Posts by Rusty & Brooks:

March / April 2009 Newsletter

3 comments Written on April 5th, 2009 by Rusty & Brooks
Categories: E-Mail, Newsletters, Updates

*We have spent the last three hours trying to get this newsletter sent out, but we are having issues with the Internet here in Africa (go figure). So rather than delay our newsletter any further, we are posting it here and will be sending it out via e-mail with the pictures and other fun stuff once the Internet decides to start working better. Thank you for your patience and understanding*

Dear Friends,

Jambo! We are amazed, humbled and blessed by what God is doing in our ministry here at RVA and in our personal lives! It is wonderful to see how God is helping us adapt to our lives and responsibilities. We really do understand why so many people told us before we came that it really takes about a year to adjust completely to life here – as so many things change so quickly and often. Even as we write, we are still processing all that has happened – both fun and challenging – this past term as well as preparing for the inevitable changes that the next months hold. Part of this prolonged processing in due in part of how fast the term goes by with personal responsibilities 24/7. Its often not until vac that we get a chance to realize all that we have just accomplished and experienced throughout the term.

It has been a fun realization that despite the challenges and struggles that we encounter, both personally and as a school (more so this year than recent years, we’re told) we really believe that we are exactly where we are called to be! The longer we are here, the more we love it here. The harder days help us learn, grow and find new ways of adapting in life. The good days increase our love of Kenya and RVA, astonish us at how wonderful God is, confirm that we are where we need to be, and create wonderful memories. Both help types of days help us become closer as a family and a dorm!

One of our dorm highlights include a mystery dinner – done in place of our normal Wednesday night dinner. The boys were given “secret invitations”, told to come to the dorm at 4:07. After playing a game, they practiced their band instruments and finished their homework, which enabled us to have an evening of amazing fun without other responsibilities of a normal night. They walked into the dining room of “Davis Diner” that was strangely decorated, had black plastic taped to the tabletops and were told not to talk. Most of them had never been to a mystery dinner before. They had 3 “courses” in which they chose their meal one course at a time – ‘Boston’s Favorite’ (iced tea), ‘Sticks and Stones’ (spaghetti and meatballs), and ‘Chicken in a Basket’ (devilled eggs) were a few items on the menu. They also had to order plates and utensils with each course. It was a night that none of us will soon forget!

Another highlight was our continuation of the end of term HUGE sleepover. This time we had a total of 26 kids, including Kayla, Micah and one of his friends. It turned out that there was not a Friday night activity for the boys to be involved in – it was a rare week that the Titchie weekend activity was on Saturday night instead. This created a great opportunity for the boys and their friends to have more time together and create mischievous activities like only boys can! We often wonder why do this, and yet, by the end of the night we are convinced that we have had as much fun as they have. It’s an incredible opportunity to interact in the lives of not only our boys, but their classmates and friends’ lives as well!

Brooks also had the opportunity to finish strong with her 9th grade boys Sunday School class. They were always full of energy and questions. Every Sunday provided a myriad of discussion topics as they talked about different myths and ideologies related to the Christian Church. It was great to hear some of their feedback as well as open their minds a bit more about who Christ really is according to the Bible not just individual beliefs!

There is one personal challenge that our family has faced this past month we’d like to share with you. We were able to rejoice with the news that Brooks was pregnant again! Within a week of finding this out, she began having strange pains and cramps. Even with the doctors and hospital that we have here, it took an excruciatingly long week before we confirmed that the tiny life inside her had indeed died. Instead of having our third child, we had our third miscarriage. Thanks to some amazing friends, we were able to have an evening to cry and talk just the two of us after we found out. We have been reminded time and time again that only God is in control! He has helped give grace and a heavenly peace that is helping us through the pain of this loss as well as the strength, patience, love, and endurance that was needed in the dorm to finish the term.

As we look at the past 8 months here, it is with mixed emotions. We have thoroughly come to adore this place and what we are doing teaching, parenting, and mentoring the students here. There has been so many times where we have poured out God’s love into the kids and other staff here (as well as been poured into)! The experiences and memories are like none other. We could live without another monkey raiding our kitchen for bananas! We also could never get enough evening one-on-one or two-on-one chats about life, friends, God, or family with our boys. Life as a family of 16 has definitely had its challenges, but they seemed to be outweighed in the end by joy, love, fun, and God’s gift of drawing us all close together despite our nationality and backgrounds!

We only have 4 more months left of our initial time here.   Just the thought can bring tears and grief. As much as we miss our friends and family in the States, it is so hard to imagine leaving here – especially when we do not have a return date. We already know that we want to come back – believing that this is the place that God is calling us to be for as long as He sees fit. Our plans are to fly back into New York the end of July. We will have a couple days of debriefing with AIM in Pearl River and then will see Brooks’ family in PA before heading back towards Missouri. We know that we have friends and supporting churches along the way that we would like to see, but we are still working out the details and timing of these visits. (Please remind us if you’re around NY or along the way through PA to MO, we’d love to see you, but also need to plan ahead to make it happen!)   

We are aware that the economy in the U.S. has changed. We also know that God is much bigger than any of our problems and needs! We have watched as time and time again He has provided for our family. Trusting that He will continue to provide and lead the way, we are letting people know that the only thing stopping us from returning to Kenya is monthly support. We are currently a bit less than ½ of what we need monthly. “How did we make it here in the first place?” you might be asking… well that came from the generous one time gifts that helped compensate the monthly needs. Those gifts are running out and will only help us through the rest of this year, maybe. We would appreciate your prayers (and any financial help you feel led to give) as we continue on this journey to be missionaries long term in Kenya!

We thank God for each of you! Thank you for your love, prayers and notes of encouragement.

Serving God by Serving Others,

Rusty, Brooks, Micah & Kayla

Posted in E-Mail, Newsletters, Updates

Hell’s Gate National Park

2 comments Written on March 31st, 2009 by Rusty & Brooks
Categories: Family, Kenya, Updates
Tags: , ,

Hell’s Gate National Park Streaming Audio

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As I awoke this morning, I heard the faint sound of water droplets hitting the tin roof over head. I thought to myself, it should be a nice day to go to one of Kenya’s finest National Parks. Kenya has been in an extreme drought lately and many people are suffering, so the sound of rain was not going to hinder our first family outing during this break.

After getting dressed, eating breakfast, and packing a lunch to take with us we headed over to our neighbors house. We had just decided to go to the National Park not but 2 day before when talking with them about how much we would like to go see it sometime this break. They had said, fine, let’s go this week sometime. That sounded great to us. After getting into the vehicle and driving down the hill to the valley below, we arrived at the main highway. The Hell’s Gate National Park is about 35 km down the main road, so we had fun in the vehicle on the way there. Our family, our two neighbors (John and Dan) and another lady (Sarah) were all in the vehicle together. As we were driving, we thanked them for inviting us to go along with them, because there are many times that families or individuals who are doing fun things will ignore our family and think that we don’t want to do anything because we have kids. (This is far from the truth, because our kids love adventure).

Once we arrived at the entrance to Hell’s Gate National Park and payed our entrance fees we drove into the park and found a fun place to stop. The first of two stone towers that jut straight out of the earth. What many people do not know about Hell’s Gate is that underneath the ground, there is sulfuric activity and at times, you can see the smoke coming up from the ground because of the activity underneath. Hell’s Gate is on the other side of Mt. Longonot, the dormant volcano that you can see from RVA. The kids had a blast climbing on and around the rocks and even saw an animal called the Rock Hyrax.

Eventually, we got back into the vehicle and started driving to the canyon that we were going to hike through. (If you have ever seen Tomb Raider II, at the very end when they are traveling through the Canyon’s heading up to the cradle of life at night, that is Hell’s Gate. It was filmed there). On the drive we saw Warthogs, Zebras, Thompson Gazelles, an Eland, lots of Cafe Buffalo, and one Giraffe. As the car stopped we realized that it was about time for lunch and we decided to eat before going on our long hike. We even had some fun feeding the birds that were flocked around the picnic table. Once we were done with lunch and packed up our lunches, we began the fun hike into the canyon. Hiking through the canyon was an amazing experience and one that I will not forget. There were many places where you could find springs of water coming straight out of the rocks. Most of the time, the water was almost too hot to touch because the sulfur and volcanic activity made them so. The kids had a blast and there were many times when we had to help them down from high ledges but with 5 adults, we made sure that they stayed safe. The kids also had so much fun just running down the river in their shoes. By the time we were done, there shoes and socks as well as their pants were soaked. Being able to see God’s nature and majesty even here on such a dark continent made me realize so much more that God loves us very much. To end a great hike, God saw it fit to open up the heavens and send rain down on us as we were heading the last 3/4 mile back to the vehicle. The kids did great and were awesome troopers.

And for our final stop of the day, after hiking we went into the town of Naivasha and ate at a place called La Belle’s. They had great food and the kids enjoyed sandwiches, hamburgers, and french fries. A well deserved meal after a hard, yet exciting day of adventure and fun.

(*As soon as I get the pictures off of my camera and upload to the web, I will edit this post and add them in*)

- RM -

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Posted in Family, Kenya, Updates

Things I’ve learned (Part 1)

3 comments Written on March 11th, 2009 by Rusty & Brooks
Categories: Family, General, Journal, Kenya

Life in Africa is always full of lessons and new experiences. Recently I have been learning or relearning some of these invaluable lessons. Although it may take a couple days to share them, I’ll start with this one:

I have learned the value of being focused!

I can hear someone saying, “What, don’t you have to be focused to do what we’re doing?” Yes, but just like living anywhere else, if we are not careful it is easy to be caught up in life around you and not to be focused on what really matters. Living in the community we do, working with the students, and parenting our dorm boys can be all consuming. These past couple weeks have had both some fun, amazing times as well as some really difficult ones.

In the last week alone, NOT including what we do with Micah and Kayla (although they did participate in some of these), we had a mystery dinner in place of our typical dorm dinner, taught devotions in both 6th grade classes, had another huge sleepover (23 kids total), given quizzes and tests in our classes, worked our other jobs with the computers lab and Titchie office, watched sport games that our kids were playing in, helped half of our boys through some degree of homesickness, worked with at least 10 of our 12 on poor decisions that they made, helped with homework, listened to band practice, checked dorm jobs, made breakfast, helped those who have been sick (there is always a bug/virus of some sort traveling around campus), and so much more. Oh! All this while Rusty has a pretty bad sprained ankle and I’ve been fighting a head cold that won’t go away! It is easy to see how life can get consuming without noticing it.

The downside to being immersed in life is that for a little while I lost focus on why I do what I do! Losing focus makes it easy to get tired and discouraged. It’s a gradual process and yet suddenly, I found myself exhausted, both mentally and physically. It was shocking to see the state that I was in and know that its not an easy place to get out of either! Something had to change and I really couldn’t do it on my own.

I purposed to spend more time focusing on the Lord and seeking His help to realize how I got where I was. It took some time with the Lord and some hours away from the dorm and all other responsibilities to see that I had lost my focus. I was reminded that even though I am here to love on, nurture, disciple, mentor to all the kids we are in contact with in addition to being a ‘mom’ to our dorm, its not the reason why I am here. I am here because this is where I know God wants me to be. I am here because this is where I want to be. I am here because I want to help the parents who are working with, educating, and loving the African people all over the continent. They need us here to help their children in ways that are unavailable where they are. I get to love these students so they can get a great education and their parents can give help and assistance where it is so desperately needed on this dark continent!

I am amazed and humbled that I get to live in Kenya, help people daily, and see the amazing power of God work through the lives of those around me – from the students to the teachers and all the nationals that we are with daily. Yes, I have relearn the value of staying focused on what matters and what is important, instead of just what is needed for day to day life!

~BM

Posted in Family, General, Journal, Kenya

Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

3 comments Written on March 3rd, 2009 by Rusty & Brooks
Categories: Journal, Kenya, Missions, Updates
Tags: , , , , ,

Wow, it’s hard to believe that our time here in Africa for this first year is half over. I can’t even begin to describe to you all the emotions thinking about this brings about. For many years, we dreamed of being in Africa and ministering to the people of this country and the missionaries and their kids through our work at RVA. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would want nothing more to stay here in this land for the rest of my life. That is now beginning to change.

When first coming here, I always thought to myself that it would be great to come to this place and serve for an extended period of time, then move on. Now, more than ever I realize that God was working on my heart and I have come to love this school, what it stands for, and the people that we are able to minister to (both MK’s and African’s alike).

My 32nd Birthday was last weekend on February 22nd and I can say that I did miss being with my really close friends and family. Even though I missed my actual family I must say that having my birthday with my 13 boys, 1 girl, and wife was absolutely incredible. I love these boys more than they will ever know. God has given each and every one of them a special place in my heart and I will truly treasure all the memories that we have made together so far and I’m looking so much forward to the next 6 months and all the memories that we are going to make.

Aside from ministering to the boys, being able to minister to our local staff here in Kijabe and to the IDP Camps, Masai, Kisarani, etc. has been incredible. The stories that we hear, the people that we meet are all so thankful for even the smallest of gestures. A friendly smile, a hug, a handshake, and the ocassional gift that is given all speak volumes to them. They are so thankful for what they have and for what God has given them, even though in our eyes it may seem small. Being here has reminded me to content with what God has given you and to look to Him as your source of joy. I believe that the happiest people on earth live here in Africa. The smiles that you see here are so genuine, even when they have nothing at all. I pray that each and every day you may be thankful for the things that God has given you.

God bless each and everyone of you.

- RM -

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Posted in Journal, Kenya, Missions, Updates

Weekend Events

9 comments Written on February 20th, 2009 by Rusty & Brooks
Categories: General

Here at RVA, there are many events that fill the weekend so that our boarding students will have something to do. So in no particular order, here are some of them.

  • Junior / Senior Banquet – Friday Night
  • 7-9th Grade Class Night – Friday Night
  • Sports teams playing at RVA – Friday Afternoon
  • Titchie Dorm Outing into Nairobi – All Day Saturday
  • Video Night for Jr. High and High School on Saturday
  • Baptism on Sunday, February 22nd.
  • My 32nd BIRTHDAY on February 22nd.
  • And much, much more.

If you can be praying especially for the Titchie Dorms tomorrow, we are going to take a bus load of kids into Nairobi and let them have fun at a water park. Please pray for safety and that everyone would have a great time. Also, Baptisim Sunday here at RVA is a very special time where students that have committed to follow Christ are able to demonstrate that committment through baptism. Please be praying for the service and all the students and parents that will be participating.

- RM -

Posted in General

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