Romans 12:10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another.

It is certainly time for another installment of the “blog”. It has been a busy few weeks since returning from our very quick trip to Florida. We arrived home safely and I think we didn’t even stay long enough to get jet lag. We both did get colds when we returned however. 

The rains are surely finished now and things are beginning to dry out. Most of the maize crop is harvested and the fields are pretty bare. There are vegetables again in the market which is also nice. 

Kent’s brother Max and wife Julie arrived on August first and we enjoyed their visit until they left on a big safari on August 9th. They return on August 19th and will stay until the end of August. They have been helping a lot with the cooking which is a blessing. They are so enjoying their time here and keep saying “you guys are really busy”! Yes! that is life here on our Village. 

Kent with brother Max and Julie

The new class of RICE (Rafiki Institute of Classical Education - teachers’ training college) students are really bright!! They are eager to learn and want to learn all they can. It is fun to have a motivated class of new students. I am also enjoying doing “finger plays” with the RICE 1B students and they are also smart and eager to learn. I think they are getting the concept of how useful these transition songs are for wiggling little preschoolers. It has been a long time since I did “itsy bitsy spider” but I do remember how!!

I am now working on Christmas cards for sponsors and third quarter sponsor reports. All has to be done and edited before September 1, as we leave the Village on September 2 for my eye surgery in Florida. I am making good progress on it all though. We do have a couple, Jim and Mary Hooper, coming to “take our places” while we are gone. We are so grateful for seasoned short term missionaries who do this for us. This will be the third trip out for Jim and Mary. They are enthusiastic about the work and that is key.

our failed trip to Kilimanjaro View Lodge

A couple of weeks ago, Kent and I plus a short term helper, Jane decided to go check out a lodge up the mountain. We can see the lodge with binoculars from our yard and it is at 9600 ft. We left here right after lunch and headed up the mountain on a road that was not too bad. Well that didn’t last long…..at 6000 feet we realized that even Sherman (our car, a 2002 Nissan Patrol SUV) in 4 wheel drive LOW could not make the ascent!! The road had become very steep and the mud was very slippery. We were not interested in sliding down the mountain. We made the descent, somewhat discouraged, but safely. Guess we won’t be staying at that lodge any time soon.

I also attended the engagement of my Childcare assistant, Beatrice. What a wonderful occasion and fun for all. I took 7 “mamas” with me to the event. Of course it was “up the mountain” but only about 5500 feet. The road was not bad until we got close. I forgot to ask the most important question as we came close to the house “Can Sherman turn around here?”. When I parked the car on the side of the steep road, I was a bit nervous but decided to enjoy the party. Guess what?? no Sherman could not turn around!!! Well….after about a 50 point turn (Sherman is manual transmission ) we did finally turn around and got home safely even before dark. Another adventure in the books. I must say it was a beautiful afternoon and now we are all looking forward to the “sendoff” and wedding in October. I am hoping it is in TOWN and not up the mountain. The best part is that Beatrice is marrying a "local" man so she will remain working at the Village!!!

Engagement of Beatrice and Joel

I forgot to mention in the last blog that we did have a little adventure also in the US. When we arrived in Florida, we tried to start our car and the battery was dead. This was a little surprising as we leave it on a charger and that has been enough in the past. Well, we made our usual 5 AM run to Walmart on Sunday morning after arriving around 9:30pm on Saturday, and bought a new battery. After hooking up the new battery, all worked but the car would not start and the code said that they key was not present. (It is a push button start). After research and trying all sorts of “reset” codes, we rented a car. On Monday we found we had to have the car towed to the dealership to get the key code reset!! Got to love modern technology!! I was very happy to get back to our 2002 Sherman with a REAL KEY!! 

Our States side car on the wrecker

Another wonderful thing that happened this “summer” here was Jane, a short term missionary who had spent more than 2 years in Malawi came and caught up all the scrapbooking for the children’s memory books. She did such a wonderful job and I can hardly believe they are actually caught up for a time!! Another set of missionaries helped in the school and also covered lots and lots of paper back book sets to prolong their lifespan. (The Wetches from our home church). 

Jane finishing the child books.

The Wetches here to help

We love our short term volunteers and hope all of you will consider becoming one :). 

Kent continues to work on his discipleship program for the RICE students. He currently has 14  serious discipleship students. This of course is his greatest joy! He also enjoys continuing to teach an hour Bible Study each morning for  more than 30 RICE students. We are currently in chapter 12 of Romans. Peggy is teaching the 8th grade students each morning in the same Bible Study as well as the mothers. We continue to be grateful for all the opportunities God is laying before us here.