Monday, April 28, 2008

Banquet

Last Saturday night was Rosslyn's middle school banquet- our "1/3 Baptist" school's version of a dance. Hey, you don't usually get to eat phenomenal Indian food at a school dance, so I'm not complaining. One of my favorite restaurants catered, and some of my kids even let me take their picture. So here you go.

A few 8th grade girls, with the flags of the student body flying in the background


Some of my 7th grade girls, with their favorite (and only) math teacher


Self-conscious 7th grade boys


Cool 7th grade boys =)

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Basking

It seems I can either be on top of my grading or on top of my blog. Not both. And because report cards went out last Tuesday, I've been focused on the grades. I also always have an obligatory period after I turn everything in where I bask in the glow of being caught up. Teaching is a job with poorly defined boundaries- there's always more you could do. My first year few years of teaching, it was a good thing I had a dog that needed to be fed or else I might never have gone home. And grading seems perpetual sometimes, so I must savor these brief moments when I am caught up.

And it was good I was caught up, because I spent the entire weekend away. The 10 week class on prayer that I've been taking at my church ended with a retreat that went Friday through Sunday. We arrived back at the church parking lot just in time for the Sunday morning service where we were commissioned as intercessors for the church. Here's a picture of part of the group outside the retreat center.


The class itself was a cultural adventure for me. You may think that I, being in Africa, spend all my time with Africans. Logical assumption, and one I cling to wistfully sometimes... Actually, God has given me lots of interaction with other expatriates here at Rosslyn, which is good, but I long to be more connected to the world outside the school compound. Karura Community Chapel, my church, is my primary opportunity to interact with Kenyans, and this class definitely facilitated relationships at a deeper level. One of the biggest benefits of the class, in my opinion, was that we were each assigned a prayer partner. Mary and I meet about once a week to encourage each other and to pray; she is precious to me.


Another reason I liked the class is that it gave me the opportunity to read some theology born and bred in Africa. The devotional book for the class was written by a pastor here in Nairobi, and he came and led a couple of the sessions. I appreciated his gentle heart, his willingness to speak truth without pretense, his sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, and his desire to see God's people be who He made them to be. I think that we often bring our cultural limitations to our relationship with God, so it's good to see what we can learn about Him through a different cultural filter. Nothing in the book was was radically new to me, and I probably would have been suspicious if it had been, but I found different shades of meaning in the nuances of African English and in the Kenyan ideas of family and history. It was also good for me to observe different styles of leadership within the Church, as different as the people doing the leading. All in all, it was a fruitful class and a worthwhile way of plugging in to the church.

At the same time, I am about to say goodbye to my fellow plugger-inner: Mindy was a student teacher here at Rosslyn this semester, and God blessed us with a close relationship pretty quickly. We were both eager to explore Kenya and be involved in it as God opened doors (she's the only other white person in the first picture...). I appreciate her adventurous spirit and willingness to laugh with me. Her student teaching is over, and she leaves to go back to the States on Thursday. This week is full of goodbye parties, and I'm excited for her upcoming move to the Dominican Republic to teach at another international school. As much as I will miss her, I'm grateful for the role she's played in my life during these months, and I'm excited about what God will be doing in her life in the future.

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Ah, completion. Now I can bask in the glow of finishing a blog post, too. Everything's all done. Except for those Algebra tests...

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Wedding Pictures Finally

Hey, what are you complaining about? It's only been a month or so since the wedding. Remember that year I didn't take my Christmas decorations down until the end of the school year? This delay is nothing compared to that...

The Main Characters


The Wedding Party

A small smile

The best- looking members of the wedding party...

My favorite picture

Sorry some of them are small; it's all I've got. Maybe I'd have more if I had actually taken any myself (oops). So I can't complain.

As you can see, it was a lovely wedding. I'm blessed with a great sister in law, and I'm looking forward to getting to know her more over the years.