“Jina langu ni Amy!” I practiced over and over again while working with my new language tutor, Edward… or rather, “Jina lake ni Edward.” When a friend of mine started language lessons, I decided it was time I did too! The kind and gentle man spent our first lesson giving me the history of Swahili, working on introductions and on greetings.

On and off for the past year, I’ve been sporadically using duo-lingo working through their game-like levels they have set up. I’ve been practicing vocabulary, and have had fun learning new funny sounding words.

For instance, “dada” you’d think it’s dad… nope. It means sister! And kaka… what I’m used to meaning poop…well, that’s brother. Or one of my all time favorites, pilipili hoho. Got any guesses? Try green pepper! It’s a little confusing sometimes when words like NyiNyi means both grandma, and tomato, or pole means sorry, but pole pole means slowly. I was familiar with almost all of the words that Edward taught me, but I was shocked at how hard it was to actually respond to his questions using those words in real sentences. By the end of the hour, my brain was mixing up my singular and plural pronouns, and was saying the wrong vowel sound for the wrong word…. langu vs yangu, lake & yake instead of lako & yako… it all blurred together in who we were asking the name of!

I left excited and inspired, but also contemplative… mulling the difference between knowing the words versus using them in a sentence. I learned new words for yes and no, but found myself choosing ndeo and hapana, the ones I already knew!

It reminded me of the bible study I just started with some other staff ladies in the book of James. Verse 1:22-23 says, “Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says, otherwise, you’re only fooling yourself. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror, you see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.”

I had been fooling myself that I had been learning Swahili. I knew a few vocab words, but when my friend and I have our Kenyan friends over, I’d sit there and smile as they chattered away in Swahili instead of trying to practice or engage. Our faith is the same way. Instead of simply knowing our faith in our heads, faith is something that has to be lived out. Practiced.

When James 1:2 says, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.” That doesn’t mean, “When trials come, stick your head in the sand, or avoid facing them by binge watching a season of x, y, or z TV show.” It means pray. It means trust God, lean on your faith in those moments as a way to be strengthened and upheld.

I didn’t know quite how soon these I would need to do what I had just been contemplating. At 12:19AM my time on Thursday morning, my sister woke me up with a phone call,

“Mom and Dad were just in a motorcycle accident. Dillon (our cousin) was one of the officers first on the scene. He called Uncle Clark who called me. Dillon said dad wasn’t responsive and mom can’t move half of her body. They’re on their way to the hospital.”

Unsure of what else we could do, me in Kenya, her in California, our parents in Michigan, we prayed together. After our prayer, we divvyed up the calls. She called our mom’s siblings, I would call our other sister. While talking to her and discussing the implications of the fact that she was the only sibling in the area, we got the first bit of good news. Mom was texting.

“… got in a motorcycle accident… on the way to the hospital… can you start the prayer chain?”

I was so thankful in that moment for my mom’s example of faith. Her very first request was to mobilize the prayer warriors. It wasn’t that Rosie meet them at the hospital (which by then we was in process of doing anyways), it wasn’t to call her sister, it was to pray. So as I sat on my bed in the middle of the night, knowing there would be people praying, my heart slowly started to calm down.

As I was there in the dark sending out messages to my moms friends and church family asking for prayer, a friend of mine sent me an unrelated marco polo (video message app). I called her and asked for her to pray with me. Again, the prayer calmed my heart as we asked for healing for my parents, clarity of mind for my older sister and peace for myself and my younger sister who were thousands of miles away from home.

Answers slowly started coming in as x-rays and CT scans began to reveal the extent of their injuries. I was able to video call with each of my parents, seeing them in good spirits and making jokes.

Dad: “I feel great!”
Sister: “Considering…”
Dad: “No really, some mornings I wake up feeling worse than this.”

Mom: “Why is my sister driving up here again!?”
Sister: “You were in a motorcycle accident.”
Mom: “Oh RIGHT…”

X-Rays revealed that mom had 4 broken ribs and a broken scapula… very painful injuries that would lead to a long slow recovery, but not life threatening. Praise the Lord!

CT scans showed my dad had a brain bleed, moving him into the ICU for hourly neuro-checks and close monitoring of its progression.

Having seen both parents and knowing no more news would come for a while, around 2am, I decided it might be prudent to try to sleep… after tossing for an hour or so I’m sure, I was able to rest again before waking up at 6am to start my teaching day.

By then, mom had been discharged and sent home with my Aunt and dad was still being closely watched. My sister was sitting up with dad and giving me regular updates, something that I was so thankful for as it was the middle of the night for her as I began my first classes of the day.

As prayer warriors in Michigan began to go to bed, those in Kenya were just waking up to take up the vigil. I was so encouraged by my coworkers messages and notes that they were praying. By 7th period, my dad was in his follow up CT scan that showed the brain bleed had stopped on it’s own. By the time I was in bed last night, he too was discharged.

While a harrowing couple of days, the Lord’s faithfulness was all over this situation.

• Both of my parents were wearing helmets… my mom always does, but my dad doesn’t always.
• My cousin was one of the first on the scene, meaning we were able to start praying right away
• While the foot-peg of the bike is firmly imbedded in the door of the car that hit them, somehow both of my parents legs made it out of the way unscathed
• Nobody died. Motorcycle accident. Enough said.
• My Aunt is able to come up from Kansas & stay with them for a few weeks! I’m so glad they’ll be well cared for.
• Just over a day later, and they’re both already discharged from the hospital.
• My parents church is surrounding them in love and support, different ladies staying with them until my Aunt arrives, a meal sign up already circulating.
• The Lord gave me peace, providing love and prayers from those around me here.
• Technology is amazing, and I was able to walk alongside my family, gaining updates in real-time as they happened.

The Lord is so good in going before us, even in the small things like starting this study of James just this week, reminding me to lean into him in the trials. Things have been going really well with classes this week, putting me ahead (GASP!) in planning my lessons, making these last couple of days teaching go really well, allowing me to focus on my family situation while still fulfilling my obligations here. The Lord gives us ups, the Lord gives us downs. While praying for my family back home, I still have things here I can enjoy and look forward to, like learning Kiswahili.

And in case you wondered about the title of this post… piki means motorcycle. 🙂

Prayer Points

• Please pray for my parents healing, complication free.
• Please pray for my mom as moving is very painful due to all the broken bones, and the broken ribs increase the risk of things like Pneumonia. She is supposed to get up and walk hourly, but it is very hard & painful to do.
• My dad is a go-getter and is in the middle of a big house project. Please pray he has the patience to give his body & mind time for healing before jumping back in. When talking to him, I could tell he thought he was firing at 100% and doing just fine, but it was clear to me he needs to give his brain time to heal from the injury, even if his body is “only bruised.”
• Please pray for my sister who is in town, knowing how to support them while going back to work, and for my Aunt who will be helping take care of them
• Praise- things here at RVA have been going well and I’m enjoying teaching and having moments to connect with various different students! More on this likely in another blog post later 😉