In one of the first weeks of school this year, three senior girls watched me come back from my second period prep with a coffee in hand, having walked down to our local coffee shop “Kijabe Kahawa” to meet with a friend.

They very quickly decided this looked like a fun Monday pattern, and asked if they could come with me sometime, then asked if it could become routine. Sure!

I love coffee. I love them. Why not take 45 minutes every Monday morning during my prep period and their study hall to enjoy some time together? And so a pattern began.

Initially, I brought work, they brought work. The idea was to “do study hall” at Kijabe Kahawa. I started noticing though, I’d bring work, they’d bring work, but neither of us would actually start or accomplish anything. After some time, I was the only one bringing work. They’d leave their backpacks by the chai tree, and carry up more than one coffee back up the hill, now bringing some for friends. A few weeks ago, I was working on grading a few papers that REALLY needed to get done and was eavesdropping on them.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.” I continued grading papers as they chanted this over and over again. I began to think about what they were talking about, and a wrestle with sin in my life I’d been in prayer about just that morning surfaced in my mind.

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Powerful. As I was dwelling on this thought pattern that had been plaguing me, the girls repeated over and over again “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

2 Corinthians 10:3-5. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Having only been half listening, it took me far too long to realize they were studying for their Bible memory quiz for Bible class, and this was their verse they had to recite today. As we walked back up the hill I began to ask them what the weapons are that we have to fight with.
It talks about weapons not of this world, but what does that look like? How do we take these thoughts captive? How do we make them obedient to Christ? Sure, I was challenging them, but I was also challenging me. Their homework assignment brought me to a place of dwelling and meditating on God’s word, one of the very weapons I think this passage is referencing!

Last Monday as they began their in-unison-chanting once more:

“Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ…”

Let me tell you- this passage is not an easy one to remember! Five different times in five different ways in the first four verses Peter uses the word “through.” He talks about Jesus Christ, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and of God of Jesus our Lord. He uses the word “these” pretty ambiguously, more than once, referencing different subjects of the sentence each time.

But the message is beautiful: our knowledge of God gives us everything we need to live a godly life. God calls us in HIS glory and goodness to participate in his divine nature through his great and precious promises, that we may have peace in abundance outside the corruption of this world.

Two weeks ago they memorized 2 Peter 1-2. This past week, verses 3-4. Tomorrow we’ll spend 45 minutes together memorizing 5-6 and next week verses 7-8.

Yes, we. I’ve been sucked into the bible memory challenge. I’ve been dwelling on His great and precious promises all week, pondering what knowledge of God I have that empowers me to live a godly life. As memorizing verses has gotten a little harder the older I’ve gotten, I’ve come to appreciate it isn’t always about knowing something word for word, but about meditating and dwelling on God’s word.

Maybe this week I’ll come prepared! Our next verse is a series of words in a very specific order. I think I’ll cut them out, put them on paper so together (or just this older brain who needs a little more tactile experiences) I can put them in order with my hands instead of just chanting together “Faith, goodness…knowledge…self-control…perseverance…godliness…mutual affection… love.”

A friend of mine recently said, “discipleship isn’t always taught, sometimes it’s caught.” I love that I get to do life alongside these students, showing up in ways that sometimes turn into something so much deeper than just a hot cup of coffee.

Prayer Points

-Would you pray that these students would hide God’s word in their hearts? It is so easy to just ‘memorize’ something for a test, and so much harder to grasp it and hold onto it forever. With this passage being 8 verses long in total, it is a really cool way to store God’s word in their hearts, but sometimes for them it becomes another homework assignment on the list.

-The next few weeks hold some really fun student-interactions for me! Another senior store, a hike and campout in the crater of a volcano, then leading an “African Field Studies” week-long trip to Lamu, an island in the Indian ocean and one of Islam’s holy sights. Would you pray that with each of these opportunities to ‘do life’ with the students, God would open the door for sweet moments of mentoring and discipleship?