E minor

October draws to a close, and the rains have come. We wait to see if the rains will grow into the promised El Nino torrent. Now they just begin to assuage the drought. Every other day or more frequently the clouds break into a refreshing shower for a few hours. The sunsets have been better since the rain started.
I heard about a volunteer years ago in Kenya (I think even through the PCUSA, probably the VIM program) who apparently was sticking it to government corruption and whatnot. I heard recently that the denomination who places us, the PCEA, is the denomination of the President, VP, and many lawyers. The ministry here has not so far looked like protests and rallies, only presence. I am a missionary to a country with more Christians per capita than the U.S. I am a presbyterian missionary with a PCEA church some of whose members think "P" is for "Protestant." The language here tends away from denominationalism, and the divide is often between "born-again" and not. I haven't heard a layperson talk about Reformed theology to explain their presbyterianism. The leaders of the churches have studied, but the average churchgoer won't talk of total depravity or perseverance of the saints. They'll know the teachings of Osteen better than those of Luther, Calvin, Schaeffer, and Buechner combined (but that's a weird list). The separation in the situation stems from European and American missionaries arriving from different denominations in different parts of Kenya. Many ethnic groups are mostly of one denomination, as the early missionaries of different denominations went to different areas. Stir that up in a pot with 42 language groups in an area the size of Texas, and the current language trend for interdenominational unity (use of "born-again") becomes more than an authenticity test (which is part of it)--it is a survival strategy. The church must look like a church, and people must be able to communicate about spiritual matters in a unified way in order for those who lead their cows through the streets of Nairobi to tell their neighbors who run the country, brothers and sisters in Christ, of their spirituality.
For church this Sunday, Josh and I went to Gatundu PCEA with the Mercy, the matron of our boarding school. After a short English service with no pew full, we left. Returning for the Kikuyu service a bit later, we found standing room only. We didn't stay long, but we greeted them with a song. "They will know we are Christians by our love," we sang in a key about a third too low. "We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord," says the first verse. Mercy said they spoke of it throughout the service as a message from God. The Kenyan people, who worship divided by ethnicity and historical circumstance, gobbled up the message of unity from two wazungu (foreigners). Maybe that's what our ministry here will look like. If we can practice unity here among our Presbyterian brothers and sisters, maybe that's also the best thing we can take back with us to our United States, and work and pray that all unity may one day be restored.