A letter from Brenda Harcourt serving in Kenya
December 2014 - Training Bearing Fruit
I love the Advent season and the wonderful feelings and memories that come with it. Churches begin marking time till Christmas and we seem to change as we prepare for the season…
For me here in Kenya, Advent is usually marked by my trekking up to Imenti presbyteries in the Mt. Kenya area to conduct training. This year we conducted a pastor/spouse retreat that was incredible. The pastors and their spouses get very little time together, so when they are able to get together for a week or even a few days everyone is excited. This year was extra special. The Imenti presbyteries are in partnership with Blackhawk Presbytery in the U.S.A. and over the years Blackhawk was able to raise money for training. Imenti decided to invest the money and try to help fund the training each year from the interest they get. Imenti has been saving and was finally able to finance 70 percent of the total cost of the retreat for the pastors/spouses. It was exciting to see the sense of accomplishment as they withdrew the money and paid for the costs for every pastor and spouse from their three presbyteries to come together for five days. It is extremely exciting to me to have my years of trying to help them see that they didn’t need to totally rely on international donations but could do some of it themselves came to fruition in this event. How exciting to see my leadership training bearing fruit. We laughed together and we cried together. We worshipped together and we played together. Blackhawk sent a clergy/spouse couple to help with the training, and they were received with open arms by the Kenyan pastors and spouses.
The retreat started my Advent season with a boost to the partners as they re-created their energies for the holiday schedule coming up.
The visitors returned to my home after the retreat to celebrate Thanksgiving before they journeyed back to the U.S.A. How thankful I am to have celebrated with the retreat participants and then eat turkey and trimmings with an American couple in my home. Truly I am blessed beyond words to start Advent on such a high note. God continues to surprise me with blessings even in the midst of the everyday.
Now as if that was not enough of a high, Saturday we celebrated our graduation at the Presbyterian University of East Africa, where I am an instructor in the theology department. Students I met as they arrived at the University and began their studies and grew into competent ministers peaked as they stood to receive their degrees. Tears welled up in my eyes as their names were read and I could only think of the moments in the classrooms as we studied together to prepare them for this moment. What an awesome group of men and women going forth to proclaim the Good News. I don’t think I am prejudiced, but I think the theology students were the most professional-looking department of the over 1,000 students who graduated.
After graduation I travelled to one of the student’s homes for a Kenyan celebration of irio, rice, fried cabbage and roast goat. Joe, whose home we went to, celebrated in grand style with his family and introduced me as his mama at the University. Maybe this was because I knew him for years before he entered the University. I was the person he came to, asking if I thought he could handle classes to become a pastor. We prayed together about his call and when he finally applied to enter studies I shared that I had watched him grow to that day for some time and wondered when he would understand that God was calling him into ministry.
Tomorrow I start reviewing with students to prepare them for their finals. I have about 250 students, total, this term and that will mean a lot of finals to grade over the Christmas holiday. I am not looking forward to that part, but with God’s help I will get through it.
I will spend Christmas day with the people who help me here at the house. They have truly been a blessing to me. I don’t think I would be able to do all that I can do without their dedication and love as they help me in all kinds of ways. Then I will curl up with papers and red pen for grading, making sure there is a fire in the fireplace and lights lit on the tree. I will thank God for all of the blessings that have come my way this year and the incredible gift of the abiding presence of Christ as I continue to work in the vineyard that he has called me to. Maybe I will set the papers aside for that day. Maybe just look around me and give thanks that out of all the people in the world God found me and claimed me as his own. All I am sure of is that it will be a season filled with the presence of Christ and an especially thankful heart.
May God truly bless each of you and may you be keenly aware of his presence in your lives as you celebrate the season. I pray that you keep the students at the University and all Kenyans in your prayers as we strive to do the will of the Master.
God Bless you and all those you love wherever they may be. I would like to close this message with the grace that Presbyterian Kenyans share whenever we gather: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you today and for evermore.
Rev. Brenda S. Lindsey Harcourt
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 135
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 145
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