Coffee with Christine

It's been quite a while....FOUR years to be exact from my last blog!! Wow...time sure flies.  A lot of things have change since my last post.  Life happened but I am grateful to report that the changes have been good - they might be difficult and challenging but it was still good. We definitely have can testify to the tremendous grace and mercy of God - we sing of His goodness and mercies everyday! I will sharing some pictures as a mini-update. I arrived to the burnt down JOMO KENYATTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT in my trip to Kenya last year. It was a challenging experience and reminded me how volatile our world is. I was delayed in Dubai due to this fire. The airlines provided me with a 5* hotel in Dubai and I had an unplanned two day vacation in Dubai - it was a great personal retreat that I had so needed at that time. All things worked for good! You can see the burnt airport terminal from this picture.

This was my seat in Business Class - so wide and a recliner.....can I fly economy again????? Yay for upgrade! Shalom and Shammah - two beautiful girls~ their parents were one of our first members and leaders in the church we pioneered. They were students attending the Bible school we pioneered. They were both single when they started classes with us. Mary, their mother passed away a year ago. I was so glad the girls are doing well and Anthony too. Shalom, the older girl looks exactly like her mom. I miss Mary. She was a wonderful Sunday School teacher and a wonderful woman of God. This is Pendo ( ithink! it means love in swahili). She is the beautiful daughter of Sach and Pauline. Sach is a former well known gangster in a slum in Nairobi. He got saved, spirit filled and went to Bible school. Today, Sach is one of the pastor at River of God church. What an amazing testimony of the power of the love of God. with church members of River of God church - I miss everyone so muc...

I am so thankful to the Lord for providing for a return trip to Kenya early this year in January. I was able to reconnect with our ministries and put some plans together our ministries in Kenya to continue to go forward. We graduated ten pastors in Beni. I met with Bethuel, our congolese pastor and brought their certificates with me from ICM for the graduates and money for their graduation in Beni. I should have some pioctures somewhere! David (on the right) is Lucy's husband and run the orphanage together. On his right, is Bethuel, our pastor from Congo. I wanted Bethuel to visit our income generating project at the orphanage - our chicken farm! David was moved by the need in Congo and donated 20 chickens for Bethuel to start his own project in Congo! It blesses me when I see how we reach out and help one another! Praise the Lord that our food store was not empty!! However, beans and rice and all our staples have gone up considerably and surviving month to month is still...

This is a picture of the girls with their brand new friends from church, Kelly and Suvien. This was taken in the bus where the girls went for their first Rangers Camporama! That was two weeks after we landed in Malaysia. The girls only lasted one night in the camp :-( it was too hot and humid for them and Vickie got really sick. Daddy has to go and picked them up from the camp! Our first trip to Singapore and the girls first Christmas away from Kenya! We stayed in a hotel on Orchard road itself and enjoyed the amazing Christmas deco along Orchard road and in all the malls. Tony graduated with his MA in Africa but did not get to enjoy his graduation with his fellow classmates. A friend organised a small party for him and we had fun. I am so proud of him! I want to be like my daddy when I grow up! Here she is singing a solo during awards night, she was also awarded an academic award. She scored the third highest GPA in her grade - yay! Kathryn was part ...

ONE YEAR LATER!!! Yes, it's one year later since our return to Malaysia and Max made it and is still with us :-) I cannot believe that it was a year ago since I posted my last entry, and I am finding it even more amazing that we have actually been "home" for a little over a year! I can say that life in Malaysia has been full of suprises and is fast and furious. I was inspired to blog again when I was going through our digital photos and doing some digital decluttering. I was amazed by how much has happened in just a year. So, over the next few days, I am hoping to get you all caught up withn all that has happened the last 12 months and I will try to post as many pictures as I can.....I am not very patient waiting for pictures to upload :-) Max - survived the 24 hour journey and seems to have adapted pretty good to Malaysian life. We are so glad we brought him with us! Reunited with their youngest cousins ... Annabelle and Isaac. I think they will featured q...

It's been over a month since we landed "home" in Malaysia - 1st June! Lots has happened since then, firstly, we set up house from scratch....it was amazing to us the choices we have here in Malaysia and the prices here were at least 2/3 cheaper than what we were used to in Nairobi. Eating out is so affordable and so tasty as well! Goodbye to my cooking days - YAY!!! Secondly, we bought a car, Tony has one provided for him but we needed a second car for me to get the girls to school and back and of course to shop!! Talking about shopping, I never thought I could be tired of shopping but I have to admit, that after the first two weeks of outfitting the house, I was shopped out!! I have since learn to drive to a few places. Tony officially began work 1 July but he was in the thick of church ministry the same week we arrived. I too was asked to teach 4 Fridays for the July Bible month, a ladies meeting and and one Sunday service in July and to co-speak with Tony for the ch...