes for the kids) and they performed in song and dance, which was very attractively choreographed by their Sunday school teacher. I liked it a lot. It was fun.

This performance was followed by yet another worship team, this time a team that consisted of kids and adults that sang and danced till they lifted the roof, while we joined in and actually did not do too badly, though my leg muscles are clearly not what they used to be. The kids from the Sr. Sunday school class who participated in this choir were choreographed and performed so skillfully and in such unison they would be hired on Broadway instantly if they could see them there. It would certainly be fun to have them perform at West Hills. After this, Sanna and Lance performed capably, drawing quite an applause. They did West Hills proud! Then it was time for corporate prayer which is clearly very heartfelt and sincere.

Now it was my turn and so I was introduced by an elder who spoke Swahili and Pastor Sammy who spoke in English, They said some very nice things about me after which I finally could come up and begin my sermon. First, however I introduced my sermon with a greeting from the churches that sponsor Kizimani. I saw a Covenant pastor do this when I was in Magadan, Siberia, and then I realized the apostle Paul does the same thing with his letters to the churches. So I have been doing it ever since and it always amazes me how well it is received by the church we are reaching out to. Certainly that was the case here today, when I said: "Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Before I get into my sermon I would like to bring you greetings from the different churches that have sent us here to bless you. Please know then that we care about you especially since we have heard about your hardships. But also we are sure that you will persevere in spite of the difficulties you face daily. And this perseverance will be yours because the Lord Jesus is at work in your midst and his Spirit protects, empowers and encourages you. So understand that we have come in the name of the Lord Jesus to bless you and to say we love you in Christ."

They really loved and listened very attentively, nodding yes, yes with big smiles, which confirmed I had made the right choice in starting with this greeting. I just love these people! They are so warm and kind, and smile all the time, while the little kids are just adorable.

My sermon was entitled "Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman" which you will find in Lk. 7:36-50. It ended up being liked very much by everybody. Since it would take me too long to type it out I will ask Karen to post it together with this message on the blog. [Note from Karen: I didn't see the sermon attached to the email, so I'll have to post it later when I get a copy.]

After the service was over we were asked to go to the "annex/kitchen" (which is Pastor Sammy's office) where the church had a meal prepared for us. This was again a way for them to say to us "Let's break bread or at least eat together," since they really love us so much. They are so honored that we come to teach them and worship with them there in that awful slum. It makes you feel very special. It was just too bad that we had to leave as soon as possible to shop for the team's trip to Kangundo on Monday morning. I will remain here all by myself on Monday but the educational team is driving back on Monday night as they will join me on Tuesday. So the good thing about this is that I will be driving with Richard and that will be fun.

After shopping for Kangundo, where Miriam's parents live, we went to the guest house where everything had to be parceled out to cover some 20 families that Kizimani supports. It is probably true that without this support, most of these families would starve. It is too bad that because of my teaching I did not see the incredible welcome and final performance at Jamii school and again I will not go to Kangundo, where the welcome is also a wonderful event. The women of the village come out and sing and dance around the micro-buses and make you feel like very special and honored guests. But then my teaching has its own rewards and I am really very happy doing it, because it is true that you get to feel totally one with these wonderful people.

After much packing and dinner at the guest house I went to my room to write this and go to bed because I am really done for this day.

God bless you all,

Hans

Nairobi: New Dawn #1

Hello everyone,

Today (Saturday) I went to New Dawn High School to teach the leadership of Sammy’s church. Sammy is the pastor of a church in the slum near the school. It was good to see my driver, Richard, who, all the other times I have been to Kenya, has been driving me back and forth from our guest house to New Dawn. It always has been a joy to ride with him because he wants to milk me to hear what I am going to teach each day and then I give him a summary of what I am planning to do. Then in the afternoon when he picks me back up he wants to know how things went, and then I have to give him a detailed report. Also, last year I gave him the booklet that contained all the lessons I was going to teach at New Dawn, and so I had one prepared this year also, which I gave him tonight when he drove me back.

At the school Pastor Sammy was eagerly awaiting me and he was so excited to see that once again I was bringing him a few commentaries, so that he has quite a library now. At times I have wondered if these commentaries are not way over his head, but the first thing he told me was, “You know, these commentaries are changing the way I preach and our church is changing because of it.” So that was just so very encouraging to hear that they are making a difference in his life and in the life of his church. Pastor Sammy is very special.

Then we went to the assembly hall of New Dawn, where things were set up to for me to teach. We had been led to believe that their would be some 15-18 people participating, but in the end there were some 20 people attending. I think there were three churches involved, which was good, but most were obviously from Sammy’s church where I will preach tomorrow.

Today I began my teaching with the sordid story of the rape of Tamar by her half-brother Amnon as recorded in II Sam. 13. Clearly, here also this passage and the questions I had designed for it, led the class and especially the pastors, to realize that they were actually ill prepared to deal with serious women’s issues. Irene Tongoi, the director of New Dawn, was quite excited about the fact that I am going to use the same material with the teachers of New Dawn next week. She said, “My teachers really need to be able to deal with the issues of rape and abuse.”Last year, New Dawn was able to rent a house for a number of the girls attending New Dawn and let them live there during the school year, because they simply could not be sent home to an abusive situation. Anyway, this lesson was well received and I am excited to contemplate what will come out of this. Since about half of the people there were women it was just special to see them nod and be engaged with the text and the responses from the group to the questions.

The next teaching was on the healing of the paralytic man who is brought to Jesus by his four friends as recorded in Lk. 5:17-26. This story really struck me at first because the culture of the day believed that birth defects were the result of the sin of the parents, like we see in Jn. 9:1-2. Now if that were true, it makes good sense to think about what the paralytic is experiencing when he is lowered through the roof of the house in front of the feet of Jesus. Jesus is sitting there in front of a circle of Pharisees who are there to trap him. It is their belief that Jesus is healing people by demonic powers, that he is involved in immorality because he associates with tax collectors and prostitutes, that he is not pious enough (Matt. 9:14-17), and especially that he is blaspheming God because he forgives sins.

So when the paralytic is lowered down to land between the stern looking Pharisees on one side and our Lord Jesus on the other, the paralytic‘s heart is racing, “What if my parents' sin will prevent me from being healed?” All the while Jesus knows what the Pharisees are thinking about him, that is they believe he is blaspheming God (a capital offence under Jewish law) if he forgives the paralytic’s sins. So the Lord faces this dilemma: He wants to forgive the sins of the paralytic who is lying there in fear that the sins of his parents, or perhaps his own sins, will prevent him from being healed. But if he does, he knows that he will have to deal with the condemnation from the Pharisees who believe he is blaspheming God. Yet Jesus, because of who he is, decides to show his compassion for the trembling paralytic first and says, “Your sins have been forgiven.” Now because Jesus, who is both God and man, knows what is going on in the mind of the Pharisees, he meets them head-on and says, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?"  Then our Lord places the onus squarely on the Pharisees by forcing them to decide whether Jesus is blaspheming by forgiving sin and/or healing by demonic powers. So he says, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins .....” Then he said to the paralytic man, “I tell you get up, take your mat, and go home.” Now the Pharisees are in a bind, because logic tells them that this man called Jesus has the authority to forgive sins because to heal a paralytic is humanly impossible. In addition, the paralytic goes home praising God, so the healing must have been done by the power of God rather than by demonic power. So, instead of falling into a pharisaic trap, our Lord has turned the tables on them, they are amazed and say, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

The class was really impressed by the fact that Jesus demonstrated that showing compassion for this handicapped man was really his foremost concern. Yet, at the same time, with his divine reasoning, he was able, by using this compassionate choice to forgive sins, to put the Pharisees in a bind by also showing the Pharisees decisively that he had divine powers to heal. Logically then, they had to conclude that Jesus was God. So they went home amazed while shaking their heads.

The last passage I taught on was the wedding at Cana, where Jesus changed the water into wine (John 2:1-25). The point of this was that Jesus, here at the beginning of his ministry, showed decisively that changing water into wine was in fulfillment of Jacob’s prophetic blessing on his son Judah (Gen 49:8-12) and by prophets like Amos (Amos 9:13). Just as Jesus filled the empty water jars with water that turned into the best wine imaginable, so he wants to change man's emptiness into a new fullness of life. This story is all about the abundance Messiah brings by his coming, an abundance that is expressed in joy as it was way back then at the wedding in Cana. Perhaps it even hints at a lifting of the curse of Gen. 3:17-18, because with the coming of Messiah in glory, the abundance of Eden will be restored. However, even in this life, glimpses of this can be seen and experienced by the redeemed. (See Gal. 5:22; John 15:11; Jas.1:17. and finally also Rom. 8:18-22.)

This too was well received, though it was a bit more difficult to understand.  All in all though, they were extremely happy to have come and they testified they had learned a lot about God's grace, his love for mankind, and yes, even the abused. Also, that to be a good father is hard work and that David failed miserably here. They especially learned the need to be gracious and compassionate to to women that have been abused and the need for more education about this for church leaders.

Well, it was a great day, and now I will have to prepare for the sermon that I will give tomorrow by reading over my notes. I feel pretty good about my preparation though, and it should hopefully be a blessing for Sammy's congregation.

God bless you all,

Hans

Eldoret #6

Hello there everyone,

Today I am back in Nairobi after flying back from Eldoret last night, but I want to write about my last day there which was absolutely great. Because it was my last day, actually just the morning, I wanted to teach the parable of the Good Samaritan, which would be just long enough to allow me some time after teaching to take pictures of all the students. Pictures taken in class always come out too dark and so I wanted to go outside for that. Also I had to hand out a "Certificate of Achievement" which Judy Straalsund graciously had designed and printed for me.

Finally, I wanted to talk to them about continuing to meet after I leave. It would be a shame if the oneness they had achieved over these five days, and especially what they had learned about how many women are hurting in their churches because they have been or are being abused in every possible way, would not be used to build on even further. They now understand that they as Pastors should take a much more active role in helping and caring for these women. They are beginning to realize also that they themselves need help in how to do that with skill and sensitivity. So since it had become clear that Pastor Collins, who has several years of seminary training, and Milly from the Rescue Center, were clearly the informal leaders of the group, I wanted to see if they were willing to spearhead that.

The teaching on the Good Samaritan went over very well and it was really so good to see that they got the point of the parable. The lawyer who, as an educated Jew, knows that as a son of Abraham he is righteous, and so he believes he is no sinner, wants to know from Jesus what he must "do" to inherit eternal life. Typically his understanding of how the LORD relates to man is based on doing good works for which God will reward him with eternal life. So Jesus leads him to the point that he understands that he must love the LORD with all is heart, soul, mind and strength as well as his neighbor. Then when Jesus tells him dryly that he should just go out and do this in order to live, he realizes with a shock that he actually has no intention to love just anybody, he wants to be selective. It is interesting that people have either a high view or a low view of law, and that people who have a high view of law realize they could never fulfill it perfectly, which drives them to seek grace. In contrast if one has a low view of law and you understand you can never fulfill it perfectly you look for loopholes. This is what the lawyer now resorts to, so he asks Jesus, "Who actually is my neighbor?" He wants to hear from Jesus where to put up his fence to keep the unwanted out. Then by telling him the parable of the good Samaritan, who was from a group that was hated with a passion by the Jews, Jesus points out that there are no fences. You must love even those who are unlovable, the very outcasts of society.

This sparked quite a discussion and they were finally able to agree that for them certainly the Muslims, certain tribes they don't like or even hate (inter-tribal strife is still very much a problem here), and even drunks and sufferers of AIDS, they realized, should all be considered neighbors. The Muslim problem, because of the associated terrorist activity, is huge for Christians here, and the country does not know very well how to deal with them other than to violently suppress anything that looks suspicious. So we talked how we could bring over a meal to a sick Muslim mom, who can't take care of her family, and then ask her if it would be all right to pray for her. Perhaps they could help a neighbor fix his bike, or whatever. The point was they could do practical things to bridge the gulf that is so wide between Christians and Muslims. So this was again a very exciting conclusion of a morning spent around a very familiar passage from the N.T.

Then I handed out my last Bibles to the two Navigator students Carol and Ida, who as college students were clearly quite a cut above most of the others, and who owned only very old and worn King James Bibles. They were simply ecstatic. Finally, I gave my last one to Victor who is the boyfriend of Ida.

Then I handed out the the certificates, which, being an old-fashioned Dutchman, was quite alien to me: "How could that ever be justfiable?" But because of my soft heart and my advanced Yankee-fication I did it anyway, and was totally surprised to see the big smiles and the obvious delight. They could hardly stop taking pictures of me handing them out. So, you see what we have to put up when we go on a short term mission trip.

After taking pictures outside we had lunch. I invited Collins, Milly, and Stella to eat together so that we could talk about where they could go from here. The wonderful thing is that Milly agreed to lead a seminar at Collins church for the whole group of pastors and the rest of the students. She would prepare teachings on women's needs, how to deal with victims of abuse, and how to start programs for women in the church. Pastor Collins told us that he has some 70 men and perhaps about 130 women in his church, but that practically all his time and energy and church resources go to these 70 men.

After lunch we went outside in the garden to meet with the whole group and there I asked them to raise their hands if they wanted the group to continue to meet, I wanted some public commitment from them, and then they agreed to meet Sept 6, I think it was, for their first meeting. Pastor Collins and Milly would bring agenda items to discuss, one of which would be to hold a seminar on how to deal with women's needs.

Well, I was very tired after that and after hugs and tearful goodbyes I left to pack and fly to Nairobi where tomorrow (Saturday) I will teach the leadership of Pastor Sammy's church at the New Dawn High School. There is no rest for the wicked!

Well this must be it for the day. God bless you,

Hans

Eldoret #5

Hello there,

Here are a few more "pictures" of our teaching time here in Eldoret. The time I have spent with my students has been absolutely wonderful, and it is clear that they have learned a lot. But not only have they learned, they also have changed some deeply rooted culturally born perspectives. Especially in regards to the treatment of women by society, men, and husbands as if women are more or less inferior to men. The degree of this change depends, of course, on the maturity of the individual man involved. My students have now clearly seen and understood that in the scriptures there is not such a perspective on women, and when it shows discrimination in any form it only reflects the deviant norm of society. So these attitudes are culturally conditioned which the Bible reflects but certainly does not condone.

This is what I have tried to get across in my teachings and I believe I have, for the moment, succeeded. Scripture is full of wonderful, bright, and courageous women like Tamar the daughter-in-law of Judah, Rahab the innkeeper/prostitute from Jericho, and Naomi and Ruth who are in the lineage of David and our Lord. Then there are these anonymous women in the N.T. like the woman with the 12-year-long bleeding I taught about last year, the woman who anoints Jesus at the banquet table of Simon the pharisee, and finally the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. They are all bright, articulate, and very courageous as they interact with Christ, psychologically wounded and scarred as they are. It was a joy to reveal Christ's love and compassion for these women. So I have tried, and I believe succeeded, in having these pastor students of mine here grasp the beauty and necessity of that kind of attitude.

I have spent some time trying to explain the O.T. Hebrew word "chesed" which is translated as mercy, love, loving kindness, and steadfast love in our modern Bibles. The closest Greek equivalent is the word "agape" love, which is about the undeserved love that Jesus extends to us sinners in redeeming us from our sin. This is what our Lord expects our pastors, as representatives of Christ, to emulate. What has been so wonderful is that I think they understood.

Then there were the emotionally laden moments when I gave a Bible to Milly and Agnes, the two workers at the Rescue center. Milly (I wrote her name as Millie first but that was wrong) is the articulate pastor's wife who was so helpful in bringing cogent arguments to bear on how to deal with victims of rape. She was just great. Her Bible had been stolen or lost a few days before and so she sat there with tears in her eyes when she saw her new Bible. She asked me to inscribe it and add a Bible verse to the inscription so I gave her Jer. 33:2-3.

Agnes told me she only owned a N.T. and that it would mean so much to her after this class to have the O.T. also. So she too was so excited and thankful for this new and precious Bible. The wonderful thing is that I know they will put these Bibles to good use at the Rescue Center.

Well I have to get ready for breakfast and my last morning of study.

God bless you all,

Hans

Eldoret #4

Well hello everyone,

Today is Thursday here and it was my last full day of teaching in Eldoret. Because teaching goes slower than expected, since almost every thing I say or read must be translated into Swahili, I chose my lesson on Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn. 4:1-42) as the lesson for today. It was my longest lesson, simply because the context must be made pretty clear for the proper understanding. So I first dealt with the history covering the relationship between Judah and Samaria, so that the class would understand the enmity that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. Then I had to spend sometime to explain what the Samaritans, and also many Jews, understood by the word “Prophet”. The Samaritans understood from Dt. 18:15 that there was going to be no other prophet between Moses and Messiah. So when the Samaritan woman exclaimed, “I can see that you are a Prophet” she actually says "you are Messiah", even though she is afraid to start discussing what that implies for her. She has to get back at that subject via a detour, so she asks the Lord, "Where should we worship? Here on Mt. Gerizim or in Jerusalem?"  When Jesus answers that question in a totally new and radical way, the light goes on and she says, “I know that when Messiah comes he will explain everything to us.” With this statement she refers back to everything the Lord has revealed to her so far and she begins to believe. And then Jesus responds by saying, “I who speak to you am he.” At this point her whole world changes and the sun breaks through her clouded existence. She no longer cares that she was treated as the outcast in town. So she runs back to town to proclaim that she has found Messiah. When they come out in strength to meet this men whom she has identified as Messiah, the miracle is that they too believe and beseech Jesus to stay for a while. So he and the disciples agree to stay for two more days and many more come to a saving faith in Christ.

Now where it gets pretty interesting is that, in spite of their cultural differences, the disciples stay, and reconciliation takes place between them and the Samaritans. They have to eat together, talk together, and does it go too far to say they held hands together and prayed? The point though was that the class began to see that there are currently “Samaritans” living among them, and so we worked together to identify them. We identified Muslims and other tribal units living among them, and even prostitutes and drunks. It was very interesting to hear one of the pastors explain, “You know we must do something different with the Muslims than we do now, because what ever we do now certainly is not working. We only hate each other more every day.” This was just great. They were getting it! 

Also today we made a lot of progress toward understanding that women are indeed real people, equal but different from men. They really responded when I took them back to Genesis where the LORD GOD says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Many take this to mean that the woman is inferior to man because she is only a helper. Then I showed them Ps. 27:9 where David sings, “You have been my helper,” where the you refers to the LORD. And of course the famous line uttered by Samuel, “Here I raise my ”Eben-ezer”, (“ezer” is Hebrew for helper) to commemorate Israel’s God given victory over the Philistines. So is God as helper of man inferior to man? Well they saw that this was not very likely indeed. So I believe that we made a lot of progress to instill more respect and appreciation for women.

Then also what has been pretty good has been the help I have gotten from Miriam’s friend Stella. I don’t believe I could have done it nearly as well without her. It still is hard for me to understand English spoken with a Kenyan accent and so she really helped me by repeating the question in American English. Also with her some students in the class were able to ask their questions in Swahili wherein they are much more fluent. Also, her biblical insights and cheery disposition made working with her a very good experience.

To close the day out they sang once again a beautiful hymn with wonderful harmonies and beautiful antiphonal parts to it to thank me since they had experienced such a wonderful day. This lesson on the Samaritan woman at the well just blew them away. It was so great to help them see inside the mind of the Samaritan woman and reason out why she said what she said, and then to appreciate the response from the divine mind of Christ was truly awesome. It has been a great teaching experience in a wonderful facility with a very special group of students, who have grown in their understanding of the Word and who I believe are truly changed. Then they also were just great in how they also reached out to Lois and me in song and prayer. I really love them.

Well that must be it for today,

Hans

Eldoret #3

Hello there,

Today we had yet another wonderful day of teaching and sharing. The people from the Rescue Center in this class are just so thankful for the teaching materials and the subject matter, and I just love the way they support me and help me get across the main message in a particular passage. Yesterday I taught on Bathsheba and also on the rape of Tamar. Both lessons deal with women who, basically against their will, are violated by men. Bathsheba suffers when she loses her husband, a man of incredible integrity, then she loses her first baby, and finally she looses her grandfather, Ahitophel. It is he who, out of revenge against David for having Uriah the husband of his granddaughter killed, sides with Absalom in his coup against his father David. Then, as the good advice from Ahitophel is rejected by Absalom and Ahitophel realizes that this will cost Absalom the war, he commits suicide. So Bathsheba loses her grandfather as well. Still, some of the men in the class remained on the defensive about David being responsible for all of that.

This got even a bit worse when while discussing the rape of Tamar. They refused to acknowledge that Amnon was really every bit as bad as he appeared to be, and felt that David had actually been right when he refused to discipline his sons and never appeared to console his daughter Tamar. One pastor felt that by letting things sort of slide and letting his sons sort things out over time a lot of blood shed could be avoided. So I told him that it appeared to me that that letting things slide slide is precisely what happened and that in the end it cost a lot of lives in the war fought between David and Absalom. Finally, when I got nowhere with my arguments, I asked them, “But what would you do when a young woman in your church is raped? How would you console her when she burst crying into your office?” Well one of them said,  "I would tell her that the person who had done this would surely be talked to by the elders" and "we should forgive people" and other platitudes like that. So I said, “Would you not call the police?” He said he would not do that either since, after all, there were the elders in his church who could deal with both of them. Then in desperation I asked him, "What if it is your own daughter bursting crying into your office?" This finally broke through his cultural barriers and we got someplace. He finally turned around and began to see things from the victim’s perspective and no longer dug in his heels. It is fun to see the wives of some of the pastors respond. At times they just can’t help it and they just have to "elbow” their husbands to make sure he gets the point.

What so far has really blessed me is that my choice of teaching material last winter is really confirmed to have been the right one. This is really true for the lessons that deal with women’s issues. Here, when the going gets tough, I get a lot of support from the women from the Rescue Center. Especially Millie,  a pastor’s wife and a worker at the center, is very bright, a mature Christian, and not afraid to speak up in perfect Swahili or English. I like her a lot.

We had a great time around the lesson on Jesus being anointed by a sinful woman. What was best about it was that all of those who had been in opposition to my teaching at times were no longer doing so. They were just very much willing to stop resisting obvious teachings and instead support me, and so we ended up in real harmony. By this I don’t mean that we had been fighting over passages, which is not true at all. No, it was just much more like helping some people to see things from a different perspective.

What was sweet was that Millie asked the class to pray for Lois, because she had heard from me that she had taken a bad fall and had spent time in the hospital with a slight bleeding in the brain. So they prayed fervently and then sang a beautiful song, it was very moving.

Well that must be it for the day, God bless you all,

Hans

Eldoret #2

Hello there from rainy Eldoret,

Today I taught for the first time here at the Noble Guest house which is truly a very nice place to stay. The grounds, especially, are beautifully maintained, and have Japanese flavor to them. I am teaching in the big conference room which is set up for 21 people. So I will have my hands full. I was surprised to see that Kiko, who picked me up at the airport, was assigned to be my translator. Apparently quite a few of my students are not really able to fully understand English, and so whatever I say must be translated , which of course is true for all their questions. About half the people are pastors of little community churches, and some are there with their wives. Then I believe there are some nurses from a rescue center, I think, who clearly are well educated. They absolutely love what they are learning. Also there are two students in my class who are being trained by the Navigators and have been sent to my class to learn more about the OT and then they need to write a sermon covering some of the passages the found exciting. They speak English fluently and in general are pretty hip.

As usual the first day starts slow. About every 20 minutes after our 9:00 starting time, a few dribble in with the last ones coming in at around 11:30 AM. So I started with about half of my class at a few minutes after 10:00 AM. First I gave a little introduction about myself and what I expect from them, which is mostly that I want them to think about the questions and let themselves get swept up emotionally into these wonderful Biblical stories. Also, I stress how to read the Bible, that is, with expression and, if at all possible, with voices, and to make sure that questions sound like questions, because if they as pastors don’t read their Bibles well, they will lose their congregations. Well, they really try to do it right after that, it is amazing.

It was my plan to begin my teaching by covering the four women in the genealogy of Jesus, who, as you well know of course, are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. So the first lesson was about Tamar the Canaanite wife of Judah’s oldest son Er. Now the LORD, who is sovereign over life, gave it to us graciously, but also he can take it back if that is what he believes is best in accordance with his infinite wisdom. Now in the ancient Near East, the custom was that if a male child in a family should die, the next brother to the deceased one ought to take the wife of this brother for the purpose of producing a son. This son would carry the name of the deceased brother and would inherit his estate, while the brother who actually fathered him did not get anything for his efforts. In fact, he would bear the cost of the upbringing of the boy and also have to keep up the estate--a burden that some were just not willing to take on.

So it is here in our story that Onan, the second son of Judah, refuses to impregnate his deceased older brother’s wife Tamar. Then he too is judged by the LORD as being evil and so his life is taken also. Now Shelah, the next son of Judah, is still too young, and so Judah tells Tamar to go back to her father’s house and wait there till Shelah is old enough, and then Judah will call her home to do his brotherly duty. She, as well as Judah, and probably Shelah, all understand that this call will never come, because Judah blames Tamar for the death of his two sons and is not willing to risk the life of his last son. Shelah no doubt is not eager either since he too incorrectly believes that there is no doubt that it must have been Tamar’s fault his brothers died. So Tamar waits and waits.

When Tamar hears that Judah finally is getting his life back together after the death of his wife, and feels good enough to participate in the festivities of the sheep shearers festival, she begins to develop a very clever plan that will give her the son she wants and lawfully deserves. This is because she wants to be part of Jacob’s family whom she clearly believes to be the people of God. Her plan works out beautifully and, in the end, it is Judah himself who impregnates her while thinking that in actuality he is having intercourse with a cult prostitute. He most likely engaged in this act because he had begun to believe in the teachings of the Canaanite fertility cult that intercourse with a cult prostitute re-enacted the same act between the god Baal and the goddess Asherah, who with their annual ritual union triggered the new growing season. However in this case Judah unknowingly impregnates his daughter in law Tamar, who had disguised herself as a cult prostitute, and in doing so Judah fulfills the duty his second son Onan refused to accept.

When Tamar later is accused by Judah of having broken her betrothal to Shelah, proof of which is her pregnancy, he does so with glee because in that culture Tamar now deserved to be burned at the stake. This makes Judah happy because he now has a way to legally get rid of Tamar without the life of his son Shelah being endangered any longer. Suddenly Tamar produces the proof that Judah is the actual father. At this point Judah graciously admits that it must be true that Tamar’s baby is his, and that she had been right to insist that her rights as the widow of Er were to be honored. Anyway because Judah admits that he never had intended to give Shelah to Tamar he proved to be a man of integrity. Therefore, he was truly worthy of the spiritual blessing his father Jacob later bestowed on him--a blessing that ultimately would lead to the birth of Messiah, a blessing that Tamar, by insisting on her lawful rights, had made possible.

Anyway today again proved to be a blessing for the students, as we taught on Hagar, and Bathsheba who both are also listed in the genealogy of Messiah. So much of this is new to them as they are suddenly confronted by the fact that scripture does not discriminate against women, but that rather it is the culture in both biblical and modern times that does. So they are beginning to revise their thinking, which is especially a blessing to the women from the Rescue Center. Also the wives of some of the pastors are clearly “helping” their husbands to change their perspectives, which is fun to watch.

My assistant, Stella, who is a friend of Miriam, is really working out well, though she is a bit overwhelmed that she is in fact required to translate my English into Swahili and then to translate the answers that are given back into English. She was sort of thrown into the fire when after her first few minutes in class she had to translate my teachings on the rape of Tamar. There were a few terms she no longer was familiar with after having lived in the US for a long time now.

Tonight there was a fun moment during our sharing time, when one of the nurses of our medical team had to administer a pregnancy test and she and an other nurse were not sure how to interpret the reading. Was this woman pregnant or not, how could they be sure? So one of them suggested let’s do the test again with my husband’s urine.

Well I am terribly tired and must go to bed.

God bless you all,

Hans

Trip to Eldoret

Hello there,

Yesterday, which was Sunday Aug. 3 here, I spent a frustrating morning trying to connect up with Lois or Karen via Skype, which I finally managed to do by moving really close to the source of the intranet where apparently it is stronger and able to push my “bits and bites” across the internet to Portland. Then I heard from Karen that Lois had fallen during a walk and had to check into the ER to make sure nothing had been affected in her brain. Well that was pretty upsetting, but we will hear more today.

In the afternoon I repacked everything from my small carry-on suitcase into my big suit case because I no longer could distribute things over all three suitcases to make everything fit. Anyway once I was repacked, Wachira, our contracted guide/driver, drove me to the airport where I learned that my plane would be delayed. This worried me because I wanted to know so badly how Lois was doing and from last year I remember that the Internet access at the Noble Guesthouse/Conference center was pretty shaky. But there was nothing I could do about that now but wait, and so I tried to take a little nap, being still pretty exhausted from the long flight from Portland.

While we were driving to the airport Wachira told me that he was thinking of quitting his business because of the lack of work he is experiencing. This is mostly due to tourism being way down after the violent attacks on the shopping mall in Nairobi last year and the incidents and grenade attacks along the coast where the Muslim population is most numerous. There, the unemployed young Muslims are easily aroused and manipulated by the extreme elements in their community to begin to commit acts of terror. Anyway Wachira told me he has had no work for his business from February through June, and only for 5 days total so far in July and August, because the tourists are staying away in droves. So that seriously affects not only his business, but all the people that are working for him and in tourism, which is such a major part of the economy. I wonder how this has affected the Amboseli game Park.

The flight was quick and easy, only about 50 minutes, but since it was dark outside I could see nothing of the landscape below. Once we arrived in Eldoret I quickly collected my suit case and moved outside the secure area to meet Kiko, who will be my guide and mentor here. He was waiting for me outside with a sign with “Dr. Hans” written on it. Well, of course I immediately liked him! It feels good to be so deeply appreciated. So while this was a “good sign,” hopefully my students will still be impressed after I am through teaching here.

After checking in at the Noble, my worst fears were becoming true and though my computer tells me I am connected to both the intranet and the internet I can’t use Skype nor e-mail. So I spent a couple of very frustrating hours trying to solve it, even called home, which did not work either, so I finally went to bed exhausted. Woke up at 4:00 AM and finally got up at 5:00 AM and decided to take a shower. However, no matter what I did I could only get cold water slightly elevated in temperature out of it. So I finally took the plunge, which took my breath away, but then that is not much here at 8000 ft. elevation anyway.

After I got dressed I finally decided to give up on the internet and wait till Judy gets here Monday late afternoon and now I am writing this first e-mail from Eldoret. The question remains though, will I be able to send it out? I have also decided to try and write another e-mail about my first teaching experience today. Kiko will meet me after breakfast and help me set up the room. He told me I will have a minimum of 21 students so with Kiko, Stella and me, that will make 24. Should be an interesting class, but then a “doctor” should be able to handle that with ease right?

Have a great day,
Hans

Flight to Kenya

Well hello everybody,

The flights to Kenya were on time mostly, only the KLM plane started 25 min late and landed in Nairobi only about 15 min. late. So that was pretty good actually. In Nairobi, where the big international terminal was burned down by arson last year, we were picked up by big busses that took us to immigration and baggage pick up. We went through immigration pretty quickly, actually, after which we began to collect our baggage. Well, that turns out to be a three ring circus every year we have gone to Kenya with Kizimani.

The problem is that there are over 300 passengers on a 747 and just about everybody checks in two bags except us--we check in three bags. In addition to that, many passengers carry personal carry-on luggage. Usually the problem starts that there are a lot of passengers who get through immigration earlier and so they hog many of the available carts and they fill up all the available space around the carousel. So it is very hard to muscle through them, with or without a cart, to begin to pull off your personal luggage from the carousel. Usually only a few of us manage to do that, but since we have all our luggage color coded we can then ask those of us who have penetrated next to the carousel to pull off any of our bags they see coming..

Well, once that finally was accomplished and all our bags accounted for and corralled in a safe area, we could begin to sort them out by owner and once that is done, each owner takes his cart to where the customs people are. Once all of us have collected there, Miriam, the one with the silver tongue, begins to address "the King" of the customs department. He looked the part being big and "majestic" as he sat there surrounded by his minions. Well, he wanted to know what was in all these medical crates, who had donated the stuff in them, and what the value was so that he could charge us custom duties. Miriam explained why that was impractical if not impossible and that, besides, we never had been asked to furnish that information before. At this point he invited Miriam into his office since there appeared to be too many ears standing around which complicated a free flow of information.

Finally Miriam came out of his office and urgently gestured for us to get our carts and get out of there NOW, and find Wachira, our micro bus contractor, and follow him to the parking lot and begin to load the luggage. Once we arrived there we saw that Wachira had brought a big truck with the sides and roof screened off with steel wire to safely stow our luggage under. With three drivers loading we filled that truck up fast, and just when they were about done, Miriam sent someone over (she was still holed up with the customs supervisor) telling us she needed the last three digits of the number on medical crate #15. This meant that the truck had to be unloaded again till we would find medical crate #15. Well, you guessed it--it was the first crate in--so the whole truck had to be unloaded. Anyway, we ended up arriving at the FPFK guest house at 11:30 PM.

There, the same chaos develops as we saw in the parking lot of the airport. After the truck was unloaded we each needed to find our own luggage and take it to our rooms and stow it away there. For me, it meant that I would have to repack my carry-on suitcase and fill it with all the books I brought for Pastor Sammy, New Dawn High School and Irene and Dennis Tongoi. So it ended up being almost 2:00 AM before I went to bed,

Even so, it was the next day before I finally found my camera battery charger, and a bit later until I could account for all the Bibles I had bought for students struggling with an ancient version of the King James that was way beyond their understanding. Because they were too heavy for me to take them all, I had to distribute them over the suitcases of several different fellow team members. Then I took a well deserved nap until it was time to go to the airport with Wachira and take the plane to Eldoret.

Well that was my first day, and I look forward to sitting in the plane and take a nap. I will write about my trip to Eldoret when I get there.

God bless you all,

Hans

Prayer Requests

Hello, Hans' Kenya support team. As my dad sends me email updates from Kenya, I will be posting them here on this blog. Feel free to post comments and responses here, but please understand that Hans will not be able to read or respond to these comments while on his trip. I will try to make sure he sees them when he gets home and has time to read them (and has me to help him navigate the blogosphere. :) )

If you would like more information about Kizimani, the organization he is going with, you may want to check out the Kizimani website. While all of the costs for Hans's travel have been covered, if you would feel led to make an additional contribution to Kizimani, you can use the "Donate" button on their website.

As he prepares to leave, he has given a number of prayer requests that he believes will be vital to make the trip a success. So here we go, please pray for:

• A safe trip, in the air, and especially on the ground as the teams travels by micro bus.
• The team to come together and experience a real oneness of purpose.
• The team to remain healthy during the whole trip.
• The whole team to get plenty of rest.
• No problems or delays going through customs, and that no luggage will get lost.
• Miriam, Janet, Bob, and Maggie to be able to deal with all team issues with wisdom, grace and sound leadership.
• My assistant Stella and I to really be able to work together well.
• The Kenyans to be ready and receptive to receive and understand our teachings and learn to walk in them.

Well that will be a good start, please continue to cover us as you are moved to pray.