Greetings to you from across the pond!

Mt. Longonot from the valley floor 

favorite wheat field with Acacia trees on the way to Tenwek

our water tank that collects the rainwater 

one of the many perks of living in a tropical climate, banana trees above and
avocado tree below

our front porch

view of the valley floor from the escarpment

can see the side of the road on the right side of the picture.
The road curves all along the hills

moon rising over the hills at Tenwek

   I was so thankful and encouraged by my friends and family before leaving for Kenya. It is so hard to say goodbye to so many people I love so much, but what a sweet time I was able to have the last couple weeks before I left. Friends threw me a surprise farewell party and I had several groups of friends pray over me the last few days. So thankful for the support of these dear friends and family. I was also thankful to be able to connect and do face-time with every single family member before leaving since we weren't sure how the internet would be once we were here at Tenwek.

            I wanted to take a few moments to update you about our travel and settling in to life at Tenwek.  Dad, Rachel, and I left Indiana on Thursday Sept, 4th around 9:30am and headed up to Chicago. Our friends, Rusty Neeley, and Danelle Bancroft caravanned with us carrying the 11, 50lb and 1, 70lb bags in their van while Dad drove the Buick up so that Blake and Elissa Dias (my niece and her husband) could use the vehicle over the next few months. They are expecting their 1st child (my first great-niece or nephew!!) in November so we are thankful it worked out for them to have a mode of transportation.

We made it to the airport with plenty of time and were thankful to arrive when there was no line to speak of. The ticket agent was very friendly and helpful. BA's server was down the day before for us to register our 3 extra pieces of luggage at the 30% discount price if you do that ahead of time. However, she helped us by dropping the price of the over-weight bag so that we didn't end up paying more than we would have with that discount. Praise the Lord!

Our flights and connections went very smoothly and we were thankful to arrive in Nairobi on September 5th around 10pm -Kenya time- and see all our 12 pieces coming out on the carousel albeit very slowly. J

            We spent the weekend in Nairobi at a favorite guest house or ours while waiting for Dad and Rachel's paperwork appointment on Monday. On Saturday we went out shopping for groceries and needed supplies for Tenwek. On Sunday two of my good friends from RVA picked me up and took me to lunch. What a treat! It was so wonderful to catch up with them and makes me very excited for getting back to RVA in January. On Monday we couldn’t have wished for a better day of traveling the 4hrs to Tenwek. Our driver with Samaritan's Purse picked us up and took us to the immigration house (house of pain and suffering) for Dad and Rachel's successful appointment. We got there early enough that I think it was more like "the house with a bit of wait and not too much suffering" for this visit. J We then picked up our frozen meat and fresh veggies as well as some lunch to-go and were on our way! We enjoyed the view driving down the Escarpment into the valley. We arrived safely to Tenwek in good time which is something you can never take for granted. Just last week a visitor was coming to see a long-term missionary here at Tenwek and was in a road accident about 30 minutes away from Tenwek. She had to have surgery and is thankfully recovering, but just serves as a reminder of the danger whenever you drive anywhere here in Kenya. 

            We got to Tenwek shortly before 4 and got to work immediately unpacking and boiling water. We have a house-helper named Sarah whom we have known for many years. We are thankful for all her help around the house! We have made a good team over the last couple days doing food prep and other kitchen chores. Because the water is not safe to drink here you have to collect the rain water and then boil it before filtering it. Also, any fresh foods have to be washed in a bleach or vinegar solution to make it safe for eating. So there is a lot of extra work that goes into normal cooking. It has been great to catch up with many friends and familiar faces here at Tenwek. There are many new families too that I haven't met yet. One full-time family that is here now came 14 years ago as med-students and we were reminiscing about our safari trip we took together then. Hard to believe that was so long ago! 

            God has been preparing the way for many ministry opportunities for Rachel and I while at Tenwek. Some of them I knew about ahead of time, and others have been dropped into my lap that I didn’t. We had our first preschool session today and we will have that M-W-F each week. I will also teach some PE classes on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. An extra project I have been given was to grade some nursing school tests. They had a lot given at once so were behind on their grading. Another extra opportunity  that has come up has been to stay over at one of the long-term missionary homes with 2 of their daughters. The parents and their three, 4yr-old adopted children were suddenly having to travel to the US for their citizenship appointments. The 2 oldest are at RVA in highschool and this left their 8th and 3rd grader home at Tenwek. So for the next couple weeks I will be staying with them at night to help them through their night routine and homework helper. There are lots of aunties and uncles on the compound that are taking the girls under their wings so this will be my part. J

  A few other things I may be involved in are teaching guitar as a special class for their homeschool co-op and possibly tutoring a 4th grader in Math.. (anyone who knows me should stop and laugh at this point) I told the mom that math was not my strong point, but I could do my best. So you can see that there is never a shortage of things to do on the compound. I will keep you updated as best I can. AIM has reported some of my updated support needs. Thank you for your continued prayers in that regard. I still have a ways to go before I am fully supported by December for my term at RVA. I am so very thankful for your prayer support which is so important for all that we do over here in Kenya. It is wonderful to know I have a team of people praying for me and my family. I don't know if I can say enough about the encouragement that brings me. I will sign off for now as this has quickly become 2 pages. I am going to do my best to upload a few images along with this, but won't be surprised if they are too big for the internet.

serving with you,

Amy