Visiting Granny

Generation to generation our values are shaped. And the great-grandparents and the great-grandchildren must actually see one another for those values to be indelibly stamped on our hearts and minds and spirits. So we take the granddaughters over to see "Granny" as much as possible.

Dorothy Wright had mutual love and respect and fun with her husband. After she was alone, she traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, each year for 6 months to teach English reading and conversation to preachers, young people and street kids. She had such fun doing this valuable ministry. And one of the neatest things is that Darlene and her Mom did ministry together, sharing the joys and pains of the lives and needs of street kids.

Now she sits quiet, no wrinkles on her face, sleeping most of the time, not speaking and seldom opening her eyes, and she will be 90 years old soon. But she still makes noises in her throat when a great-granddaughter says "I love you, Granny."

She also has a malignancy growing on her face. So Darlene sat with her for the whole process of surgery for it. Not to remove it completely, but to limit its growth and remove the sight of it. She slept through the surgery and it is healing great.

Generation to generation we love one another, and we keep the values alive - love and fun in life and service in Christ's name and devotion to one another. Blessed be the Lord who gives us this life, and even better is coming.

Touching the Important in Bible Study

I love it when something brings my heart back to what is important.  I am teaching a Sunday morning Bible class, currently on Ephesians, and we are in chapter 5.  So I prepared a worksheet on Ephesians 5:19-33, a passage where the relationship of husband and wife is compared to that of Christ and the church.  I took a look at the Greek text as well as several English and Swahili translations, and it always amazes me how much the translations lose by using logical and meaning-filled words instead of staying with the graphic and image-producing Biblical language.

  Just one small example -- the language used to describe Christians' relationship to one another and that of wife to husband.  The Biblical image is that of arranging things where they belong, putting that which is highly regarded in the prominent place.  It's like stacking papers, putting the most important document on top.  Or like God's creation, where he puts everything in order in the universe and sets one of his creatures on top. Or like putting fruits and vegetables in a bowl, where you put the tomatoes on top so they won't get mashed.  We do that for one another, and wives do that for their husbands.  That is so much richer than "submit" or the Swahili "stahi" (which almost no one uses in normal speech).  And it puts wives in charge of their relationship, where they ought to be, since marriage is a voluntary involvement.  

  My study led me to 1 Peter 3:1-8, where I found what I think is the most wonderful statement of the marriage relationship.  Peter, who traveled with his wife on his mission journeys, says that a husband is to treat his wife with HONOR as she shares with him in the inheritance of LIFE!  That is just great!  Another rich graphic image is that he says to treat her as the "weaker vessel."  We often dislike both of those words -- "Am I weak?", she asks as she arm wrestles him into submission.  "Am I just a vessel, like a tool?"  But if we see his image as he states it, it is rich and good.  Husband and wife are both vessels, and she is the fragile beauty.  It's like having a stainless steel kettle for heating water on one hand and a slender glass tea steeper on the other, or a pottery plate up beside the fine china.  Which one do you take most care with, which one do you protect most, which one do you cherish and put in a special place?  That is the task of the husband, to make a place for the beauty he has found and won with love. 

  And so I went into the kitchen and found Darlene and hugged her for a long time and told her I have remembered why I love her so much.  

Pure Agape

Speaking of communication, there is nothing like the close and small, especially with the small ones in my life.  Before we left the USA to return to Nairobi, we had a couple of days with the granddaughters.  And they took us to the airport, but we stopped off at Starbucks before checking in.  The girls had hot chocolate, we gave them a Polly Pocket Cowboy and Corral present, and they sat and played while we talked to the daughter and the son-by-marriage.  Now and then one of them would come over for a hug and a little talk.  And we did the "kissing hand" and the "I love you to the moon and back" -- or to Pluto, or outside the universe, or whatever exceeds the last thing we said.  

The youngest one told Darlene that she would think of her Shosho whenever she sees the color gray, a reference to our current hair color.  One of the girls told me she would look at the stars and think of me.

Since we left the youngest one has decided that her birthday party should be tomorrow, since we are coming back for her party, that way we would be back.  

This kind of communication is at the heart of life.  

Love is a House

A long time ago, when I was in University, I fell in love with stories, so I read all the short stories I could find and listened to storytellers.  A few I vividly remember, like "love is a house."  It was the English countryside, and every person lived alone there, each in his or her own small brick home, for there were only so many bricks, and there was room for no one else inside.  One day a cargo plane flew over and accidentally dropped a load of bricks, which landed on a man's house and smashed it.  When he patiently rebuilt his house, it was larger than before.  

He gathered some extra vegetables and fruit, and he went over the hill to where a woman lived in her small house.  He invited her over to eat with him.  She was reluctant, but finally she came. And they were both delighted.  

So the next day he went out hunting for more bricks, and he rebuilt his house again.  Then he went into the valley and found others to invite to his home.  Years later, after he married and raised his family and lay on his death bed, his son leaned close so he could hear the last words, "love is a house." 

And it's true.  We are delighted with the home we have.  Wednesday evening we invited half of our leadership Team (and wives/husbands) to our house for Christmas dinner (I know it's early, but Darlene likes to get started on Christmas!).  I cooked steaks and sausages and roasted corn upstairs on our rooftop patio.  It was great sitting up there talking to Jackton and Irene and Robin and Victor as we cooked.  After dinner we all went upstairs and talked about the moon and Venus and stars and meteorites and whether they might ever have gold and the trouble we've faced over Made in the Streets land.  We are all so glad that we have chosen a non-revenge and patience and let-justice-take-its-course and God-will-work-his-will course.  

And the next day John Wambu came over after his work of building on the new nursery school building and his visit to the Department of Lands, and we sat on the rooftop and talked and enjoyed our friendship.

And tonight Darlene and I went upstairs after dark and turned off all the lights and felt the strong wind blow and watched Orion rise in the East and a beautiful but quickly burned meteorite.  And we felt the peace of love.  

Merry Christmas from Darlene, and may your house be love.