happy reunions

Since returning from Africa, I've been asked fairly often whether it's been difficult to readjust to American life. Generally, my answer has been "no." I'm apparently adaptable enough that I can recognize that life there and here are different from each other without really being thrown by it. This week, though, I've discovered a bit of readjustment that has been trickier than I expected: the shift from the mindset of guest to the mindset of resident.

I hadn't realized quite how deeply eight months of living in the always-flexing and always-trying-not-to-be-a-nuisance non-rhythms of the traveler have infected my person. It's turning out to be a less-than-immediate shift in my head as I work to let myself settle into a place again. The challenge is less in settling into my city and more about settling into a particular abode. It just feels so foreign to have furniture and large amounts of belongings again (these things really belong to me?!), to sit down at the same desk every day to do my work, to really unpack. I’m excited to cook my own food, for example, but I'm struggling to figure out where to start in a kitchen again when I'm not just offering to help someone else with the meal they're preparing. What did I used to fix for myself when I was choosing and preparing my own meals? I'm struggling to remember.

The positive side of settling, though, is showing me just how real it's been that working while traveling is really challenging. Efficiency is nearly impossible. God's generously provided me with a great living situation with my friend Alice. My room boasts a window perfectly situated for my small desk. I get to look outside, watching people come and go (which keeps me from feeling so lonely when work keeps me holed up) and enjoying the currently white-blossomed, soon-to-be green-leafed Bradford pear tree. It's awfully nice when you're in a stage where you're a beggar who can't be a chooser and you end up with an inspiring view out your window in a room that feels good for working in (the feel of the room is quite essential to productive writing, mind you). I'm so excited and hopeful to begin to slog through to do lists that have been taking way too long to get through and to work on writing projects that are part of my processing of these past months of experience.

Perhaps partly increasing the challenge in resettling is the reality that I finally know I'm not resettling here for very long, so there's still an aspect of temporary to it all. I expect to be in Nashville only through the end of June, but that's still long enough to practice "being" for a few months. And readjustment issues aside, I'm really excited to relish these next months in my city. Now that I know where I'm going (defined loosely) I can relax and enjoy where I am. And I can enjoy where I am better because I know that rather than boxing me in it's launching me out.

Because of being in one place, I can finally begin to soak in and sort through the experiences of the past eight months, particularly the four of them that were in Africa. Up to this point, I've felt like the trip wasn't really over because I've still been traveling. And even though I'm pausing for a stretch of time, I actually feel like the trip still isn't over, because I feel like four months in Africa was really just the beginning of a new season of life. In this new season, I'm working as a full-time freelancer with no other sources of income, and I'm exploring cultures and living into this part of my life that's been waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting for the God-ordained moment to bloom. There's such a sense of energy and momentum and celebratory life in this part of this season; these are the things that cover over the awkwardness of readjustments.

As I reunite with the belongings that have been allowed to hibernate this winter, I’m discovering another bit of growth that Africa has brought for me. Traveling without so many things as I’m normally surrounded by has produced a healthy lessened attachment to my things. On a practical front that’s helpful as I embark on further purging; the purging is a bit less painful than it would be without that disconnection. On another front, though, there’s freedom. One of my lifelong challenges has been letting other people use my belongings. Perhaps it came from being the big sister of little siblings who might break things they borrowed or from living with people who are less careful with things than I am. Who knows. Whatever the reason, it’s plagued me. I’ve wanted to be generous with my belongings and have appreciated the generosity I’ve benefitted from when I’ve borrowed someone’s ladder or book or paintbrush. But, though I’ve improved over the years, I’ve continued to struggle. I expect the struggle’s still not over, but these months of being a traveler have certainly provided a bit of breakthrough.

As for what’s next, here goes the announcement I’ve been hinting at: I’m making plans to move to London this fall, in mid-September, in order to continue living cross-culturally as a writer and mostly because as much as I can understand His voice that’s where God’s directing me to go. I’m slowly getting used to saying with some level of confidence that this is what I’m doing. But, I suppose it could still fall through. My freelance life has taught me not to live in the world of the definite until after the thing has happened, and my language about future plans tends to reflect that.

In addition to that big news, I’m also planning to spend most of July in Haiti working with some MAF missionary friends to do what I did in Africa. I had to figure out what was happening with England before I could figure out Haiti, so I haven’t talked about it much, though it’s been sliding around in my grey matter (that would be brain not hair—yet!) for months.

There are many details to work out on all these fronts. Those will come. For the moment, I’m first relearning how to live in a place. It’s an important thing to relearn.

emptying suitcases. woohoo!

Greetings! Just a quick update for now to let you know I'm finally in one place for a little while. Traveling is wonderful but so is unpacking. ;-) For the first time since last July I'm actually settling into a room for longer than 3-4 weeks (most of the time my stays have been two weeks or less). I'm looking forward this weekend to moving some of my very own furniture over to my new abode off Nolensville Road in Nashville, where I'm living with my generous friend Alice. It's quite amazing to shift gears in my head from being a constant guest in people's homes to living in one again. I'm excited to cook for myself and use my own towels! I suppose it's true that traveling helps you appreciate the simple pleasures of life.

Nashville's blooming Bradford pear trees and other flora are announcing that spring is here. It doesn't seem time for it yet, but that's because I still feel like it should be fall. My timing's still a bit off seasonally. I'm glad to welcome spring, though. And glad to be in Nashville for it.

Plans are afoot, but I'll wait for a future post to announce them. Stayed tuned. All signs are saying that more adventures are still ahead!

meeting england

Just wanted to let you know I've been continuing my traveling ways in England the past couple weeks. Somehow it just didn't feel quite right to post an England post here on my Africa blog. This time, anyway. Instead, I decided to give the post to my other blog, the one that's been languishing away from lack of attention these past months. So, if you're interested in England or in spires or in how England and Africa are linked in my life, brew a nice cup of tea and go read along on my other blog. Cheers!

Africa Upper Room story online

Another of my "official" stories is available online as of yesterday. Click here to read all about how "Africa Upper Room director guides growing ministry."

Last night was my first group report on my travels. My generous hosts for these first couple weeks back in Nashville are part of a group that meets monthly to follow Wycliffe missionaries and missions in general. They invited me to be the "guest missionary" last night. I enjoyed meeting the small group of folks who were there and getting to tell the story of God's work in this season of my life as well as describe some of the impressions I gained through my travels. They were a generous audience!

Today I'm wrapping up the last really pressing article assignment from Africa. There are more assignments to finish, but after today the biggest, hardest, most immediate ones will be done. Hooray! Also today I need to finish a story on the relationship between the church and the arts for a local arts magazine. So, it's a very full day that seems a bit impossible but that's when optimism comes in handy. After today, I'll hopefully be able to breathe (and sleep) again. Here's hoping!

are we so different?

During the month of January, I was busy writing up stories from information I collected while I was in Africa. Until now, I didn't quite realized exactly how much work I lined up for myself during this trip. Normally, I might be working concurrently on 4-5 stories at the very,very most. I might have other stories lined up to work on after those stories were completed but wouldn't have to work on them until the first set was done. I didn't get to order things that way this fall. Instead, I just had to collect mounds of information, trying to make sure I collected the right information, and then sort through much of it once I returned to the US and finally had time to write.

The result of that process has meant that, as I write the stories, I've been revisiting places I visited months ago, places I didn't get to sit in for long before having to move my head and heart (and feet, too!) on to the next stop. It has been good to go back to them now with slightly more time for listening to what they told and taught me then.

While in Kenya, I interviewed two men who are government employees, perhaps accurately categorized as mid-level manager types, one more senior than the other. I met with them in their offices in the main government building during my fourth or fifth week in Kenya. By that time, I'd heard plenty of stories about government corruption, misappropriation of funds, road projects uncompleted because of the corruption and misappropriation, etc. (And I'd ridden on said roads and experienced their terrible state.) I'd heard stories of Kenyan pastors exhorting their congregations to pray for the evil spiritual hold on government to be broken--particularly in light of the upcoming election--,citing reasonable evidence that political leaders have to take oaths and make agreements that amount to pacts with the devil, something that stems from Kenya's (and much of Africa's) spiritist history. Additionally, I heard stories about the growing violent, gratuitous crime in Nairobi, in particular. The things that are happening with increasing frequency there sound very similar to the reports that come from Johannesburg, one of the most dangerous cities in the world. I heard stories about a former president who was a friend to the church yet was considerably shady.

So, to be honest, based on the things I heard when I was in Kenya, the things happening there now, though nothing short of tragic, aren't surprising to me. The seeds for all of it, from rigged elections to awful violence were there. In many ways the reports about how stable Kenya was and how surprising all of this is don't feel correct to me. Perhaps it was stable by the numbers or on economic fronts or on world diplomacy fronts or something, but in just a few weeks of listening there, one could hear a very different story.

However, in spite of all that, when I interviewed the government guys, I came away hopeful for Kenya. It seemed the government was working on some important reforms, and these guys were excited about them. One of the reforms was a shift from process-based management to results-based management, a shift from services getting bogged down in the process but never delivering to government entities and employees being evaluated on the actual delivery of services and products. Employees were being given performance contracts with expectations for work to be completed. Additionally, both men spoke well of ways to address other issues and of the possibilities for pan-Africanism (greater cooperation economically and otherwise between African nations, perhaps in the spirit of the European Union) to help solve some of Africa's challenges.

One of my interviewees gave me a copy of a brochure describing "Kenya Vision 2030, a competitive and prosperous Kenya." As I read it in January, in the midst of the post-election violence, I found it sadly ironic. The Vision 2030 development process was launched by Pres. Mwai Kibaki in October 2006. Here are some quotes from the first page of the document I was given [emphasis mine]:

Kenya Vision 2030 is the new country's development blueprint covering the period 2008 to 2030. It aims at making Kenya a newly industrializing, 'middle income country providing high quality life for all its citizens by the year 2030'...The vision is based on three 'pillars' namely; the economic pillar, the social pillar and the political pillar...The economic pillar aims at providing prosperity of all Kenyans through an economic development programme aimed at achieving an average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 10% per annum over the next 25 years. The social pillar seeks to build 'a just and cohesive society with social equity in a clean and secure environment'. The political pillar aims at realising a democratic political system founded on issue-based politics that respects the rule of law, and protects the rights and freedoms of every individual in the Kenyan society.

It's frustrating that the current president could have endorsed such a plan and then act as he has in the current situation. And Raila Odinga seems little better. From afar it sure seems like neither of these men really has the best interests of their dying and displaced countrymen in mind. It's hard not to believe they're not both motivated mostly by a desire for their own power.

It's also hard to understand the depth of hate that spawns ethnic violence. (I found an excellent BBC radio report here that was helpful. It's just over 20 minutes long but is worth listening to.) On Friday, though, I was reminded that we're not immune to such things here in the US. The Graduate Christian Fellowship group I'm part of at Vanderbilt University invited a speaker on immigration issues to address our group gathering.

I've struggled to follow the immigration issue that has been a fairly hot topic for a couple election cycles now (senate/congressional and now presidential). Mostly I just know I've heard things from people and commercials and sound bites that seemed pretty uncaring (to put it mildly) toward the immigrants in our midst. Plus, I'm increasingly confronted by the reality that my closest relationships fall within a fairly small subset of the American Christian community, so there are things being espoused by American Christians that I don't think of as widespread because I don't hang out with people who talk that way.

Our group discussion on Friday night included an attempt to understand what Scriptural exhortations are relevant to this issue. We discussed Biblical commands toward love, hospitality, and care for both neighbors and strangers and commands against from selfishness and hoarding what we have away from others. We talked about addressing the in-country issues and economic disparities that prompt people to try to get into the US. People shared stories of Christians they know who actually say that people trying to cross the border should just be shot. We talked about how many of the illegal immigrants are hard-working people who are less likely to be involved in crime than American citizens. We wondered how many people who advocate "keep 'em all out, shoot 'em if they come in" type measures have ever considered themselves in the shoes of those trying to get to America. We discussed how much racism plays in: why do we always only talk of Mexican immigrants when there are Canadians working illegally in the US, too? We talked about how Americans want to be free to go anywhere they want but want to keep other people from coming here. And, we're all immigrants to this land anyway, so where to do we get off trying to keep other immigrants out? We talked about how much fear feeds and plagues all of this: economic fears, fear of "the other," and so many more fears.

We acknowledged that the issue is complex, and we didn't solve it or figure out which immigration policy to endorse. (Though I wish we could just let whoever wants to come, come, I guess I understand why we can't do that.) It was good for me--in a this-is-the-truth kind of way--to be reminded of how much hate still exists in our country. We can take a moral high road and condemn what's happening in Kenya. But, perhaps we should consider how far away we really may not be from something similar here. Bad things must certainly follow when we don't love our neighbors, be they like us or not like us.

whereabouts

Sorry for my pretty lengthy delay between posts! I've got much I want to get written for this blog yet, but I've been very covered up with writing assignments, most of them still from information gathered in Africa.

I wanted to give you a quick update on my schedule, though. (Partly so those of you in Nashville will know when I'm in town!) I arrived back in Nashville last Wednesday night. I plan to be a good citizen and vote in the presidential primaries tomorrow. (That information isn't particularly relevant to this post, but, hey, I don't see any editors around these blogger parts. ;-) ) I'll be in Nashville until Feb. 18 when I'll head to the UK for two weeks of hanging out with friends and investigating options. Then back to Nashville for a couple days before heading up to Illinois to spend some time with all four grandparents and extended family. Then back to Nashville for a couple months at least.

It's a strange thing to be living this bohemian nomadic existence for a little while longer. I've had friends who've done it in the past, and I always wondered quite how that worked. And, now, suddenly, without planning for it, that's become this stretch of life for me.

I continue to be amazed at God's provision and presence in the midst of all the great unknowns of this season. There's much molding that happens in a year of sleeping somewhere different every couple weeks, in a year of depending heavily on the generosity of others (both friends and strangers!), in a year of learning to receive well, in a year of soaking in all the little provisions that add up together to be God's great care for me, in a year of hoping to steward that care by passing it on to others.

This month and next I'm beginning to do a couple group reports on my trip. Mostly likely Sun, Feb. 17 in the afternoon will be the date of the "report gathering" for my church, but others here in Nashville are welcome to come to that. Email me or leave a comment in my blog if you'd like more info. On Fri, Mar. 28, I'll be the "speaker" for the Vandy Graduate Christian Fellowship large group gathering. Then, in March or early April, I'm hoping to hold some other sort of gathering for Nashville friends and supporters who aren't connected to either of those groups, though any of you are welcome to come to the groups' gatherings, too.

I welcome your prayers in this season. I'm still praying through what's next. Most up in the air is where I will live, as I expect to continue freelancing. I'm in a reasonably rare spot in life in which I have a great deal of freedom. I have no home. My belongings have already been packed. I'm almost at a point with my work that I could live almost anywhere (add in a bit of God-orchestrating on the work front and I could live anywhere). I don't have a husband or children to consult. I'm not in great financial debt. I have a current passport. And, to top it all off, my immunizations will continue protecting me for a while, and my travel luggage has already gotten some travel experience! I feel a sense of responsibility to steward well this moment, this time of opportunity. So, please pray with me that I would do that.

Here's the recap of the schedule things I mentioned above:
now-Feb. 18: Nashville
Feb. 18-Mar. 3: UK (London and Oxford)
Mar. 3 - ?: a couple nights in Nashville
approximately Mar. 5-15: Illinois
Mar. 15-at least mid-May: Nashville

Feb. 17: tentative "tell about my trip" gathering for Grace Community Church folks and anyone else who wants to come
March 28: Vanderbilt Graduate Christian Fellowship large group speaker

from zimbabwe back to kenya

To update, my parents' town does, after all, have a coffeehouse, and I did a bit of work there today while drinking an adequate hot chocolate that wasn't as tasty as the "luxurious hot chocolate" I enjoyed on several occasions at my South Africa coffeehouse spot of choice. But, as the saying goes, beggars can't be choosers, and I was glad for a coffeehouse-ish place to go.

The coffeehouse has about five tables. As I was the last to exit after the "morning rush," I overheard one of the two workers comment excitedly that they should have taken a picture because at one point all the tables were full! It was nice to be part of an historic Independence (Kansas) moment.

On my way out I quickly browsed the retail tea section (the coffeehouse also is equal part retail establishment selling health food type stuff) and happily discovered that they sell Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea. I discovered this tea when I visited a friend in Denver and she brewed a tasty cup of it for me. I picked up my own box at the Celestial Seasonings gift shop after our tour of their Boulder, Colorado, plant. I've never found it in stores, so I've been rationing my one box, which is now packed away somewhere in a box labeled "kitchen stuff." It might be time to replenish my stock.

Anyway, on to the real reason for this post. I've just revisited a blog I discovered a number of days ago and have decided it's time to tell you about it. The blog writer keeps her identity fairly anonymous, but it's apparently written by an African woman in Nairobi. It's very well-written, so I recommend it to you first on the merit of its writing and second because the writer is providing some helpful overview of what's happening in Kenya. I'm sure there are other good blogs out there, but this is the one I'm frequenting: What An African Woman Thinks.

a bit of published material

I'm holed up in my parents' house in Kansas for a couple more weeks, trying to push through a long list of writing assignments without a desk and without coffeehouses to use as writing haunts! Eventually, I'll recreate the post below that was lost, but there's no time for that at the moment.

In its place, I'm offering a link to one of my Africa articles that's available online now, so you can see a bit of the "official" fruit of my Africa labors:

"Zimbabwe economic crisis cripples mission station" from the United Methodist News Service's site

tilapia is a cool word

A post and accompanying captions will be forthcoming. Blogger's being a bit obstinate, and beyond that I pushed the magically mysterious combination of keys that made my blood, sweat and tears (to be a bit melodramatic)-consuming post go "poof" and refuse to be found. Which makes the tears want to be more real than dramatic.

appreciating what you've got

One thing my Africa travels taught me to appreciate is the American political system. As frustrating and fallible as it is, it still gets some things right. I now appreciate term limits that can't be changed at the whim of a head of state. I appreciate election days that stick. I appreciate a Constitution that set up some good safeguards. I appreciate not being afraid to go to the polls on election day. I appreciate a country in which all jobs are not "government jobs" because the government doesn't run everything. I appreciate decentralization now that I know what it means.

When I left for Africa at the end of July, candidates were campaigning and the media was pontificating. It all seemed like a little too much too soon. I mean, it was still a year and a half before the presidential election! Calm down, folks. Besides, I was busy packing and writing and planning and sorting and preparing and organizing. So, I didn't pay much attention to the fine details of campaigning. Plus, I'm fairly cynical about ever being able to get real information from the campaign machinery anyway.

In Africa, though, especially in Kenya and Uganda, some of my new friends and acquaintances asked me about our elections. Mostly the Kenyans asked me about Barack Obama. (I didn't know until I was in Kenya that his father was Kenyan.) And mostly people asked me who I thought was going to win: Hillary or Barack. Still, it was a sobering reality check on the way the world follows our politics. What happens here affects them.

The week I returned to the US I happened to read the Atlantic cover story (December issue) on Barack Obama. I don't know yet who I will vote for, but this article did raise some interesting points. This one hit me with more force than it might have otherwise, since I was fresh off the plane from international travels:

What does he offer? First and foremost: his face. Think of it as the most effective potential re-branding of the United States since Reagan. Such a re-branding is not trivial—it’s central to an effective war strategy. The war on Islamist terror, after all, is two-pronged: a function of both hard power and soft power.... The next president has to create a sophisticated and supple blend of soft and hard power to isolate the enemy, to fight where necessary, but also to create an ideological template that works to the West’s advantage over the long haul. There is simply no other candidate with the potential of Obama to do this. Which is where his face comes in.

Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.

Interesting.

Since returning, in light of all the things I newly appreciate, I've been trying to catch up on the candidates. It's hard going. I watched part of the Democratic debate on Saturday night. Until it reached the point that all debates seem to reach: candidates repeating their catch phrases in answer to every question, not saying anything new after the first half of the debate. Like I said, our politics aren't perfect, but as I pray for Kenya, I'm glad for what we have.

kenya continued

A Kenyan friend from my travels this fall sent out this note earlier today...

Dear Beloved Brethren,
New Year Greetings to everyone. Please allow me to appreciate those of you who have been praying with us. So far, my family and I are fine. I have also checked with our church members and ministry partners from across the country and no victim yet, except for one brother who has been in hiding since December 30th.

I have been trying to reach him on phone but have not succeded. This morning, I received a call from him and I thank God for him that he is alive. I suspect he has not had anything to eat since then so I'll be monitoring the situation.

Beloved of the Lord, the situation here is so uncertain we live one day at a time since no one knows what is likely to happen. There are no stores from where to buy food, fuel pumps are dry, transportation is difficult. From tomorrow, January 3rd, 08, things could go out of hand especially in Nairobi where there is likely to be a face off between the police and the supporters of ODM.

In closing, let me request for your continued prayers for our motherland Kenya. Innocent blood has been spilled, inocent people have died, children all over the country are crying for lack of food, they do not understand what is happening, people are going hungry and are living in fear of uncertainty, women have been raped as people continue to lose their lives. In God's merciful hands and care, we the people of Kenya entrust ourselves and I appeal to our brothers and sisters out of Kenya to stand with us in prayers. Please pray with us earnestly and sincerely for God's divine intervention to prevail upon the situation.

more from kenya

Here's a link to the blog of Adele who lives in Eldoret, Kenya, though she's apparently not there right now. I was supposed to connect with her while I was in Kenya, but those plans fell through, so I never made it to Eldoret.

Lisette is blogging from Tenwek Hospital, where I spent two weeks.

Trena is a college friend of mine who's headed to Kenya sometime early this year. She's been in touch with some of her Kenya friends and has posted some updates as well.

Here are a couple news articles:
"Kenya church fire kills 50 who fled mob"

"Kenyans burned to death in church"

Mathere slum, one of the places experiencing violence, is a place I visited while I was in Nairobi. There are photos of it under the "photo posts" and "kenya" labels.

Please pray for the people of Kenya, pray that a desire for power won't keep leaders from working together to quell instead of incite violence, that tribal tensions will ease, that no more lives will be lost.

where in the world did 2007 go?

Or perhaps I should say, Where in the world did I go in 2007? As the clock launches us into a new year, I find myself wondering, Where in the world will I go in 2008?

After spending Christmas week with my siblings and their families, I've traveled with my parents back to their home in Kansas. It's good to be here and to feel like it's the closest I've currently got to a physical home. Even though I didn't grow up in this house and don't know which kitchen cupboard holds glasses and which one holds bowls, at least the bowls and glasses inside the cupboards are the ones I grew up drinking and eating out of.

I've unpacked my clothes, and tomorrow I'll start sorting through files and bills and other fun things. Nothing like celebrating the arrival of a new year with file folders! Yippee!

This is a thick time of life. There's so much opportunity, yet so much to be done in order to capitalize on it. There are so many unknowns, yet I don't want to rush too quickly through to the other side of them, back into the known (though my life tends to linger mostly in the unknowns even when things are in order).

I'm glad for the short days this time of year and glad that we get to live in Advent and Epiphany during the dark, cold season, in contrast to my African friends. Somehow those conditions outdoors are good for cozy reflection and prayer indoors.

It's been good to be with family, to have them ask me about my travels, my impressions, my experiences. It's good to talk about it. Yet, I understand somewhat what some of my missionary friends in Africa said about how hard it is to explain things to people, how hard it is for people who've never been to Africa to understand stories about Africa. But I guess that's probably true of anywhere.

Now that I've reached a place I'll get to sit still in for a little while (though this month is sure to speed by faster than I was when I got my last speeding ticket ;-) ), I'm able to better feel the yearning to go back to Africa some day, more than once and hopefully sooner than later. But, it's not time yet, and I don't yet know what will be the particular context for my return trips.

These past months have taught me some good and important things about the vocation and calling God's made me for. But, pieces of those lessons are still a little unclear, dangling just out of reach, not quite grasp-able. I look forward to taking the steps to reach those dangling things.

One of the little things I can do in the aftermath of my Africa months is pray for and with new friends across the ocean. It's challenging to stay informed sometimes, but it helps when I get emails from folks in Kenya asking us to pray for their country. More than one of the countries I visited during my travels was gearing up, like the U.S., for presidential elections. Kenya is the first of those countries to hold their elections. Many were hopeful that Kenya could be a model for fair and peaceful elections and governmental transition. However, that hope hasn't been met positively. Please join our Kenyan brothers and sisters in praying for their country, for an end to the chaos that has erupted following the vote counting, for tribalism not to divide people, for truth and peace.

May 2008 be a year that God's grace and truth and mercy are newly absorbed by places and people that have dark histories.

subject to change

Where I'll be when over the next few months and beyond is still being sorted out, but for those who want to know (and for those who don't but wander over here anyway!), here's the plan I've got so far:

• now - Dec. 22: livin' it up in Nashville
• Dec. 22-sometime after Christmas: finally catching up with the fam in East Tennessee, the land of my birth
• sometime after Christmas-sometime in late January: keeping my parents company at their Kansas digs
• late January/early February: back to Nashville for some work and a "report from Africa" gathering of some sort
• February: some traveling for such purposes as scouting out future options and saying thanks to supporters
• March-ish until sometime: livin' it up in Nashville

I appreciate your prayers as I also pray and listen, seeking to hear where and to what God's leading me next. I plan to continue freelancing, but beyond that the road ahead's wide open. I've got ideas, but they're not quite blog-worthy yet. Mostly, I'm praying I'll be a good steward of the opportunity I've got to move almost anywhere or to stay where I am, the opportunity to re-evaluate and make an intentional and hopefully obedient decision.