Retirement for us means good work to accomplish each day!

You are notified about this initial installment of a new blog by email and will be each time there is an addition. We had to discontinue the old blog with nearly four years of episodes due to political complications in the country in which we serve. We are not in any danger but could be if we don’t make the change. It will be divided into three parts: 1 personal, 2 work status and 3 spiritual opportunities and developments.
Personal: After one week in Florida 7-13 July for a conference at Rafiki headquarters we will be back at the village in Moshi until early September when we have scheduled a bilateral cataract surgery for Peggy. This will mean being in the States for about six weeks counting the follow up visits. During that time we hope to visit or call some of you and will also be making a trip to North Dakota to attend a conference of ranchers and farmers who support missionaries through an organization called STEER. Of course this is also the location of our home church which has faithfully contributed to our support. We know we will lose contact with some of you in the blog transition and hope to minimize the problem by simultaneously posting notice on face book.
           Here it is colder now with temps down in the mid-fifties at night, the rains are almost over and the maize crop is starting to dry out before the harvest but the surrounding country is still beautifully green. Peggy has gotten very enthusiastic about identifying the exotic birds living around us; there is a whole colorful book about East African birds with elegant images displaying their unusual features. I am gearing up to try new propagation technics for the many of the varieties of plants which grow here for our mini-park in the back yard. Our village carpenter, a very skilled man especially when given access to power tools, just finished remodeling our kitchen which was a disaster (hanging doors which overlapped, drawers which had come apart and peeling formica). We had put it off pending an appraisal of whether or not we would make it through the first years-at our age it is usually health problems. Every day we praise the Lord for the privilege of serving Him here. Our carpenter wore out a Bosch table saw which we purchased just two years ago but our village director found a very heavy duty giant industrial table saw imported to Tanzania as a second hand cast off from the Netherlands. For this we are very grateful because it allows us to complete almost any carpenter job which is a significant advancement from when we first arrived. Now he is busy manufacturing 100 chairs which we need in the school.
           We have had a record number of visitors, at one time nine who we were able to quarter successfully and find things which they could do for us and the children. Almost all of them went on safari; nothing unusual happened but there were many amazing stories about the things they had seen out on the nearby plains.
Work Status: In the process for getting our secondary school certified by the government we found we have to send our current grade level 8 students which are the first in formal

Hunter's Sunbird

Paradise Whydah

Go Away bird

Orchids blooming again :)

secondary school, out to a National school until we complete three laboratories for our Secondary school. This of course was a surprise to us, but the construction is now under way. As the students (8 resident and 8 sponsored day students) must leave the Village a 6:45 AM for school and arrive back around 5 in the evening, Peggy is leading the Rafiki Bible study for them a 6 AM each morning so they leave the Village with a song in their hearts accompanied by God’s Word. It is a sweet time with these oldest of our students.

Kent continues to work with the teacher’s training program in RICE and is getting more students who are prepared academically for the program. This is an encouragement to him and also to Peggy who helps with math and reading comprehension in the program. 

Social Weaver on nest

We are able to work hard and for sometimes, long hours as God has been gracious to continue to give us good health. It is wonderful to get up in the morning knowing that there is plenty of work and plenty of ministry to be done for that day. Retirement for us is a “twist” by common terms, but a true blessing for us to be able to continue to make an impact in our area of the world for Christ.
Opportunities for Ministry: There are more opportunities than ever for both of us. Peggy has to get the kids going to the government school ready to go by 0600 so they can eat breakfast, have some Bible teaching and reach the school on time. We are incorporating more Nationals into the staff of the teacher’s training institute which includes a very gifted PE teacher and one of the head teachers of the school. I intend to persuade them to come to a Bible study on the Gospel of John so they can learn the true identity of Jesus. We will have perhaps 10 to 12 new students, mostly Maasai, joining the teacher’s training program for the first term only as preparation for three years of medical training at the Machame hospital further up the mountain. We’ve mentioned that there are 500 students up there in various levels of training and with these new students hope to strengthen our disciple training program when they join the student body in October.
Our visitors and volunteers have been a great help in maintenance, giving remedial teaching to our lagging students and decorating the new class rooms in our teacher’s training program. As we have mentioned in the past we are really just barely getting started in taking advantage of all the doors the Lord had opened to us. You could make these items reminders for prayer:

1. God would use the school situation for His glory and help our students see how privileged they are.

2.  He would send along students for the teacher’s training program who really want to be disciples.

3. He would send someone to teach music and art in the teacher’s training program who is seriously interested in fostering discipleship among the students as well as providing good training in how to be a teacher.

4. God would be glorified in the splendid facilities He has given us through many of you so that we can help Africans know God and raise their standard of living especially through good teaching.