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.