A Day at NEGST and then I'm "Goin' Home"!

I’ve had a wonderful day at NEGST – the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology.  There was no set schedule for me to follow and I was told I could just start walking around and talking to people…most of you know I have enough of my dad in me that that was no problem.  At breakfast I happened to run into Paul, the Executive Director of one of the not for profit organizations that supports NEGST and someone our church as partnered with for several years.  I thought it was fortunate that he was here the same week I was going to be visiting and he was very gracious with his time.   He let me join him for breakfast and even sit in on one of his meetings.  He arranged for me to have a tour of the campus and even shared his lunch and his dinner time with me.

I also learned the reason Paul was here this particular week.  You see on Friday, NEGST will be hosting the President of Kenya (!) as he presides over the official ceremony that recognizes the transition from NEGST to a full-fledged university, heretofore to be known as African International University, or AIU.  What a wonderful time to be here – everyone is excited about the events at the end of the week, the grounds and the buildings are getting all spruced up and even the roads will be repaired.  It seems that everywhere the President goes, the Minister of the Roads goes ahead of him and makes sure the roads are smoothed out 2 days ahead of time….I’m thinking the Minister has never driven through the Mara….

This is a beautiful campus, even without any sprucing up.  Newer buildings and facilities like the library, the faculty building, and the administration building that holds the computer lab where I spent the last half of the afternoon.  And refurbished older buildings that used to be part of the original farm (fondly referred to as the “coop” as they were old chicken coops) which are used for class rooms and study rooms and they even are host to a book store, a children’s library for the children’s school also located on campus, and a convenience store.  The campus also has its own health center and the centerpiece of it all is a beautiful chapel.

Here's some shots of a few of them...

This is the library

This is looking down a couple of rows of the "coops"

This is just outside a cafe on campus

This is one of the student housing units - they start at letter "A" and go all the way to "T".  The bottom two levels are for families and the top level is for single students.

Here's a shot of the school that they have for the children of the graduate students.  It's actually a combination daycare/preschool/primary school.  Very nice as many of the students have families with them.

Here's a shot of the chapel from the side.

I didn’t have a set itinerary so I pretty much roamed the campus introducing myself to people and getting to know who they are and what they do.  I’ve found them all to be very friendly and gracious with their time.  This is truly an international university as they have many students from various countries in Africa including Sudan and Ethiopia and they also have students from as far away as Brazil.  The student body is about 500 and the total faculty and staff must be about another 100.  It’s clear that this is a premier theological graduate seminary program and they even attract students from the United States and Europe to come here to study.  As they move to University status they will also begin to add degrees in Business and Psychology, all with a firm Christian foundation.  I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for this place….and with any luck, maybe I’ll be back some day to see for myself first hand!

This is Paul on the left and the University Librarian, Efriam on the right.  They invited me to join them for tea and mandazi (Kenyan donuts)...how nice!

This was during small group time where the senior faculty meet with a group of their advisees to discuss, pray, and plan for their upcoming studies.  I took this shot across the campus to give you a nice full view of the chapel in the background.

I am now sitting in the airport at Nairobi waiting to begin my journey home.  I’ve got about 25 hours of travel ahead of me once this first flight takes off and I’ve already been up 18 hours….I’m sure hoping I can sleep on at least one of those long flights!

It’s been a truly amazing 11 days.  I never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would go to Africa, let alone experience the things I did along the way.  I hope this blog has given you a little glimpse into what I’ve experienced and I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it if you ever stop me in person…!

And now I'm ready to go home to see my family.  I’ve missed them all very much (and the rest of you too)…just a warning to Connor and Tommy, I will be expecting hugs from each of you as well when I see you!

So now, I’m “Goin' Home”...