Follow You into the arms of the broken...

Monday, April 2, 2018

Happy Easter!!

After the Easter Sunrise service at Tenwek

Happy Easter Dear Ones! He is Risen!!
We have home videos from when I was little that I can never get out of my head and think of every Easter. Laura and I (my twin) had the HIGHEST pitched voices you could imagine. (sorry family, thanks for loving us anyway haha) we would yell, “JESUS IS ALIVE!!!” over and over while looking for eggs during our hunts with my dad capturing every minute at my mom’s request. :) He had one of those big video cameras that you held up on your shoulder and weighed about 10 pounds. :) While this is a funny memory to think of, it also makes me smile and say to myself, “Jesus is ALIVE”. That is a true and wonderful statement to reflect on. Jesus arose from the grave and conquered sin and death.

²And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. ³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. ⁴And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. ⁵But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. ⁶He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” –Matt 28:2-7

So as we reflect on this resurrection Sunday, I am reminded that I serve a living Savior. By his death on the cross for my sins (and yours), and then His burial and resurrection we are granted the greatest hope of all. Our sins have been atoned for and by His finished work on the cross we are saved. It didn’t stop there though; Christ was raised from the dead and is sitting at the right hand of God! Praise Him!

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
⁵⁵“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” -1 Cor 15: 55-58

We have VICTORY through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Because of Him, I am able to have that victory personally, as are you! I’m still not sure exactly how Easter eggs entered the picture, but if it points us to remembering that JESUS IS ALIVE and that reminds me of the victory I have in Him then I am all for it. :)

KUW dorm Senior year Banquet

We love our KUW Sweatshirts :)

2^nd term here at RVA ended with several challenging things happening in my dorm. As seniors we had banquet, re-entry seminar –or transition seminar, choir tour, and preparations for Interim trips. With AP exams approaching and end of term creeping up, my girls were stressed to the max. I've learned a lot about other stressors that face our teenagers these days growing up in a digital world with information galore at their fingertips. It isn’t all-bad, but there are definite problems that arise from all of this. I talked with one girl who said, “Aunt Amy, it is hard for adults to understand the comparison and insecurity that we face on things like Instagram or Snapchat.” It is easy to be quick to think, “honey, comparison is everywhere and its always been that way” however, the more I work with this generation it becomes clearer to me that there is something I can’t truly comprehend because it doesn’t hit me the way it does them. There are similarities of course but in the age of social media, I am not where they are. They constantly have things in their face and can be tempted to be consumed by it. The answer for all of us doesn’t change. We need Christ’s love in our hearts to see that we are made in His image and that we are only complete by Him. To know and believe that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and be fully present and content in God’s sovereignty, trusting that He has us where we are and the time of life we are in at every moment for a reason. My prayer is that I would be faithful to remind my girls constantly of this truth. I myself wrestle in different ways of staying fully present and not looking back sinfully to the past or worrying about the future.

A couple of weeks ago I was really struggling with fear for my family. I knew I was not trusting the Lord and knew truth, but asked some friends to pray for me because I was having trouble fighting it. In God’s loving faithfulness, He showed me my sin and reminded me of His truth. I was reading a book called, “None Like Him” by Jen Wilkin. This book is about God’s attributes in which we cannot be like Him (and why that is a good thing). This particular chapter was about God being Eternal. She talked about how we often want to be eternal in the way we look at our circumstances and want God to make things beautiful in OUR TIME. How the problem lies not with His timing but with our perception of it. She talks about our need to live in the present fully. How it isn’t wrong to look back at the past, but when our desire to cling to the past with sinful nostalgia, or when we idolize what once was, or resenting losses etc. overrides our trusting in Him and His timing of our days we are not living in His time. It isn’t wrong to grieve or miss those we have lost, but it is wrong to covet how it used to be.
Then at the same time, how am I looking at the future?? Am I looking forward with sinful anxiety and anticipation that causes me to not be fully present in the now? Again, it isn’t wrong to look forward to the future, but how am I looking? Is it looking for an escape, am I dreading the future and the fear of the unknown? Matt 6:34 reminds us to not be anxious for tomorrow because today has enough trouble of its own. Do you see where I am going with this? All I could do was repent of my fear at this clear message from Him. Our God is a personal and loving God. He didn’t leave me in my worry and anxiety, but gently showed me His truth and gave me the peace that only comes from Him. I know this is getting long, but I was so encouraged by this that I pray it might encourage some of you who may be wrestling with something similar. I definitely shared this whole chapter with my girls and was so encouraged by the wonderful discussion we had about it. I shared how I had been struggling but that the Lord is faithful and is not leaving us to our own resources and strength. Praise God.

Also, I wanted to say again that I am constantly aware and thankful for your prayers for my girls and me. I had 2 girls at the end of this term that went through some personal difficulties. They both ended up on compassionate leave -1 for the last week and a half of term, and 1 for a few days-. I was so thankful for the Lord’s protection of both of these girls and how He is working in their hearts to get help and how He provided a way for both of their parents to get here and be with them at their lowest points. The Lord gave me a deep calm about both of them and I know it was His strength helping me to know what to do and what to say. At this point, I was extremely exhausted from lack of sleep after several days of illness for some of my girls and myself. Physically I was busy, tired, and spent but I had just been studying about God’s strength and I know He was giving me a chance to share in His strength and sufficiency. Thank you for praying!

On the way to Jinja, Uganda.. We passed over the equator :)

My week-long Interim trip to Uganda was a blast! It was hard to get up the energy to be excited about the time, but I knew once we got on the road, I would enjoy it. We drove 12 hours each way to Jinja, Uganda. We had the opportunity to experience many different ministries where we looked at each place through the eyes of “When Helping Hurts” which is what we were studying for our trip. The idea being, when helping, there is a good and better way to help. The main thing we wanted to see was; were these orphanages, churches, seminary, and other cultural scenarios focusing on, “Relief, Rehabilitation, and Development?” It was so neat to hear our kids process and look through this lens as we had the privilege of being exposed to many different ministries. Each evening we ate with a local pastor or missionary so we could ask questions and learn from these faithful servants.

On one of the Islands on Lake Victoria, we worked along side high schoolers from the school there (in the solid colorful shirts) to do a service project of cleaning up the biggest village on that island. It was so neat to do this with the kids there.

I love this quote from the book, When Helping Hurts,

“ The goal is to see people restored to being what God created them to be: people who understand that they are created in the image of God with the gifts, abilities, and capacity to make decisions and to effect change in the world around them: and people who steward their lives, communities, resources, and relationships in order to bring glory to God. These things tend to happen in highly relational, process-focused ministries more than impersonal, product-focused ministries.”
Of course we had some fun being on Lake Victoria, rafting the River Nile, eating lots of good food, as well as just spending time together as a group. We had 6 kids and they were a blast!! My co-leader, John, and I would just sit in the front of the van laughing at the kids joking around and teasing each other.

feeling confident after the first rapid

then the terrifying experience of flipping on the 2nd rapid.

I just spent the first week of our Term break at Tenwek with my Dad and Rachel where I enjoyed getting to visit with many visiting doctors from all over the States and catching up on lots of rest! Dad and Rach will be there till the end of April so dad can cover the OB department while long-termers are on their yearly retreat. Next week I will head to the beach to help with the Children’s program during that same retreat. I will stay an additional 4 nights for some vacation time with some friends so I am really looking forward to that time.

Term 3 starts April 21^st. Please pray for my girls to have special times with their families as this is most-likely there last time at their home as many will go straight to the States, Europe, or the UK, right after Graduation for college.

Thanks for sticking with me if you made it to the end. :) My nephew, Tyler, is coming in May for a month. You can imagine I am ecstatic! He will work down at the hospital with a friend of mine in the Physical Therapy department, as that is what he is studying at Clemson University now. I will also coach JV Volleyball again so will start the term off busy as usual. :)
Please keep praying for the transitions for my girls and me. I know the Lord has a plan and am excited to see what He has for each of us.
I would love to hear from you! I pray for you all often and thank God for you.
Serving with you, Amy

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Term Two in Fast Forward Mode

Wow… So it feels like I have taken a deep breath and suddenly it is almost February. Term 2 is “shorter” in length at 11.5 weeks compared to the 13 and 12 weeks of Term 1 and 3 respectively. That being said, while short, it is jam packed with activities and seems like not many days to rest.
Wanted to share a few prayer requests and praises as well as an update on some changes ahead.

Please pray for my twin, Laura, who is going to be induced tomorrow. This will be her 5th child! She is praying for a private room so she can rest and have Keisuke stay with her as last time she was in a quad. So thankful for this new little nephew to come. :)

Thank you for praying for my time at home. It was very restful and filled with lots of family time. It was wonderful to see many of you as well! I was so thankful to have time with the fam and most of us got to be together for Christmas which was really special. We missed my twin and her family and our niece Christina who live in Japan and Australia. It was as hard as ever to say goodbye but I definitely felt a strong pull to return to Kenya to be back with my girls and finish well. We have a little over 5 months left of their senior year and my last term here. I hope I am not surprising anyone with that news as I haven’t purposely withheld that, but my goal was to talk with as many people as I could in-person about this decision. The Lord has given me peace about finishing up my time here at RVA. I don’t know what the future holds but I do know that the Lord will show me in His timing and I am thankful for His faithfulness and I know that wherever I am, he will be with me and I have no need to worry. While there were many reasons that led me to praying about my time at RVA, I think one of the main ones was the need to be close by to family. After losing my brother last year, it has been a very difficult year for me emotionally and I think that it would be wise to have time to heal and be close. (Of course, my family seems to be spread out over quite a few continents anyway, but at least I would be close to some of them. :) )
I would appreciate your prayers for all my girls and I as we work through transitions. We all are having to think of the important “lasts” and being intentional to end well. I know my girls would appreciate prayers for the daunting tasks of choosing universities and for the Lord’s provision as they apply for as many scholarships as possible.

The girls and I love our new Dorm Sweatshirts :)

Family night at the beginning of the term.

My prayer for the future once I am back in the States is that the Lord would provide a job in some type of local ministry or that I would be able to get a job that allows me to also have time to invest in ministry. Thanks for joining me in praying for this.
Since I will have been on the field for a 2.5 year term I will be allowed to take a home assignment until December 2018. If my supporters are willing and able, I am allowed to receive support through December with AIM. When I get back in September to the States, my goal will be to reconnect, rest, and hopefully have a chance to share more about my term. During that time I will also start looking for jobs. I am so thankful the Lord has already provided a home with my sister, Susie and her family who have graciously offered me a place to stay. I know I am so blessed to have a family that would all quickly share their homes with me in an instant and I don’t take that for granted, as that is often one of the biggest stressors for missionaries going on home assignment or leaving the field. A praise connected to that is that the Lord has continued to supply my financial needs through many of you. Last year it didn’t seem humanly possible that I would be able to finish on the field through July even, but Praise the Lord I am fully supported through July now. I am blown away by the generosity of my supporters and so thankful for that provision.

Please continue to pray for peace in Kenya as ongoing conflict continues from the elections. Our superintendent just sent us an email and said, “The opposition candidate is still planning to be inaugurated as ‘the peoples president’ on the 30th of January. He is also calling for a massive demonstration on that day. Should the event go forward, it is likely to generate considerable tension and the potential for violent clashes between police and opposition supporters is high.” We have been told to not travel into town that day as well as the days following.

Please pray for a few of my dorm girls who are really struggling through some personal issues.

Please pray for boldness and courage for me to not shy away from difficult conversations with the girls. The Lord has laid it on my heart to share more with the girls about some patterns I have seen in their speech that is very culturally “correct” but is not in any way biblical. My hope is that I can help them see that just because culture says “truth” is one way does not mean it is right. Ultimately I pray that their hearts would desire God’s truth and learn to be discerning of what is culture and what is true even if it means you might be spoken against. I am studying “Gideon, Your Weakness, God’s Strength” with my Bible study group and was thankful for the reminder that the Lord has placed me here for a reason and He will equip me to do His will. I love this quote, “As mothers to our children, as employees in the workplace, as part of His body in our local church, or as influences in our communities, God has deliberately positioned each of us to be His representative, beckoning our ailing culture to Him-one person at a time. Yes, our calling will look different from Moses’ and Gideon’s. But no matter what God’s plan looks like in our lives, His hand is on us to wage war against the enemy within our spheres of influence.” Like the judges of the Old Testament, we are called to, “1. Unify the people of God. 2. Fight against the oppression of the enemy. 3. Operate by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. “ I loved that reminder of God’s empowering us in our weakness. My fear of confrontation and someone arguing with me in a group has kept me from speaking up. I have confessed that fear and am thankful for this wonderful reminder. Thank you for praying for me to follow through and study God’s word as I prepare to talk to the girls about this issue.

Caring Community- Random groups by grades get together 3x a term. I host with my friends, the Kinzers this year and we have a great group of 7th grade girls. :) We joined another group and did country line dancing. We all had a blast!

Looking ahead briefly: Junior/Senior Banquet is Feb 16^th! My girls are so excited to sit back and enjoy BQ this year instead of doing all the work like the Junior class is doing now (and they did last year). :)
Interim trips in March- I am co-leading a group to Uganda where we will focus on learning about “When Helping Hurts”. I can give you more details later, but for sure I am looking forward to finally rafting the Nile which has been something I have wanted to do since 1999 when I first came to Kenya and learned you could even do that! :)

Thanks for sticking with me in this mini book. :) I guess I had lots to think about when I finally set my fingers to typing.
Love to you all and please let me know how I can be praying specifically for you. I am thankful for you.
Serving with you,
Amy

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

"Quickish" Update :)

Beautiful greens and blues from the rains :)

Praise and Worship time at the outreach last Sunday

Discussion groups at Kijabe Girls' school

Last update of the term!! :) We are counting down the days as all of us are very excited to see our families. 10 more days of the school term and 14 more days till I get home to Indy!! YAY!!!

Election news is pretty quiet, the Supreme Court is supposed to rule on the outcome sometime by the 20th of this month and the opposition party has demonstrations scheduled for the 16th and 17th but otherwise I don't hear much about what is going on.

I wanted to share a praise and encouraging thing that happened on Sunday.
Early on in the term, 2 of my girls talked to me about an idea the Lord had put on their heart. They thought about how we are close by to Kijabe Girls high school (about 5 miles away) and maybe we could build that relationship and have an outreach to their school. Often that school plays our sports teams in “friendly” matches and our High school choir and band have had concert outreaches there. They thought, why couldn’t we do that too? I encouraged them that I thought it was a GREAT idea, and told them who they would need to talk to about their idea. I hadn’t heard anything more from them for over a month when about 2 weeks ago they came back to me and said, Guess what?! We got to meet with their chaplain and he said this is the very thing he has been praying for!!! (How cool is our God?!) :)
They asked me and 3 other adults to drive them and “supervise” but otherwise, they got a group of 18 junior and senior girls together and put together a church service based on the topics that the Kijabe Chaplain had asked them to touch on in their messages. WOW is all I can say. It was such a blessing to see and hear 4 of my girls speak on what the Lord has taught them. They talked on topics about finding your Identity in Christ alone and not in peers/boys, academics, difficult family dynamics, and difficult circumstances. It was so neat to hear the 4 different testimonies and the way they could share the gospel with these girls.
The form 4 students (or seniors) at Kijabe –actually in all of Kenya- are currently sitting for their 4 week long exams!! Yes 4 weeks! These tests will determine if they will go to university or not. The exams cover 4 years of high school and they have many oral and practical exams over the many subjects they study. The chaplain explained to us that because of corruption and false test scores, the government has sent all the other classes home as well as all the teachers. Only the Chaplain and Principal can administer the exams. The exams are kept in locked rooms and each girl has to be searched before entering the room to sit for the exam.. WOAH!! All of our RVA girls had a new appreciation for the way their exams are given and thankful for what they are privileged to have in education. After the 4 girls spoke, they had about an hour of discussion time with the 165 students split up into groups lead by 2 of our RVA girls.
After the discussion time I had a girl named Precious come and ask to speak to me. We talked for about 20 minutes about how she feels very far away from the Lord and that she doesn’t know if she wants to keep hearing about God because she has so much guilt. Please pray for Precious to realize the truth of the Gospel and how God’s grace is a free gift that cannot be earned! After talking, she wasn’t ready to pray, but was glad for me to pray for her.
The hope of this outreach is for it to continue at least once every term and they invited our junior girls to participate so that hopefully the vision will catch and it can continue.

Thank you for praying for unity in our dorm, please keep praying for that!
We have our dorm party on Saturday. My girl that is leaving at the end of this term is getting oral surgery today and will be gone till Friday. I am so praying she can be here for dorm party so we can pray for her as a dorm and she can have these good goodbyes!
Another prayer request will be for continued financial support. Last month’s support was very short and I am continually reminding myself of God’s faithfulness and how He is the great provider. Please pray that I would not get discouraged when these things happen.
Like I said in my last letter, I will be giving the girls sweatshirts as their gift for the year. It will cost me about 550$ including the shipping to get these. If you do feel lead to contribute, you can go AIM's giving page here. https://usgiving.aimint.org/missionary/1035510

I will close for now,
Thank you for standing with me!!!! If you are in Indy over December and would want to get together, please let me know as I would love to see you.

Serving with you,
Amy

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

October Update

Dear friends,

Will you please pray for Kenya? Tomorrow, Oct 26^th, they are to hold the re-elections after the Supreme court annulled the results from the August Elections. This whole process has been wrought with political tensions and unease. Many Kenyans just want it over, but hope for a fair and balanced election. Please be praying for peace and for justice to be done. It has been a very confusing process. Even though they are to be held tomorrow, there is uncertainty that it will even happen! They have called for a holiday today and tomorrow.
Pray for the safety of those Kenyans who want to exercise their right to vote. The opposing party is calling for protests and boycotts of the voting and in some counties have threatened violence against those voting.

We are safe here in Kijabe, but covet your prayers for our Kenyan brothers and sisters who want to vote and have this election behind them. I have been encouraged by the response of so many of my friends when I ask them how they are doing. They often respond, “We don’t know what will happen, but God is in control. We have been praying and it will be OK.” I am so thankful for their faith and that reminder to me in the midst of so much uncertainty for them.

We are praising the Lord for rain!! The last 2 weeks we have gotten heavy rain almost every day. Our local "weather man" said this recently, "Based on RVA rain data from 1986 - 2017, the yearly average is 37.4 inches. Until this month, this was the lowest record by far of any year. Currently we are at about 16 inches for the year. The only other year close to that was 2000 with 15.78 inches." So it is a much needed answer to prayer for Kenya!

On Friday we celebrated Mashujaa Day (Heroes Day) in Kenya. This is one of my favorite days of the year here!! At RVA we call it Multicultural Day where we celebrate the diversity of our school. This year’s theme was “The Multitude at the Throne”. With 36 nations represented in our student body, it is indeed a small glimpse of what we have to look forward to in heaven!

We see this in Revelation 7:9

"The Multitude before the Throne"
“⁹After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” ¹¹And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹²saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
¹³Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
¹⁵“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
    and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
    the sun shall not strike them,
    nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
    and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
What a blessing to see a small picture of this and how I long for the day when we will be before the throne of God.

Great picture of my dorm (Except we are missing 3 girls :( )

this girl loves her Texas :) (Emma)

Tanzania and Kenya girls :) (Abi and Natalie)

This term has been one of the more emotionally trying times for my dorm. They are facing many deadlines in their college applications and the many essays that come with those along with their normal heavy class load. On average, I would say our kids apply to 5 colleges, some 8-9!!! Because they are not familiar with life in the States, they are often applying to many with the hopes of the best financial packages being a huge factor in their decisions. Some have family near those colleges, but others will be moving 1,000s of miles from their families in Africa or Korea. Only a few of them have actually visited these colleges so you can imagine the unknown they are facing. Please be praying for them and for me as I hope to continually encourage them to look to the Lord in this time of transition. He is going before them and will be with them. Pray for their stress and that they would not worry, but would trust that the Lord will guide them and provide for them.

We have also been facing a lot of emotional problems with their peers in their class. They have had 1 expulsion, 5 suspensions and 2 compassionate leaves in their senior class alone in just 1 term! You can imagine the strain that has placed on relationships within our dorm and their class. Again, I am just praying that the Lord would use this in their lives to draw them to Himself and would use it to help them grow. There has been a lot of hurt with gossip and rumors. As with any small community, there is a bit of a bubble and unfortunately those “rumblings” can continually bring hurt instead of allowing healing. Pray with me for healing in these relationships, that they would understand the discipline is done in love and that ultimately they would love their classmates and forgive them. That they would not allow Satan to have a foothold in this situation and cause disunity and further hurt. Even though I wish these things weren’t happening, I know the Lord uses these times to teach us and strengthen us. Pray for wisdom and boldness for me to speak truth whenever I need to.

            We have just 4 weeks left in this term! I am excited for a chance to see my family this Christmas. I will be home in Indiana from Nov 29^th-Dec. 28^th and hope to see many of you. I would appreciate continual prayers for me. This last year has been difficult in many ways as I continue to experience strong reactions of grief and almost panic when I am faced with difficult news from home. By God’s grace, I do not linger long in that state, but it has been hard. I am thankful for God’s patient reminders to me of His love and care. I have been studying a John Piper study on the “Journey to Joy” from Philippians this term with my Sunday school class. It has been so helpful to keep reminding myself of the joy I can have because of what our Savior did for you and me on the cross. In this pursuit of joy, our faith is being stretched and sharpened as we learn to treasure our Savior’s gift of salvation even amidst adversity. Learning to rest in the supremacy of God’s sovereignty. God is in control and completely trustworthy.
            There is so much that the Lord has been teaching me, but this might become a book if I keep going so I will stop with that for now. :)

            Thank you for praying for our SEW (spiritual Emphasis week). I know the Lord was working in the hearts of my girls. I was so thankful to have a time of reflection with them and hear what they were challenged by in our meeting last week. Our speaker works with Ravi Zacharias’ ministry and had an incredible testimony of growing up in a nearby town to Kijabe with a single mother and 6 siblings. They were so poor they didn’t know when they would have food again. Through a family that worked here in Kijabe, he came to Christ and went on to become a brilliant scholar and speaks all over the world. He really challenged a lot of my girls. His theme was “Love the Lord Your God with all Your Mind”. It was so cool to hear them realize the importance of being in God’s Word and learning to be prepared to give a response to people that would question their faith.

one of my favorite spots on campus, yellow acacia trees with Mt. Longonot in the background.

I would appreciate your continual prayers for financial support. God has provided enough each month even though my monthly support is 400$ short most months. I know He is in control and am resting in that. With Christmas and graduation coming up, I hope to bless my girls with dorm sweatshirts and a grad gift. These are extra costs that can be a big chunk when you think of multiplying it by 22 girls! If you feel led to give, you can go to this new AIM link that will go directly to my new profile page with AIM. https://usgiving.aimint.org/missionary/1035510

OK ONE MORE PRAYER REQUEST: :) One of my girls, Miriam, will be leaving and graduating early at the end of this term. Her family has been serving in Kenya for the last 4 years but after a 1.5yrs of waiting for a work-permit that never came through, they have decided to move to the States. They will continue their ministry from Stateside. Miriam could have stayed for the year as a senior, but has felt a lot of peace from the Lord about returning to the States with her family. We are going to miss her so much! Please pray for her as she faces this transition a lot sooner than the rest of her class.

Beautiful sunset over Mt. Longonot

Thank you friends for standing with me in prayer and support. I am so thankful for you. Please, PLEASE let me know if I can pray for you specifically about anything.
Serving with you,
Amy

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

SENIORS!!!

Hello dear friends,
Thank you for your prayers for finishing up last term and over the break. I am so thankful the Lord allowed me to go to Japan and see my twin and her family. We had such a great time together and it was really neat to see their new home and way of life (tomato farming!).
I will include a couple of pictures of our times together.

Trins! Laura and I loved getting to spend a month together!!

beautiful rice fields were everywhere

A very happy Aunt Amy to be with these 4 stinking cute stinkers ;)

Two tomato farmers ;) Me and Yoshiki

had fun taking pictures of the beautiful Noguchi Family :)

The break seemed like it flew by, and just like that we were preparing to welcome new students and our returning students for the 2017/2018 school year. We had 102 new students this year!! You can imagine what an emotional weekend that can be for families new to RVA (and those who have been sending kids for many years). It is always a reminder to me of the incredible sacrifice many of these families have been called to give when sending their kids to boarding school. I was privileged to sit in the “Parenting from afar” sessions again this year. It really helps me remember to pray for these parents as we hear their concerns and fears. But it is also so affirming of what we are doing when those parents who are on child #5 (or whatever number) and sending their kids to RVA share with new parents about the things they are thankful for and how RVA is here for their kids. They affirm how important this ministry is and how it has been a blessing to their family, even in the loss of that time for them being physically together while their children are here at school. I am always humbled by these sessions and so thankful for the parent’s care and love for their children and them being willing to share them with us because that is what God has asked them to do.

1st day of school picture of my girls

Just a couple of quick stats of KUW (Kedong Upper West) for you after 3 days of school.
22 excited, nervous, not sure what to feel Senior girls
1 Dorm mom
1 dorm dog (Zawadi)
1 broken wrist (basketball try outs )
(One of my friends joked that we need to write on our board, KUW has gone…..”number” of days since the last injury. Funny, but not funny.

Last night in Dorm devos we looked at Proverb 3:5-6 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. "
We looked at who we are putting our trust in when it says LORD -YHWH and how He is so great and worthy of our trust. We can remember His character and attributes when we see His NAME. We looked at how our own understanding is so finite but how HE is infinite.
This year, my hope is to help them to continually see their identity is in Christ. Also that as they are looking towards the future, they will seek the Lord and TRUST His great plans. Sometimes things will look different than they thought, but that God is in control and they do not have to fear or have anxiety about those plans falling through.
Our devos will also focus on things like, How to find a local church, how to "stay a Christian" in college, how do I know God's will and other topics like that.

Please be praying for our devo times on Tuesday nights at 8:30.

Last week I wrote a post on Facebook after I was reflecting on it being 6 years since I had moved to RVA and I wanted to share it with those of you who are not on facebook as well.

reflecting on the last 6 years*
“A few days ago marked 6 years ago when I moved back to Kenya to work at RVA as a dorm mom. I couldn't even begin to know the ways that the Lord would challenge me and grow me. There has been a lot of laughter and tears, highs and lows, but He is so faithful through it all though. 4 dorms and 72 "daughters" over 6 (will be 7 years) has made me a blessed dorm Momma. Each year the Lord has placed a love in my heart for these special young ladies right from the start. The only way I can even do this job is by His grace and Strength. I can't tell you how thankful I am that the Lord allows me the privilege of being their mom away from home and being able to be apart of the extended work of the gospel being taken all over Africa. I'm thankful for the opportunity to be able to use the gifts God has given me to serve Him and the Body of Christ in this way. It can be a challenge to be in "support" missions because many do not see this as the front lines and therefore it is hard to raise the financial side of support to be able to do this job. It has truly stretched me and I am continually learning to completely trust our Great Provider. I would be lying if I said it was always easy and I never worry. At one point, I had to leave the field because of not having enough support. (Side note, even in this I see how God allowed me more time with my brother, Tom before he passed away. Even when we can't see what His plan is, rest in it and trust Him!! ) However, it has also been a joy to see the ways God has always provided and many times that has been through so many of you. THANK YOU for being part of the Great Commission to GO and Make Disciples of all Nations. The Lord has worked in my heart a love and joy in what I am allowed to take part in. I love that as a body of Christ, we are reaching the unreached. Sometimes it's the actual going to the front, sometimes it's crying with a dorm daughter when she is hurting. I have learned that no matter where the Lord calls you, we still have one goal. Glorify Him and reach the broken, lost, and hurting right where you are. It might not look pretty, glamorous, or exciting (in fact it is usually the opposite) but God determined your steps to be there and your job is to live for Him in those moments.

All this reflection because I will start my 7th year with my 22 precious dorm girls in 5 days. I get to walk through their senior year of high school with them and I am so excited- and scared-. PLEASE, PLEASE be praying for me and for them as we will be stretched in so many ways over the next 11 months. I am excited to see how the Lord teaches us and how He will guide and direct each of them to what He has for them next. Pray for my new dorm daughter... starting boarding school as a senior can be a difficult transition!!
Pray for wisdom for me as I continue to pour into their lives and that I will seek the Lord daily for His strength. He offers it freely!
Thanks for sticking with me. "

Truly, I am thankful for you sticking with me over the years and for your prayer and financial support that allows me the privilege of being a dorm mom here at RVA. We desire to raise up the next generation of missionaries and gospel-bearers. With God’s strength and wisdom, that is our goal.

I can’t remember if I have shared the RVA website link before, but if not you should check it out! It has lots of pictures so you can see what a beautiful place I get to live in. ☺ http://rva.org/

Serving with you,
Amy Jarrett

If you feel led to give or become apart of my team with one-time gifts or monthly support, here is some practical information for you. You can send checks (made to AIM) and include a letter that says it is for Amy Jarrett to:
Africa Inland Mission
C/0 Receipting
P.O. Box 3611
Peachtree City, GA 30269-7611
You can also call their headquarters directly and set up credit card deposits or automatic monthly check deposits. That number is (1. 800.254.0010 ).