Fasten Your Seatbelt

In a few days we will board our flight back to Kenya. December has been a whirlwind of activity. We've loved connecting with so many of you and sorry for those of you who we missed. We're so thankful to our Pastor, Larry Parsley and the staff at Valley Ranch Baptist for allowing Sydney and Nathan-Raegan to be baptized on December 6th. What a joy as parents to see our kids take the "holy swim" with such an amazing church family. We are grateful to all of you who took the time to share a coffee, stop by a jewelry party or buy us a meal. Thank You!
We were blessed to spend New Years Eve with two families that we graduated from Ouachita Baptist with. After an amazing steak dinner and a few furious games of Wii Party we brought in 2011 and then settled around the dinning room table to catch up on stories. Its been a long time since I laughed so hard and so long. The second part of 2010 was not the easiest of walks, but the Lord always knows how to refill your cup at just the right time. I'm in debt two those two couples and thankful that they were what God needed them to be as their company energized my soul.
In my quiet time over the past few days I've started a book my father gave to me in 2005. The first day clarified what my focus for the year will be (hopefully it will start a habit that will last a lifetime). The author eluded to three ways that Believers use scripture. The first is from a devotional approach, being encouraged by scripture as it is read and processed. The second is from a 'looking for life answers' approach, seeing what Scripture says about living life and how to make it through the difficult times. The third (the authors suggests is the most important) is spending time in Scripture to learn the mind of Christ. The idea has really stumped me and it intrigues me to begin the journey of having Christ's mind over this next year. How He thinks, How He acts, How He reacts to everyday situations. I've prayed for awhile now that I would have His eyes & ears as I wander through the day. I'm now adding to my prayer..."Lord, give me your mind today". As I spend time in your Word, as I walk in your Call, as I sit down and stand, let me think like you.
I hope that as you fasten your seatbelt and begin this new year that your days will be filled with chips and salsa, evenings with never ending Dr. Pepper fountains and as you lay your head down on your pillows Hot Tamale candies will dance in your minds.
And as I hope for those things, I pray that you'll see Christ come alive in your life in ways you can't imagine in the months to come.
Come and see us in 2011!

Jet Lag, Friends, Cold Weather & the Next Thing

A few days ago we landed safely @ DFW International Airport. Sydney & Nathan-Raegan were troopers through the entire ride. Kerry & I realized that they finally realized what was happening and what we were doing. Reagan continually asked what time it was and wondered if the airplane was going to leave us. He asked about every two minutes in Nairobi if it was time to get on the plane. Sydney just wanted to stand at the windows in Nairobi and London and watch the airplanes taxi, load and unload. At one point about 4 hours into the Sunday night leg (our flight from Nairobi leaves at midnight and arrives in London at 5:45am) with the entire plane dark and everyone asleep I looked over to see Syd staring at the video screen and rocking back and forth in her seat. I think she's been blessed with the ability to not be able to sleep like her father on a plane.
We return home with excitement, but we leave Kenya with a little bit of "not now". We're excited for salsa, McDonalds, and the people that we will get to connect with. I'm excited about driving in traffic with rules that actually are followed, Kerry is ready for a white Christmas in Colorado and the kids can't wait to see Memphis, they're golden doodle that we had to leave behind in Arkansas. We're all feeling the "not now" because November has finally been a good month after 4 extremely hard ones. They aren't boxes all over the house, our homework actually make sense when it comes home from school, and we'll miss our staff, students and new friends in Nairobi. I've decided in my mind that this is a good thing. Its good to want to come home, after all this is the background of our portrait. We count on our family and friends to be praying for us and supporting us as we experience God's calling in Kenya, so its fun to see them and reconnect. Its also good that we're wanting to go back (two months ago we'd weren't and coming home would of been dangerous). It was good to hear Kerry last night sigh when we slid into the bed with enough blankets to keep the cold out. It was that sigh you know means, "ahh this feels good, this is nice". I felt the same way. It was what she said that reminded me I'm married to an amazing woman of God, "I glad we're not apart of this, that home is over there." I wouldn't rate the Stickney family as the model missionary family. The make your family like this and you'll be able to serve the Lord where ever he places you. Far from it. I wouldn't say we've done the last 6 months in the best way possible, actually life together for 11 years. But I know this... we've trusted God and done the next thing.
My prayer for you and your family during this holiday season is that as you look back on this year and prepare for 2011 that you'll say to yourselves, "we've trusted God and done the next thing".
From the Stickney family to yours... Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. May this season be a sweet time with family and friends and find you following His lead in your lives.

Stop

Yesterday I was driving back to Nairobi from Nakuru after speaking to our freshman from Egerton University. Riding with me was one of our campus staff, Jonathan and one of our house staff, Tridings. Tridings and I are the same age, have kids the same age and both share the same sense of humor. During 2003 the students at First Baptist Harrison, Arkansas helped him buy an acre of land and build a small house on it. His wife lives there, farms the land and takes care of the kids. Triding pretty much runs the house, cooks for all of our conferences, keeps up with everything that needs to be fixed and is our "ear to the ground" guy with safety and the whatnot of the country.
As you travel from Nakuru to Nairobi you drive through the Great Rift Valley, passing three lakes, rolling hills, plains, forests, zebra, gazelle, baboons, and an extinct volcano. The scenery is breath taking and the traffic is terrifying, its the perfect collision of two opposites. Just after you pass the third lake, Naivasha, you begin to climb the east wall of the Rift Valley and as you crest the top of the climb you can see across the entire Rift Valley. The plains that stretch all the way to the Masi Mara seem to lead on forever, Mount Longonot towers in the middle of the valley and small farms dot the landscape. Like all good entrepreneur some locals have set up lookout points where tourists can stop, take in the view, buy a hot coke and buy carvings or whatever other piece of must have Kenya they can talk you into. I've stop plenty of times with teams from the US and in my travels back and forth now I almost run off the road trying to catch a glimpse as I keep moving to make good time.
Yesterday as we drove past the lookout points I asked Jonathan and Trini if they had ever stopped and looked. Jonathan said he thought his family stopped once or maybe it was a school trip, he couldn't remember. Triding, sitting in the back seat didn't hear me and so I asked again. He said "no, I never have. I've never had the time or the control to ask the bus I was on to stop. Its really beautiful, but I wonder what it looks like standing on the edge?" Tridings is 36, he's driven that road 300 times in his estimation and he's never stopped to look at one of the most majestic God creations in his own country.
During Worship today at church one of the slide backgrounds was of a mountain. When the slide came up, I stopped singing, sat down in my seat and dumbfounded thought to myself, why didn't you stop yesterday? I just kept driving, I had the ability to show something to Triding that he's never seen before and I kept moving. What was I thinking? Am I that driven? Am I that checked out of listening that the words "never" and "control" didn't compute?
YES
Yes, I'm that insensitive, that clued out, that preoccupied.
I always pray for our students to be able to hear God's whispers, the have His ears, His eyes, His words as they walk through their days. I pray the same for me. Yesterday I missed a whisper. Seeing the valley probably wouldn't of changed Tridings life in any great way, but it might have. I might of missed a divine appointment with someone at the spot we stopped. I might of just needed to take in the beauty for myself and see His handwork to remind me of who He is. I will never know.
When the ton of bricks dropped in church on me today it made me realize how quickly I move. I move from this to that with just this amount of time in between for whats planned. I've ordered my day in such a way that my prayer can't be answered. God's whisper is going to fall on deaf ears because I'm on the way to something else.
It reminds me of a story my father used to tell me, funny enough about the same stretch of road. In the early 80's the Kenya Open was a golf tournament that used to attract some of the biggest names in golf. One year Sam Snead came to play and Mom and Dad followed him around the course the first day. After Sam's round, Dad approached him and asked if he liked to fish, and Sam gave a resounding "yes". Dad told him about a great bass lake about an hour from Nairobi, told him he had a boat and that he'd love to sneak him away after his morning round the next day. Sam agreed and the plan was finalized. The next day after Sam's morning round they grabbed a quick bite to eat in the club house and headed off to Naivasha. Dad, intent on getting Sam as much fishing time as possible, had the pedal to the medal. As they drove Sam kept pointing and asking Dad "what's that, who's that, what do they do?" Dad shot back quick answers concentrating on getting to the boat and out on the water. Finally, after flying by wildlife, scenery and interesting sights Sam had enough, turned and looked at Dad and said, "Allen, have you ever stopped and smelled the flowers?" There's a picture I have somewhere in an album of Dad and Sam Snead standing on the bow of the boat both holding huge bass at Lake Naivasha. Every time I see that picture I remember the story and remember the crack in his voice as he got to Sam's line.
As one of my pastors used to say, "Not that your like me, but if you are", I'd encourage you to STOP. Stop and smell the roses, stop long enough to look, stop long enough to listen.
Tridings and I have a date set to head back for the view soon.

Surprises Around Every Turn

I'M A CREATURE OF HABIT and I bet if you thought about it, and were honest with yourself, you'd admit to being one as well. I've discovered over the last 4 months just how much of a creature I really am.
If you would of asked me a year ago where I thought we'd be 4 months into ministry in Kenya, I think my response would of been... settled in the house, kids settled in school, a good idea of our daily pattern, a working knowledge of each of our campuses and a good connection with our national staff team. I didn't know that I'd be where I am this evening as I write this.
The kids had their first day of school at their second school in 6 weeks today.
I've driven all over Nairobi searching for houses and have seen so many that I can't remember if that one has the shower and bath, or the other one has the great living room for ministry, or AHHHHH!
I do have a really good idea about what a normal week looks like, the problem is that normal week exists in Nakuru, not Nairobi.
Praise the Lord, my time on each of our campuses and spending time with staff has happened and I feel like we've got a great team of young men and women with a great plan to change the next generation of students in Kenya!
But my Creature of Habit wants to cry.... I'm learning that God has a surprise around every turn, maybe to keep me humble, most definitely to keep me desperate and convinced to keep all of us in just one habit....dependent on HIM.
I have to look at our 4 months in Nakuru and look through HIS lens, see HIS plan, notice HIS hand in the midst of what looks like chaos. Our ministry is connected to the community in the Nakuru area, thanks to the connections we've made at Virginia Children's Home and with a local high school. Meeting and getting to know three missionaries around the area will help us plug our students into the immediate community around them, helping them develop the habits of making a difference where God places them. I've been able to make it to every campus each month and begin to learn how our staff is reaching out and using their gifts.
It sounds holier than I really am (those of you that know me would agree), but I'm really refreshed at how God keeps us guessing. People tell me to "hang in there" and "keep at it", some here tell me I look tired. I'm thankful for the encouragement and the concern. I really am. BUT I love where God has me, where he has us. It does look and sound like chaos, but if you know the Stickney's (the younger ones that is) you know we've never done anything normal or easy. I love that our students get to watch us live life, trust God and do the next thing.
I want to encourage you to be ready for the surprise around the next turn and look for HIM as you round it! After all I'm a creature of habit and I want to be in the habit of TRUSTING HIM.

So Quick Update:
*Sydney & Nathan-Raegan have moved to the American school in Nairobi called Rosslyn. (Its a long story, ask Kerry she's better at telling it)
*We will move to Nairobi, our home campus will become Kenyatta University, but Tom will continue to invest time on every campus that we minister on.
*We officially have begun partnering with COMPASSION INTERNATIONAL and their Leadership Development Program. One of Tom's focuses at Kenyatta will be the 50+ students they have there. We will be filling the Spiritual Development part of the program on any campus that we have staff on for Compassion.
*We head home December 5th, arriving in Dallas Dec. 6th (we'd love to see you and eat salsa or drink starbucks together)

How you can Pray:
*Safe, Good Housing option in Nairobi (car jackings and break-ins are the norm in some areas of the city)
*Quick transition for Syd and Rae (they loved their first day of school today)
*Great opportunities at Kenyatta University
*Safety for Tom as he travels to the other campuses (the most dangerous thing we do here is driving)
*Kerry to connect with some ladies and moms as she builds a support group around her
*Continued Support from current ACO Partners and New ones that we are able to meet in December & January
*An amazing, faithful, inspiring Young man or Young woman to lead the next generation of students at our home church VRBC in Coppell where Tom left as Minister to Students.
*McDonalds to open a francise in Nairobi :)

God's Random Appointments

Have you ever walked through your day wondering if God has a plan for the day? Or for you at all? I can remember my days in Harrison and Coppell, moving from meeting to meeting with purpose and plan in place only to find a "God Appointment" in place. This past weekend such an appointment happened here, not that there hasn't been plenty, but this one has stood out.
We took the kids swimming and met a family from another part of the world. We talked about kids, life, school and other things. Thought I'd met a nice guy who I'd see around here and then. The same family happened to come to dinner this past weekend after Kerry bumped into them and asked them over. My new friends Faith story is amazing! We talked for about 2 hours about his conversion experience from Atheist to Christian. As we talked about faith, his questions were exciting, fresh and fun to answer. What I realized was that his experience was so raw and uncontrolled. So unlike what we might hear in our typical Christian circles. I sent him away with a Bible, My Utmost for His Highest & Messy Spirituality. That should do a good job of confusing the heck out of him or awakening his Faith. Either way I can't wait to see him and see how his "new" approach is going. Funny, I came to Kenya thinking I'd pour into college kids and I'm helping a British born again Atheist develop his faith.
Have you ever walked through your day waiting for God's plan to take shape? I am.

Blow'in n Go'in

As we finish up September here in Nakuru, I’m really excited about what God has been doing on campuses since students returned at the first of the month. This past week I was in Nairobi and got to meet with three of our staff about a new approach they’ve started. The University is unique from our other campus sites. Because of the number of students enrolled they are always in session. Our staff sometimes doesn’t know if the students they are spending time with are on campus or at home because semesters end and begin in the middle of months. It borders on insanity. When the students are on campus, grabbing their attention with so much going on around them in Nairobi. I challenged our staff during our last retreat to begin to think how they can be most effective where God has placed them. To study their situations and come up with a way to best communicate and do ACO’s bread & butter (small groups & one-on-one discipleship). Our Nairobi Campus Director, Edwin, took the challenge and came up with a great approach. The Nairobi staff gather their key students (15) and spend an entire Saturday teaching a piece of our Basic package (Quite Time, Evangelism, Prayer, Studying God’s Word, Journaling). The staff then takes their one-on-one time during the 3 weeks of the month with each student and encourages, practices and holds them accountable to what they’ve studied. The first session was a hit! The students can’t wait for October’s session on Evangelism.
I’m also really excited about what has been put into place here in Nakuru. You saw the pictures of our 1st year (freshman) picnic where we had 40 students show. This summer our Regional Director for the northern part of the country, Big Vic, took 5 sophomores and did a 2-month internship with them. These students are now leading Bible studies for the 40 freshmen that came to the picnic. Our staff on Egerton is now able to invest in the sophomores as they invest in the freshmen! The NEW piece of helping students connect with their surrounding community has begun as well. Julius Odua, just came on staff in Nakuru to help our Egerton staff connect students in the Virginia Home Orphanage and in two local high schools. The groups will begin going this week to the campuses and 3 different groups will be spending an afternoon in the orphanage teaching and mentoring. The orphanage is in dire need of teachers since all but 2 walked out 4 days in the school year with better offers. The two teachers have been covering 7 classes!
God is at work! Its fun to see and at the same time Satan is not pleased. Please continue to pray for our family as we settle into life here. Everyday continues to be a battle of new things; new experiences and situations that are nothing like our American culture. Pray for Sydney and Raegan with school. Pray for Kerry and I to remain ONE united front, always communicating with each other. Pray that we find some good solid friends that we can do life together with. Pray for our conference next weekend…we’re expecting 60 of our key students from 5 campuses.
With that I’ll say goodbye. I promise to stay more on top of this blog. I’ve sat down every day this week to write this and each time someone somewhere in the country has needed something.

Egerton University Kickoff Picnic for First Year Students

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