October 2019 Newsletter

​Life has been moving along here in Kenya this last month. Our primary priority at the moment is still language acquisition - as it will be for many more months to come. I am reminded of a line in the poem “Sailing to Byzantium” by W. B. Yeats in which it begins, “That is no country for old men.” We have much work to do! If God calls you to it, He will bring you through it.  

Author: Jorah Benson

Last week I took a week off of language class to help our language teacher’s husband, Amos, get one of the schools ready for graduation for the children. Since the graduation was outside, we wanted to provide the children with shade for the ceremony. We were able to knot a few stitched-together tarps from the roof of the school building across the span to a fence. It worked wonderfully! The shade provided some comfort for the graduation ceremony.

Since school is going on break here in Kenya, Grace is now conducting our language class at our home instead of at the school where all the little children were. It is quite different holding class at home. It works fine and is more than comfortable. When Grace taught the Chinese Swahili when they were here, they, too, held Swahili class at home - where we are currently living. 

We also had Paul Hartford visit last week from Bloomington, MN. He is a seasoned missionary who worked in the Philippines for many years and more recently works with Bethany Global University. He came to see how the Global Internship Site was going and wanted to talk to field leadership and the college interns. He provided much wisdom for us leading and also for the students.

We also received the opportunity to host some old interns here last week as well. Jason had to drive them to Nairobi to fly out; this prevented him from going to the Farm on Saturday. He asked if I could go with one of the farm managers and take the harvested produce to market in town. So it is, I am getting comfortable driving here in the Germantown area. I have driven out to the farm and back to market twice now. That does not seem like much. Yet, after driving on the sandy, bumpy, bush-filled road across multiple river beds, having to down shift back and forth, back and forth between third and second, I became comfortable again quite quickly. I feel like I can actually be of some help here!   

Cheyanne has stopped using the aid of a language helper in town and I have switched to a different helper by the name of Kim. I was told by Rebekah Witt the first day with Kim that he really enjoys goat head. I have asked him everyday to try it. He hesitated at first because many Westerners get grossed out by it. I said that I would at least try it. Eating goat head is traditionally a male activity. Thus, we went and ate goat head together. After boiling it, they brought the goat head out with the meat still on the skull. Sometimes they will even roast it after. But not that day. They cut off the meat, eyes, tongue and all right at the table, laid the meat on the board and took away the bones. It was not bad really. If one can get behind the texture of some of the portions, the taste is pretty good. When in Rome, right? Well, when in Kenya, eat as the Kenyans eat!

​We met an underground Moravian believer and her family a few weeks ago as they accompanied us out to the farm. She homeschools her children and she asked Cheyanne to help periodically. Cheyanne put together a homeschool drama club for the homeschool Christian kids and they acted out the first part of the story of Ester last week. Part two is coming soon! Sorry, no pictures for security reasons. In addition to this, they and the Witt children (also homeschooled) join us ever Friday afternoon at our home for a short Bible lesson and games. It is mainly just a time for the underground children to meet with some other homeschool students and socialize and make other Christian childhood friends in a safe environment.

Thank you for all of your faithful support that allows us to live here and labor for the sake of the Gospel.