The Pull of the Pacific

 Such a great weekend spending time with family and friends. We had our first church speaking engagement and a family get together.

It was so refreshing to be able to hug all my family as many times as I wanted to. My aunt said, "You already hugged me." I told her I was saving up :)

Isaac enjoyed himself playing in the ocean for the first time. He was the feet sinking master.

We had plenty of time to soak up some much needed time in the sun.

Sad moment cure :)

It doesn't matter what country I'm living in. Or how close I am to family and friends. When the sad emotion overwhelms me Crasin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies and listening to the Civil Wars always helps :)
Thanks Laura for introducing me to the band of my emotions!!!

Summer Time

What a summer. We have been in the states for a little over a month now and it has been lovely.

Celebrating our wedding, eating too much ice cream (thanks dad), camping, visiting family, canoeing, ski boating and so much more!

Thank you for all your prayers this time of relaxing has been great.

We are starting to gear up on our speaking engagements and preparation for our return to Africa in Dec.

Please let us know if you would love to see us

Grandma, this one's for you!

My father normally gives me a gentle hint about the lack of blog posts, which pushes me to share one or two. But this post here is dedicated to Grandma who clearly informed me that I needed to post something :) Thanks Grandma for keeping me on it.

We are currently living in the US for 5 months before we head back to East Africa. Our lives are in transition currently. After a wonderful going away breakfast we packed up our apartment and put it into 4 different homes of friends who will keep them under beds and in dark closets for a few months. We flew the 2 day journey this time in 5 days, we made some stop overs :)

The first stop was in Kenya. Isaac had fun at the hospital and I went next door for my own enjoyment.

These two were awaiting surgery of their own to make their legs work. We played football (soccer) scooting around the playroom. As you can imagine, they were much better than me at the scooting thing.

The second stop was in Dubai for a forced layover. Our travel agent scored us the deal, thanks man!











Now we are living in Washington. Life here is different and hit me, not like it did the first time with culture shock, but still quite strong for the first 2 weeks.

We are settling now and Isaac is enjoying his time observing local doctors in their work. Thank you for your continued prayer and support. If you are interested in having Isaac and I share our story we are currently putting together our speaking schedule. Please let us know, we'll be here until the beginning of December.
Blessings

Preaching and Not

Isaac has graduated and I have moved off campus but Hope Africa University is still home to us. We both attended Campus Fellowship, a 30 min meeting 4 times a week on campus, while we were living at Hope. Isaac has been invited to preach on a number occasions since he graduated. It was a pleasure to travel with him this time.

Since our visit people from the group have mentioned on multiple occasions that our lives speak louder than our words. They say that our marriage and dating days were something that they have taken notes on. It has been humbling to hear how God is using our lives as a living example to others of the love of Christ.

Cholera

He’s about to die! Our good friend Renson is Kenyan. His father is a FM missionary in Uganda. Now he is studying in Burundi at Hope Africa Univ. And he works at The King’s School in the office.

Renson came to work one Monday morning and went home feeling ill. Within the 15min it took to get to town he fell so ill that he checked himself into a clinic. It wasn’t 10min later that he was unconscious with serious dehydration. Renson had cholera. He would have been dead within the hour but was transferred to the hospital that Isaac works at. Renson now says that he thought he was going to die until he saw Isaac’s face. He said, “I knew Isaac wouldn’t let me die”. There is a limited number of IV drips in the country and hospitals are very frugal with the use of them, they don’t like to give patients more than 4 bags (1/2 liter in each bag). Isaac didn’t listen to protocol and over the 15 hours Renson was in the hospital he used 73 bags!!! At one point he had 3 bags dripping into his arms at one time.

That night we held a staff prayer session to pray for Renson knowing that we could loose him at any moment.

The next day Renson was transferred to a cholera clinic (it was a tent outside where they put many cholera patients together. I learned that it is really easy to treat but also very easy to spread. We went to visit Renson and had to put on special masks and got sprayed with disinfectant. We are thankful to God that Renson was healed. He is fully recovered but we will keep his story with us.

Football Match

Every once and a while the Ugandans and Kenyans who live in Burundi organize a football match. Isaac and I attended this last one. It was fun to cheer on a country that I represent now :)

Post Fire

Since the fire to the public market business hasn’t slowed. It is harder to find what I am looking for and the streets are full of vendors, but people have to eat and so shopping goes on.

The Bats

What is that noise outside my window? Two of the seven houses I lived in this last 8 months had fruit trees that attracted something noisy in the night. I found out that it was fruit bats. These large bats make their migration from the tall trees on the north end of town to the fruit trees in our south end neighborhood. This one I found on the road. Obviously wasn’t playing well with others.

Still Alive

Many Burundians will say, you should be grateful that you are still alive. They then add to their point by stating that many others have gone but you are still here (in a country just out of war this is a huge statement).
Well I am writing yet again the "Still Alive" post on my blog. It has been so many days, weeks or months since I last posted. I need to apologize. Much has happened and I hope that in the next few days I will gather stories and photos to share.
In brief,
I'm still working at The King's School, which now has its own website, http://www.thekingsschool.edu.bi/
Isaac is working at the Van Norman Clinic attached to Hope Africa University. He is also teaching a university level course to midwifes in training.
We spend much of our free time praying and planning for our trip to the states. We are excited to share what God is up to in East Africa and to prepare for the next season God has ahead of us. It will also be great to have chocolate chips, since I ran out just 2 days ago :(

Teaching, teaching

I was given a new student who is too young for my class but there is no space in the class of his age. While my class is writing stories and complete sentences he is learning to form letters and learning their names. In Burundi there is only one full English school. This boy, comes from an English speaking country and home this makes the choice of education in Burundi difficult. Please pray for The King’s School as it continues to shine the light of Christ to those in Burundi who have no other option for education.

Students Leading

Days of hand holding are over, you are old boys and girls now it is time for you to lead your own morning worship time.

It has been a joy to see these students of mine, some only 4 years old leading worship for their class. It’s great to see the seeds that are being planted coming to life. Every morning we have a time of worship and bible stories. We are reading a children’s Bible cover to cover. It is great for them to see the Old Testament stories connect with the New Testament. In the Muslim faith the Old Testament stories are the same. This gives a great platform for trust and the gospel to be shared with those who have heard those stories at home. My students who are Muslim are asking questions and really taking it all to heart. In the afternoon or on the playground I hear them talking to other students about questions they have about the stories.

Please continue to pray for all my students that the word would not fall on deaf ears.

Market Fire

My beloved market was burned to the ground. All that is left is the exterior brick walls and the remains of the crumpled roof. It’s been hard to find what we are looking for these days. When I need something I used to go through a ritual of thinking, where must I go in the market to get that. Now I start the process and stop—slightly annoyed that my ease of shopping has been interrupted. But for others their lively hood, their whole business has been destroyed. Please continue to pray for the many Christians who lost everything in the market fire.

If I have to turn around during this church service for any reason, you’re busted!