Sunday School Retreat

I have had the pleasure of teaching Sunday School to 10th grade girls for the past 6 or 7 years. We started using Barbara Mouser's curriculum, Five Aspects of Femininity for Young Women, but over the years we have supplemented the curriculum with a lot of extras. One of those extras is our annual retreat. During that weekend, we focus on dating, purity, and letting God write their love story. The past two years we tweaked our retreat curriculum even more to focus on Jesus being our Prince Charming, whether marriage is in the future or not. It has been great to work with a fabulous group of teachers, as well as invest in some sweet, precious girls. Here are pictures from this year's retreat...hot off the press!

Journal Time

3 of the 7 teachers

So fun to teach alongside a great friend!

craft time

the teachers treated the girls to pedicures

yummy meals!

my sweet small group

The whole group!

Winter in Kenya

I wish my blog had a temperature button. The following pictures do not do justice to the COLD we are feeling right now in Kenya! Winter has come, but around here, it doesn't bring snow with it, but lots of rain. We have been wearing our rain boots and carrying umbrellas every day. Our fireplaces are lit each day, in hopes of warming up our cold stone houses just a bit. Along with the rains, comes all sorts of bugs - slugs, flying termites, and my least favorite - the Nairobi eye. A very small insect - hard to spot - but it is filled with nasty acid, so if you see one, don't squish it or it will give you a horrible acid burn on your skin.

School has started up again and we are on the home stretch. I think the last count from my seniors in class was about 82 days until graduation! I am teaching Advanced Cooking again this term with a new batch of students.....all seniors! Keeping them focused this time of year is a challenge. But who doesn't enjoy cooking? You can see they are taking their culinary skills very seriously here!

My friend Julie

Today I woke up to devastating news on my computer. My dear friend, Julie and her son  Timmy were killed in a tragic car accident in Paraguay. Julie and her husband Norberto had been serving there as missionaries for the past 10 years and had recently adopted a little girl,  Anahi, to join their family.

Julie and I met in 10th grade at Northview High School. I was home for one year on furlough with my family and not a happy camper. Making new friends was hard. Going to a new school was hard. And being away from the familiarity of Kenya was hard. Then along came Julie. She was a strong Christian friend with lots of spunk! We had lots of fun together that year and I really feel like she was instrumental in getting me through that difficult time in my life.

Over the years we went our separate ways - we both married, had children, and pursued missions. She and her husband to Paraguay and Jeff and I to Kenya. We kept in touch via facebook and each other's blogs and I was hoping to see her this summer when both of our furloughs coincided.

The Lord had other plans and took her home to be with Him yesterday. My heart is heavy but I am rejoicing in the beautiful legacy she left behind - of a godly woman who was passionate about her family, her ministry and her faith.

School Break!

We are in the middle of our April break between terms 2 and 3 of our school year. We have year round school here, which means our three months of vacation are spread out to the months of August, December and April. It works better that way since most of our students board here and they get to have some time at home with their families woven into the school year.

I would love to have titled this post "REST" but alas, this has been a working break for us. Our trip back to the states is looming on the horizon and we have lots of work to do! Sort, pack, pitch, clean, sort some more...that kind of fun work! I know you can relate....right?

I used to hate the fact that every time we went to the States for a decent length of time we had to pack up our entire house. UGH....so much work! But I guess the hidden blessing in it is the forced weeding out process that we do each time. I really hope NOT to come back to stored junk when we return!

We have had some fun moments in the midst of sorting.....

• A fun weekend in Naivasha with our family - Jason and Lisa and kids. We played Dutch Blitz, ate yummy food, laughed and laughed, went swimming with the kids, and just generally enjoyed some great family time!

• Our high school principal organized an all school swim day at another missionary school in Nairobi on Easter Monday. What a fun day! 100 people gathered for a picnic and pool day - such a treat! As we were hanging out, I thought, "We work together every day, but rarely get to play together!" The highlight of the day? Watching the men have a diving contest into the little kiddie floating rings! So funny!

• We gathered as a mission community to celebrate our Risen Lord for an Easter Sunrise service. We were challenged to ask ourselves the question, "What does the empty tomb mean to you?" Do we really understand what that means and live it out? 

We are gearing up for term 3 to start on April 23. In the meantime, the packing and sorting continues....

Lightning Strikes, Camping in the Wild, and the End of Term

Today marks the end of second term. As I type, students are leaving campus, all homeward bound for a month of reunion with their families. In fact, Jeff is driving one of the buses this afternoon to the airport.
In many ways it has been a good 12 weeks. We managed to avoid the infamous "Second Term Flu Bug" that often strikes. And many things happened - sports games were played, classes were taught, and relationships built. But everyone - staff and students alike -breathes a sigh of relief when vacation hits and we can just press the pause button for a while.
One of the reasons we are SO excited for vacation is that it will mean a break from the computer crisis. Several weeks ago, lightning struck a building on campus and fried much of the computer network. Jeff and his IT team have been working around the clock (on top of the other jobs they do) repairing broken equipment. Now that things look pretty good (holding my breath), we are ready for some family time!
This past weekend, before the kids all departed, we took a group of students camping about an hour away from here. We have a group of kids that comes to our home every month for hanging out time. The group consists of 8 tenth grade boys. On Friday afternoon, we piled into two vehicles, laden with camping gear, and set out for the campsite, near my brother's property in Naivasha.
We had a blast! I wish we could have stayed longer than 1 night. Even though we did a lot of fun things, my highlight of the whole trip was the half hour before sunset. The boys had taken our kids down to the river to play. Jeff and I were setting up camp and as we puttered around, I stopped for a minute and said, "Just look around you for a moment! Drink it in!"

The pinkish blue sky over the ridge. The quietly rustling bushes. The glow of a newly built campfire. The smell of the African Plain before a rain (the rains did come the next day!). The splash of the river nearby. Oh we are so blessed to live in this amazing place!

The camping trip did not end without adventure. That night a buffalo and a hyena visited our camp. (I am glad I slept through the excitement and only heard about it in the morning!)

Here are some shots of our adventures:

Meet a modern day George Mueller

This morning Jeff called me on his way to work. He had walked past a rabbit that was in a cage near the laundry building on campus and he thought Ian would like to see it. So, about an hour later, on our way to preschool, Ian and dropped by to pet the rabbit.

She was cute as ever and Ian fed her the carrots from our garden that we brought and while he played with the rabbit, I met Stephen, owner of the rabbit and employee at the RVA Laundry department. Our conversation started lightly, "My kids love playing with the rabbit too." He admitted. He told me he had 7 children, 3 were biological and 4 were orphans they have taken in.

He and his wife felt the Lord was asking them to take in these 4 orphans from their community, but they didn't know how they would provide for them with their small house and meager income. But they stepped out in faith and story after story of God's faithful provision follows.

The story of missionary friends pitching in funds to build an extra bedroom for the kids.

The story of people rallying together to raise funds for the kids' school fees.

The story of Stephen coming home to bad news. "There is no food left." His wife tells him. But that night they have a feast of maize, after a local shop owner heard about their plight and gave them a large bag of maize.

And the story of the sick cow, who after the vet looked at her and the neighbors stopped by to offer advice, was left to die. Stephen chose to go to Church that morning instead of tending to the sick cow because he knew he should put God first. When he returned home, the cow was well and he was able to testify to his children, "It was God who healed the cow!"

"Sometimes it is very hard," Stephen paused, then smiled, "But God always provides!"

This is a modern day George Mueller and I love his story!

Fantastic Field Hockey

I had the privilege this term of coaching the Under 15 Field Hockey team. My team was comprised of 15 young ladies - in grades 7, 8 and 9. Most of them had never played field hockey before. And most of our competition was against British schools, where they start playing field hockey as early as 6 years old. So, needless to say, it was a bit intimidating. In our first game, the other coach kept apologizing as his girls scored goal....after goal....after goal. It was almost embarrassing. HOWEVER....my girls only improved with each game. Not only their skill and ball control, but their confidence and love for the sport increased as the season went on. We even had one game that was a tie!

The thing that impressed me most about this group of girls was their joy. Whether we lost big or small, whether it was raining or sunny, whether the other team was gracious or mean, they were just a joyful, cheerful group! They had so much fun at every game and I heard many comments like, "I appreciated their spirit out there!" or "They are learning and improving so much."

These girls really desired to be a testimony wherever we went. They were great about interacting with the other teams (many of the schools we play against are non Christian schools) and they were kind and polite to the referees and other coaches.

I couldn't be more proud of these ladies!