Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Back in Kenya
Hi everyone
We have been back now for little over a month and boy what a month it has been. At the end of July we had raised $900 of our needed $1000 monthly support. We arrived back in Kenya safely and had great flights with both of the girls. From Amsterdam they slept almost 7 of the 8 hour trip, we were blessed. Three days after we returned we moved into our new house and the next day Eric started back to work. We have been in school for about 4 weeks now and things are settling into a good routine.
Eric is teaching 4 classes this year, 9 th/10th Grade Bible and 9th/10th Grade Science. He only has one new class this year that he hasn’t taught and so the work load is much less this year. We are hoping for a lot less stress in our ministry this year. We had 8 new teachers arrive this year. This group looks to be staying more than two years so that is exciting to see. We also had another family come to work at the school this year teaching in the 4th grade class. This year we have an accreditation coordinator who will be working at our school trying to get us accredited by the end of this year. This task would be huge for our work with the high school. If we can become an accredited school then we have a good chance of retaining most of our older students rather than losing them to another bigger International school across town. Retaining our students will hopefully help our high school to become larger and stronger. So this task of becoming accredited this year would be ideal.
Eric will be leaving this weekend for a two day men’s camping trip with the African Inland Missionaries. He is trying this year to start connecting with other guys in the Nairobi area. They are headed up to Lake Naivasha area 2 hours north of Nairobi.
We are excited to be in our new house. I can’t believe what a change it has been for our family. Our new house is more open on the inside and we have a little backyard for the girls to play. We have been busy unpacking, painting, organizing, and installing internet. We have a fireplace in our living room and it has been a really cold winter here so it has been fun to sit in front of the fire and read stories and roast marshmellows. Our deepest thanks to our new supporters who made this move possible for us. We now no longer feel trapped at home and feel like we have some privacy and can relax with our family.
Kayla has been doing so well lately. We want to thank you for all of your prayers for her. We have seen so much growth lately just in this short time we have been home. It has been good for her to have her own bedroom back, lots of outdoor space to play, and to get into a routine again. We have been trying new therapy activities with her as well as modifying her diet to try and sneak vitamins and what not into it without her being able to taste the difference. Some ways that she has grown is that instead of crying and breaking down during transitions she has become more confident in her abilities and has started saying okay mommy okay dad to lots of requests. She doesn’t cry anymore when I leave her at school and she is really enjoying the kids at school now instead of being threatened by them. She is bonding more with Emma and really loves to hug and kiss her. Please pray for us as we look for a therapist here who can work with her once a week and that it would be affordable for us. Every night we pray for continued healing in her mind will you pray that with us. We are excited as we see so much growth in her this past month, and we have enjoyed being with her so much more. Praise God as he takes me on this journey with Kayla.
We were so thrilled to meet with most of our supporters this summer and hopefully for those we missed we can connect when we are home again in the Summer of 2009. We were blessed by your outpouring of prayer for our ministry and also blessed by the new supporters God brought our way. We feel excited to be in this new house and to start a new phase of our ministry by using our home as a meeting place. This month we will host Kayla’s preschool class for a breakfast and have our first school fun time with the 10th grade and 80’s movie night. There are not many social outlets for the kids here so it will be neat to provide them with some fun activities this year. Our next gathering will be a harvest party for the high school in October.
Since coming back from the states after this first furlough we have felt more at peace here. Just in knowing within ourselves that this is where God wants us. We had a special time connecting with our families and we do miss being able to see them, this has been one of our biggest sacrifices not being able to have our kids know their grandparents. It was such a blessing for us to see how our parent’s relationship with God and serving Him has blessed us two fold. When we visited the states we were able to really see that our parents work in other people’s lives has really trickled down to our ministry. We have had many supporters who are part of our ministry because of their connection with our parents as well as individuals who have given us gifts of money because our parents have been a blessing in their lives. It was inspiring to me to see this played out and I can only hope that I can be this for our kids someday as well. Live for God completely and His blessings will be unique to see.
We continue to search for a church here where we can connect and grow. It will be a challenge for us as we have little ones and there isn’t much of a kids program here in the churches. Last Sunday we went to an international church with missionaries, Kenyans, and Indians. The kids program consisted of Kayla and Emma playing on the floor with a Kenyan woman and some toys. Kayla lasted about 10 minutes and then came looking for me in the church. Needless to say I usually only can hear about 10 minutes of the sermon. It is an ongoing challenge here for missionaries as we seek to settle into the Kenyan community and adapt to church life here. This will be our main prayer request this year that the Lord will reveal to us what he wants for us regarding church.
Prayer requests:
Eric- that work will slow down at school and that he will truly enjoy being back and teaching, that the Lord will continue to reveal to him how to connect with our girls when we are in the “all about mommy stage” of life
Kayla-continued growth in her abilities to express herself and talking, that we are able to find a good and affordable therapist for her
Emma-that she will grow in her abilities to get along with Kayla (she is in the stage where she wants to be doing whatever Kayla is doing and that annoys Kayla)
Kara-that I can carve out time in my day to spend time with God, that I will have an open heart to seeing the needs of Kenyans and listen for God’s wisdom in how to meet those needs
Thank you for your continued prayers for us and our ministry , we continue to feel those daily. Check out the pictures of our new house.
Blessings on your day , we would love to hear how your summer went.
Eric and Kara
We have been back now for little over a month and boy what a month it has been. At the end of July we had raised $900 of our needed $1000 monthly support. We arrived back in Kenya safely and had great flights with both of the girls. From Amsterdam they slept almost 7 of the 8 hour trip, we were blessed. Three days after we returned we moved into our new house and the next day Eric started back to work. We have been in school for about 4 weeks now and things are settling into a good routine.
Eric is teaching 4 classes this year, 9 th/10th Grade Bible and 9th/10th Grade Science. He only has one new class this year that he hasn’t taught and so the work load is much less this year. We are hoping for a lot less stress in our ministry this year. We had 8 new teachers arrive this year. This group looks to be staying more than two years so that is exciting to see. We also had another family come to work at the school this year teaching in the 4th grade class. This year we have an accreditation coordinator who will be working at our school trying to get us accredited by the end of this year. This task would be huge for our work with the high school. If we can become an accredited school then we have a good chance of retaining most of our older students rather than losing them to another bigger International school across town. Retaining our students will hopefully help our high school to become larger and stronger. So this task of becoming accredited this year would be ideal.
Eric will be leaving this weekend for a two day men’s camping trip with the African Inland Missionaries. He is trying this year to start connecting with other guys in the Nairobi area. They are headed up to Lake Naivasha area 2 hours north of Nairobi.
We are excited to be in our new house. I can’t believe what a change it has been for our family. Our new house is more open on the inside and we have a little backyard for the girls to play. We have been busy unpacking, painting, organizing, and installing internet. We have a fireplace in our living room and it has been a really cold winter here so it has been fun to sit in front of the fire and read stories and roast marshmellows. Our deepest thanks to our new supporters who made this move possible for us. We now no longer feel trapped at home and feel like we have some privacy and can relax with our family.
Kayla has been doing so well lately. We want to thank you for all of your prayers for her. We have seen so much growth lately just in this short time we have been home. It has been good for her to have her own bedroom back, lots of outdoor space to play, and to get into a routine again. We have been trying new therapy activities with her as well as modifying her diet to try and sneak vitamins and what not into it without her being able to taste the difference. Some ways that she has grown is that instead of crying and breaking down during transitions she has become more confident in her abilities and has started saying okay mommy okay dad to lots of requests. She doesn’t cry anymore when I leave her at school and she is really enjoying the kids at school now instead of being threatened by them. She is bonding more with Emma and really loves to hug and kiss her. Please pray for us as we look for a therapist here who can work with her once a week and that it would be affordable for us. Every night we pray for continued healing in her mind will you pray that with us. We are excited as we see so much growth in her this past month, and we have enjoyed being with her so much more. Praise God as he takes me on this journey with Kayla.
We were so thrilled to meet with most of our supporters this summer and hopefully for those we missed we can connect when we are home again in the Summer of 2009. We were blessed by your outpouring of prayer for our ministry and also blessed by the new supporters God brought our way. We feel excited to be in this new house and to start a new phase of our ministry by using our home as a meeting place. This month we will host Kayla’s preschool class for a breakfast and have our first school fun time with the 10th grade and 80’s movie night. There are not many social outlets for the kids here so it will be neat to provide them with some fun activities this year. Our next gathering will be a harvest party for the high school in October.
Since coming back from the states after this first furlough we have felt more at peace here. Just in knowing within ourselves that this is where God wants us. We had a special time connecting with our families and we do miss being able to see them, this has been one of our biggest sacrifices not being able to have our kids know their grandparents. It was such a blessing for us to see how our parent’s relationship with God and serving Him has blessed us two fold. When we visited the states we were able to really see that our parents work in other people’s lives has really trickled down to our ministry. We have had many supporters who are part of our ministry because of their connection with our parents as well as individuals who have given us gifts of money because our parents have been a blessing in their lives. It was inspiring to me to see this played out and I can only hope that I can be this for our kids someday as well. Live for God completely and His blessings will be unique to see.
We continue to search for a church here where we can connect and grow. It will be a challenge for us as we have little ones and there isn’t much of a kids program here in the churches. Last Sunday we went to an international church with missionaries, Kenyans, and Indians. The kids program consisted of Kayla and Emma playing on the floor with a Kenyan woman and some toys. Kayla lasted about 10 minutes and then came looking for me in the church. Needless to say I usually only can hear about 10 minutes of the sermon. It is an ongoing challenge here for missionaries as we seek to settle into the Kenyan community and adapt to church life here. This will be our main prayer request this year that the Lord will reveal to us what he wants for us regarding church.
Prayer requests:
Eric- that work will slow down at school and that he will truly enjoy being back and teaching, that the Lord will continue to reveal to him how to connect with our girls when we are in the “all about mommy stage” of life
Kayla-continued growth in her abilities to express herself and talking, that we are able to find a good and affordable therapist for her
Emma-that she will grow in her abilities to get along with Kayla (she is in the stage where she wants to be doing whatever Kayla is doing and that annoys Kayla)
Kara-that I can carve out time in my day to spend time with God, that I will have an open heart to seeing the needs of Kenyans and listen for God’s wisdom in how to meet those needs
Thank you for your continued prayers for us and our ministry , we continue to feel those daily. Check out the pictures of our new house.
Blessings on your day , we would love to hear how your summer went.
Eric and Kara
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