Karibuni Kenya
A week ago today our family arrived in Kenya to begin our life and ministry at Rift Valley Academy. The trip was a relatively smooth one, although we did end up with seven pieces of our luggage missing. The last one arrived yesterday by God’s grace!
We have been warmly welcomed into the RVA community and are beginning to feel somewhat settled. The kids have adjusted well so far and had their first day of school yesterday. I asked Josh and Sophie to rate their day on a scale from 1 to 5 and they both said, “3”. When I asked why not a 3 or 4 Sophie responded, “Because it was the first day of school.” Good point. New school, new teachers, new students, new country, new continent. I would say a 3 is doing pretty well at this point! Thank you for your prayers for their transition. It makes it hard to thrive anywhere if the family is not doing well.
Lilli and I are also slowly learning our responsibilities as staff chaplain and student health nurse. In some ways, the environment here after the students arrive makes it difficult to learn “slowly”. The pace of life here, despite it’s African context, is intense. But God has been kind and He’s given us the grace to grow and not feel too overwhelmed…yet. We have to give thanks to many of our fellow staff members who are coming alongside us and helping our transition.
The hardest part of leaving the States was no doubt saying goodbye to family. Giving one last hug to Hannah last week was one of the hardest things we’ve done. There are still occasional tears – and probably more than we know in the darkness of night. But we are thankful for technology – texts, Facetime, internet phone, and email to still keep in touch. Thank you to all who have reached out to Hannah to let her know you are praying for her and to offer help whenever needed. She definitely has felt cared for!
Please keep in touch with us as well, and let us know if we can be praying for you (still using the PrayerMate app!). We try to update our prayer requests on the bottom left of each page of our website. Love and thanks to you all in Christ.
