The last time I wrote a blog post, four suitcases containing approximately 200 pounds of life had moved to Kenya without me. (Sadly, one of the Alani’s didn’t survive the trip.)
However, in much better news, I finally caught up with my luggage.
On August 30th, after months of planning, packing, support raising(still on-going), paperwork, goodbyes, approximately 700 lists, and moving my belongings across multiple states and eventually an ocean, I finally arrived back in Kilgoris.
So um.. Yes, I technically owe you a few posts. Especially since it is now October 21st, and when this goes up, it will likely be Friday…
I do apologize for my lack of posting; one could say I have adopted the Hakuna Matata culture rather quickly.
Nonetheless, please accept my apology and consider this to be my official:
Hi. I’m alive. I’m in Kenya, and a lot has happened.
The Thing I Was Preparing For Is Now My Life
For months, everything was about getting back to Kenya.
When do you leave?
How much support have you raised?
Are you packed?
What do you still need?
What are you going to be doing?
And then suddenly, there was no more getting ready to move to Kenya.
I live here.
That still feels so surreal to say; just last week my mentor and I were discussing how strange it is to look around our homes and know that we have roots now.
This time, Kenya isn’t a trip. I’m not here for a few weeks or a few months with a return flight sitting somewhere in my inbox.
This is my home.
And with that has come all of the wonderfully normal parts of building a life somewhere new.
I’ve moved into my house and have slowly been turning empty rooms into (my unofficial laundry sorting station) an actual home. I’ve gotten some appliances, figured out where to find things in town, learned what I can and absolutely cannot buy locally, unpacked the four infamous suitcases, and started settling into the rhythms of everyday life in Kilgoris.
I even have a dog now.
I didn’t move to Kenya just to complete an assignment and then return to my “real life.”
This is my Real Life.
I’m establishing my home life here. I’m developing routines here. I’m figuring out which grocery stand to buy from, designing what my evenings look like, deciding where things belong in my kitchen, and all of the incredibly ordinary things that eventually turn a place from somewhere you moved to into somewhere you live.
But woven through all of that ordinary life is the reason I’m here in the first place.
I’m here to serve.
Since arriving, I’ve jumped quickly into full-time work at the mission base.
I’ve started taking on administrative responsibilities for the pastors' team and working with Milana at the Bible School. We have been developing new systems for students, working on different projects with the students for the future, and getting to host speakers from all over the world.
I have stepped into an administrative role for Baba Godfrey, as he is leading the base for sosprayer.com. Our base here is moving into a season of radical prayer 24/7; it is such an honor to serve right alongside him in this project. Every leader and student on the base has committed to specific hours of prayer every week. It is a really amazing project that is shared by all SOS bases globally through the website.
I’ve gotten to step right back into serving the next generation here in Kilgoris by being in the nursery and kids’ church again. We just finished the Kids’ Festival last weekend, which saw over 500 kids from town hear the gospel. (More on that in my next post.)
And then there was the day I spent the entire day at the hospital with one of our students, getting tossed from one place to another while we tried to figure out what was wrong and where we were supposed to go next.
That wasn’t exactly something I pictured when I imagined my first few weeks as a missionary.
But maybe it should have been.
Because I’m quickly learning that ministry rarely stays neatly inside the box you thought it would.
Sometimes it’s church.
Sometimes it’s prayer.
Sometimes it’s administration.
Sometimes it’s sitting behind a computer.
Sometimes it’s holding babies.
Sometimes it’s teaching kids about Jesus.
Sometimes it’s sitting in a hospital with a student because, in that moment, that’s where you’re needed.
And sometimes it’s going out into the streets, meeting people, talking with them, and creating real space for Jesus to grow and expand through genuine one-on-one relationships.
Because making disciples of all nations starts with service first and preaching second.
It starts with making a friend. It starts with learning someone’s name. Sitting down and talking. Listening to their story. Letting them into yours. Showing up again. Building the kind of real relationship where there is space for Jesus to move.
There isn’t always a dramatic story attached to serving people; sometimes you just show up.
This Is What I Came Back For
And I think that’s what has struck me the most since arriving.
There is something incredibly grounding about finally being here.
I’m not visiting. I’m not attending the Leadership Academy. I’m not preparing for what might come next. I’m not talking about what I will do someday.
I am HERE.
Working, serving, and building.
There are things I’ve prayed about for years that now look incredibly ordinary.
They look like opening my laptop in the morning.
They look like messages from Milana asking me to handle something.
They look like church administration, prayer commitments, students, meetings, ministry schedules, hospital visits, nursery, kids’ church, and whatever else happens to land in front of me that day.
And I love that.
Because I don’t want missions to become something I perform for a website.
I don’t want to only tell you the stories that photograph well or make missionary life sound especially adventurous.
Sometimes missionary life is adventurous.
And sometimes I’m still sitting on the floor of my kitchen answering messages while trying to figure out what appliances/furniture my house still desperately needs.
Both are my life now.
But underneath the ordinary days is something I don’t want to become ordinary to me:
I Get To Be Here.
I get to serve this church.
I get to serve this Bible School.
I get to support the people who have been faithfully building here long before I arrived.
I get to learn.
I get to take responsibility.
I get to show up wherever I’m needed.
And after spending so long praying about where God wanted me, preparing to go, packing, saying goodbye, and wondering what this season would actually look like..
I’m finally living it.
I’m exactly where I spent all those months preparing (crying) to be.
So yes, I’ve been a little quiet over here.
But definitely not because there hasn’t been anything to write about.
Quite the opposite.
I’ve just been busy working and building this beautiful life that God has given to me.
Christina in Kenya is officially in Kenya.
And this time, we’re just getting started.
Thank you for taking the time to read this chapter of my journey. If God has stirred your heart and you’d like to partner with me as I serve full-time in Kenya, please click the Partner With Me button below. There, you can learn more about praying, giving, and staying connected as we see what God writes in the chapters ahead.