Coffee with Christine

While we face many challenges here in the missions field, we also reap many blessings. One of the biggest blessing to us is the great school that the girls attend : Rosslyn Academy. It started many years ago as a missionary school to cater for the needs of the missionaries' kids. The school has since grown and it is now one of the best schools here in Nairobi. We are very grateful for the quality education that our girls are getting. One of the highlight of the school year is CFS (Cultural Field Studies). The kids get to camp out someplace in the country to learn more about the country they live in. This year, the 7th graders went to Elsamere Park and Crescent Island. You can tell from the photos that they had a great time! They visited a local school and played soccer with the kids. Sports is such great way for kids to get together! These are dung critters..having a feast, I suppose....eewwwww... Miss Gac, she's a great teacher and Vickie loves her! She taught Kathryn...

Yup, I am not bragging or anything but don't you think they look so VERY cute!!! They took these pictures when I was in DRC. I happened to see the pics when I was going through and sorting my pictures....I couldn't resist posting them - especially since it's been two years that our family in Malaysia hasn't seen them! They probably kill me if they know I posted their pictures but they don't ever read my blog, so I think I am very safe!!

The national schools are having their semester break in the month of April and the church we go to run a special all day program for the kids similar to Vacation Bible School. Although our girls are still in school they were able to help teach a couple of sessions this weekend. These are pictures of the students they had. Kathryn taught the 5-6 year group - of about 18 kids. Vickie is the faithful assistant and photographer!! PS...I have not yet learned how to flip the pic :-)

Last weekend was a busy one for us, coming to think of it, every weekend is busy for us! Vickie's band had a concert on Friday evening, Saturday, we took Tony out to his favorite restaurant to celebrate his birthday and on Sunday, I ministered in Family Banquet of one of our Kenya AG churches. The girls and I got Tony this pretty card and a pop up Titanic book. Tony is a Titanic fan - he is fascinated by the Titanic story and had even preached sermons using the Titanic! I will have to do a separate post on that book. This card wishes him almost everything he could possibly want!! Although the card wished him "Peace" the girls joked that the card is lacking one special thing that Daddy might enjoy "Peace AND Quiet"!! There's not much QUIET in our busy household!! These other cards came from friends. These two are locally made cards. This one uses African fabric. And this one is made with wire, beads and recycled paper. Creative huh? Can you see Vickie in th...

23 March was a special day for us. The church we pioneered in 1999, River of God church, moved into their new sanctuary! The new sanctuary now can seat over 700 people. You can see how beautiful the new stage is! It is such a wonderful feeling to see this congregation continue to grow after it was handed over to a national pastor. God is good. Some plant, some water but it is God who brings growth! Children presentation - when we started the church most of these kids weren't even born yet! Some were little babies but look at them now! Talking about growing kids, our girls are such blessing to us. The Sunday that Tony preached, they played a duet of Amazing Grace and Shine Jesus Shine.....we are so bless! Sach (with the mic) and Pastor Patrick sharing about their missions trip reaching to the Muslims in Hola..... I am posting a short video clip of the girls playing....

You are probably tired of pictures of our puppy but I couldn't help posting this adorable picture of my two babies. WOW! The internet and electricity stayed on!!! And this is my second post this evening. It's 11.12 pm right now. Kathryn's soccer team won their final game for the season against Hill Crest with a 6-0 score. Yeah! She didn't score but had a couple of great assist. Tony (and me too!) are so proud! Kathryn and her best friend, Eirin.

Vickie fell in love with this little boy who was just clinging on her the whole time. Vickie's experience in the church nursery became very helpful as she plays with the children. The women at the camp cooking for their families in this makeshift "kitchen" This man shared with Tony that in this little tent are all of his belongings that he managed to salvage before the attackers came to burn and pillage. As you can tell, he really didn't have much, some clothes and simple kitchenware. He would be considered one of the fortunates ones. Many fled with just clothes on their back and some not even that. There are over half a million IDPs in the country. The resettling of the IDPs will take time and resources. Please remember to pray for them as they work towards rebuidling their lives and that somehow in this process they find the one True God who will never leave them or forsake them.

School is out for the girls till early January. Before the school closed, the girls were involved in bands and Christmas concert. The girls sang, did handbells, flute, and piano. I know that many of you pray for us and our ministry. We want you to know we feel your prayers and one of the greatest blessings in our lives are our children. We are so grateful for all the prayers that is being sowed in our lives and our children lives. This term, Vickie received award as the Most Improved Player in her basketball team - she's the only 6th grader who received an award and her team are mostly 7th and 8th graders. We are so proud of her! Kathryn also had a first - she accompanied the middle school choir during the Christmas concert and did a fantastic job! She worked on her piece for only two weeks but she worked hard. As you can tell, the girls keep very busy. They both made the football team for next term. Tony couldn't be prouder. It will be another busy term for them!