End of First Term

Christmas is fast approaching and  although there is no place like home with friends and family during the holidays, we are content  where the Lord has placed us. Term break began two weeks ago and many things have taken place since then. I thought what I might do with this blog is take you through a few weeks of the school term, and point out the many things that take place during school here besides the normal dorm-parenting to 15 young ladies, dorm meetings, passing out medications, baking and making treats and the other duties such as teaching and managing the Arcade.

October 4-5:  In the last blog I told you that I would be going to a men's retreat. Several men came to the retreat from all over Kenya and some from Tanzania. Shel Arensen  invited the men to camp on his property in a remote setting called Malewa.  It was a beautiful place bordering a river with hippos, buffalo, and yes even a leopard nearby. Everyone had a time of relaxation and refreshing from busy schedules to fellowship, worship the Lord, hike, have a chili cook off (which our team won) and even do some masculine competitions like trying to start a fire with two pieces of wood and archery.

Fellowship around the camp fire

Hiking to the Falls

We cool off at the Falls

October 16-20: SEW, which stands for Spiritual Emphasis Week on campus is a time for staff and students to examine our spiritual walk with the Lord. A special speaker and worship team is invited to campus to lead the meetings.  This year Bay Forrest came to speak.  Bay was a former RVA dorm parent and college All American basketball player who was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics  out of college and went on the play with the Phoenix Suns during Julius Irving's (Dr. J) time. He had some really dynamic messages with many of the students re-dedicating their lives to the Lord.

October 21: Multi Cultural Day.  As mentioned in a previous blog, the student body is made up of students coming from about thirty different countries and cultures. During this day many dress in clothes that represent their passport countries. There were many stations on campus representing different parts of the globe with activities and games. I was in charge of a station that had a sling shot competition and Debbie was manning a station where craft flowers were made. An outdoor picnic at noon, a very moving flag ceremony where students entered Centennial Chapel with flags from there countries, and then a good old US football game with staff against students. (The old guys won again.)

Our Dorm Girls

Korean Fan Dance by the Titchies

Sling Shot Competition

Some of our Maasi Guards

Making paper Flowers

November 16:  Each term a drama is presented by the students.  This term it was "Get Smart" and several of our extremely talented dorm girls participated. In the pictures below are some of our very talented dorm girls.

November 23: Yes, we have Pinewood Derby here in a big way, and it is very popular.  Several weeks before the race many students, women, and men begin building their cars. I was on the committee this year and supervised the wood shop one day a week along with four other men who took another of the days. The event is held in the gym with a very large track and attended by many parents, staff and students.

 The very same day we had our end of term dorm party.  Debbie served all the girls a big Christmas dinner of chicken, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, and pineapple cheesecake. Following the dinner a fire was built, we went caroling around campus and then a movie night. Gifts were given out later in the week.

Starting to gather around for dinner

Eating

Decorating Christmas cookies

November 24: As you can see there is no rest for the weary.  As if that were not enough the very next morning I had my ninth grade boys' Sunday School class over for a waffle and home-made hot sausage breakfast.  After all the sausages I cooked were eaten one of the boy's turned to me and asked if I had any more.  We went to the fridge and cleaned  out of all my stash and fried up some more for the boys.

At the end term all the girls are busy studying for finals and preparing to completely move out of their dorm rooms for term break.  This is a very hectic time of packing and then cleaning the entire dorm including the lounge, bathroom, and hall ways.  A very thorough  inspection is then made before the students are allowed to leave campus to fly home or have their parents pick them up.

 Immediately following the student exit, AIM held their conference on campus.Several hundred  missionaries immediately came on campus the next day and eight families stayed in our dorm and guest room. We had several days of meetings and seminars and a time to get to meet other missionaries and even some of Debbie's former school mates including one who was a bridesmaid in our wedding. Our very dynamic speaker was Eddie Larkman who is now minister of the Corsham Baptist Church in Wiltshire (South West England).

Some of Debbie's RVA classmates

 Immediately following the conference we drove up to Aberdare National Park with two other couples for a very needed time of R&R and fly fishing. The cabin we stayed in is in the middle of the nowhere in the bush with many wild animals around us. We usually try to make a lot of noise when walking to our fishing spots through the brush but his time we walked right to within 25 yards of a very menacing looking Cape buffalo. We slowing backed away hoping he would not charge.  Thank the Lord he didn't and we then went to a different location to fish.

View from the back of the Cabin

View from the front of the cabin with two visiting elephants

A very friendly bush buck

There you have it.  Hopefully this blog gives you a little insight into the busy life of RVA missionaries.

Our most urgent prayer request for this blog is for Debbie's mother.  She has been struggling this year with congestive heart failure and has been in ICU lately.  Pray that the Lord will be with her, and restore her health if it is His will.  Pray for her 95 year old father during this time. Both of them were missionaries in Kenya for 14 years. Pray for Debbie as she is so far from her parents and family at this time.

Start of a new school year at RVA

Once again it has been too long since I last updated our blog.  We seem to always be so busy that it is hard to simply sit down and write about all the things the Lord has been doing in our lives. As many of you know we had to return to the States during the latter part of July and first part of August.  Since we originally came out as short term missionaries ( one year or less ) because of our age, we had to return to the States before returning for another one year term. We enjoyed catching up and visiting with family, friends and our home church. The time really went by quickly, since most of the time we were on the road, covering about 3500 miles in the few weeks we were there.

The end of August we returned to Kenya, flying into Nairobi airport.  The international wing of the airport had burned down while we were home and we didn't quite know what to expect on our arrival back in Nairobi.  The Kenyan government had tents erected for the overseas arrivals and we managed to get through customs efficiently. Since we arrived late at night (about 9:30 pm) we did not try to drive back to RVA after dark, which can be a dangerous endeavor in Kenya.  We stayed at Mayfield, which is an AIM missionary guest house the first night and shopped for groceries at a mall before returning to RVA the next morning.

                                             Waffles for breakfast on a Saturday morning!



Immediately upon returning we had meetings every day with staff meetings, new parent orientation, and learning and preparing for our new assignments. This year Debbie and I would be dorm parents to Junior girls, since our girls last year had all graduated and were now in college. Debbie is teaching Spanish 3 and I began the term teaching 7th CIT (computer) as well as managing the Arcade again. Since I had never taught that course previously, the first week I was busy preparing curriculum for the class. Three weeks into the term another missionary family returned and the class was turned over to him. I miss teaching them, but now have more time to devote to my other duties at the Arcade, teaching 9th grade Sunday School, Caring Community and being a dorm dad.

They've got rhythm!

It has been a long time since Debbie and I have had teen aged children and one of the concerns last year before coming to RVA was how we would relate to having the girls who would be in our care for the year. As you know we were blessed with great girls and it was a wonderful year getting to know and love them.  Since our girls were Seniors they have now left RVA and are scattered over the globe either attending college or waiting on the Lord to see what plan He has for  them. This year we have a whole new group of girls which are Juniors in High School. Once again we can confidently say we have been      blessed.  We have quickly learned to love each one of them, and are enjoying sharing  in their lives as they allow. There isn't one we would want to trade with other dorm parents.They all seem to love the Lord and many are involved in several campus ministries.

Enjoying our fire on a cold evening!

Watching a "chick flick"!

Laura (on right) baking cookies with her Jr. High youth group girls

A few weeks into the term Debbie and I were able to help along with other staff in taking approximately forty- eight students on an outreach program to an IDP camp. For those who may be new to our blog, IDP stands for Internally Displaced People. These camps were set up to house refugees from a previous election a few years back. During that election there was much political violence between some of the tribes, and thousands of people were killed and many more injured.  Many people were chased from their homes and businesses and lost everything they had including their means of employment and earning money. They are now living in makeshift tents of torn plastic and cloth with no means of steady employment.

  Many of the children get little to eat.  One of the Kenyan nationals I work with, John Karanja, has been ministering to the camp, many times at his own expense. He has started a church there and each Sunday helps to feed a meal to many of the children. Our home church has felt called to help support this ministry. The church has been meeting under a tree since it was begun, but this past year a new church building has been erected. John has begun taking classes towards his pastoral degree at the Moffet Bible College while working full time at RVA.

As many of you already know two weeks ago an al Qaeda linked group called al Shabaab attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.  Most of the staff here at RVA frequently shopped at this mall.  Three of the families on staff here were at the mall, some with their children, during the attack and were trapped inside for several hours in hiding .  Praise the Lord they all managed to safely escape, but they did witness some of the carnage.  Pray that they will be protected from any lasting emotional anxiety from this incident. Continue to pray for the safety of all the students in the school.

This week I hope to attend a men's camping retreat with several of the other men on staff here.  The retreat will last through the weekend, but I will return early Saturday evening to help Debbie with Caring Community. Caring Community is a night that we get a chance to spend with a mixed group of seventh graders playing games, eating, and just spending the evening getting to know them.  We enjoyed having the same age group last year and requested the same age group this year.  This will be our second time with them since the term began. Seventh graders have enough energy that it requires both of us to be here with them.

Continue to uphold us in prayer.

It has been almost two months since our last blog and the school year is rapidly coming to a close. Time seems to accelerate here in Kenya as graduation of our senior girls nears. We were remarking the other night that when we first came we experienced new smells, and all the food including the cereal tasted strange to us.  Even the meat was gamier tasting, but now everything smells and tastes normal to us.  I guess we are official Kenyan residents.

 Debbie and I have grown to love all of the girls whom God and parents have entrusted into our care here. This will make it all the more difficult to see them graduate and transition to either the U.S. or their passport countries to attend college and work. We will miss them dearly.

Please pray for these girls and all the senior students at RVA.  These are TCK's (Third Culture Kids). They are a special breed. Many have not been able to remain long in any one place for most of their lives. Their missionary parents may have moved to several venues during their childhood. Every three months they go back to their parents for a month and then they must say goodbye to their parents and transition back to RVA.  Many of them find it difficult to make deep and lasting friendships because it hurts when they see families and friends leave just when they begin love them. For many, their grandparents and relatives don't have a real place in their memories. Even the missionary staff here at RVA is fluid. Over thirty percent of the staff will either go on furlough or leave for other mission fields this year at RVA. For these reasons TCK's are special young people. They have  experienced more cultures, more hardships, more airports, seen more death, more starvation, more AIDS ,and experienced more heartbreaks than most of the children in the States. Many of the young people they will meet in the States and other countries will find them different and will never fully understand their experiences or be able to relate to them. They will seek out other TCK's with whom they can relate and will be restless and find it hard to remain in one place for any length of time. Going to college will be yet one more transition of many for them as they leave their classmates here at RVA and travel to a strange culture.  Yes, the U.S. will be a strange culture to many of them.

One of the girls remarked to us the other day that she was happy to be graduating from RVA, but that she was sad to have to say goodbye to all the friends she has allowed herself to grow close too. For TCK's this is a continual fact in their lives.

Please pray for these young people as they make this adjustment.  Pray that they will see God preparing the way before them as they make true and lasting friends and that they will be able to adjust to a new culture once again as they begin college.

A note of praise is that Debbie's back continues to heal.  A physical therapist from the States did a short term mission trip to RVA and was able to diagnose that Debbie had somehow partly dislocated her hip or pelvis and was able to put it back into proper position.  She experienced almost immediate relief after many months of constant pain.

Lion pride eating a kill.

During term break we were able to do more traveling. We traveled with two other couples and their two daughters (eight of us). Our first stop was Aberdares, a national park that I had previously camped in and had done some fly fishing. Debbie had never been there before.  This time instead of camping in tents with the wild animals, we stayed in a fishing cabin. In the morning a park employee is supposed to build a fire under a water tank to heat up water for a shower.  Unfortunately, a few days before we arrived some elephants were rooting in the ashes for minerals and tore up the tank and water pipes, so we had to take cold showers. From there we traveled to Lake Baringo where we saw many different species of birds and had hippos and crocodiles  come right up to the cottage during the night!  Then we were off  to Nakuru National Park to see more animals. We had a great time with friends and got a much needed rest.

A bush buck comes to the porch of our cabin to eat some crumbs.

Christina and Hannah

Near the end of term break, Christina Saadeh and Hannah Jackson came to visit us and see RVA.  Christina had trained with us at AIM headquarters in Peachtree City, Georgia prior to our coming to Kenya.  She and Hannah, from the UK, are now teaching school in the Korr region of Northern Kenya. While they were here, we had almost six inches of rain in one night which caused multiple mudslides on the mountains around the area. Several of the homes in RVA and the lower station had mud wash in and a large section of the security fence was destroyed and washed away. Fortunately, there was no one  injured and no serious damage to any of the homes here on campus, but tragedy did strike up the hill from the school. Three young girls were trapped and killed in their home while mud engulfed it and their father helplessly looked on and was unable to rescue them.

Debbie being helped as she walks to the Duka for food.

Mudslide on upper campus

Damage to the security fence

Guard trail

Richae after helping Debbie walk to the Duka

Following term break, we were invited to dinner at the home of one of the Kenyan families that works here at RVA. Steven Mwathi and his wife have adopted three Kenyan children and opened their home to two others in addition to their three biological children. They have been trusting God to provide the resources to not only house and feed the children, but to supply the money to educate them.  In Kenya there is no free education. The families need to pay tuition for each child and be able to purchase uniforms for them or they are not allowed to attend school. Debbie and I have felt led by the Lord to help this family in addition to  some donations that Christine and Omar brought from their church in Baltimore while visiting us in December.

Stephen & Mary  Mwathi and family

 Term break was soon over and the students returned to campus much to our delight.  We really miss the girls when they are gone. Besides being a dorm parent, Sunday School teacher, and Arcade manager I took on one more job this term.  I was asked to teach a class on Personal Finance. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, everyone at RVA wears many hats since there is a limited number of staff to do many jobs. I have a class of ten seniors which I  really enjoying teaching.  They are all great students and seem to put up with me. Since I am not a trained teacher, pray that I will impart some lasting knowledge to them that will help them in the future. Debbie continues to teach three class of Spanish.

Once again the dorm was filled with laughter and noise. The usual routine of dorm parties, dorm meetings, devotions, birthday dinners, and visitors filled the void of the dreaded silence that occurs during term break. This third and last term will be both wonderful and sad as we see the girls graduate and move on to college.

Making pizza in our kitchen

A birthday dinner with  twin sisters and their friends

Dorm party tacos

Each term we do an outreach project with some of the students.  Ted Rabenold who has been a missionary in Tanzinia for many years has been working at RVA teaching Swahili and is also one of the dorm parents for junior girls right above our dorm. He has been involved teaching the local nationals how to do beekeeping and earn some income from the sale of honey. Earlier in the year Ted and I donated a bee hive to John Karanja who works with me in the Arcade. Bees have since moved into the hive and John is interested in getting his family started in keeping bees and selling the honey. Ted,along with two other missionary staff at  RVA and I, took several of the high school boys over to the Karanja family property and set up an apiary with three additional bee hives along with two more bee hives John and his family had built. Several of the students put on bee suits along with us to inspect the one active bee hive on the property.  Following a morning of hard but productive work, we were all invited into their home for a meal of Ugali, sweet potatoes, green potatoes, and Chai. We ate in traditional Kenyan fashion using our fingers and not silverware. We had a great time of fellowship with fellow bothers and sisters in Christ.

Bee hives placed on the apiary

green mashed potatoes eaten with fingers

I got to watch my first Rugby match this year.  At first it seemed like a big game of " keep away" with tackling and strange rules. Fortunately, several long time residents slowly filled me in with the rules of the game and it is starting to make more sense. I still am partial to American football, but Rugby certainly comes in second.

The match was a country wide match held in Nairobi with teams from all over Kenya and possibly some from elsewhere.  Our senior boys went un-defeated and not even a point scored against them until the championship game where they lost by one "Try" (touchdown in American football).  Our JV team took first place in the runner-up game. We were proud of all of them,  there were no serious injuries to our boys during the games, and their play was a great Christian witness.

During interim break while our senior girls went on Senior Safari, Debbie and I were able to get to Nairobi for some needed shopping.  Candace, a fellow missionary, and Diana, a lifelong UK resident of Kenya, invited us to accompany them to a tea farm for a tour and Sunday dinner.  The tea farm we visited was started by an English man about a hundred years ago and was one of the first commercial tea farms in Kenya.  Kenya is now one of  the largest exporters of tea in the world.  There are also many coffee farms.  Both the tea and coffee are some of the best I have ever tasted. The tea exported to the States is usually a mixture of several grades of tea, but in Kenya you can purchase the best grade of tea.

Having tea and dinner on the tea farm lawn with Candace, a fellow missionary

Chinese embassy personnel dining at the tea farm

A resident of the team farm watching us eat dinner

.As the term draws to a close in July, please keep our girls in prayer as they transition away from Kenya. Debbie and I will be returning to the States for a few weeks at the end of the term.  Before leaving we will have to move out all of our rental furniture and household items such as dishes etc.  We will then have to move in furniture from some missionaries going on home assignment and will have people staying with us during that period.  This must all be accomplished before the end of term since our flight to the States is the day after graduation.  Keep us in prayer for this busy time and that Debbie's back will not inhibit her in any way.