Nearly a Year in Review - 2015 in pictures

As we near the end of 2015, I am reflecting on God's goodness to us. We are so privileged to serve here at Rift Valley Academy. We love being able to experience life in Kenya. We are so grateful for our ministry team here at RVA, as well as our team that sends us here - people who pray faithfully and give sacrificially to allow us to be here. Thank you!

Here is an overview of 2015 in pictures:

January - We were able to visit the House of Hope Home in Naivasha with students from RVA.

February - Joyellen coached Megan's field hockey team.

March - Jeff led a group of juniors and seniors on an educational trip to Loita Hills, where they learned more about Masai culture.

April - Megan completed one of her "12 tasks" when she climbed to the top of Mt. Kenya with Jeff.

May - we helped a family in our community put gutters on their home to catch rainwater in tanks.

June - Joyellen took her 5th grade class to a tea farm in Limuru to learn about plants.

Megan made the decision to be baptized!

July - RVA graduation! We sent off another fabulous group of seniors - one of them was our niece Laura.

August - We had a restful break as a family. In addition to some down time, we also welcomed many new families to our staff, including our neighbors, who we hosted. They are also from Michigan!

September - we started another school year here at RVA.

October - As a school, we celebrated my favorite day of the year - Multi-Cultural Day. There are 30 countries represented in our student body

We are nearing the end of 2015. We are looking forward to our AIM conference in November and welcoming family and a few new staff in December. This has been a blessed year. Thanks for being a part of it!

Here We Go!

We just finished a wonderful 6 week "summer" break and are now ready to embark upon a new school year. This will be our 13th school year to start at RVA (since we spent a couple of them back in Michigan too!). There is always a mixture of excitement, nerves, sadness, and celebration on this day. Our dusty roads are full today - with parents dropping off their students and school busses doing airport pick ups (that is where Jeff is right now!). Our family is excited and ready for this new year. We had a lovely break - complete with house projects, down time, some work in our classroom or office, and a little family get away to the coast. Now we are ready for our students to return and this place to fill up again with laughter, noise, and activity.

The kids really enjoyed playing in the sand when we got away. The favorite activity was chasing crabs.

The girls enjoyed getting "henna" painted on their hands. It only lasted about a week.

My favorite moments were in the early morning, watching the sun rise over the ocean. God's creation is breath-taking!

Here is my classroom door - all ready for the new class of fifth graders!

I will have all the fifth graders on my own this year. It is not a big enough class to have 2 sections, like last year, but still a good size - I will have 18 this term. 

Here are all the new families registering at the New Parent Orientation, which was held yesterday. We have 100 new students coming this year, representing 17 different countries - so cool! 

Please pray for us as we kick off a new school year. Pray for stamina, joy, and purpose as we teach, love and guide these precious kids.

Learning about American History in Kenya

This month, I have been teaching my fifth graders about American History - specifically, pioneers and the Civil War. It has been an exciting time, but I do have to laugh at some of my non-American students - "Why are we always learning about AMERICAN history? Why not _________ history?" (fill in the blank with their home country.  Or "Why do you keep saying us? I'm not American!" Of course, they will learn so many other histories as they go through school, but most Social Studies curriculums are not geared towards international students.

During the Pioneer Unit, we were able to do a Pioneer Simulation of buying goods at a general store to take on our journey West, keep a Pioneer journal, and make and eat pioneer stew and cornbread. Even the international students were quite happy to partake in the food!

We have been keeping a timeline of events in our classroom to keep straight ALL the names and dates of this time period.

One thing I have really enjoyed about being back in the classroom is being a learner again. History is so fascinating to me as an adult - even more than when I was a kid! I hope to make it come alive and be exciting for my students too.

Rain....a blessing and a curse

I awoke at 6:30 am yesterday morning to the sound of rain on the tin roof. I remembered hearing rain throughout the night as well. This was the day we were to head down to Samson and Mary's house to install rain gutters and a rain tank, and I was pretty sure the weather could affect our plans. The other family who we were joining with was the Dubber family and they had suggested this service project as they knew this Kenyan family well.

We decided to postpone our departure by a half hour, hoping the weather would improve. By 8:30 am, the skies were still cloudy, but the rain had stopped. We headed out in our two vehicles, towards Mary's house, which should have taken about 30 minutes.

About half way down the hill, we realized the roads were much worse than we expected. In fact, one of the vehicles got badly stuck in this mess.

 While the men sorted out the mess, the kids decided to have a little fun. (Note: Megan had signed up for a different service project at an orphanage, so she was not with us.)

We finally got out of the mud and inched slowly down the hill, fish-tailing this way and that. 

In the midst of the mud and mess, I was struck by God's beautiful creation springing forth from all this rain.

We finally reached Mary's house, only an hour and a half after we started out. :) We got right to work. Out came the saws, hammers, drills, and nails. Everyone pitched in and did a great job.

As you can from these pictures, more rain is on the way! We were hoping to get finished in time, so all the lovely rain would end up in the new rain barrel. 

The kids each found ways to pitch in.....Lyndsey was able to help install the faucet on the water tank....and Ian made some new friends with Mary's grandchildren.

And here are Mary and Samson....you will notice Mary recently broke her leg. We were happy to help them out in a tangible way. 

And....we went home by another route! We didn't want to mess with that mud a second time!

The Badge of Busyness

I have been pondering "busyness" lately. It seems that most interactions with others involve the word busy. RVA is notorious for its hectic schedule. Missionaries who serve in the "bush" visit RVA and while we marvel at how they can live without running water, electricity and a local supermarket, they will often look at us at comment, "I could never keep up the pace you do here!"

Life is full, there is no way around it.  We have children to raise, jobs to do, houses to be cleaned, etc. But I have noticed that sometimes we can take it too far. We can wear our busyness like a badge of honor. "Look how busy I am!"

I am guilty of this too. This year has brought a new pace of life that I am not used to. I was caught off guard those first few months of juggling teaching with being a wife and mom. I  felt slightly envious, and a little judgmental of others who didn't carry the same load as I did. I felt the need to tell everyone how much I was doing. "Look how busy I am!"  Yet, aren't we all busy to some extent? Who am I to judge who has the heavier load?  

Yesterday I was granted the gift of a day that did not have a to-do list driving it. Amazing. I left school on Friday, feeling prepared for the next week. I could hardly believe it. Whether I was living in denial or it was truly the case, I reveled in the fact that my weekend looked surprisingly open. It was such a gift to pull out crafts with my children on Saturday morning, go for a run with a friend, hang the laundry on the line, and read a good book without a nagging guilt that something had been left undone. If I had been wearing my busyness badge yesterday, I may have formulated some tasks to quickly accomplish to feel as though my day had been productive, instead of just enjoying a day of rest.

A song that has ministered to me lately talks about how we keep striving so hard to earn grace (or please others), yet God is enough for us.  Here are few of the words:

                                    "By Your Side" by Tenth Avenue North

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching
As if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

'Cause I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
And please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

'Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, yeah I'll love you
I'll never let you go

What Have We Been Up To?

It seems my blog posts have been much fewer and further between than the early days of this blog. I guess it's a little thing called teaching full time! I do find my days to be very full and busy, but then again, who doesn't?
At this moment in time however, I am enjoying a rare moment of quiet on a Saturday morning. This morning, I tried to be diligent in grading some online assessments for my students.....but alas, the sketchy internet didn't cooperate. So here I am, enjoying the summer sunshine of a beautiful Kijabe day on my porch. It's a great time to update the blog!
Mixed in with our little update are a few pictures from this half term. Read the captions to see what we have been up to.

Megan running a race with some other girls on New Year's Day, otherwise known as "Community Day" here, where we join with those in our community to play games.

What have we been up to?
Well, second term started up again on January 5. Everyone headed back to school and work and the weeks have flown by. Jeff has been tackling long over-due projects on his to-do list (such a trophy case for the school) in the midst of his regular responsibilities. He just finished leading the first series of "Men's Fraternity" on campus for a group of staff men. My fifth graders and I have been digging into studying England's history (King Henry VIII and his 6 wives!) and are now researching famous early European explorers. Megan is busy with friends, homework, field hockey, drama, band, and piano - yes, she's a busy girl. :) Lyndsey and Ian are enjoying the carefree pace of life that elementary school offers.

Some RVA girls playing with the kids at House of House Home in Naivasha on our Service Day.

Our kids had a great time playing the kids at House of Hope.

Some of our girls colored Bible Story pages with the little ones.

Other RVA girls painted nails with the bigger girls at the home.

Before we left, the little ones sang us a song.

We look forward to next weekend - a long weekend break for everyone. Mid-term! I know the staff and students alike are looking forward to catching our breath.
Would you pray for our school as a whole? It seems many people I have interacted with this week are feeling tired, discouraged, or overwhelmed. Pray that we can look beyond our own busyness and take time to encourage one another!

Lyndsey playing games at our Water Field Day last weekend.

Ian enjoyed the waterslide on Water Field Day.