Rocky Mountain High in Limuru

What a beautiful place! St. Paul’s United Theological Collegesits several thousand feet above Nairobi, and is surrounded by tea farms and much greenery. The climate up there right now is comparable to a summer day in the Rockies – not quite hot in the sun, and quite cool in the shade. Winter (August-September), they insist, is very cold, the temperature even dropping to almost 45 degrees! (Oi, the pain that only my enemy should know!) The grounds are very nicely kept, and the homes where the staff live are quite lovely, and each one sits alone on a sizeable piece of hedge-enclosed land.

The school, being ecumenical, is staffed by faculty from several different theological and ethnic backgrounds, and it has one of the best theological libraries in East Africa. I was received very warmly by Dr. Esther Mombo, the academic dean, but not before I had already had the chance to talk at length with several of the lecturers. Three of them came from the UK, and each had been in Africa for many years. My conversations with them gave me a clear idea of what life there would be like. Of particular note was the time I got to spend with Joseph, a quiet yet brilliant Kenyan lecturer, and one whom Grant LeMarquand respects highly. Through Joseph I received an even clearer picture of the strengths and challenges that characterize the school, and another taste of the kind of relationship I hope to enjoy in Africa.

Living and working in Limuru would be much easier than Mombasa. The setting is more peaceful and has more beauty, and the living arrangements would be simultaneously simpler and more spacious. A significant disadvantage, however, is how far it could remove us from African life. Mombasa would be total cultural immersion; Limuru has the potential simply to skim the surface. Even as I write this, however, I am checked by the knowledge that it is here that Grant and his family were shaped by African culture. Perhaps it would be fairer to say we would have to work harder in Limuru than Mombasa to cultivate relationships with Africans. Another consideration is that the need in Limuru is not as great as that in Mombasa.

I must include mention of my lunch with Dr. Mombo. What a wonderful, gracious woman she is! She confirmed much of what I learned from the other staff, and listened carefully to my concerns for my family. It would be a unique privilege to serve under her.

It is a total, utter bummer not to have Leslie with me on this trip. I am missing her deeply, and I am finding it difficult to see things from her perspective. It is easy to envision myself working at any of these places I’ve visited, but it is much harder for me to see how we would live an integrated family life here. So much of it will depend on how we are willing to reshape our family life, and I don’t have Leslie’s wisdom and insight to help me process this part of my thinking. She is often the one with greater clarity on how our family could and should change in response to what God has given us to do in each season, but she will only have a blog, sporadic email, a bit of video footage, and my stories as the source for her insights. All helpful, I know, but hardly equivalent to the real thing. That’s an area needing a lot of prayer.

Wednesday I’m off to St. Andrew’s near Mt. Kenya, then a meeting back in Nairobi with Canon Moses, the principal of that school.