Christmas in Kenya

Editor's note: Brad Crofford is a freshman Speech Communication/ Politics & Law major at Southern Nazarene University. He is the co-author of the children's missions book Aunts and Uncles Everywhere.

My brother John and I left Oklahoma City around noon on December 19^th, and 24 hours later, we had arrived at our destination, halfway around the world. After several long flights, a hectic layover in Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris, and some lost baggage issues, we were greeted by our parents at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. We loaded our things into the car and headed to their house.

Because my parents, Greg and Amy Crofford, are Nazarene missionaries and John and I are students at Southern Nazarene University, we had gone almost six months without seeing each other. John and I got to visit my parents because of a World Mission benefit that allows missionary kids to visit their parents on the mission field once during their college career. This is a very important benefit, because one of the hardest things of being on the mission field is being away from family. I remember as a kid growing up in Benin and the Ivory Coast that my family would miss numerous family reunions, having to settle for a VHS greeting from the family instead of actually participating in reunion activities. My brother and I would go up to four years at a time without seeing our grandparents. The difficulties of this kind of familial separation are even more difficult when it is between missionaries and their college-age kids. While the occasional Skype call or Facebook conversation can help somewhat, it cannot help with separations as long as two years. The chance to visit one’s parents on the field is a great travel opportunity for students, but is even more important for maintaining the morale of missionaries and their kids.

During our three weeks in Kenya, my brother and I spent as much time as possible with our parents, doing things that are unavailable to us in Oklahoma. We drove around the Nairobi National Park, a game park in the middle of Nairobi. We saw zebras, ostriches, warthogs, baboons, antelope, and other exotic wildlife that is not commonly found in Bethany. I expected to dsee wild animals in Kenya, but I was very surprised to see several large malls with food courts and cinemas, some of which even showed Avatar at the same time that it came out in the United States!

We worshiped on one Sunday morning with the French congregation at Nairobi Central Church of the Nazarene, and then praised God the following week with the University Church on the campus of Africa Nazarene University. Having grown used to singing worship songs in just English, it was great to once again sing (or at least try to sing) in French, Swahili, and some languages I didn’t even recognize!

We toured the campus of Africa Nazarene University, went to the Giraffe Sanctuary (where my dad actually got to feed one), and sang Christmas carols with other Nazarene missionaries in Nairobi. We visited Amboseli National Park (a game park famous for its elephants and view of Mt. Kilimanjaro) and saw elephants, hyenas, giraffes, wildebeest, hippos, baboons, flamingos, antelope, and a lot of other wildlife. We went to a Maasai village.

Because my family enjoys museums, we visited the Nairobi National Museum and marveled at the diversity of Kenyan wildlife on display. The last major adventure of our visit was a trip to Diani Beach, a tourist beach on an island just south of Mombasa. We got to read books along the beach, try out the local fare, and, being a nerdy family, we read through Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

While all of these activities were great fun, the best part of the vacation was just being able to spend Christmas and New Years with my family. Thank you for supporting World Mission and giving us the opportunity to visit our parents halfway around the world, and to spend the holidays as a whole family.