South Africa

As some of you know, last week and a little bit of this week I was in Johannesburg for a AIS Africa conference. It was the first time that I was given the opportunity to travel for AIS, my first time to SA, as well as the first significant period of time that I was away from Olivia. In the days leading up to leaving, I made sure that all of mine and Olivia's friends knew that I would be gone and that they would regularly check up on her. That took a lot of stress off my shoulders as I was being given a ton of information every day for six days straight as well as knowing that she could get in touch with me if anything happened. Thankfully, she had no problems with the car, nor getting around town. 

Just thought I would give that little bit of information before I shared my experience over the week. 

To be completely honest, I was not prepared nor ready for the things that I was about to learn in SA. Apart from the Hope Academy Training, which I'll get to in a sec, there was a leadership training that was taught by a pastor from the UK. He took us through a study of mentorship using the example of Paul to Timothy. Through this training I learned something about myself that completely caught me off guard. It was a hard lesson to learn because it was one that I had set out from the very beginning of my internship never to struggle with. The root of my sin that was being laid out before me was that I believed that I was culturally superior.

When I was preparing to come to Kenya in the fall/winter of 2010 I vowed that I would never look down on any individual and never think that I was superior to them. Well, here it was blowing up in my face. During the conference I found myself looking down on a lot of the African staff and not being able to show them any grace. What lead me to this was the fact that I could love, care, and work well with my Kenyan counterpart, Nicholas Macharia, but it was only because we had built a relationship on my grounds. You see, earlier this year, Nicholas shared his family story with, which is something that can and only should be shared with family. Close friends usually aren't even given this kind of information because in Africa information is valuable. 

So here I was, for one year being able to extend love and grace to Nicholas, building a relationship with him, then he being vulnerable with me about his life and then me expecting every African to follow suit otherwise I had trouble trusting them as well listening to them. As I started seeing this perception being played out in my mind and being placed on my friends, I realized how disgusting and just how despicable it was for me to look down on these people. There were a lot more examples of how I looked down on them, but the core of it all came down to my cultural superiority and imposing everyone who wanted me to be on their team to share their stories, give details of their life, otherwise, I wasn't going to give them any of me.

I was very grateful for Garreth to help walk me through this process of being able to see my sin and how I wasn't extending grace to others, but it was a hard week. I continually struggled with my thought process and had to constantly fight back thoughts to boost myself above another. Needless to say I was very humbled through it all.

So that was just the leadership training. The Hope Academy Training was fantastic! I cannot wait to get to work on the checklists, studies, and start developing the way forward as to how Hope Academy will develop in Kenya. Nicholas is still in South Africa and once he gets back, he and I will have to present to the head pastor of the church that AIS is partnered with as well as to the AIS-Kenya Board. It's a lot of work and there's not a lot of time that Nicholas and I have to prepare for these pivotal meetings, but it's an exciting time to be in. 

Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to struggle with these things that I have shared as well as the wisdom and guidance to lead this office. Thanks you guys for your support. It really means a lot.

Cheers.