Saying Goodbye

My time in Kenya is quickly drawing to a close. Right up through
December it still felt like i had a while to go. After New Years
however, I started thinking about how much time i have left and how I
was going to spend it. Suddenly I realized there wasn't much time
left! And now 2 weeks have already flown by into this new year. I
have a little more than a week left and I still have much packing to
do and I have a list of people I need to see and say goodbye to before
I go.

It's not just that I have to say goodbye to people either, but places,
foods, random facts of life, and just Africa in general. Not since I
graduated from high school in 2001 have I spent such a long time in
Africa and so I find I'm feeling the need for closure much stronger
than in the past when I've been able to slip in for a few weeks and
then slip out.

The goodbye's have not necessarily been sad yet. I have a very strong
feeling that i will return to my beloved Kenya some day and I am sure
that I will stay in contact with many of my friends here and see them
again. However, I also feel like I'm closing a chapter in my life,
one which I've been building toward and experiencing for several years
now. It was the summer of 2007 when I first talked to John Muehleisen
about coming for this trip. Now as I enter 2010 and I'm finishing my
time here I really feel that I've come a long way.

It is amazing to look at how God has worked since that first talk in
2007 and carried me to Kenya, and all over East Africa. He has been
intricately involved in providing for my financial needs, through
supporters in the US, and He has travelled with me everywhere granting
safety and guidance, He has been a comfort and companion in the trying
and lonely times. I feel truly blessed to have been on this journey
and I am also very thankful for the support of friends and family back
in the US and around the world who have stood by me on this journey.

As the VIA chapter of my life closes I am looking forward to seeing
what the next chapter holds. My immediate plan is to set myself up
for freelance video production and start saving and planning for the
short film I want to produce. I'll also be using my tie to reflect on
this year and try to detterming if this kind of work is where God
wants me. I appreciate your continued prayers and thoughts as I close
one chapter in my life and open the next.

Stepping into Time

Last night was Christmas Eve, and as I did my devotions I realized
that, by an intentional design, I was in the opening chapters of Luke
just three days ago. The births of both Jesus and John the baptist
were foretold, John was born. The next night Jesus was born and the
shepherds were told by the angels of the Messiah's birth. A few
paragraphs later Jesus was twelve years old and sitting in the
temple. Following the reading plan that I've been on this whole year
in Africa meant that by last nights reading brought me to Jesus, a
full grown man, preaching and telling the story of "The Good
Samaritan." Suddenly I realized that by that point in the story Jesus
was somewhere around 30-33 years old, and I'd just jumped through all
that in three nights.

It seemed strange to me that while I had just been reading about the
birth of Jesus, by the third reading he was already older than I am
now! I took a minute to feel how long my life seems to be and
compared that to how short Jesus' life is in the Gospels. Then I
considered the concept that an eternal being would step into time and
submit to it for more years than I have been alive.

I guess it's just humbling to consider how He humbled Himself and
stepped into the confining restraint of time as well as a physical
body, and so many other limitations. He lived the life of an average
man and all that goes with it. The God of Heaven and Eternity stepped
into Earth and Time so that we might have a relationship with him, and
for no other reason.

Merry Christmas,

Jonny

The Strange Disconnect

Right now back in the US people are flooding the grocery stores looking for those forgotten, but much required items that make Thanksgiving just perfect. Turkeys are flying from the frozen section and landing in shopping carts as if they were flightless birds (wait...), a middle aged man is about to fight an old lady for the last can of cranberry sauce, and every one's asking the stocker boy, "where the heck are the bags of stuffing?" At the same time the temperature is dropping quickly, there may even be snow on the ground, and at every gathering people are talking about the same thing, "what are you doing for Thanksgiving? Are you going home? Do you think the Lions have a shot at winning the game this year?" For my family, I'm sure all the Thalers are planning to hit the bowling alley for their one trip of the year and if I were a little closer I would definitely be joining them.

So what does Thanksgiving look like in Kenya? Well I haven't seen any Turkeys anywhere, I'll bet most of the people around me have no idea what a cranberry is, and very few of them have had the opportunity to ever see snow, in fact it's much more like spring than Autumn or Winter. They may be interested in talking about an upcoming football game, but it features teams like Chelsea and Manchester United. This Thursday is just another Thursday, and if you ask them they may have some things to be thankful for, but they won't know why you're asking them.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining that I'm lonely or missing out on my favorite American Holiday (Christmas and Easter are pretty universal unless you're in an Arabic country or an unreached people group), but what I'm noticing is that there's a strange disconnect as I compare the hustle and bustle of what I know is happening with friends and family back in the US as compared to what's going on here. Over the past 8 years I've been in the US for every Thanksgiving and it always feels like the Holiday is such an event that everyone in the world must be celebrating it. In fact, I actually have an Australian friend who told me one year she was celebrating it with an American family in Australia! But here in Kenya, out side of the American Expatriate community there's nothing.

The disconnect doesn't only apply to Holidays, but to so much of life. Occasionally, I take a moment to stop and actually think of what my life was like before I arrived in Kenya on January 28 and it seems like someone else's life. It's almost like that was a movie I saw and then came into this life. So many of the characters featured in the story of my life in Michigan are little more than occasional Facebook cameos in the story of my life in Africa. I don't mean to diminish the significance of those friendships (man this is a post that could really alienate people if I'm not careful), but really other than occasionally popping in to send a message of encouragement or make me laugh they don't really have anything to do with my daily life. I'm sure in the same way I seem like a distant memory to them much of the time. And I know that when I return on January 26 this life will become that exact same thing.

Even more disconnected is the world. Right now Kericho, Kenya feels very real and tangible. I can smell cooking fires in the houses around me, I can see the green grass in the bright sunlight, and I can feel the soft dark earth in the places that never seem to get quite dried up before another rain comes. At the same time, when I picture Michigan my first impulse, even in July and August, has been to see it the way I left it in January, dreary, snow covered, and -10 degrees. If I really think it over I know that the seasons are changing, but from here even that seems a foreign concept.  Technically speaking we have two dry and two rainy seasons, but for all practical purposes the difference isn't that noticeable.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, but I guess I just felt this was a good opportunity to try and relay to anyone who's interested just how it feels to be so far away. I guess if you've ever spent a long period away from the place where you grew up or where you live, you have an idea what I'm talking about, and if you haven't you're probably not interested in my blog. I guess the reason we feel this disconnect is because wherever we are the world and our lives are already so beautiful and complex we can only sense so much and then to be able to comprehend that AND the other world and life we've been in previously is just WAY too much.

And that brings me to a God thought, think about your sense of strange disconnectedness and then think about the fact that God doesn't have that sense. He is all places, all times, and all knowing. So even as I sit in the Kericho "spring" in November 2009 He is with me and also you in the North American late autumn, or the Australian summer or wherever else you may be. Now consider that He was just as with you in another place you've come from that now feels very far away and strange. Guess what, He's still there right now and knows the weather both there and where you are now. If you can wrap your mind around that, go see a shrink because you're just crazy.

By the way, think of your poor cashier when you set you 15 pound turkey on the belt. He or she has been lifting thousands of these heavy icy things in the past week and is getting very tired, not to mention he/she may have to work the holiday AND will definitely be in on Black Friday as well.

Post Sudan Thoughts (Finally)

Well I'm back in Uganda, back from my ten days in Sudan. As I said in a previous post I was very excited about this trip, and I'm happy to say Sudan did not disappoint.

It seemed like Sudan was a very magical place while I was there. Most every sunset was full of beautiful color from golden yellow, to bright orange, red, and even purple. There were butterflies everywhere you walked. That "golden hour" of sunlight just before sunset... in Southern Sudan lasted from 4PM to 6:30. Pretty much everyone I met was friendly. Despite my knowledge of the past conflicts in the area, and seeing the occasional soldier or policeman carrying an AK-47, I felt perfectly safe all the time.

At the same time however, there was this constant sense that there was an uneasy peace in the area. You could always feel that the people were hurting and had been seriously affected by the war of the last 20-some years. There were also physical afflictions, in the 10 days I was there I met one man who was totally blind, and two who were deaf and mute, and while I did not see her the rest of my group noticed a woman in church who had a large hole in her face.
This mixture of magic and beauty with severe tragedy really is the only way I know how to put into words what my time in Sudan was like. Each day I would just walk with my camera and find some new beautiful image to capture. From Butterflies to flowers to cows to smiling children and stone-faced adults, it was like my camera could not fail me. While in Sudan I felt more creative energy than I’ve had in quite some time and the challenge became trying to focus it to useful video images. I did also take a lot of photographs some of which are now posted on my Facebook (INSERT LINK) if you would like to check them out.

A specific magical example is that when we arrived in Sudan, I stepped off the plane, with no idea what was ahead. I was the only one in our group who had never been to this place before and in that way felt a little disadvantaged compared to my companions who were ready to begin working. Once I put my feet on the ground and walked around to the other side to get a bearing on my surroundings my eyes caught sight of this one particular tree. I called it the first tree I saw in Sudan, but it seemed to really hold my attention and in that moment it seemed the tree spoke to me and said, “Welcome to Sudan, you’re going to love your time here.” And in that moment I found comfort in the words of the tree.

Something that I found interesting about my time in Sudan was that I still don’t understand the sense of calling that I had felt to visit Sudan. Don’t get me wrong, I do feel that it was a very worth while experience and I’m so glad I was able to do it, but I don’t totally feel like there were any moments of sudden clarity and vision while I was there. I almost feel that the calling was just to spur on an interest and curiosity that will encourage me to continue praying. I feel I actually understand the place a little better and I will be more excited to talk to others about their experiences, but I don’t feel like I am called to return there full time.

At the same time I do recognize that I am not done yet with Sudan. That is to say, I have a few weeks of video editing still ahead of me. I shot 11 hours of tape in Sudan for the 5-7 minute video I hope to produce in the upcoming weeks. There is still a lot of processing ahead of me and I wonder how I’ll feel when it’s over…

I was very happy for the friends I made there. My personal favorite of my Sudanese friends was Joseph Mayek. Mayek works at the hospital as a translator for the Kenyan nurses and also does dental work, I think mostly pulling teeth. Fortunately I did not need Mayek’s help in medicine or teeth pulling, but in the afternoons when I would go out to the town to film and conduct interviews Mayek’s assistance as a translator was invaluable. I could not have functioned well without him. Mayek was also a great insight to learning the culture and language of the Dinka people. Not that I’m in any way an expert after my ten days, but most of what I have learned has come from Mayek. It was great to have someone who could speak very good English and was used to being around Kawaja (foreigners) who were clueless. I felt very comfortable to ask him questions about everything we saw and he was always gracious to answer and explain.

One final example of the strange beauty of Sudan is in the Tukle ruins spread out across the region. Here’s a photograph to show you what I mean. Just stare at it for a moment, take note of the shapes and lines, ask your self what the purpose or meaning could be for this strange grouping of logs. When you feel you’ve come to appreciate it for it’s beauty read below to find out what a Tukel is.

A tukel is a hut.  A traditional round Sudanese home made of mud, these logs are the foundational remains of a hut that was abandoned some time ago.

 

Overall, I feel like my trip to Sudan was a real blessing to me personally and I hope and believe it was a blessing to those I met and will be a blessing to those who view my final video.  Thank you all for your prayers they were much appreciated.

Permission to be a Tourist, Sir?

As we say in East Africa, my thoughts on Sudan are “even now on the way coming,” but in the mean time I wanted to write about something else that I’ve found exciting and refreshing and exciting. I gave myself permission to become a tourist.

For any of you who have lived very long in East Africa, or any other place where there are frequent tourists, you know the stigma. A tourist usually can’t pronounce names correctly, they can be obnoxious, they may carry a “fanny pack,” they’re sunburned, they think everything is strange and somehow exciting even though it’s actually just everyday life, and perhaps most consistently and noticeably they take pictures of everything.

Okay so I haven’t fully adopted all of those attributes of tourism, but I have given myself permission to take pictures of literally everything that strikes my interest. I started this new permission last month as I set out on my odyssey into Uganda and Sudan. I’ve started grabbing images of flowers, fields and mountains as seen while riding a bus or other vehicle across the country, the controls in the small airplanes that carried us to and from Sudan, the sky, foot prints in the sand, and of course any number of children eager to line up in front of my camera to let me capture their likeness.

I decided that I would start taking pictures like this for this specific trip because I recognized that this was my first trip to Sudan and will be my last trip to both Sudan and Uganda for quite a while. I don’t think I’ll be traveling as much in my remaining three months in Africa because I now have three large projects to finish editing before I leave and that will possibly take up the majority of my time. However, what I found when I let myself take pictures of anything and everything I saw was that I wound up with a lot of pictures I really love, and a medium which can tell the story of what my travels have been like far better than I could ever find words for. Also, especially in Sudan I found there were times where I was going from one place to another with my video camera all packed in it’s case and would happen upon something really interesting. Either because the object was quickly moving away or because we simply didn’t have the time to stop, I wouldn’t be able to get my camera out fast enough, but I could pull up my small digital camera and take a quick snap or two and I suspect that several of these will end up in the final video.

On the Sunday evening that we were in Sudan I went for a walk on the nearby airstrip. My road let me onto the airstrip in the middle and I just wanted to walk and listen to my iPod so I started by heading North and walked to the end, turned and walked to the south end and then came back to the road leading to the compound where we stayed. I wasn’t going very fast so the walk took nearly 2 hours, and along the way I shot almost 40 pictures just because I had my camera with me and had my eyes open. It was one of the most beautiful and relaxing walks I’ve taken in quite sometime.

And that’s what it comes down to really, keeping your eyes open to the world around you. That’s what I’ve decided I really love about the tourist mentality. While you may look like a fool for not blending in, keeping your eyes open to the world around you lets you see the magic that our creator has poured into all of this planet. Seriously, the next time you leave your house just picture all the things that you’d laugh at a tourist for taking a picture of, and then ask yourself what it is about that thing that would attract them. You may find your eyes open and you reach for your own camera. Also, the next time you see a fanny pack wearing tourist you should envy him or her, for seeing the magic in your mundane world.

Another great thing that’s come out of my carrying a digital camera with me at all times is my short film “Boda Boda; A True Story.” Which I shot on the digital camera one afternoon while riding across Kampala on a motorcycle taxi and edited over the course of 2 evenings and I hope to be able to put it on YouTube sometime soon. I’ll be sure to post a link when it’s up so keep your eyes open. If I had been feeling that I wanted to avoid the “tourist” stereotype I never would have gotten this footage showing the fun experience of riding a Boda through Kampala.

Thoughts before entering Sudan

Surprise! I have internet access in Arua Uganda, and time to write out a post before my 10 day sojourn in Southern Sudan. By way of keeping up with things, I've had a great first week in Uganda. The Lord was really at work and present in the pastor's training this past week. I learned a lot, and got almost 5 hours of tape as well. The two days of bus rides up here were mostly smooth. You can see pictures at my facebook page if you're interested. There was one 2 kilometer section of the road where there were speed humps every ten meters. We're talking around 200 humps in a row. It was so bizarre al you could really do was laugh. Imagine a bus full of people who all have a serious case of the hiccups and they're in sync with each other.

Tomorrow morning I will fly with the Mango Ministries (aka WGM South Sudan) team from Arua Uganda to Akot South Sudan. I'm not sure I can put into words the reasons why I am excited about this trip. Everything I've ever heard indicates that Sudan is not really an ideal vacation destination. There's no big tourist industry, food and water are often scarce, and there are signs posted to keep you out of fields by saying "Danger Land Mines!"

So what on earth would posses me to want to visit such a place? One, I would say that I have had friends who have spent time working in Sudan and it has changed their lives. Bearing witness to the struggles present in such a country has made them challenge their lives and priorities.

Two, I think there's something in me that wants to experience an East Africa that is more similar to the one my Great-grandparents found when the Adkins family first came to Kenya in the 1930s. I'm probably way off base with it, but i've got this idea in my head that in many ways Southern Sudan has reverted back to the state it would have been in back when the white man first came to East Africa. I've always wanted to see what the region was like back in those days, though I don't think I could survive it too long.

Three, I've been hearing about so many exciting ministries happening in Sudan over the past years that I'll be really happy and privileged to be involved in some small way.

Four, I feel like God's planted a desire in my heart to see what's happening in Southern Sudan. I don't know how else to describe it. The best example I can give is from a couple months ago when I was at Tenwek and got to hear the Mango Ministries team speaking to the medical staff at the hospital. There was a stirring and excitement in my heart that I could find no words for other than a desire to see Southern Sudan.

I'm so thankful to God for blessing me with this privilege and opportunity, and I can't wait to see what happens. I will appreciate your prayers during our ten day trip. I'm sure I'll have many things to say when I return to Uganda. Until then...

God Bless,

Jonny

For lack of a better blog...

I promised a post this weekend and here it is at the last minute. I've been trying so hard to think of something really interesting to write, but nothing's come to mind. So basically here's just a little wassup on my life.

About a week and a half ago I was asked if I could go to Northern Uganda to film a video for Billy and Joanna Coppedge while they conduct a training seminar with several pastors from the area. From the seminar we are all planned to go to Sudan where Billy and some others will lead another seminar while I will go around and shoot a video for Mango Ministries, the name of WGM's growing work in Sudan.

There are a couple reasons this should be interesting to you, my readers.

First, some of you may know Billy and Joanna who were at Asbury while I was there and are generally all around awesome people.

Second, this will quite probably mean a drastic reduction in the number of posts I'll be making on the blog as I will probably not have a free of access to this World Wide Web.

Third, while I'm very excited about both these video projects, I have to confess that I am a bit nervous as well. I've never shot 2 projects at the same time on my own before. While I'm trying to prepare as well as I can it still is a daunting task from this end. I will greatly appreciate your prayers as I travel around and try to shoot these projects.

I'll be leaving Kericho on Sunday the 11th of October. Sorry this doesn't have a lot of insight or anything, but I did write more in depth on the subject in my prayer letter which I plan to have going out before I leave Kericho. Look for it...