Donations Thank You

We are so extremely grateful for the generous support we have been blessed with. Your donations have really blessed and allowed us to complete the ministry work we have been doing. Donations are still being accepted. If you are still interested in donating, click here. Our trip would not have been possible without your support.

Thank you to all our friends and family who supported us financially during our trip. Thank you to those who chose to pay it forward {link to pay it forward post} to us with your generous donations. Thank you to those who have donated, yet do not even know us personally.

I wish we could thank everyone who donated individually but for confidential reasons donors cannot be revealed to us unless you have specifically requested. But know that we have received your donations and have used them to bless many people at Tenwek hospital and all along our journey. We are so very grateful and humbled as recipients of your donations.

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As much as our trip to Africa could not have been possible without the generous donations of many people, the prayer support we had throughout our trip has been essential. We are so grateful for your prayers and would ask that you continue to lift us up in prayer as we struggle to readjust and redefine our lives at home (although we seem to have many home now...).

Many thanks,

Em

Father's Day

Our Father's Day celebrations were sadly lacking, but fortunately the amazing father's, grandfathers and father figures we have in our lives are not lacking. Fortunately Father's Day is not about how you celebrate Father's day, or anything associated with the specific day, but simply appreciating Father's for the important role they play. Supporting, encouraging, leading and building the family are all roles a father plays and I have watched Dad go above and beyond his call to be an excellent Dad.

Dad and his boys.

Family photo in Dorset, England.

So to all the Father's we love, Happy Father's Day!

Em

Debiefing

Now out of Africa, we are spending some time in England for a bit of a holiday and a chance to relax, adjust and debrief after our adventures in Africa.

We have being having many fun adventures in London and had a wonderful chance to relax on the Dorset coast. I will hopefully be able to elaborate on our England adventures in another post as I process pictures.

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As we have been debriefing our trip, many stories have surfaced, memories discussed, emotions processed, and the process still continues...

How is a person supposed to process the death that you have been exposed to for the past few months, the poverty that has surrounded you for so long, the living conditions you adjusted to, the many people you met and became friends with, the landscape and scenery of "home" which you learned to love and the lifestyle so different to back home that you lived in for a few months...? Simply processing it all takes a lot of time, and realizing all these adventures have been happening to you, and attempting to translate that into how you are going to live your life when returning home seems overwhelming!

Fortunately we still have some time in England to continue journaling, sorting out pictures and stories, and preparing to return home.

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There are still a few posts to come on Africa, and in addition to following our family adventures as we return home, I hope to do a series of "Memories from Africa" posts for awhile as pictures are processed and memories come to mind. Thank you for continuing to follow our journey.

Loving London,

Em

Updates

Since leaving Tenwek and our partically "reliable" internet we have mostly only had completely unreliable internet which has postponed me posting the many posts I composed.

Although continuing to regularly write posts, posting them is a bit delayed, thanks for your patience.

You can scroll down to see what we did while in Tanzania, as well as veiw recently uploaded pictures from our Mt. Meru climb which I have finally added.

Blogging,

Em

Ending

The worst part about coming is that you have to eventually leave. The sun as it rises and sets mirrors the inevitability of coming and going.

The sun is now setting on our journey to Africa, yet although we will miss it here terribly, we know that the sun will rise again and we will be back in Africa.

As we have been reflecting on our trip we realize how much each member of our family has grown (some literally) and learned during our adventures.
Our time in Africa has been spectacular. We all loved working at Tenwek for 2 months, we enjoyed our adventures in Tanzania and we have met many great people and established lots of friendships.


It is easy to feel like this is the end of our adventures but we know there are many dawns ahead. As we watch the sun set over the African skies for the last time on this trip, we can have confidence that it will rise again.

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We have enjoyed our last day in Nairobi where we have been able to pack and prepare for the next phase of our adventures, as well as spend a relaxing day at the beautiful guest house. While there we were able to visit with a friend from our home church who was at the guest house as well, before he prepares to leave to do some ministry in Tanzania.

We were able to take another family picture just before the sun was setting and we had to leave to catch our overnight flight at the airport...

Final Africa Family Picture.

As we mourn the ending of this perticular journey, and watch the sun set over Africa...we can have hope becasue we know that the sun dosen't stay set forever.

Watching the sun set,

Em

Carpenters

We are helping out with an orphanage run by the Asante Foundation for a few days and today Dad and Big Bro worked on building a table and benches for the children to eat at and do their school work.

They did most of their work at the local carpentry shop where they picked out the wood and prepared all the pieces, then assembled them at the children’s home.



The children were very helpful with sanding and the youngest boy really enjoyed it at was reluctant to finally stop when we started to stain it.

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In addition to some carpentry work we have enjoyed spending out time playing with the 6 beautiful orphans who have recently moved into their new home. We have also been able to help as they add finishing touches to the building such as painting, etc.



We are enjoying our time immensly as we have had a blast working with or friends here. Tanzania has left an impression on us and we will miss its presence when we leave.

Serving,

Em

Fall Flowers

South of the Equator the season here is fall, and the flowers, although not specific to fall, are absolutley amazing. I love the beauty the flowers bring to so many forlorn places.

The bright colours easily brighten up my day as I admire the intricate detail of each different flower.

Discovering all flowers with my camera has been lots of fun. There are so many oppertunities for photography.

Enjoying the beauty around me,

Em

Endurance

Mt. Meru was a great test of endurance. 4 days of hiking to reach 4500 meters at the peak. But we made it to the top.

Little John proved to be part Calabus monkey and part Gazelle, and was the first to the top. "Total Victory" announced Little John to the valley upon reaching the peak.


Big Bro was really tested on the last pull to the top but made it up victorious.


I, Em, came down with a cold 2 days before our hike which worsened from over exertion but paced myself well and make it up, although down was a little bit more difficult. After persevering through a few rough patches of feeling sick I did well and am now recovering.


Mom or "Mama" as all the locals call her did well as well and endured through a few grueling patches but came out on top.


Dad or "Papa" as he is sometimes called really enjoyed the hike although I think he mostly enjoyed pushing rocks over the cliffs as he came down with a bad case of "rock fever" which became contagious to all the guides as well.

It was a beautiful hike and we were blessed with spectacular weather, amazing views and stunning scenery. A highlight of many family members was watching the sun rise over Mt. Kilimanjaro. The unpolluted sky filled with millions of stars was another beautiful sight to be hold.

We learned many lessons on our hike and perseverence and endurance were the most significant. Our endurance was greatly rewarded.


We are now prepared to head into yet another adventure working with some local orphanages here...

Mountain climber,

Em

Window Climber

I hope this window climber is a mountain climber, because we are headed up Mt. Meru on Tuesday for a 4 day hike!

Little John is a little monkey and enjoys "breaking in" through the window. He has climbing through the window down to a science.

He is fearless of the 2 floor drop, and was even wanting to do it in the rain...but we put a stop to that attempt.

Tree climber, building climber, window climber...mountain climber? Let's hope we all prove to be mountain climbers!

Preparing to climb,

Em