Priorities

So the last blog post talked about margins and trying to maintain a healthy balance in life here at RVA.  I (Jim) was already feeling a little bit convicted about my time management or, more accurately, convicted about my priorities.  Really, the things which consume my spare moments begin to consume the hours which consume my days, my weeks... my life.  Safe to say, the things which consume my life at the moment are probably the things that an honest appraisal of my thoughts would reveal as my priorities.   Not that this is a new lesson by any means but one I'm re-learning.  It was this lesson my thoughts were focused on at the beginning of the week.

The other thing I never seem to learn is that when God is speaking, I should listen - because when I don't listen, He speaks the same thing over and over and over again until I begin to catch on.  On Thursday, we had a chapel speaker who shared reflections on the political and spiritual situation in the Northern part of the continent.  The content was fascinating, but the lesson which grabbed my full attention?  I get one life.

Then, on Sunday, Brock Mathison shared with us the story of William Borden, which you should watch on youtube.  He then spoke on Philippians 3:7-11 

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Whatever things were gain to me, I count as rubbish?  So that I may gain Christ?  Last week, it began with stress, feeling overwhelmed, having too much on our plates and ended with time to re-center, re-focus on priorities that really matter:  Serving kids at RVA? Certainly. My family? Absolutely.

'I count ALL things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.'

Serving kids at RVA a loss? Apparently.  My family? I guess so; compared to Christ.  It's easy to say, but the real priorities, those that consume my days, my weeks, my life?  They speak otherwise!  I can not Gain Christ so He can be found on the margins of MY page, my ministry or my family.  My priority must be: Gain Christ, and be found in Him.

I get ONE life.

Margins

So... you may or may not have noticed that it's been nearly a month since anything new showed up on the blog.  It's been a bit of a busy term so far.  In addition to our commitments last term, I (Jim) signed up to coach Junior High Basketball, Heather's been covering a dorm one night a week, and feeling sick with pregnancy blehs, and...  To make a long story short, we've been busy, I'm stressed, and it feels at times like we're just making it through each day, or (worse yet) not quite making it through each day - I ended up skipping almost two weeks of basketball, just trying to catch up - crashing and burning with guilt at the failure to be more perfect.

The other day, I read somewhere about creating 'margin' in your life.  Being as frazzled as I've been lately, I have no clue where I read it; I couldn't immediately find it tonight and I'm doing well enough to be writing anything, so you'll just have to trust me.  The gist of what the author was saying was that we get so overwhelmed and busy that we forget to focus in on things that really matter.

I didn't really have time to investigate further at that point, but I started thinking about it periodically - not usually as I should have thought about it, but more frequently alternating between the frustration of not being able to think of any particular Biblical passage that justified 'taking it easy' and wondering if 'margin' was just an excuse for laziness OR the feeling that RVA is a stinkin' hard place to work' stressful and unhealthy (explaining my highish blood-pressure reading during an AP Biology lab last week) and that God would OBVIOUSLY not approve.  Neither perspective, I'm afraid, sheds a very flattering light on my maturity as a Christian or a missionary.

The last two days have included a couple of moments of 'margin' and valuable lessons for me.  Yes, RVA is stressful.  Yes, there are sometimes-unrealistic expectations for volunteering, for doing more, even self-righteous competition for sacrificing the most while sharing super-spiritual thoughts and a cheery attitude.  But I was convicted of something:  As 'margin' slipped away with an increasingly busy schedule, taking it easy did not.  Instead, as 'margin' slipped away an outside observer would have first seen a truncated prayer time; followed by a rushed quiet-time and no prayer; followed by hitting the snooze button on the alarm, a longer day, less time with Heather, less time with the kids, a late night, climbing grumpily into bed...

It's as if each day I had a blank sheet of paper, and as more and more events were added to the page, the margin was reduced and eventually eliminated in order to fit everything in.  Then the truly disturbing thought:  The center of the sheet? My life? The things I've held sacred?  Nothing but a to-do list!  The margin?  The stuff eliminated from my page for the things I gave priority?  My relationship with Christ!  While I had been pushing harder and harder to fit more in, I'd become blind to what was actually going on.  This I have Biblical reference for: Not for taking it easy, but to "... fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. (Hebrews 3:1)" or to "Be still and know that I am God... (Psalm 46:10)"  Now to re-center, refocus, pull Christ from the margins of life!

Climbing Mountains

In the states, Heather and I used to love climbing mountains.  She'll probably be upset with me, but for laughs, here's a picture from when we climbed Pikes Peak when we were dating... just before she left for Kenya for a semester abroad program.

Here we don't have as many peaks as Colorado, but there are two volcanos we can see from our front yard.  At the very beginning of the term break, we climbed Mount Longonot.  It was a welcome reprieve, and while it was nearly two months ago, pictures keep.

One obvious difference from the Rockies: seeing giraffes along the trail.

 The hike up the outer rim of the crater was beautiful.

 And for me, this view into the crater was a totally unique and beautiful mountain experience.

 In the distance, we could see Lake Naivasha beyond a parasitic cinder cone.

 After reaching the crater rim and enjoying a picnic lunch, we followed the ridge around to the peak.

 Almost eight years older, we don't look so bad!

 As we headed down the opposite rim, the fog rolled in.

 The whole trip was a lot longer than we expected.  I brought along a GPS; it read 22 kilometers - we didn't believe it, but looking on a map, we actually did make it that far.  And just for a taste of amusing Kenyan culture - these made up the bulk of the litter near the top.  Fuel for champions!!

Thanksgiving, Christmas and everything in between

Well, we didn't exactly keep up with all of the last two months on the blog, so here's a massive photo post that I can't promise you'll stay awake through!  Here goes nothing...

We shared Thanksgiving (which was the first day of our vacation) with four other families here on campus, two of which had extended family as well, so it was a wonderful time.  Here's just the kids table!

After lunch, the kids all went outside to play, and even went sledding.  Albeit with a suitcase lid on the green, grassy hill, but sledding all the same.  Faith decided she liked this version best.

And Joel decided that no lid was even needed!

Faith was disappointed to be out of school for so long, so Jim concocted some science projects for her to do over the break.  Here she is crafting the three different types of volcanoes out of play dough.  Just after school ended, we had a four-day conference with all the Kenya AIM missionaries, held here at RVA.  A church from the states came in to run a VBS-type program for the elementary students, which Faith absolutely loved.  That helped take away some of the disappointment as well!   

Once we had settled into the break a little more, Jim and I took off with some other staff members and climbed our local volcano, Mount Longonot.  We have some beautiful pictures from that trip, but I decided to save them for the next post.  So check back soon!

Soon after that, Jim took his infamous trip to Nakuru.  Here's some proof he was there, and enjoyed himself.  At least before that last night...

After Jim's trip, we headed off to the Mara as a family, and really enjoyed our time.

We returned for a week of Christmas festivities here on the mission station.  But it didn't exactly feel like Christmas.  It was really getting warm, so we had a little cookout that felt a little more like the Fourth of July!

All of first term, the Titchies collect an offering at Sunday school that will purchase hampers of food to distribute at Christmastime to local families.  We took off on Christmas eve morning to the town of Mbau-ini, just up the hill a short drive's distance.  This is where our inside helper, Hannah lives, and we had just visited her a few days previously, so it was fun for the kids to go back to the same place and know they were helping Hannah's neighbors.  

Joel chose some of his matchbox cars to give to some little boys.  It was funny, most of time time he didn't give them to the youngest boys, but chose some of the bigger kids!  He had a good time giving them, and it filled our hearts with joy to see his generous attitude.  

Faith brought a piece of candy for all the children we saw.  We visited five families, and there were between four and eight children (or grandchildren) in each home. 

What a blessing to hear each of the families praise God wholeheartedly, and to see the joy that a simple bag of food staples brought to each of them.  

The last house was quite a hike, and some of the Kenyan children joined us along the way.  Joel's hand (or foot) was held the entire time.  It was so sweet.  

We returned home, to our house of more-than-enough, and got ready to go down to a station family's Christmas open house.  After the dinner, we went on down to the hospital and caroled in the wards for quite a while.  Faith amazed us first by her willingness, and then by her desire, to shake hands with each and every patient in the hospital to wish them a Merry Christmas.  What smiles it brought to so many patients, and for a little girl that has been hesitant to participate in the important cultural greeting of hand shaking, it was such a wonderful moment as parents to watch her heart almost visibly grow in love towards her Kenyan neighbors (and their customs!).

Then Christmas morning came, complete with stockings made from Kenyan kanga fabric,

And the branch of a cedar tree, stuck in a bucket of dirt, decorated sparsely with Kenyan ornaments.

The stockings contained treats I found in Nairobi, some colored chalk, post-it notes, kit-kat bars and chips ahoy cookies, and even some Turkish pop rock candy!  

They each got a Kenyan present from us, Faith received beaded leather sandals, which were her shoe of choice for weeks to come...

Joel received a goat-skin drum.  It is now his constant companion.

From the one package that arrived BEFORE Christmas, the kids enjoyed a coloring book and a veggie tales movie.  Thanks Benjer and Jennifer!

We shared a noon meal with our good friends, the Mathisons, complete with turkey AND ham, green beans, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberries, and rolls.  It was absolutely delicious.  Eating like this costs significantly more here, but for our first Christmas away from home, it was completely worth it!

The Mathison's daughter, Gracie, is giving Faith plenty of big-sister practice lately, and Faith is doing wonderfully!  After our big meal, we walked over to our house for the kids to play and to enjoy some pies.

Soon after New Year's, the packages began to arrive, much to our delight.  Let's just say we've had a few Christmases again!

Two of the single gals here at the school came over for a New Years Day dinner, and the kids' "second Christmas".  The tree was still up so we did stockings and the works all over again, it was so much fun!  

Skype is a wonderful thing.  Grandma and Grandpa were able to watch "Christmas, part 2" that took place after the New Year's dinner with the contents of their box of gifts.  

The holidays sure were different around here, but it was a delight to watch our children make wonderful memories just the same, and have experiences that they wouldn't have anywhere else.  I am grateful for the developing character that God is molding in each one of us during the ups and downs of learning to live here in Kenya as a family.  And hey, we survived our first holiday season away from "it all".  Phew.