Original Post Date 7/6/2012
This update marks
the end of our first furlough from the ministry on the coast. It was a great
very productive furlough! I think it was a bit longer than we would have liked
but it served the purpose of letting us reconnect with nearly all our
supporting churches. Here is the breakdown of our furlough...
Attended 15
different Association meetings We visited and shared
at 90 different churches Preached an additional 30 meetings We traveled over
46,000 miles in our van not to mention other vehicles we used. We went from Maine to California and
from Michigan to New Orleans.
I ran three
marathons and Kenya ran a
half Marathon both firsts for us.
I was able to earn
an Associates in Missions from the Missionary Baptist
Seminary Donated a Kidney to my cousin's husband Brad and got the T-shirt to
prove it...
Not to mention all
the sites we saw along the way with our kids and all the friends we stayed
with. Indeed it was a full furlough and hey we SURVIVED IT.
The last two weeks
of our furlough were great as we spent one week in Indiana with our family,
visiting Victory BC in Seymour and Columbus BC in Indiana the other week we
spent in Arkansas with our church Pauline BC in Monticello, AR. It was so good
to be with our closest friends and family at the end of our time. Kenya
and I both agree it is not getting easier to say good-bye as we continue to
serve the Lord. I think 12 years ago when we first left for Kenya it was easier than it is now.
We recognize now that some that we said good-bye may not be there when we
return as the pages of time continue to be turned. We also are ever aware that
our kids are growing up and in just two terms we will be returning without some
of our children... I can not even write any more about that. "Even so come
Lord Jesus..."
July 3
Our return trip back to Kenya started on the morning of
July 3 as we left Richard and Doris Akin's house, where we have called
"home" during furlough. We went to the church and met up with our
pastor Chad,
Ryan, Brother Bill, and Clayton. We had prayer then jumped in the loaded van
and headed to Little Rock
for our 11:45 flight, or at least that was what we thought...
When we arrived to check in at the American
Airlines counter we were made aware that we had missed our flight that had been
changed to 8:45 in the morning. The airline had changed the flight a month ago
but I did not know it. I should have known it, because after a call to brother Jack he drew my attention to the email he had sent
me the end of May that informed me of the change which I did not remember. I
think I got it during all the process of donating the kidney to Brad but bottom
line is I forgot to write it down and now we were in Little Rock and not Dallas
where our international flight was scheduled to take off later that evening.
Jack sprung into action on his side and we did
some enquiring at the airport as to options. One option was to jump back in the
van and drive to Dallas
but unfortunately we were at the point of 50/50 on making it for the
international flight. Jack called back with a possible reroute option from the consolidators
that took us through Chicago but while they worked on that Brother Chad asked
the Southwest counter if we could book a flight from them and still make our
connection in Dallas. End result was that we could fly with Southwest for
cheaper than a reroute and still make our connection so that's what we did.
After our good-byes we started the trip.
The Southwest flight took us to Love field
in Texas so
we had to take a shuttle from Love field to DFW then recheck all
of our luggage. By the way we had 13 pieces of 50 pound luggage and I
failed to mention that I have a 10 pound weight restriction as I continue to
heal from the Kidney surgery so checking and rechecking luggage is not so
simple. Thankfully in Little Rock Clayton, Ryan, and Brother Chad were there to help and God bless the
curbside guys in Dallas
that handled it all for us there. My poor wife and kids had to do all the work
to get the luggage from baggage claim to the shuttle at Love field, have I
mentioned that my wife and kids are amazing, well they are... So we recheck our
luggage at DFW airport in Dallas
and we were back on schedule with our original itinerary with two hours to
spare.
Dallas to London was uneventful and London
to Nairobi was
the same. Our kids are amazing travelers! We got to Nairobi late evening of the 4th missing only
one of our thirteen bags. We were scheduled to leave out on the morning of the
5th so we just stayed in the airport for the night. We could have went to town
and got a hotel or even could have went and stayed with Ernie and Cissy Hopper
but we just did not have a lot of time, I am cheap, I do not like Nairobi, and I thought we
could possibly catch an earlier flight than we had. So we set up camp at the
airport.
We all were wide
awake until about 2:00am then everyone started to fall asleep except me. I
stayed awake, for one to watch over everything, and I just could not sleep.
At around 6:00am things were in full motion
at the airport and we were all up and ready to go. The earlier flight I was
hoping for was not available so we had to wait until 9:40am for our departure.
We checked all our bags at 7:30am and did not have to pay anything extra as we
had anticipated with the short flight to Malindi. We were supposed to pay
around 150-200 dollars for all our extra luggage but
they did not tell us we needed to and I did not ask if I needed to. Praise the
Lord!
The puddle jump from Nairobi to Malindi was a breeze especially
since I in essence passed out and do not remember it at all... Samuel and I sat
together and woke up in Malindi. Brother Scott, Missy, and Ashley were there to
pick us up with smiling faces. It was so good to see them. We were HOME in
Malindi. A short ten minute drive through Malindi, which has not changed at
all, and we were at the mission compound. The house was all ready to go despite
the musty smell from not having anyone live it for ten months. Brother Scott,
Missy, and Ashley had cleaned the place up and put a few food items in the
fridge for us and we were in business. The kids were super excited to be home
and quickly had the place cluttered with all their toys and dress ups.
We visited with everyone for a few minutes
then Brother Scott had to run to town for a meeting which he invited me to but
I declined to help Kenya
get things all unpacked. We unpacked most everything but Kenya had some more detailed
cleaning to do before we could put things away. Mold was growing in several
places and it was really messing with Kenya, she put her war face on and
started to attack. The heat and moisture here is perfect for mold. It is
amazing how a place with no one in it can just start to decay without use.
Anyhow just details but for the most part we just unpacked and were ready to
go.
I was able to get the internet from Brother
Scott's house to our house via a router our friend Greg gave us so that was a
huge step forward. Internet is so nice to have! Brother Scott and I visited off
and on throughout the day talking about things and even got to bond over
repairing a oil leak on the Land Rover. VEHICLE WORK FIRST DAY BACK. TIA (This is Africa)
Love it! The kids played with toys all
day and we got a few things worked out and started a list of things to do...
Ashley and Missy made dinner for us all and we ate together at our place. It
was great to sit down together and eat and just laugh. Sitting at the table
together was a small thing but there was a sense of peace knowing we were home.
We were able to greet Safari who works here
on the compound and Ricklynn when he came in the evening. It was so good to see
Ricklynn! Kenya
and I both had no trouble with our Swahili so that was encouraging. I am anxious
to see all the men and their families but first we must settle in and get our
house in order. After showers we all went to bed at around 8:30pm and the kids
were all out in about thirty seconds from hitting their pillows. I did not move
last night until this morning at 7:30am.
I came down to the office for some coffee,
prayer, and Bible reading yes in that order. I do not worship coffee but it is
part of my spiritual life... It was a sweet morning with the Lord in the
silence. I answered some emails and wrote this update. It is now 11:10 and I
still have not heard anything from up stairs I guess I better shake the nest
lest no one sleep tonight.
Thank you so much
to all those that prayed for our flights! Pray for us as we settle I am looking
forward to all God is going to do as we have returned to Kenya...
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