Hey, friends! It’s been a minute since my last post. (Do I sound fresh using that phrase? I got it from the younger crowd. Let’s face it, I’m not in the younger crowd anymore. So yes, I borrowed a phrase from Instagram posts and from what I’ve heard in a few conversations with those I do consider in the younger crowd. I know admitting that makes me sound even older, but hey, I’m okay with that! And no, I’ve never used the phrase in real life. Should I?)
I’ve been thinking about today for a while, not really sure I’ve wanted it to come. One year ago today we arrived back in Minnesota after 13 months in Kenya. There are just so many feelings around thinking about it. So many questions. And yes, there are tears.
Friends, this is a hard post to write. As we’ve shared stories and photos and videos through the last year, I think it’s been clear that we love being in Kenya. We’ve worked to make this place home, and it truly is. We love our friends, colleagues, and neighbors here and can see ourselves living in East Africa long into the future. However, as we’ve learned many times in our lives, Pete and I understand we have to stay open what God is doing and the next step He has for us. An excerpt from the message we sent out to our Kenya email group earlier today explains where we currently find ourselves…
A few months after arriving in Kenya, Pete and I had the unique opportunity to have dinner with Reverend Joseph Ebei and his wife, Ann. Rev Ebei is the area director of Turkana County with the Africa Gospel Church (AGC). Turkana is an enormous area spanning approximately 30,000 square miles of northern Kenya (the size of South Carolina) bordered by Uganda, South Sudan, and Ethiopia. The Ebeis have followed God’s call to the area and have been a part of planting 19 AGC churches in this region over the last few years. Following dinner, we were invited by our WGM field director, Alene Burgert, to help create a vision trip to the northern part of Turkana County in order to learn how WGM can support the work the AGC is already doing in and around the Kakuma Refugee Camp. This is the first post of the vision trip we took last month.
On the morning of February 21, Pete and I joined our field mentors, Steve and Alene Burgert, and our pastor, Reverend Elijah Bii, to fly from an airstrip not far from Tenwek Hospital all the way up to Kakuma near the border of South Sudan. (Most of our trip photos were taken by either Pete or me, but some were taken by Steve, which is why we are in some of the photos! That doesn’t usually happen for us.)
Faith beamed as she received her walker, balancing on her bare feet in the grass while holding onto her new treasure. Her smile was infectious, and the excitement of the students gathered around her could not be missed. Solomon, head of the special needs clinic at Tenwek, knelt proudly next to her, ready to show her how the new walking frame worked. Just moments later, we would witness Faith take her very first steps.
I woke early this morning feeling anxious. That’s natural, though, for any move. I’ve moved enough times in the last ten years to know. The only difference is this time the move is a little bigger. The distance is greater, yes, but this move means so much more than any other move I’ve made. So yes, I’m anxious. But I also fully trust this is the most natural thing I could be doing with my family. And I deeply, deeply trust that this is the very thing God designed me to do.
