A Time For School

This week will be one long apology for not blogging very much. But first things first. Here is the podcast Matt and I did right before leaving Jerusalem, he to go home and me to come to Nairobi. In it we talk about Gafcon and what we liked best and the future of Anglicanism around the world.

And now to the usual apology about blogging. The difference of hours has really thrown me off. In spite of spending the first half of my life traveling hither and yon, I am really a creature of habit. I do the same set of things in the same order every day without variation or shadow of change. So even though I am caught up to Kenya time, because we are doing something different every day I am snatching writing moments here and there and trying to remember what time it is and what I’m really supposed to be doing.

Among the various reasons for being here, the chief one is taking a long lingering look at the preschool Good Shepherd and others have been supporting since 2010. In one of the smaller slums of Nairobi sits an even smaller tin school which, in any given year, is filled with twenty to forty preschool and nursery school aged children. A teacher and a cook look after them from 7 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon, providing them with porridge at ten, and lunch at noon. By the time they leave the school, at age six, they know their numbers and how to read, and, best of all, they know about Jesus.

A year ago the whole slum burned down, the fire coming right up to the edge of the school and then receding. Many families sheltered in its dim sanctuary until they could rebuild their own tin houses and try to start over their lives.

As the years have gone by, a few of us at Good Shepherd have wanted to know more, and have wondered how we could be more helpful. And now, by providence, we are having the opportunity not just to help with the lunch and porridge and other needful items—like a small stove and mattresses for the children’s nap time—but to finance this little endeavor all the way, including rent, salaries, food, and other supplies.

And for this week we are getting to know the children and the teacher. And on Friday we are going to have a big party to meet the parents of the children and celebrate a birthday.

I’m so grateful to be here and to see the progress of the children, how clever and dedicated the teacher is, how well they are all doing. God has been so gracious all these years, and it is an honor to see his work in this out of the way place. And now I must go instagram my pictures.