Community groundnuts...

Last year was my first year living in Atlanta. I had an amazing experience on the campus of ACC and I look forward to returning there again very shortly, while perhaps seeing you.

One of the core values of the college is community. A major theme throughout the previous year was "Finding your place in a transforming community." The premise is that:
1. We have been designed and called by Christ to be living in community.
2. That community should always be growing, developing, and transforming more into the image of Christ.
3. When those two things happen, there will be personal growth as well as communal growth in the emotional, social, and spiritual realms.
More could be added to that list, but that is the general idea, or at least my interpretation of it.

So throughout this past year, the concept of community has been a focal point of my life as a person and as a student. I have come to believe that every human being has an innate longing for a sense of community; the feeling that they belong somewhere and that there is a role for them to play.

I went to Kenya with a lot of unanticipated ignorance about the people. Thankfully, much of my ignorance about Kenya, really Africa in general, was dispelled by my experiences. In hindsight, I went to Kenya ignorant of the community that I would find there. Essentially I did not expect to find community among poverty. How I was wrong...

The people of Kenya, the people of Nairobi, the people of Mathare, the people of Huruma, the people of Kosovo, the people of Bondeni, the people of Kibara, the people of Eastleigh... they are living and breathing in community. Perhaps I saw so much of Christ this summer because I saw so much of His community fulfilling what it was intended to do. I witnessed communities feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and providing for the poor, though they themselves had very little.

Through living life in these communities for eight weeks, I find myself even more convinced that there are more things that unite the human race than divide it. The same problems I find in my community are present in the Kenyans communities, the scales are merely different.

Yet even amidst differing scales, there is a core necessity for community. I think of one experience I had in Mathare that sums up everything I am trying to say (and perhaps failing to)...

One of my favorite things to buy from the slums was groundnuts, which are peanuts to us. The nuts were freshly roasted and delicious, therefore I bought them occasionally throughout the duration of a week. I had just bought my pack of groundnuts for five bob, seven cents, and I returned to the Pangani center. I was sitting outside eating my nuts while some kids played in the school yard. A little girl came over and sat down next to me. She opened her hand so I poured some nuts into it. She then proceeded to go to every child in the school yard and place a nut in their hand. She saved the last one for herself. Immediately I was amazed by her act of generosity. How easy it would have been for her to eat them all, and no one would have known.

Yet she chose to share; she emptied everything she was holding in her two, small hands. And that is essence of community. Community is living in a way that we become willing to empty everything that is in our hands, saving the very last thing for ourselves.

And with that I open my hands and ask, "Who would like some groundnuts?"

Walking trees...

It has been an interesting first half of the week. Adjusting back to American culture is going to take a little bit more time than I originally anticipated.

As for this blog, I am going to attempt to backtrack in time by posting in the order that I would have during my summer in Kenya. I may have kept a list somewhere... that does not mean I am a dork.

Regardless, I think back to my first week in Nairobi. I think back to my first walk through the Mathare valley slums. The poverty was absolutely hallowing to me; the homes, the trash, the smells, the noises, and the sights. It was overwhelming in every sense of the word.

Yet I also remember that in one week of working in Mathare, I adjusted to the things around me. The houses did not appear to be so small anymore. The trash did not heap that high. The smells faded after a few minutes. The sounds did not ring in my ears. And the magnitude of the slums decreased in size.

I think of the story in Mark 8 when Jesus spits in a man's eyes. Christ asks him, "Do you see anything?" He [the man] looked up and said, "I see men. They look like walking trees." The story continues until the man sees everything clearly.

My initial immersion in the slums only allowed me to see the physical conditions. The people, they were just blurry objects passing by me. However, after one week I stopped seeing so much of the environment and I started seeing more of the Kenyans.

Even now that I am home, I know there are some people that I am merely seeing as walking trees. But the goal is to see them clearly. Isn't that always the goal?

Where to begin...

I feel like my contribution to the blog is being resurrected after two months of being dormant. The opportunities that I did have to post satisfied my cravings, however now it is time to play catch up.

So I question, where can I even begin to describe my summer? Much has happened to me these past two months. I have been healthy. I have been sick. I have been rested. I have been tired. I have been frustrated with God. I have been at peace with God. I have had pieces of myself cut away. And I have had pieces of myself added. Boiled down, I have had a lot of growing pains this summer.

I will take the advice an English professor gave me once. She said that when you do not know where to start, just write. Write anything and the rest will surely follow.

Write anything. Ok.

Well, I am in a place right now where I still feel like I should be in Kenya. I wake up in the morning and half expect to roll out of my bed at Ufungamano (our hostel). I have heard that once you cross the Atlantic ocean, for the rest of your life you feel like you are on the wrong side. I concur.

Much of my heart has been left in the country of Kenya and in the slums of Nairobi. However, I rejoice in the fact that there are strong Christian leaders there; the ministries I worked with this summer did not end the day I left. Instead, they started long before me and they will continue long after me.

Really I believe that Kenya is an up and coming country; I believe that God is going to heal the calamities of their land. It is a big vision considering the dire poverty and rampant disease, but it will come to pass. King Solomon said, "Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time..." And that is my first thought when in comes to Kenya; it will be beautiful in time.

My image: Kenya is like an old and beaten wheel barrel that has fallen over. It is just waiting to be picked up and used again.

For my supporters...

I am home. I am safe. I am well. I cannot wait to share my experiences with you in this coming semester.
Also...


...Mwangi and I thank you tena na tena (over and over) again for the support.

Standing exactly...

All summer long I have felt like I am exactly where I am supposed to be. Yes, I have missed many things from the States (family, friends, etc.). However, I have come to realize that nothing I would have experienced at home would have been greater than this summer abroad. Nothing at home would have produced the same fruit in my life. It is worth poor health, hunger (for real food), and homesickness to hear God in the way I am hearing Him in this country. I have never been more quiet, and Christ has never been so loud. Over and over again I have said to myself, "I am standing exactly where I should be right now."

Is anything better? May you be experiencing the same sensation.

This summer has been ridiculous. God has been moving in so many different ways. He has been changing lives and pouring into the life of every single camper i have seen. For those of you that do not know i am working at Camp Glisson in Dahlonega, Georgia. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Foundation. But i digress, Christ has been ever present in so many lives this summer. The first week of the summer we had a camper who had a drug addiction and since coming to camp and turning their lives around has not touched any kind of drugs since. Then this past week a friend of that person also struggling with drugs had the same thing occur in their life. These are just a few of the things going on with the Kingdom this summer. We have elementary campers that are abandoning their hearts in worship and giving all to God. Things that i didn't get until college they are understanding. then the middle schoolers bring it up to an even higher level. They are continually seeking to grow in God. While our high schoolers for the most part are living a life almost all of us could be jealous of. I often wonder who taught them their faith for it is very childlike in its tendencies.

Through this summer my life has been forever changed because i know that he is in my life. I have truly realized how glorious God's creation truly is just a glorious and beautiful creation. There is nothing like being under a waterfall with rushing waters puring over your head. Then jumping off a ledge 30 feet up into water stirred by a beautiful waterfall. It is such a glorious thing to be a part of. That aside, this summer has been eye-opening just to see that a young youth can worship with all of their heart and understand it much more than i ever did at that age.

I need not just ramble and i am sorry that i havent blogged earlier and i promise to start blogging more and more often.

But just remember to keep us as long as others needed in your prayers. All ministries this summer are going to do wonders that are unheard of. Just make sure to continue spreading the love of christ even if you are at home.

Yours In Christ,

Sean Carroll

Just a glimpse...

This is the scenery from the fourth floor of the Hope Center that I work at everyday in Kenya. It is just a glimpse of the conditions of the Mathare slums that surround the Center. There are at least five other slum districts within general Nairobi area.

Do not be fooled by the sight though. I went to the most beautiful church in the world in these slums; tin walls, a tarp roof, and wooden benches. What could be more right?

I am absolutely confident that this is one of Christ's favorite places on earth.