Kenya Spur Afrika 2021 - Christmas travel

Travelling at Christmas time can always seem a bit hectic. There are often many competing demands, co-ordination with multiple parties and tight deadlines. This year has added uncertainty, with COVID-related concerns and travel restrictions. This has also affected the planned visit to Spur Afrika Kenya.

In fact, just about every ‘plan’ for the past two hears has, in project-management terms, been affected by ‘VUCA’ – volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

Christmas is no stranger to VUCA, however. At the time of Jesus’s birth, VUCA even effected the Magi (‘Wise Men from the East’) who came to celebrate Jesus’s birth.

The Magi embarked on a long and hazardous journey with incomplete – and, by our standards, flawed – information. The Magi needed to seek additional information along the way. The person who had the resources to provide the information was the King of Judea, Herod the Great. Herod had a very ambiguous, very different intent to the Magi themselves. The situation between the Magi and Herod was so volatile, the Magi had to change their plans mid-course and depart from Judea secretly.

But the greatest change in plans for Magi was perhaps presenting their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to a child who did not appear ‘Great’ in the traditional power sense of the word. Yet the Magi not only presented their valuable gifts to a child of an ‘ordinary’ family, but also bowed down and worshipped Him (Matthew 2:11).

In these uncertain and volatile times, I pray that God can provide the clarity to adapt and flexibly and patiently respond to changes in circumstance. All the time with a clear vision - being ready to put aside pre-conceived ideas about how things should be - of the beauty that is God with us and amongst us.

Spur Afrika trip 2021-2022 posts