Happy Valley
Altitude. Alcohol. Adultery. By God’s grace only one of those three A’s came to define Rift Valley Academy, altitude.* However the influence of the other two probably got a little too close for comfort at times.
Amid the equatorial highlands in the 1920’s, not too far from Kijabe, was a place that came to be known as Happy Valley. The citizens of this mythical valley were part of a group of British aristocrats who had gained a reputation for rampant hedonism. A History Channel documentary speculates that these colonial settlers, having been set free from their ancestral duties, established a party lifestyle that maintained the single pursuit of pleasure in the excessive use of alcohol, drugs and sex.
One couple even threw days-long parties where all guests were required to sleep with someone before the party ended. The only caveat: It had to be someone other than who they came with.
On the evening of January 23, 1941 another evil was added to the list of Happy Valley sins, murder. Josslyn Hay, Earl of Erroll, was found dead in his car with a bullet through his head. The suspect, Jock Delves Broughton, husband of Lord Erroll’s very public lover, Lady Diana Broughton, was later acquitted. This incident and the whole culture of Happy Valley inspired the book and 1987 movie White Mischief as well as the BBC television drama The Happy Valley. Don’t take this as a recommendation to watch either one.
So what was Happy Valley’s impact on the young missionary organization and school? Isolation. Phil Dow writes, “In a very real sense, life at RVA had taken on the feel of a monastery. And for better or worse that “other worldly” perspective became ingrained in the young students.”
Where is Happy Valley in our own day? May we resist the rampant hedonism all around us, not by hiding from it, but by fighting it with a hedonism much greater than any pleasure this world could possibly afford, joy in Christ. “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalms 37:4) Or as John Piper would say,
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him”
* – That’s not to say that alcohol and sexual lust have never been an issue for students at RVA. They’ve just never defined the school.