A month that changed my life

Hey everyone

We want to thank you all for your continued support for our minisitry and thank you to all of our supporters for helping us to return in August to continue our ministry. The Lord helped us to raise around $800 of the $1000 that we needed a month in order to return in August. We are still waiting to hear from a few contacts but once again the Lord continues to affirm that being in Kenya is where He wants us now. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us a great deal this past month.

I have sat down to write this entry so many times and I still don't think I have figured out how to convey all that the Lord has lead us through this past month. It has been a life changing month for us and a very intense return from our furlough this summer. For those of you who don't know what has happened in our lives, we lost two friends in a tragic airplane crash in Kenya at the beginning of August. One week before we were due to come back to Kenya I found out through facebook that my friend Ryan was in serious condition in the hospital due to an airplane crash. I tried desperately for days to get a hold of my good friend Dawn who is his wife to find out exactly what was going on. After a few days in the hospital in Nairobi Ryan was airlifted down to a special burn hospital in South Africa. One week after the airplane crash Ryan passed away due to internal injuries and burns over 70% of his body. In a quick moment he had decided to take a short airplane ride with his friend Frank, (the other pilot who died) they were taking 2 filmmakers over the slums to make a documentary on what life is like for Kenyans and living on $1.50 a day. The engine of the plane just stopped and they were unable to get it going again. Ryan and Frank both died doing what they loved best and living in God's will for their lives. I feel like God had great mercy over Ryan in those last days and took him to be home with him because he knew the great multitude of pain and suffering he would experience in trying to recover from his wounds. I don't think Ryan would have been able to return to the work he loved most and that was fixing airplanes. I have never really seen this side of God in this way and it was such a unique thing to experience.

We returned on a Monday night and by Tuesday at noon I was sitting with my friend Dawn supporting her through the first of two memorial services for the men. The following Saturday we had the service for Ryan. I don't think anything can prepare you to be the type of friend that a person needs when they have lost a loved one. I have never been so intimately a part of someone's deep soul wrenching pain. It feels even harder knowing that the loss is felt by 8 children who were left behind. I petitioned God for a ton of wisdom and understanding. I felt your prayers as I tried to just do life with my friend who had just lost the love of her life. God has taught me a lot this past month, there were days that I felt like I had aged 10yrs overnight. It has been an unforgettable experience to be a part of a missionary community that has surrounded these two women and helped them through the first difficult month. The two women and families were well taken care of day and night. My friend Dawn is currently in the states but plans on returning in November to finish out her term until June. After a year long furlough she is hoping to return to Kenya to continue her work as a missionary. If you want to read more about these two men and their story you can find it at http://www.aimair.org/page21/page21.html

On top of this emotional turmoil with my friend we were also dealing with a multitude of adjustments with Kayla. Honestly there have been days this past month where I just started crying out to God asking Him how much more Lord.... how much more can I take. I am broken.... I think one major thing we have learned with having a special needs child is that there are few things that are easy with her. This month has been a major month in transitions with Kayla and we had a difficult beginning with Kindergarten. Poor kid having to deal with jet lag, a new school, new friends, new medications, new diet, and on top of that a two week long nasty virus. Having to give Kayla 10 new supplements and medications 3 times a day has added a whole new level of intensity to our family life. On an emotional level we have had to work through grief again and accepting again that our child has special needs and we need to do life with her where she is at. It's humbling having your child at the school where you work and now other people you work with are invited into your own personal family life. We are hoping all of these new supplements and diet changes will start affecting her for the long term. We will know more in 6 months whether or not all the new things we are doing are actually making a difference. We also just recently started reading a book on understanding and parenting easily frustrated and chronically inflexible children. I am hoping for some new insights and more tools on how to live a more peaceful family life with Kayla.

In addition to the above difficulties if those weren't enough we have returned to a Kenya even more in drought than when we left in May. We came back to continued and worsened water problems and are now buying water from private truck companies to supply us with water almost every week. We are also under power rationing going without power throughout the day on Monday/Wednesdays/Fridays. Not a fun way to live but I am continually thankful that God is providing for our needs and we aren't going without like many people here.

This has been a heavy blog and it accompanies a heavy month. Our God is good and it has been amazing to watch him provide for us , for Kayla, and for my friend Dawn. His love endures forever. I am glad my hope is in God and that someday all of this pain and suffering will be taken away . We feel like we are coming out of this dark month and starting to adjust back to life in Kenya. Kayla is improving in school and making friends. Eric is concentrating on just teaching this year and I am slowly trying to find my way again. A death of a friend changes you, I will never be the same. My friend Dawn will never be the same and it feels like God is strengthening us as friends and taking us through this valley of grief.

Will you continue to pray for the two situations above for me and my friendship with Dawn and our life with Kayla. It seems like those are the two huge prayer requests in our lives right now. For Kenya would you pray again and continually for rain. Many are predicting heavy rains in the next couple of months and for the sake of people's survival here would you pray that as well.

Thank you for your prayers and your support they are constantly being felt.

Kara for the Gibsons

Gibsons in Kenya 09

See what we've been doing the past two years

Enduring and Every day life

Okay I think that I have sat down at least five times in the past month to write an update and then feel like there is nothing to write......I don't have any cool stories about trekking into the jungle and teaching about Christ or translating the Bible into an unknown language. We are just here running the race God has for our family. The past few months God has been teaching us about contentment and finishing the task of this year strong. We have been struggling with wanting to be finished and taking a break with family and friends. He is teaching us about being fully in the race He has given our particular family and not comparing our work with other's. So here is what we have been doing at school each day and in our daily lives.



We are excited to announce that our school and especially our high school has been accredited fully and for the maximum time frame of seven years. That is a huge accomplishment that we have been working towards the past two years. I can't tell you how many nights Eric pulled all nighters in order to make sure things were accomplished. Eric and the entire staff were excited to hear the news in February. In March we watched a lot of sports games at schools and helped with the referee duties, the girls enjoyed playing in the chalk lines after the game, they can't wait to begin playing sports at our school. We also had the 11th graders over for spaghetti and game night. It's been a fun year hanging out with them they are truly turning into some fun and gracious young people.



In April Eric had the opportunity to go on a 11 hour bus ride with friends from school to Uganda. They spent the night at a camp area and rafted the Nile River. From the pictures and video he showed me of their day on the Nile it looked like an incredible trip. It was a beautiful river to raft and the rapids were huge. The went down many fours and several fives. They had lots of safety river guides and watched one of the guys in the kayaks go down a grade six. He had a great trip but the bus ride wasn't that fun.


In April we had our first official banquet at school. I had fun planning out the details and setting up the venue. Our banquet theme was "All Decked Out". We had dinner and Karioke at a nearby restaurant in an open pavillion. We had a great dinner and about 30 kids turned out. Afterwards Eric and another high school teacher set up a stage with microphones and we sang karioke for awhile. Here is Eric and Jonathan singing Eye of the Tiger from Rocky 3. We haven't laughed that hard in awhile it was great fun watching everyone try and sing songs we grew up with but they didn't know anything about. You know that YMCA song is kind of weird when you think about the lyrics :) The kids were so thankful for the night and it was then as I was sitting back and enjoying the night that I looked around at all the kids and the Lord just reconfirmed to me again why we are here.

We continue to be plagued with drought/water problems. Since January our area in town has been receiving little water. Water comes from the city to our house and collects in an under ground tank. When that tank is full it pumps to our house. If water doesn't come from the city then we don't have water in our house. When it gets really bad we take our little blue bucket and scoop the water from the very bottom of the tank. The girls love helping me "get water from the well". So we have been learning what it means to truly appreciate water and how to ration it. We haven't done laundry at our house since January, we have been using buckets of bath water to flush toilets, and check each day the level of water to see if we can take a shower. It's been a constant source of frustration but the Lord helps us keep it in perspective as we drive down a few blocks from our house and see people with no running water to their house at all carting water in containers on their head. We continue to be humbled by how much we have. Pray with us that the water situation improves for our house and the people in Kenya.

Will you pray for us as we travel home at the end of May for our two month furlough. We have about $1200 a month to raise before we can return in August. The task seems huge but we know God can provide if He wants us to return. Please pray specifically that our "Support a missionary for a year" campaign will really connect with people and that they will be moved to join our team. We are heading home in a time of recession but we know God can provide. Pray our faith in Him will remain strong. If we aren't able to finish raising that support amount then we won't be able to return August 9th.

The past few months leading up to December were extremely busy. This was one of the toughest and busiest semesters we have had since working here. It's not one that we want to repeat again. In November the accreditation team from all over the world came and thoroughly reviewed the school and met with teachers and students. They gave our school a great review, especially the teaching staff. We will receive our accreditation but we are still waiting to hear for what length of time (between a five and seven year term). Eric worked around the clock this semester making sure the high school would get accredited. We were also busy getting our new Vice Principal settled and into his new role. By December the whole staff was worn out and burnt out.
We determined that our Christmas break needed to be a time of rest and recuperation for our family. We were excited to take Christmas to the Malasi family. This is the family whose house you all helped to build. It took us about two hours to drive there and we brought a Christmas tree, gifts, and food. We really enjoyed sharing a meal of yummy Kenyan food and they had fun opening their presents. Helping this family move into their own home and not live in a one room house has been the highlight of my time here in Kenya. It was a true joy to see our kids help wrap the presents for their family and then give them to them. This family continues to inspire me to persevere as really they are camping in their own home. They don't have running water or electricity. They both travel two hours each way in traffic to get to work now. We are looking into the possibility of helping them to open a small business (food shop) near their house so Priscilla doesn't have to commute so far to work. That is still a prayer in progress. The girls had fun chasing their pet chicken around the house and after lunch we went on a walk to see the animals in the fields nearby. Truly this day blessed us as a family and it was good for the girls to give of themselves a little as well.

Christmas Day since we didn't have family here, we made family. We invited some of the teachers to our house for Christmas brunch and then went to another missionary friend's house for an actual Christmas dinner. Homemade pies, stuffing, and turkey. The day after Christmas we went to the nearby game park. We had fun searching for animals. The exciting part of our trip was when we came upon a group of Buffalo and one of the males decided to chase after our car. The girls had fun making faces at him in the back of the car as we sped off so our car wouldn't get dented by a buffalo. These are the moments when I still can't believe we live in Kenya, unreal sometimes. We also went camping about two hours north of the city to Lake Naivasha. We were setting up our campsite when a few of our high school students called out hello. They were camping nearby and we had a fun time of connecting with them over the campfire and making s'mores. We were able to go on a boat ride on the lake and saw many hippos in the water. The guide also threw fish up in the air and nearby Eagles swooped down to eat. It was fun seeing hippos in their natural habitat for the first time.
The first week of January found us in Turtle Bay, a family friendly and affordable beach resort. We hung out with lots of missionary families at the beach for five days. It was nice to get out of the city and back to the beach which I miss. The girls had fun swimming, feeding the eels in the reefs, and taking a boat out on the ocean.

We feel like our time refreshed us enough to finish the school year but we still feel a bit burnt out. Our plans are to come back this summer and visit family, friends, and supporters. We need to raise about $1,000 a month again in order to return in August and then we will come back to Kenya for our high school's senior year. We are excited that we will see 15 students graduate in May 2010. It's our plan after graduation to possibly come back for an extended furlough to really recuperate. I can't believe that this year marks four years for us in Kenya. God has provided abundantly through you and we are getting excited to reconnect with you all.

Jumping into Fall

Hey everyone

The past few months have been an extremely busy time with ministry. Our other computer has been unusable and Eric has been working crazy hard on accreditation documents and so I haven't been able to write sooner. Eric and the school have finished the majority of the report needed for the team to come and evaluate our school, he just needs to finish writing reports on three classes for the 12th grade year. This past weekend we went out with some friends to celebrate finishing our part in the process. It has been a lot of work and long nights spent on the reports needed for this process but Eric is happy to be finished. The next step will be to invite the team to come in November and do the site visit. Eric also has a large teaching load this semester and is struggling to stay on top of it all. This year seems to be a transition year as we are trying to teach all the science classes without hiring another science teacher but next year it will become a necessity as Eric won't be able to teach them all. It's a year we just have to work hard through to the finish.

We are excited to tell you that for the past 6 weeks we have been in a new phase with Kayla. We thank you for your prayers for her growth as we have really felt them. We feel like we have had our laughter restored to us after a great time of sadness and drought with our family. We feel like she has turned another corner in her journey and we see a lot of growth this past month. We have truly enjoyed our family for such a long period of time for the first time. Its been exciting to watch this transformation in Kayla as we go about having fun and playing with friends. She has begun singing and dancing again for the first time since she was two. The other day she was jumping on our bed saying "I'm happy I'm happy". We can't ever remember her doing that. We pray this time of growth for her will continue . Last month we had several tests run to rule out any other possible problems. We ran blood, thyroid, and food allergy tests which all came back normal. This next week we will finish the final test for heavy metals in her organs. According to autism spectrum disorder research many of these kids store toxins in their bodies and can't process them like normal people. These heavy metals reek havoc on the body and affect many of the brain's normal functions. This will be the last test we run for Kayla and then we will be at a place where we have done everything we can for her.

Emma is doing great. I think she has finally moved out of the toddler stage and into becoming a little girl. Last night we played the game Candyland for the first time as a family. She is smart and catches on quickly to concepts and most of all she has such a sweet spirit about helping Kayla catch on too. The Lord knew just what kind of child we needed in Emma and also what type of sister Kayla needs as well. She just celebrated her 3rd Birthday and had so much fun helping with her Dora party. We found out how to make a pinata and so for a week the girls helped me paste on newspaper to balloons and at the end of the week our pinata looked a little ghetto but it did its purpose at the party. The funny thing was at the party being the girls that they are they didn't want to hit the pinata that looked like Dora. So we had our friend Jonah break the pinata for the girls at the party, however the pinata was built so strong that only by a Jedi star wars move was he able to pierce the pinata and free the candy.

At the end of September we were able with much joy to help one of our Kenyan families move from the slums to their own home. As you can see from the picture Priscilla my friend was very excited to be living in her own place. She thanks God for the supporters of ours who helped to make this move for her family possible. The chicken in the picture came with us in the car as well when we drove from her old home to her new one. It was such a pleasure to help her and her family move into their own house. As a result they will be able to save their money on rent and Patrick the father will be able to return to Bible school and finish his degree. This fall has been busy with ministry stuff for me as well. Last year I was able to be a part of a mentoring program for the young teachers at our school. The last young teacher I mentored has since left Kenya and gotten married. So this month I have taken on a new young lady, Kate. She is a new grad and teaches high school English. We meet twice a month and talk about life and growing in God. Also on Tuesdays we have started a new Bible study and the ladies are meeting at our house. This Friday we will be hosting the 11th graders for a party, we have 17 students now. We are introducing them to the Luau. Most of them have never even heard of this type of party so it will be fun. We are going to be cooking shishkabobs, eating pineapple , and mixing up some fruity drinks in real coconuts. I think we are even going to try and make them do the Limbo too.... hee hee hee.

We want to thank you for your continued prayers for our family and for your gifts that make our ministry possible. I know many of you have been affected by the recession. The Lord continues to stretch and grow us in this area of finances as it is easy to fret and worry about how the Lord is going to provide. He is faithful and I know this area is my weakness. In our Bible study of the Psalms I read repeated promises of God's faithfulness to his children. I think the hardest part for me is waiting on Him and his provision.

May God's blessings be upon you this week

Kara for the Gibsons

Summer in Kenya

This summer seemed busy for us. We usually try to lay low but it wasn't meant to be. We started June off with Kara's parents visiting for two weeks and we enjoyed hanging out and a trip to the beach . The last few weeks of June Eric and the girls built a playhouse in the backyard. They really enjoyed "helping daddy" of course getting in the way and making dad loose his tools was all part of the fun as well. We finally completed it after several weeks and the girls helped us paint it blue. It was quite fun going along after them and cleaning up the gobs of paint they tried to smear on the house. Good fun though!

The second half of our summer it seemed like the Lord had given us many people to help. With the generous gift from a supporter we were able to help one of the Kenyan families we are working with to complete their house. Patrick and Priscilla work in a literacy program helping to translate the Bible into short readable stories for the many illiterate people in Kenya. They had started building a house and came to a standstill after running out of money. They live in one of the slums in a tiny one room house. We found out that they were trying to finish their house so they could move out of their old place and stop paying rent. With the money they would save on rent Patrick was going to go back to school to finish his Bible degree he had started. This is a great and loving family who always shower us with love and we were excited that we were able to help them. We hope to move them by the end of this month. Praise God! This is huge for this family.

The other family we have been working with is our gardener Peter Mwangi. Peter works for us once a week and has been taking care of our yard before we moved into our house. He only makes about $30 a month. We have been praying for some time about how we could help Peter and decided to help him start his own barber shop. It was completely finished and he was open for business for about a week. This past Sunday we received a call that the landlord who supposedly owned the property lied to about 14 businesses and as a result the government came through and bulldozed all the business to make way for enlarging the local market. The government actually owned the land where Peter built his business and now there is nothing left. The government of Kenya doesn't really take care of its people well and doesn't warn "squatters" as they call them, when they are coming to knock down their businesses.

Peter has had a difficult six months. Peter is a member of one of the tribes that were persecuted during the post-election troubles Kenya experienced in January and he hid in his house during a two week period scared for his life. He sent his wife and children to live outside of Nairobi until it became peaceful again. In February several members of his family from up north came to live with him because their houses were burnt down. Peter gave them shelter and fed them for about 3 months. Through several of our donors we were able to give money to Peter to go up country and rebuild the houses for his family . This is really the first time I have been intensely involved with trying to help someone provide for their family through a business venture. Many Kenyans get into a helpless mode where they just keep asking for money and we didn't want to have that relationship with Peter. I was angered when I got the news that his business had been destroyed and really asked the Lord why. Why when someone who had tried so hard to make more money for his family would this happen. We still don't have answers and maybe the Lord has something better for his family. We have prayed about the possibility of Peter finding a job as a gardener/bus driver for our school. Will you pray for God's will for Peter and his family that the Lord will help heal these past 6 months because Peter seems defeated.

The last three weeks of July we spent helping our new High school Principal adjust and showing him the ropes. It will take several months until his presence will help lighten Eric's work load. Les and Karen are a great older couple and we are excited they have come to work with us. We welcomed 8 more teachers the last week of July and lead the orientation for them as well as finding housing and doing shopping. Wow as I write all this down I now realize why we are tired :) As a result we feel like we are entering this school year not completely rested. We are already talking of plans for after our first class graduates (2010) from our high school of taking a sabbatical year. We feel like in order to continue to stay in Kenya after five years of intense work, we will need to recoup. We will have to see what God has in store for us. Thank you for your continued support for our ministry we can't do it without you. I have seen your gifts helping us to make a difference in two family's lives this summer. It has been a privilege to be able to help them.



Prayer requests:

1. Eric-that the Lord would give him strength and patience to make it till Christmas (new principal to train, new teachers to help, accreditation, teaching 5 different classes)

2. Kara-continued patience with Emma as we are dealing with the terrible two's as well with Kayla as we continue looking into her disorder and running more tests to see if we missed anything

3. Emma- that the Lord would bring back my sweet girl and her little emotions would even out

4. Kayla-she would continue to mature as a sweet little girl and the Lord would soften her emotional outbursts

5. Support for our ministry- we sent out a newsletter on paper coming in September letting people know that for the first time our account is in the red. Will you pray with us that we will remember the Lord provides and if he wants us to continue here he will bring us gifts. We continue to need to rely on Him.





Blessings on your weekend

Kara

School is out! Yeah

Hey everyone

Wow where did the time go since our last update. The last month of school is always so hectic. I can't tell you how many graduation and goodbye parties we went to. This end of the year was tough for us as we said goodbye to many good teachers we have grown to love. We finished this year in a whirlwind with Eric trying to get a front office program going for the entire school before the year ended. This program will help with schedules, grades, and general info. This year the kids in the Jr. High and High school dedicated the yearbook to Eric. He was surprised and honored, I still think he's the best teacher they have but I am a little prejudiced. This summer we are just sticking clost to home and trying to recuperate. Eric will work some this summer trying to plan for his new AP Biology class and a new Bible class called Chrisitians in the media. This summer we are welcoming The Ommen family to our school and he will be the principal for the high school. We are hoping this will relieve Eric of the many Administration responsibilities he has had for the last 3 years.

The past two weeks my parents have been here visiting. We had a great time doing daily life with them here. The first week of June we celebrated Kayla's birthday and then we went to the coast for four days. The weather was a little cold but we had fun playing on the beach. My dad was able to snorkel on the reef at the coast and my mom loved connecting with the many missionaries who were vacationing at the coast. The girls loved making sand castles and taking walks on the beach to find treasures.


It is always fun having family here as they can share our life for a little while, offer encouragement and really give us the love we miss from family.

This month we plan on continuing to recuperate and

to get in shape. Eric is planning on hiking Mt. Kenya in early July with the guys on our team. They plan on driving about 5 hours to the base of the mountain and then its about a two day hike up and back. It sounds hard but fun. They will pitch tents on the way up and have a guide to show them the trail. In the middle of July we have our new High school Principal coming and then end of July we will be coordinating the new staff orientation. The girls will still be in preschool so hopefully mom and dad can have some time to hang out together. We hope you are doing well.

Will you pray with us for our monthly support. We have been consistently undersupported since we returned last year due to loss of supporters and the recession. Our fiscal year is coming to a close and we are in the red for the first time. We will be sending out more information in our next paper newsletter but will you pray with us for the Lord's leading in this financial situation.

Blessings

Kara for the Gibsons