A Missionary Heart

Back in Kapenguria, Kenya! I arrived here on Tuesday evening, after having spent a couple of days in Nairobi. I visited the Bible College of East Africa on Sunday morning; Monday I spent in shopping -- first time in a long time that I've shopped for a whole day! For those of you who know me well, you will know that shopping is NOT my thing! At least it wasn't clothes shopping -- it was mostly groceries and household things that we can't get elsewhere, and of course a bookshop or two just to relieve the monotony! I plucked up my courage on Monday morning and decided to drive myself rather than get a taxi for the day (Dave had left his car in Nairobi for repairs so I was able to use it). I only had to make a few U-turns throughout the day, so I was pretty proud of myself for not getting more lost! On Tuesday, one of the drivers from the school here came up to drive me back down to Kapenguria (it's a six/seven hour drive on sometimes bad roads so it's good to have company)! We crossed the equator on the way. :-)
I spent the rest of the week getting back into routine -- it's a little different at the moment because Margaret has had to go back to NI since her mother isn't well. Pray for Margaret and her mum, and the whole family circle. She is certainly missed here! Brian and I decided to take an afternoon off on Friday so we headed out to an animal sanctuary. It is possible to take the tour of the sanctuary on horseback so we decided to do that -- they have rhino, giraffe, ostrich, impala, zebra, goats, etc. We hadn't gone very far before the guide stopped his horse and began explaining about the rhino which we were nearing. While the horses were stationary (I thought), I got the camera out to take a picture of Brian.

Unfortunately, Brian's horse suddenly took off, and mine decided to follow! I was turned slightly in the saddle, had my camera in one hand, and was clutching my bag and the reins in the other, so I knew right away that I wasn't going to be able to stay on too long. Obviously, the horse only spoke Swahili, and my English "whoa" was doing nothing to help slow it down, so I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and that I'd better fall off while I could. So I did. Very gracefully of course! (Actually, the guide wanted to know if I was an athlete because he said I executed a perfect roll as I hit the ground! LOL. That was also planned of course! not.) The good news is that my camera is ok. I was walking like an old woman for a day or two, and strangely enough, Kathy's chairs had never seemed as hard before! Anyway, I remounted and we continued on, but we had to abandon the horses shortly afterwards because they were really spooked by the rhino and kept bolting off (or trying to). So we never got to see the zebra or impala, but we fed the giraffe (very beautiful and graceful, but oh-so-slobbery), and then got a ride on the ostrich. You maybe think the men holding on tightly on either side were afraid that I was going to fall off the ostrich as well, but apparently they do this for everyone. They said an ostrich can reach speeds of 120 km an hour!
Brian and I went to the English service this morning at the school. Rev.Kendagor was preaching on the birth of Christ. He quoted John 1:14 as he spoke of Christ's humbling Himself -- He dwelt or tabernacled among men. To show the reality and magnitude of this condescension, Rev. K used the illustration of a missionary he had known in years past who came to the Turkana tribe in Kenya and lived among them -- ate their food, slept on a skin on the floor, etc. He was known among these people as one who loved them enough to live right in their situation so that he could win them. I was thinking as he spoke of some of the huts I've seen here, or some of the filthy shacks in Liberia or the Philippines. I wouldn't want to live in them! But I was just thinking -- would I be willing to live in those conditions if it was the only way to reach those people? Christ humbled Himself more than that in order to save me.
Imagine the filthiest, most debased living conditions that you can -- and then imagine the gulf that exists between that situation and where and how you now live, and then consider the sacrifice that you would haveto make to move down that far. But even if you have the best imagination in the world, the worst-case scenario that you could nightmare up would be nothing compared to Christ's humiliation. It consisted not even so much in the physical conditions that He came to (the manger, the stable, the "no room in the inn"), but it was more intensely the fact that the Creator came to live among His creatures, that the perfectly Holy God descended and condescended to live among the vile refuse and filthiness of fallen sinners (us). Why? Because the Son of Man came "to seek and to save those who are lost." Is this not truly the personification of a "missionary heart"?