Over the summer, I was composing an email regarding the elections that were happening in Kenya at the time, and I became quite exasperated because Gmail marked one of my words as mispelled. "Emnity." You know, the state of being an enemy of someone. A word that probably isn't used often in day to day conversation - although perhaps more commonly now than twenty years ago.
But, of course, the word isn't "emnity," it's enmity. And at thirty-something years old, with over 25 years of education under my belt, I had the opportunity to face the fact that I have been outright, objectively misreading and mispronouncing this word for my entire life.
It was a silly, pretty insignificant little thing. Nonetheless it got me thinking about those beliefs, assumptions, opinions, worldviews that become so unquestionable to us. Things that are less objective than simply misspelling a word. Moving to another country and culture does a lot to expose those unquestioned beliefs and worldviews. So does coming back to your "birth" culture after living somewhere else for a while. Some of the things I've been wrestling with are, what does it mean to be blessed? What would Jesus say about individual rights? How can the church try to please God, not people (as Paul taught) but still show Christ's love in the world? Unfortunately Google can't give me the right answers to these questions, at least not as quickly and objectively as the correct spelling of enmity.
The first part of August, we were in Michigan at a program called AlongSide. The best way I can describe it is an intensive support group, with a combination of lecture, small groups, and individual/couples counseling, all in a beautiful setting with time and space to start processing what we were learning. The program we attended was specifically designed for Christian healthcare workers and their families who had been serving overseas. We had a great experience, and I highly recommend the program (please contact me if you want to know more). My main takeaway from that time, the virtue that I want to try to practice as head into a new year and new season with our team in Kapsowar, is humility. Humility in the face of another culture that I don't understand. Humility in the face of a culture that I do understand, and sometimes don't agree with. Humility as we make decisions for our family, participate in decision making in Kapsowar, and participate in the life of the church. It's a scary thing, to put down in writing an aspiration to humility - it feels a little like telling someone you're trying to lose weight while you're in a buffet line, just opening oneself up to scritiny.
Someone from the program presented this quote from Augustine. It's a little dense, but worth struggling through:
To [Jesus], my dear Dioscorus, I wish you to submit with complete devotion, and to construct no other way for yourself of grasping and holding the truth than the way constructed by Him who, as God, saw how faltering were our steps. This way is first humility, second humility, third humility, and however often you should ask me I would say the same, not because there are not other precepts to be explained, but, if humility does not precede and accompany and follow every good work we do, and if it is not set before us to look upon, and beside us to lean upon, and behind us to fence us in, pride will wrest from our hand any good deed we do while we are in the very act of taking pleasure in it.
https://theoldguys.org/2019/07/05/augustine-humility-humility-humility/
I'm not to try to top Augustine, so...here are a few pictures from the last 3 months, in whatever order they fall!
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| Back home in Kapsowar! |
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| Welcome back party at Maternity - so grateful for everyone who worked really hard providing care while I was away |
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| A blurry picture of our first all-female OR staff! |
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| Enjoying a delicious treat at our favorite restaurant in Eldoret |
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| Continuity of care is a beautiful thing. This patient has lost 3 babies (2 with me) and finally got to go home with this precious gift just days before Christmas. |
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| First day of 3rd grade! |
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| Dominic has learned to make coffee! He left this gift for me after a particularly difficult night of call. |
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| My, how our community has grown! |
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