You also should wash one another's feet.

Yesterday I got to go to an orphanage for the first time since I've been back in Kenya. It's called Bosto Children's Home and is run by the African Gospel Church, which is the denomination we are affiliated with at Tenwek.

In John chapter 13 Jesus and his disciples have gone up the the "upper room" or guest room in a house in Jerusalem to have the Passover meal together. Jesus knew that he was going to be killed and rise again and that this was his last night with all 12 of his disciples. He also knew that "he had come from God and was returning to God." And so, the scripture says, in light of all of that he took a towel and washed each of his disciples feet. In the first century this was a task for the lowest of slaves as feet were only covered with sandals and came in contact with all kinds of crazy over the course of the day. Afterward Jesus gave his disciples, and all of us, a charge - wash each others feet. Whether lower or higher than another person in age, intellect, social class, wealth, whatever, wash their feet. Wash the feet of the greatest king and the lowliest peasant. This is the gospel - to love all and to be sent to all and to be willing to do anything for the sake of the name.

Obviously washing feet is symbolic today in the west. We wash each others feet during Holy Week, on Holy Thursday when we celebrate the last supper. But we don't so much need our feet washed. It is a reminder. Instead we give time or talent, we serve when it's uncomfortable, etc.

Yesterday, though, I got a taste of real, down and dirty foot washing. And it was incredible.


Begin rabbit trail

At Jacob's Porch, the Lutheran church I attend in Columbus we often talk about the four loves - agape (sacrificial, perfect love that puts another first, think Christ dying in or stead), philos (friendship, love of others with whom we are in close community), eros (passionate love, spur of the moment, outpourings of "YES". Obviously this applies to romance but it also happens when we see an old, dear friend who has been away for awhile or when we have an amazing moment with a child we love, etc.), and stroga (love for another or a stranger.)

End rabbit trail


For me, foot washing came with some intense storga. I got to love these boys physically and pray silently over them as I cleaned off mud and grime from their feet. (I also decided that a foot washing should come with a little bit of foot rubbing because, well, it feels good to have someone rub your feet.)  I don't say all of this to pat myself on the back or to sound like a Christian who has arrived. I'm weak and frail and only just beginning to learn what it is to follow Jesus. One foot washing is a very small thing. The larger, greater thing is to give each day in small ways, to be faithful in the every day. And if there is any glory at all in washing feet then all glory should go to Christ, for he alone could take this apprehensive girl (I was quite nerved about the whole thing) and turn it into a powerful spiritual experience. But then, our God delights in showing himself in the small things.

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I thought it was funny to see construction equipment at the orphanage. Pictured are some of the 29 kids who were at Bosto, the other 11 were at secondary school.

Hanging with the kids

In order to bless the kids we washed each of their feet and gave them all new socks, new shoes, and a new t-shirt. Here are two of the big bags full of shoes we had.

Foot washing supplies - bucket of water, towels, and basin. There was soap too, but I didn't get a picture...

The sign in front of the orphanage

Kenyan Hills behind the orphanage

Farmed hills behind the orphanage

One of the boys wearing his new shoes next to the water buckets we used

One of the boys and me. Excuse the squinting...

Chuck Bemm sorting shoes.

Some of the kids had lots of fun with their socks!

Hannah drove us part of the way home. :)

Much love to you all. May you know the depths of the His love, "love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all"

Joanna

Sunday night

I'm sitting in the living room with my roommate, Carolyn and a friend of ours, Laura, who came to Tenwek from England. It's been lovely to have another 20 something on the compound and to commiserate with her about life here. We're watching Robin Hood (the Disney one, which is so classic and which Laura had never seen before!) 

Monday seems like a lot. I get a few days off of math class, which is a blessing as I'm behind on other things. I struggle to know what to prioritize, as usual. I'd never been to Tenwek's ICU before last week and all of a sudden I find myself invested in so many very sick patients. So many have died this week. A baby ate a dead goat and got anthrax. He was on a ventilator and it malfunctioned when people weren't looking and he died. A woman with lupus came in with so many body systems out... she died yesterday. The pain she experienced must have been incredible. There aren't words. 

Facing another week... I don't know how to love the people in the ward. I can't treat their hurts, I can't love them the same way I want to. All I can do is take down their information, smile at them, and pray. I feel like a child with a messy picture to give as a gift to Michaelangelo. 

And yet, there is good news. 

I got to spend about 3 hours with the babies today and I had a blast. Ellie is a huge fan of the put-blanket-over-her-head-and-then-pretend-like-I-can't-find-her game. Her response was either to stick her hands up under the blanket or say "hi!" or "aboo!" after taking off the blanket. With help of the 12-14 year old girls here (there are 3) I managed to get all three diapers changed, gotta love massive amounts of poop, and got dinner on. I had a ball. 

A dear friend of mine is having a baby. It's one of those babies who was given at just the right time and I'm so excited to hear from them.

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I'm not sure what to do. On the one hand, I'm concerned about burnout factor. Simultaneously, though, I don't think there's anything wrong with getting attached to patients. Grief is great and it's okay to be sad. It's good to mourn that a life is gone prematurely. I don't want to be numb to suffering.

Romans talks about praying in groans that words cannot express and that the Holy Spirit understands those groans and puts words to them. I'm so grateful for that. In moments when it feels hard I'm also so glad for words written by people who can put things much better than I can.

We will Run, Gungor

You are on our side, Bethany Dillon

After the Last Tear Falls, Andrew Peterson

The Silence of God, Andrew Peterson

In the messiness of life, when things seem too nuts to get our arms around, may we run to him.

Joanna

Sheepish...

First of all, a few ground rules - I live in Kenya. I also have wireless internet in my apartment and that internet isn't dialup. This in and of itself is a small miracle, which I tried to remind myself last week as I constantly fought with the internet to get it up and running. Despite the fact that it made me bone up on my troubleshooting skills, largely, it was just a big pain in the neck. Carolyn informed me that something was interfering with the Tenwek server, which was over my head technologically so I wondered what was going on but kept up my daily skirmishes unabated.

That is, until today.

Today I decided to lug my computer back up to IT because the internet was not working again and I was very confused. I was told that the problem might be in the modem and that I should bring that up. I did. However, I forgot the power cord. Oops. They told me to just come back at 2:30 with the modem and power cord. Okay. I can handle simple directions most of the time so I continued on with my crazy day and waited for 2:30 to arrive.

After spending some time at the Hospital I returned home to hear Chuck call me from their porch. Not terribly surprising, but he said he had something embarrassing to tell me. Hmmm... I was then informed that the internet problems had somehow been coming from the modem Carolyn and I had inherited from other missionaries here! Oops! The folks at IT told Chuck that a mzungu (white) young lady with blue glasses had come up and, well, I'd been caught red handed in my accidental internet trouble causing.

Needless to say I turned very red and rushed up to IT. Currently they're running a bunch of tests on the modem and then they'll figure out how to get it working again. We have a temporary one and I'm very thankful we found the problem, even though I feel very sheepish.

The End.

Normalicy

There is something strange about routines. I seem to have found one and I'm so glad that I'm figuring out the best time for all of the various activities a day brings. My mornings start with a workout, then a quick hiatus for breakfast (and blogging!), and then I head up to the hospital for morning rounds at 7:30. At 8 am we have morning report, a lecture on Morbidity and Mortality, a specific disease and how to treat it, or a presentation of an interesting case from the night before. I've been learning a lot. After morning report I finish up whatever I have left to do at the hospital and scurry home to teach math class at 10:15. The rest of my morning is free to do paperwork, sort out art class, and so forth and at 1 pm we either have lunch or go up to the hospital for another lecture. Afternoons are flexible except on wednesdays when I teach art class to the 4th and 5th grade from 3-4. In the evenings Carolyn and I always cook dinner together, which is normally a fairly involved meal, eat, and talk for awhile. By the end of the day I'm totally exhausted and I'm glad to have my days so lovely and full, even if I don't have quite the down time I was anticipating. 

Please, all of you in the USA - let the Steelers know that they're disappointing those of us who appreciate Steeler football in the compound. We've got too many Colts fans and Bengals fans and Patriots fans to deal with a bad season, thank you very much. My pride is already a little bit bruised.

One unfortunate side effect of living in Africa is the bugs. We get flies of multiple varieties, ants, general flying things, moths, small roaches, and the ever present mosquitos. No pincher ant sightings as of yet, though I know that we're doomed to being pinched at some point while we're here. I've discovered that fear of pincher ants makes a person do strange things - like running across the compound in the middle of the night so they don't have a chance to latch on. But as far as bugs go, I have a personal vendetta and deep, deep hatred for cock roaches. I'm glad we don't have them and am hopeful that the trend continues. In the meantime, though, Carolyn heads up the flying bugs seige while I focus on the long campaign against anything that crawls. If we have to open up a new "roach focused" arm to our strategy, then so be it. 

Love to you all!

Joanna