Catching up

This post is in order to help catch you up on my life. Things went from normal stress to above normal to super stressful. This year I have taken on a more normal routine of living. I have become more involved in school and also in church. In school, I am the chair of one of our new goals for the next seven years. We were reaccredited through Middle States and ACSI (American Christian Schools International). In the accreditation process, the school has to pick at least 2 goals; they are Applied & Fine Arts and Spiritual & Character Development. Although we are a Christian school, we needed to do a more intentional job with influencing our students in their spiritual walk with God. Thus, the SCD (or SCuD) committee was formed. Somehow I became the chair of the committee and now in charge of 10 people that have tasks to complete in order to see the goal come to pass. On top of that committee, I am a Junior Class sponsor, one of four. Our job is to help organize the Junior Class with different tasks. Since I was over fundraising last year, I took it on again this year. Our goal is to raise about 300,000/= Shillings ($4,000) to use for the Junior-Senior Banquet, which is very much like a prom. Last year, the Junior Class was in charge of Mistletoe Market, a market where Rosslyn families and community members can purchase a booth to sell their items, kinda like a glorified garage sale. They earned a large sum from that, so we also got it this year. I was the lucky one to talk it on. After trying to get help from my fundraising committee, I decided that I would make the executive decision and have them do more of the labor. I really didn't realize ALL the work that would come with this. The market has 80 booths, plus I needed to arrange for security, and I also made arrangements with some vendors to receive a bit of their sales. In all, I have arranged deals with three vendors and so far I got a kick back of 25,000/= (about $300) from the deals. I felt like I was on the tv show Apprentice. The week right before the event was incredibly challenging and I feel like I barely taught because of it. On November 15, we held our annual market. We had a good amount of people and tight security. All the families and vendors received tickets to enter and they also received guest passes. This event draws a large amount of Kenyans looking for deals, especially the 5-finger discount. In the end, we caught 7 thieves, all women, all Kenyans, and 4 with children on them. It was a sight to see. They were very "sorry" ... to have gotten caught and even more sorry when we took them to the police station. We wanted them all to spend at least 1 night in jail, but instead we settled for 1 hour of harassment from the police. I just don't understand how they feel that just because of our skin color that they can justify stealing from us. Yes, we have more money than them, but our living styles are different. I even had a whole discussion with my Juniors, in French 3, about the incident and about Kenyan mentality towards Anglos. Now that Mistletoe Market is over, I have 4 weeks until school is over for the semester. Time has surely flashed by this school year. I feel that I am more involved nad more busy than I ever was in the States. Now on to church news. In October, both Pastor Paul and Pastor Safari and their families went to the States for the annual conference at Victory World Outreach in Colorado Springs. Last year just Pastor Paul and his family went back, so at least I had Pastor Safari around to help with things. Since he was gone this year, I was here to help out with the church. I only preached one Wednesday night, but I really did feel the weight that a pastor carries for the church. Just days after they left, one girl in church was diagnosed with Typhoid. Another week, a girl was scratched by a street dog and needed mild treatment. A few days before Pastor Safari returned, we washed the tent and a boy slipped and fell from the tent. Thankfully he was ok, but it still scared me. On Sundays, we had gust pastors from our other Kenyan churches come and preach for us. It was a nice time to get to know some of them better. Then on Wednesdays, we had our guys preach a short message. This time was a good time of stretching ... and in some cases, serious stretching. I increased my Kiswahili immensly and I got to know more people from the church. I also felt and understood more about what a pastor does. It's a great job, in both meanings.