First Tour of Duty

July 2017 

We're nearing the end of our first 'tour of duty' as Rick likes to call it. School closes for our children on July 12th, Rachel graduates the next day and then we're headed out of Kenya for a few months for rest, renewal and reconnection with family and friends before returning to Kenya at the end of December. 

As we reflect back on the last seven years, here are a few of our learnings from Kenya:

We came expecting to get a lot done in a little time.  We’ve learned nothing happens very fast. We think when we communicate something it can be easily understood.  But our perspectives are vastly different. Explaining things from a 200-year-old cultural perspective that is viewed through a 2000-year-old cultural lens is hard.  It’s challenging for both sides to see these as simply differences when it feels like right and wrong. The truth is, we both have things to learn from each other and change takes a long time.

We’ve become better at valuing relationship over task (proverbial pat on the back for us).  Being willing to sit and listen and to let everyone in the room be heard shows deference. Being willing to not make a decision because it’s going to hurt other people communicates their significance. Taking time to think through a decision (because 2000 years of history must be considered) is worthwhile. It can be frustrating and is B.R.U.T.A.L.L.Y. slow. It’s why people are still pooping in holes, but they’re vastly more content than we are. Task still feels more important many days, but we are trying. 

Even though progress seems slow, kids everywhere grow fast.  As we bring our second child to college, many of the Oasis children, who have grown alongside our kids, are also entering high school and college and becoming independent adults.  Though they don’t have a perfect story, they have a growth story and the majority of them are doing really well.  They are succeeding and failing, making good decisions and learning the hard way, and ultimately developing in the way God wants.

As we reflect back on our first tour, we stand in the tension of being disappointed over slow progress, but being grateful that so many children, including ours, have grown and developed into confident, successful young adults that are making a difference in their sphere of influence.  Hope is renewed as we see new children filling the beds of the children that are finishing their own tour of duty.