Back to Africa

In a phone conversation with my dear friend, Martin Masumbuko, just a couple of days ago, we talked about our adventures in Kenya, Sudan, and Rwanda. Martin is a Kenyan friend I met during graduate school at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and we traveled together for a week during my 2008 month-long Africa experience. As we talked I became aware once again of how hyper-alert I was to every single experience I had during that entire month in six countries of east and central Africa. It was like one big, long adrenaline rush -- and it took me more than a month to come down from it once I got home. Just ask Carolyn.

Last year, it was back to Africa, this time together with Carolyn to South Africa for the Amahoro Gathering which took place near Johannesburg. That was followed by a three day field trip to Cape Town with a group from Amahoro, and then a week of traveling on our own throughout the country. South Africa is very different than the rest of Africa, but it was profound and engaging and memorable for different reasons, and partly because I shared it with Carolyn. We have not stopped talking about -- and processing together -- every single moment of that experience over the past year.

Once again, I'm on my way to Africa -- third time in three years. I go with more experience this time, but equally open to new experiences, and to being changed by the experience as I have been so far each time. Africa has a way of doing that to you.

This time, there are about four things on the agenda:
1) A visit with dear friends we have made over the past two years -- Maggie Muhia and Charles Nganga. I first met Maggie at Amahoro in Rwanda in 2008. I told her then that she and my wife, Carolyn, would hit it off. They found that out for themselves the next year in Johannesburg. And then, just a couple of months later, she and Charles were in the States, and they came to Andover to spend a week with us. We spent hours and hours around our kitchen table talking, sharing our lives and our ministries, and relating to one another as if we had been lifelong friends. It was amazing. I'll be spending a few days with Maggie and Charles in Nairobi when I arrive. Carolyn is jealous.

2) My second task is to participate in a visit to the community of Ndumberi outside Nairobi, where the former St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Belmont, Massachusetts, has funded a community center project for the Anglican Church there. We'll be guest of the pastor, Rev. Mungai, and the ladies of the Mother's Union. They'd like to move on from the recently completed community center to put in a bore hole in the community so that everyone has access to clean water. We'll be making a recommendation about that on our return. I said "the former" St. Andrew's, because St. Andrew's closed a few years ago. And when they did, they sold their building, liquidated their assets, and decided together with the bishop and diocesan staff to fund this project in Kenya, in the village where their fellow parishioner, Amy Ranji, had been born and raised. I'll be traveling to Ndumberi with Amy.

3) The third piece of the trip is a return visit to the Amahoro Gathering. After a couple of years of being a part of this experience, it's like a reunion with people who have become friends -- people from all over Africa, and other parts of the world as well. I cherish the friendships and the relationships that have developed there over the past two years. This year, we're gathering in Mombasa, Kenya, on the Indian Ocean at a seaside hotel.

4) Finally, I've been invited to help lead a conference for Anglican clergy in Rwanda. The invitation comes from a friend made at Amahoro the first year in Rwanda -- the Rev. Philbert Kalisa, founder and executive director of REACH (Reconciliation, Evangelism, and Christian Healing). REACH has been engaged in the work of grassroots reconciliation and restorative justice among victims and perpetrators of the genocide for the past 14 years. My colleague, Steve Bonsey, and I will join Philbert and members of the REACH staff in leading a pastors' retreat with clergy who are engaged in the work of reconciliation in their local communities. More about all of that later.

For those who have asked or are interested, here is my schedule for the next almost three weeks:

April 25 -- late evening departure from Boston for Zurich, then on to Nairobi a day later
April 27 -- arrival in Nairobi for visit with Charles and Maggie
May 1-2 -- site visit to Ndumberi on behalf of St. Andrew's Church
May 3 -- fly from Nairobi to Mombasa for the beginning of Amahoro
May 8 -- leave Mombasa for Kigali, Rwanda
May 10-13 -- REACH Pastors' Retreat
May 14 -- Departure from Rwanda
May 15 -- arrival home in Andover

Signing off for now from the Allegra Hotel in Zurich. Had a great day walking the city, seeing the magnificent Chagall windows in the cloister at Fraumunster Church, visiting Grossmunster and Predigrekirche churches. Different but all fascinating Reformed churches in this very Zwinglian city -- one the "social justice" church with vibrant ministry to the homeless (also with a beautiful new tracker organ in its newly built balcony), another known for its beautiful liturgy and new windows installed only last year, the other known primarily for the last windows designed by Marc Chagall and installed in 1970. Charming city all around!

Tomorrow, Nairobi.