Church

   On Sunday morning I woke to the most beautiful sounds coming from outside…a church community just down the road was having services and in the African tradition were full of hymnals. It was beautiful to wake up to and a warm welcome to Africa.  Of course, I started to feel sad just a bit when I thought to myself about the fact that many LGBT individuals have been cast aside by the church, but then we attended a MCC meeting at our headquarters where there was a service for us. We sang and offered our thoughts on life and it was incredibly beautiful and poignant to kick start my experience here. I got to dive a little deeper with my colleagues and to start unwrapping the story of LGBT Kenyans.

   In the afternoon, my roommate David and I took an incredible walk through the country side where there was incredible scenery all around. I felt very blessed to be in that moment, and what made it more ironic was having had the service earlier in the day where we discussed having appreciation for the things around us, and then later in the afternoon we were surrounded by the beautiful nature of Kenya.

 I also loved getting to know David as well. It seems that he and I lead to very similar different lives. He is an incredible person and I feel so honored to be in his presence. He is a person who helped to found the LGBT organization here in Kenya and is it’s acting director. He once wanted to become a priest but found another calling in LGBT advocacy work.  As he and I discussed one another’s lives, I couldn’t help but identify how similar our lives were and the way in which we live our lives. We seem to have a ton in common and I’m so thankful to have him as a roommate.

   Later that night, Javince made us dinner and we had a great time eating and getting ready for work the next day.