Kenya experiences 2

I really enjoyed the visits I made the past two days to schools, despite the fact that they involved several hours in cramped mini-buses and directions that left me wandering around a while before finding everything. Moffat Bible College was way out in a little village at the top of one side of the rift valley, so not only did I get a great view, but I also got to talk to profs. and students who were doing theological training at more of a grass-roots level. St. Paul's was a much more formal level University, but it seemed like the school doing the most structured contextualizing of theological education that I have visited. They had two specific practicum classes that look at the issues of HIV/AIDS and Poverty by having the classes meet in a slum or AIDS counseling center. The school also has several classes where the students have to immediately apply what they are learning to their ministry setting, by organizing a 'base group' of people from the community they work with, to share what they are learning with this group and mobilize to put things in to practice. Finally, the normal Bible and Theology classes at this seminary were obviously taught with the concept of translating everything into a way that it can be understood from the perspective of people a more traditional African worldview.

Discovering this last point was one of my most interesting conversations of the trip thus far. I was interviewing one of the Old Testament professors, and he was mentioning a lot of ways that he reflects on a traditional African worldview in his teaching. One is by teaching a course on African Traditional Religions (which is common at all the schools I visited), and others are by relating many of the Old Testament stories/concepts to traditional stories/rituals from different African tribes. This all makes sense to communicate truth by drawing on similarities and differences of concepts that are already familiar. But later in the conversation I was sketched out a little bit when I asked the prof. what denomination he was affiliated with (most of the students are Anglicans or Presbyterians), and he told me he was a practitioner of African Traditional Religion. Then he proceeded to give me a big grin and wave a "brush/wand" thing at me. I'm not exactly sure what he meant by that, because everything else in the conversation pointed to him being a Christian, but it raises some interesting questions. The crux of the matter being where you draw the line between an African Traditional Religion that uses Christianity as one thing among others to add to its spirituality, and Christianity that is practiced by people who have the sensibilities of an African Traditional Religion world-view and redeems the parts of traditional culture that have miss the mark.

I could say much more, but will end by saying that I have enjoyed bonding with the staff at the guest house as we have been able to watch some of the Euro 2008 football matches, not something they usually do with U.S. guests.