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April 11, 2004
Happy Easter to you all!
I hope you each had a glorious celebration of the Lord’s
resurrection this weekend! Here in Nairobi it was a typical “Seattle”
Easter (i.e. a small touch of home for me): We’re not quite
sure when sunrise happened because it was grey and rainy. In other
respects, however, Easter here is very different from U.S. celebrations,
whether viewed from a secular or sacred viewpoint. Fortunately,
the Easter bunny hasn’t hopped through Kenya in any noticeable
way, and dying brown eggs hasn’t caught on, even in concept.
On one hand, in terms of a special holiday, Kenya does it better
than the United States in that both Friday and Monday are national
holidays, so it is a holiday looked forward to by all. On the
other hand, very little is noted about the original Good Friday
through Easter Sunday events. Most Kenyans in Nairobi go “home”
over the weekend (out to their rural villages and farmlands),
including the pastors. The senior pastor of my church went camping
with a few other families for the four days. Meanwhile, it may
surprise an outsider to look through the Easter Sunday church
bulletin of a church in Nairobi city which is passionately Christ-centered
and is ministry- and mission-minded: the front page is the financial
report for March, the inside lists regular weekly activities,
special events such as seminars for personal finance management
on the 15th, teens night out on April 17th, vacancies in small
groups, wedding banns, etc., and on the back are prayer requests
and praises, including requests for prayers for students doing
their theological training, and families of victims of two horrific
accidents over the last week or two. I found the word “Easter”
mentioned twice, both on the back page, once in connection with
praying for “journey mercies” for all those traveling
over the “Easter weekend” and the other was about
an outreach event happening “over the Easter weekend.”
Those who long for a more meaningful and memorable focus on the
death and resurrection of Christ find their way to the “cathedral”
churches in town (Anglican, Presbyterian or Catholic). Otherwise,
if one hasn’t grown up with this, Easter truly does not
play a part in one’s worship calendar. It is not that the
death and resurrection of our Lord is not important; it’s
just that it doesn’t feature on any one particular Sunday.
To add to the differences, for the large Ethiopian and Eritrean
populations in Nairobi, the Orthodox Easter doesn’t usually
coincide with the Western Easter date anyway. This year is a rare
exception, where the two calendars did merge on the same day.
So how did we celebrate? It actually was profound in its own
way. On Wednesday evening, our small home fellowship group from
church re-enacted a Passover/Seder meal together. We held it in
the home of one of our members, who has a concrete terrace over
her carpark covered with a high tin roof, accessible by stairs
from inside the house. We carried low tables and footlockers to
the “upper room” and covered them with cloths. We
brought pillows to sit and to recline on, and then went through
the Jewish Passover ritual together (the supper Jesus shared with
his disciples just before he was betrayed) with all the traditional
and symbolic foods, with an interpretation from a Christian perspective.
About 20 people participated: Kenyan (of several different tribes),
Somali, Americans of different backgrounds, retired grandparents
with their teenage grandchildren, young couples, single professionals,
and several small children. My Justin, now age 6, got to read
all the questions by “the youngest” and did a masterful
job. We ate, read, and sang by candlelight, while the rain pounded
on the tin roof above.
On Maundy Thursday, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion”
opened in Nairobi. I was able to get a few tickets for Good Friday
afternoon, so I went to see it, along with others in a packed
movie theatre. Some of you know Tracy Stover from University Presbyterian
Church (UPC) in Seattle. She is working with World Concern in
Narok, in the heart of Masai land. She came up for the weekend,
along with two of her co-workers, who just happen to be recent
Daystar University graduates whom I know well, two young men from
another Masai area, who were both sponsored through Daystar by
UPC. It was only when they started working together in January
that they all discovered their common UPC connections! So, in
addition to Tracy, myself, and these two young men, I had two
extra free tickets, so I invited the young man whom I always buy
my morning newspaper from, and he brought along a friend. They
were both excited because they’d never been inside a movie
theatre before, and were very interested to see this film. In
addition, a young Somali Kenyan woman who has become a Christian
wanted her younger brother to see the movie to help him understand
something of what had become so important in her life. We met
them as we walked into the theatre, but by then the theatre was
sold out and they only managed to get one ticket. So, Hussein
joined us as well, and was happy to sit between his two “African
brothers.” His sister found another friend, and they went
out for another show, and will see “The Passion” at
another time. It was so very powerful to witness this portrayal
of Jesus’s passion on the very day. In a small way, like
the first disciples who fled on that original Good Friday afternoon,
after viewing the film we were overwhelmed and silenced by the
profound brutality, injustice, and suffering of our Lord. The
important difference was that our viewing was with the knowledge
of the hope from the other side of the cross, and the other side
of the Resurrection. We live in the shadow of the cross, but in
the shadow of the empty cross and the empty tomb, and that makes
all the difference.
Otherwise, here in Nairobi, we continue on well. At Daystar University,
I am working hard with master’s degree students, trying
to assist a number to complete their theses and to graduate on
June 19th. In addition, I have recently been given the honor and
challenge of being part of a team to write the university strategic
plan for the next decade and beyond. This is in the midst of the
search for a new vice chancellor (i.e. president of the university),
so this is an important and significant opportunity.
On the home front, we are fine, though we are all trying to get
over seasonal colds, sore throats, stuffy ears, and coughs. Justin
and Imani are enjoying their month-long April holiday from school,
and are having a good time playing with neighbor friends and watching
cartoon network. Steven, the 16-year-old who stays with us on
school holidays, is also home for a month, and we are enjoying
visitors coming and going through our household.
Joy to each of you and your loved ones, as spring unfolds in
the northern hemisphere, and as summer beckons ahead. The kids
and I are planning to visit in the States, primarily on the west
coast, for two months this year (July-August), so we look forward
to seeing many of you then.
Marta
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 55 |
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