Welp, it’s official. I am an alien. And not some fugitive alien. Registered. Thoroughly finger printed. Photographed. Given a card to prove it. That kind. After a fun filled morning at the immigration office in Nairobi, it seems that J.E. can now phone home… you know what I’m saying? Right. I’ll stop. Anyway…

Last Saturday hosted a few highlights for me. First off, it was my three month anniversary here, and I have no shame in stating the cliche observation that time flies. As if my 21 day gap between posts isn’t evidence enough. Sheesh. Secondly, I was asked if I could Skype in with our CURE team while they were at the Purple Door arts and music festival (you can read about it from Matt’s perspective here). The hospital is usually slim on patients over the weekends, but I felt so blessed that God had kept a girl named Mercy & her mother Pamela around.

That morning, I went up to the ward to ask if they’d be up for talking to a bunch of wazungu through my computer. Mercy’s eyes just lit up to accompany the big smile on her face. So around 6:30PM, I and my computer went to set up next to Mercy’s bed for our 7PM (noon Eastern time) Skype date. A few things to consider… 1 – Internet here rarely gets the privilege of being labeled “reliable”, so we weren’t sure if it would handle the connection. 2 – Mercy & Pamela had never experienced video chatting, so I didn’t know if stage fright might kick in if the video feed did indeed work. 3 – Kenyan English is not American English. That said, we first gave it a shot, streaming audio and video from our side and just audio from the US side. Yahtzee. Suddenly, our Kenyan patient and her mother were connected to an audience of CURE supporters an ocean away. INcredible. The few others in the ward soon gathered around to listen to our conversation, and everybody had these childish looks of fascination plastered on their faces. As for Mercy, the girl should have gotten an award for how well she communicated… seriously, I was tempted to give her a standing ovation. And then when we asked Matt to try streaming video from the US side, the reactions around the ward were priceless. In an instant, the black screen was replaced by the scene of 30 white people staring at us smiling. Pamela shot down and hid, Mercy’s eyes got big and she just got closer to the screen, others swiftly snuck away, and pretty much everyone was giggling in some capacity. After we said goodbye to the CURE group, I figured I’d try to leverage the time with the computer, so we ended up Skyping with my stepmom. While talking to her, she asked Mercy where she learned to speak English so well. Mercy’s answer: watching Scooby Doo. Not even joking. So awesome. After that, I ended up running the computer back home and grabbing the card game Phase 10 to teach Mercy and Pamela. We fudged the rules a bit to get things going, but they liked our hybrid Kenyan rules just fine. I sat there thinking about how different my community looks now. Before I lived here, Phase 10 was something I’d play with my best friend in her living room while watchin’ a movie or something. Now I play it with a patient and her mom in our ward at the hospital while watchin’ whatever strange program comes on Kenyan T.V. Oh how the tables have turned…

Recently, that idea of community has been a frequent visitor to my thoughts. God has blessed me with a community of people back home who cannot be adequately described by adjectives like “extraordinary” or “incredible” or “unbelievably super fantastic.” They have set the “community” bar high in my heart, no doubt, and there’s not a day that I don’t miss them. But when you make sacrifices for the One who sacrificed everything, He brings Himself in to fill the void. Smell what I’m steppin’ in? If not, there’s a Jesus Calling entry (of course) I can note:

“Expect to encounter adversity in your life, remembering that you live in a deeply fallen world. Stop trying to find a way that circumvents difficulties. The main problem with an easy life is that it masks your need for Me. When you became a Christian, I infused My very Life into you, empowering you to live on a supernatural plane by depending on Me.

Anticipate coming face to face with impossibilities: situations totally beyond your ability to handle. This awareness of your inadequacy is not something you should try to evade. It is precisely where I want you – the best place to encounter Me in My Glory and Power. When you see armies of problems marching toward you, cry out to Me! Allow Me to fight for you. Watch Me working on your behalf, as you rest in the shadow of My Almighty Presence.”

– August 18th (Sarah Young)

Sisters from another mother...same Father though :)

Anything you don’t have in your life is always dwarfed by what you do have, which is Him, and He is completely sufficient in any and every circumstance. I’m never going to pretend that I don’t miss my family and friends. But I’m also never going to pretend that God hasn’t brought other people into my life in the meantime. The staff at the hospital. The Bible study group. The people who meet to play indoor soccer. The two Kenyan sisters who have made it a habit to come by my house on the weekends and exchange chapati making lessons for watching a movie or learning how to type on my computer. The Swahili instructor I’m now taking lessons from after work twice a week. And let’s not forget the gray cat that now waits at my door every morning for me to emerge. I’ve named him Maziwa, the Swahili word for milk, and it’s a love/hate relationship to be sure.

Point is, I’m an alien, but obviously not in the green, huge head, tiny body, “I’m a flying saucer pilot” way. And not even because I now have a Kenyan immigration card with my name on it that says “Alien.” It’s because as long as I’m here on Earth, I’m not really home. My heart has a divine homesickness knit into it, and I have a room waiting for me and a Father who satisfies my longings in the meantime. There’s a quote I read recently that just made me smile all over my face, and it’s what I’ll leave you with:

‎”He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

- Jim Elliot

Originally posted at http://nashipai.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/move-over-e-t/.