Coming out of the tunnel

There are times in your life when you can look back and say wow! How did I make it through that? Then you turn to God who is standing next to you and realize you did it only with His strength. The first 3 months into our new term were tough. We felt challenged at every turn. Towards the end of October we started to feel like we were finally coming out of a dark tunnel and November felt like we started living again instead of just surviving.

September found us continuing without Power 3 days a week and not muchwater. Every year near us the city has a local fair and much of the city's

water gets diverted to this fair. So we continued to order water from the water trucks each week and planned our week according to the blackouts. We bought a generator to help us run our fridge for a few hours during the day so that our food wouldn't go bad. I began the Bible study at our house on Tuesdays again and Sept. and October seemed to be filled with helping people in need. I think God revealed to me that is His plan for me right now, to be available for people He brings me whom I can minister to.

Transitioning Kayla into a new school proved to be more intense than we had hoped for. September and October were trying months as we had to figure out a routine that helped her the most. At the end of September we met with her teachers at the school and the plan was to put her into the special education program but we asked if she could have one more month to settle in. At the end of October we all reevaluated her progress and she was greatly

improved in her attitude and functioning at school and didn't need special education assistance at this time. We finally have her completely on her special diet and feel like we have the gluten free

cooking under control. Thanks to a friend who came out in October we were able to get

a bread maker and now are able to make special bread each week that she will actually eat. The Lord just continues to amaze me in His provision for Kayla each day. Where else but in some few countries in Africa would we be able to find a health food store that provides all the special flours we need (gluten free, potato, tapioca, rice flour) and special rice milk. He has provided a lab where we could get all her special tests done for the new medications she is

on and He has provided a new therapist for her that will come out to the school. This therapist just moved back from another country in Africa and is the only one around who can travel and lives near us. God's provision for Kayla these past few months has just been overwhelming to me, it is confirmation again that we are right where God wants us to be. We have always said if we couldn't get the right help we need for Kayla that we would have to think about leaving the field. Our God is the ultimate provider.

Also in September we were able to work with Mama Kennedy and her family again as they were evicted from their home unexpectedly and the families they worked for went on furlough

unexpectedly and so they were left without food, home, and provision for their kids to go to school. We had several supporters of ours who stepped in to help them. They jumped up and down for joy as they saw God providing for them through us. I visited them at the end of September and they had found a house to live, new jobs, and their boys were now in school. Their house is really small but they invited me in for a small meal and to tell me about how God is providing for them. It's a pleasure to help several Kenyan families through your support.

In October our power outages just stopped one week and we realized how appreciative we were of the power that we do get. We also found out someone had almost closed the valve near our water meter to off and this was mostly why we weren't getting a whole lot of water. We were still having water shortages in Kenya but our house was getting even less water because someone had turned this valve off :( argh I didn't even know we had this valve. Till one day the water

meter guy came,opened it to full force, and amazingly its been three weeks and we haven't had to order awatertruck yet. So I am now able to tell you that I truly appreciate water and that it is extremely valuable to life :) thanks Lord for that reminder. Hope I don't need that lesson again soon. We also had Fiesta night party with our Seniors. We made a pinata, had a taco bar, and played board games. We have been working hard with the senior class to do fundraisers to raise money for their senior trip in April.

November found us very thankful that our utilities were all working, Kayla was getting more balanced in her daily life, and we felt more rested. For thanksgiving we visited our friends at Rift Valley Academy about an hour north of Nairobi . We cooked turkey, had homemade pies, and played American Football. The kids enjoyed sledding down the grass hill on plastic sleds....sorry for those of you in the midst of winter our sledding is on grass under beautiful sunshine as we move into nice summer days.

Eric finished up the final requirements for accreditation this fall and he felt good getting the bulk

of that work done so that he can rest over Christmas. We had several fundraisers for the Senior class as they are preparing for their big Senior trip to the coast of Kenya in April. Eric organized a school wide selling of West Nairobi school sweatshirts as the first fundraiser and then the seniors put together our first talent show. We had lots of kids tryout and had a packed room full of parents, staff, and students. Eric was the host and also wrote skits for the teachers to perform in between the acts. If our internet was faster I would upload his skit as Craig the lame high school cheerleader from Saturday night live from the 90's. He was a great MC and their performance was hilarious. It was fun watching the high schoolers be a part of this night and for me to see them having fun as sometimes we can loose perspective as to why we came in the midst of the daily work.

We hope that your family is doing well and we pray that as you move into this December and Christmas time that you would not forget the reason we live.....Christ. May He move in you this Christmas in a new way.

Prayer requests:

Eric and Kara- 1/Would you pray we find rest over the 3 week Christmas break...we are tired. 2/We will be taking a family vacation in January pray all goes smoothly and that Kayla adjusts well to the transitions.

3/Kara's friend Dawn (her husband was killed in a plane crash in August) is back in Nairobi pray God gives her wisdom on how to be a good friend and strength as she supports her.

4/ we invited a few pastors from our church in California to be a part of our Graduation in May will you pray if God wants them to be a part of it that He will reveal it to them by end of January.

Blessings on your Christmas

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.