Home school week at Rift Valley Academy

Joshua with his buddy Levi in a fun pepper tree

 Completely unexpectedly we found ourselves this week at Rift Valley Academy, a boarding school for missionary children here in Kenya, for their "home school week". During the week, all three of our children were tested to see where they're at in their grade level and they joined the kids in their grade for a "taste" of boarding school.
       Our boys especially loved recess time and joined in the soccer games every chance they got. When we asked each of the boys what their favorite part of the week was they said:
Isaac - "I liked going to classes with my buddy, especially Science when we were studying rocks."
Evan - "My favorite part was going down the zipline. It was scary at first but once I did it, I couldn't stop!"
Joshua - "I loved art class cuz we got to make our own paintings and I liked sitting in class with the other kids. And I loved playing lots of soccer!"

Look at this spectacular view from one of the sports fields!

The boys really loved eating in the cafeteria
 (same trays they had back when Eli and I went to school here!)

Evan playing tether ball on the playground with a new friend

Adjusting and transition

As you can see by the excitement on Isaac's face above, we are all very happy to be back on the continent of Africa. For now we are in Kenya, staying at our SIM guesthouse, one of our many homes.

Before heading back into South Sudan as a family, Eli is going into Melut and hopefully SIM's other base called Doro, to visit and see what things are like on the ground and talk with our Southern Sudanese friends to see where would be the best place for our family right now. Please pray for Eli as he travels and pray that God will open his eyes to see what he needs to see. Pray for solid counsel from everyone he talks to and a peace about how to move forward this year. We will keep you updated.

We have arrived!

With all our luggage!


We are so thankful for how the Lord has taken care of every detail of our travels! Though we missed a connecting flight in Doha due to snow/ice delays in Chicago, it turned out to be such a blessing because our airline put us up in a hotel for the night and we got a good night's sleep before continuing on to Kenya.

Kenya welcomed us with sunny, 80 degree weather and all ten of our trunks made it without a hitch! The cherry on the top was reuniting with special teammates who are family to us and catching up after a year apart.

Thank you to all who prayed for our long journey!
Now on to see what else God has in store!

Going out with a bang!

Isaac and Evan's class (Eli was the teacher this year)

During our final week here in the States, our home church's week-long missions conference is going on. On Saturday I went to the Ladies Missions Brunch and Eli and I shared at the youth event that night. Yesterday, since it was our last Sunday at our church, the boys got to share with their Sunday school classes about what life is like as a missionary kid in South Sudan.

Joshua's class

 The boys did a great job showing a slideshow and explaining each photo.

The Flag Cermony during the morning service

 We will be attending sessions  4 nights this week at church as well as finishing up our packing and preparing to fly back to Africa this coming Sunday.

What our living rooms looks like with the furniture packed

We still have a lot of work to do in our "Packing Room"!

13 days to go!

The "Packing Room"

With 13 days to go, our house is quite the buzz. We are trying to fit one last week of home school in before we'll be in transition for a while. I have fit almost all of our 3 1/2 years of home school books but am wondering if some things will have to be left behind because of the priority the school books get. In between packing the house and packing for South Sudan, Eli and I are squeezing in last phone calls and special coffee dates and gatherings.