Acadia Divinity College
Learning from the Church in Kenya
“D
on’t expect to make a huge impact on Kenya, but expect Kenya to make a huge impact on you.” These words of wisdom came from Canadian Baptist Ministries (CBM), to eight nervous seminary students from across Canada as we prepared to fly to Africa for the experience of a lifetime. We were accepted into CBM’s relatively new program called PRAXIS, an educational trip which sends students, all-expenses paid, to a location in the world where extraordinary mission work of the church can be observed first hand. Kristen Eaton, Craig Minard and I, from Acadia Divinity College, along with other Canadian students departed from Toronto to Nairobi, Kenya in May of 2008. The country had just emerged from a period of deadly post-election violence, and despite fears from folks at home, I had an overwhelming sense that I was doing God’s will. He was calling me outside my comfort zone in a way I could never have imagined. Our first week in Kenya was spent taking a course on “Integral Mission.” Integral Mission is CBM’s philosophy for missions, which aims to interconnect the proclamation of the gospel and the demonstration of the gospel. With Jesus Christ as the perfect model, the idea
by Michael Fredericks, 2nd year Master of Divinity
Michael Fredericks speaking to the children in the Eastleigh Community
is that traditional evangelism ought to go hand in hand with compassionate acts of social justice. One without the other is incomplete. This Biblically-based approach, which gives a great deal of attention to social justice, was clearly observed in several locations
around Kenya. The Kenyan Church is in many ways miles ahead of us. One of our most memorable visits was to the Eastleigh Community Centre. The centre, operated entirely by Kenyan Christians is situated in an extremely poor
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From the President . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Simpson Lectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 A Place that Transforms the Heart 4 Where are the Workers . . . . . . . . . 5
Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Course Offerings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Events Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Alumni Reaches Out. . . . . . . . . . . 8
How God Stretched My Faith . . . 9 Open Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Acadia Class Milestone . . . . . . . . 13 Alumni News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 1