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