Set A Stone In Nairobi

Becca receiving the traditional Kenyan farewell gift

 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us,” –I Samuel 7:12-

This is it. This is the last blog post to be written from this side of the pond. In a little over 72 hours, Rebecca and I will be on a plane that will take us away from Kenya for all of the foreseeable future.

Amidst all of the chaos of mixed-emotions and packing fever, I can’t help but wonder what the real missionaries feel like at this point, what someone who has spent 10, 15, 20, or even 30 years feels like when they realize that they’re about to leave behind friends they may not meet again, their second home, and a huge portion of their life’s work. I can hardly imagine that. But what I can say is that for us the strongest emotion now is one of deep, deep gratitude to Jesus.

In our blog, updates, meet and greets, prayer letters, and conversations, Rebecca and I have tried our best to be honest about the struggles we’ve faced living here. The work with the farmers has been taxing and overwhelming, and even now it’s often difficult to see whether or not we’ve had much of an impact. We’ve experienced severe road rage in the daily life-risking activity of driving in Nairobi, we’ve been overwhelmed by myriad cultural differences that can grate on you like nails on a chalk board (particularly in terms of being asked for money), and we’ve been irate and undone by the stories of deep injustice we hear daily about so many of the politicians, schools, churches, NGOs, and businesses. And yet, the last two weeks leave all of this covered by a deep sense of thanksgiving.

Govind teaching Michael how to do Koroga Bonga: Stir and Talk

Each of our farmers groups gathered specifically to send us off Kenyan style. Each group lavished us with gifts from hand woven bags, to banana leaf canvas paintings and hand-carved gourds. And then, each and every group told us how much they loved us, how we had become good friends, and how they would continue to pray for us. One of the goals we had from the beginning was to be people who connected with folks on the ground, who ate the food our friends served us and slept in the guest beds they offered us. At each meeting I was amazed by how clear it was that this had happened. God honored our efforts and the Kenyan people are among the most hospitable and gracious on earth. We truly feel like we have mamas, babas, ndugus, na dadas in the faith all over Central Kenya (mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters in Kiswahili). At our pilot project send-off, one of the leaders stood up and thanked us for helping them see the resources they had that they hadn’t recognized, and helping them to work together to use those resources. Creating that kind of experience was a full half of what we hoped for with that group, and by God’s grace it seems to have happened. We made so many mistakes! We can be nothing but be thankful that God used us all the same.

Our experience in Nairobi has been more of the same. Last Saturday I was in an accident which was not my fault. Under the weight of culture stress, car stress, leaving stress, and all-round sinfulness I succumbed to the temptation to be pretty completely unChrist-like to the lady who hit me (who claimed it was my fault). Followers of the blog: this should sound familiar (remember the police incident). I went to church the next day ashamed of myself, feeling like I had failed Jesus and wondering how I ever expected to represent him well in all my lousiness. I girded up my loins and led worship for the last time at NCF all the same, and received the body and blood of Christ through communion afterwards. And then the church gathered around Rebecca and I, gave us incredible gifts, and spoke of the great maturity, love, and passion with which we have served at NCF. Afterwards every demographic of our extremely diverse church came up and thanked us for serving, expressed their love for us, and told us how grateful they were for our friendship. Over and over again people said, “From the very beginning, you were reaching out and befriending people from every group in the church.” And finally a close friend came up to me and said, “I’ve seen lots of people come and go here at NCF, but I’ve never seen two people showered with love as much as you guys.”

Rebecca and Michael wearing our gifts with Pastor Joe and his wife Elfi

And in that moment I realized: the good I do is not my own, it is Christ who lives in me. But for Christ uniting Himself with me through the power of the Holy Spirit, I am nothing but that angry jerk on the side of the road. All of our righteousness before the Lord is like filthy road-rage rags; but Christ has shone through Rebecca and me in ways we did not even recognize with a light that is not our own. Let the Lord be praised! And we are so grateful.

Later that evening all of our friends from Nairobi came to a good-bye party thrown for us by the church. We have slept at the homes of 5 different families in the last 9 days. We have feasted, partied, remembered our time here, and grieved our departure with dozens and dozens of brothers and sisters in the Lord who showed hospitality to these two American aliens and strangers on our sojourn through this foreign land. We have seen Christ in the hands and feet of our brothers and sisters, and seen how Christ has worked through our grubby hands and feet to do the good works he prepared from the beginning of time for us to do. And we are grateful.

Two farmers and Beth, who will continue working on the pilot project

“Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’ve come.” So says the great hymn. The story comes from the Old Testament when Samuel rallies the Israelites to return to the Lord. They gather together and fast and pray and repent of all their idol worship. While they’re there the Philistines come after them, but Samuel says that the LORD their God will fight for them. And so they cry out to God, and God answers with loud thunder and sends their enemies into confusion, and Israel wins the day. Afterwards Samuel raises a stone at Mizpah and tells the Israelites to remember “thus far has the Lord brought us” when they see it in later days. Samuel had been around faithless Israel long enough to know that they would be tempted to forget God’s goodness when things got rough in the future; so he gave them a stone to help them remember Yahweh’s everlasting faithfulness.

Us with the Khans, who run a ministry for people with handicaps

As many of you know, Rebecca and I are coming home with a vision for our next several years. Rebecca is applying to programs that would qualify her to teach in one of Memphis’s struggling inner-city schools. I will be returning to work at Advance Memphis, where I will be trying to “do justice and love mercy” by helping low-income African-American adults in the 38126 zip code develop economically through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’re hoping to find a place to live in or near that neighborhood. Having seen racial, tribal, and socio-economic reconciliation among Africans and Asians, we feel called to enter into that work in a place where our own tribe is involved in the problem. We’re excited and very, very nervous. The work will not be easy, and because of our time here we’re more aware than ever of the complexities of poverty and injustice, and the depths of our own inadequacy and sin.

So here we raise our Ebenezer. With thanksgiving and hope we’ll remember the long drives through the thousand tiny farms filled to overflowing with electric green life. We’ll remember the friendship of hundreds of farmers, some of the world’s poorest of the poor from the slums in Nairobi, and Christian brothers and sisters from some of the world’s least reached places (like Pakistan and India). We’ll remember that despite our great personal failure and sin, Christ nevertheless baptized our half-hearted efforts and turned them into stones built into the kingdom of God. We’ll remember the power of His presence to us day in and day out through His word, prayer, the Eucharist, and the faces of brothers and sisters from every corner of the globe. Come what may, we call ourselves to remember and each of you to remind us, “Thus far has God brought us. And we have confidence that He who has brought us here shall bring us home.”

Having climbed Mt Kenya, about to head down. Cue the symbolism.

Thanks be to the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy!

Thanks for following us in this journey. Keep checking the blog for a few State-side reflections and eventually a link to our new blog (location TBD). Pray for us, write us (michaelandrebeccarhodes@gmail.com), visit us (Memphis), and call us (901-849-6345 from December 27 onward). Your encouragement, financial support, prayer, friendship and love have helped make all of this possible. When we look back at all we’ve learned and what God has done in us and through us, we believe it has been worth it. But more importantly than anything else, let each of us now, when we celebrate the time of Christ’s visiting us on Earth during Advent, remember the great things the Lord has done for us with great gratitude and full joy:

No more let sin and sorrows grow

Nor thorns infest the ground!

He comes to make His blessings known

Far as the curse is found!

Peace,

Michael