Retirementwithatwist

29 December 2019 With just a few days left in 2019, it is time to bring everyone up to date on the notable spiritual events in life. Peggy has regularly communicated much of what is going on in our Rafiki village; I finished the first draft of the book which has been in planning for at least a decade. Before that I would vaguely say, “Someday; I am going to write a book”. The subject hasn’t changed but in working here at the base of the mountain, seeing it spread before my eyes every day and reflecting on God’s wonderful grace, there has been the constant reminder: it is time to tell the story. This isn’t an autobiography, rather it is the recounting of how God turned the worst thing in my life, something worse than death, into the most wonderful thing. I say the most wonderful thing, in reference to my own life, because God’s saints have been experiencing this kind of grace over and over down through the ages. I am not unique, even though the story is unique, because it reflects th...

A long time coming blog. As usual things get busy here in our tropical zone. We arrived back in our “home” country in mid October and the rest of October/November and now December become a blur. I regret we have not published a blog recently but at least we did publish a newsletter in November that is available by going to rafikifoundation.org .  We had a lovely Thanksgiving celebration on our porch again this year with mostly our Rafiki team here plus one or two other guests. We celebrated with roasted chicken and too much pie and many side dishes. The meal and our time of Thanksgiving to God for all He has done for us this year filled our hearts as well as our stomaches. We are so thankful for a good team here who love each other and know how to work hard but find time for just plain fun!  Rafiki Thanksgiving meal Kent and I were able to take an unusual diversion trip on November 8 to 10. November 9th was Anna's 30th birthday and she was...

As we sit in an Amsterdam hotel at 4AM and sleep alludes us, the great hymn “Oh how sweet to trust in Jesus” is running through my head. The hymn continues…. “Just to take Him at His Word. Just to rest upon his promise……Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, How I’ve proved Him or’er and Or’er. Jesus Jesus precious Jesus.. Oh for GRACE to TRUST HIM MORE. Many planes and flights I think this hymn sums up our recent “furlough” visit to the States. It was a very precious visit with lots of people visited and much “reporting” of our work in Africa and a fair amount of plain fun. A missionary soon learns that “HOME” is a word we use about many places we LIVE but does not really fit the usual definition of home. I think we learn that home is truly a place we are looking forward to in heaven and not to be found on this earth. We call our Village in Africa “home” but truly we will never fit in there as we are not native to the area. We call our house in Florida “home” but we have never really...

Tennis team after tournament with gifts Soccer Team  Greetings from the Rafiki Village in Tanzania. I am amazed again, at how quickly the year goes by. We continue to have healthy children and eager learners at our Village. The children going out to secondary school are eager to return to the Rafiki campus, however, we are still negotiating with our registration process. We continue to pray that we will have a registered secondary school by July 8, 2019. We continue to ask God for wisdom and endurance during this process. The teacher’s training program continues to do well and we are praying for wisdom to push forward for the registration of that program. In the meantime we continue to train students in good teaching techniques for classical education. The students continue to work hard at their studies. Our school term ended with a four week break. Most of our resident children were able to go off the campus to be with relatives during two weeks of the four week ...

I just looked at our blogs and realized that it has been 2 months since we updated. Those months have indeed been full of activity. We left our home here and headed for London to spend 5 days with Anna and Andrew. We were able to book a hotel right across the street from their first floor flat (actually second floor for us Americans). We had a fun few days with touring and visiting. Kent and I were also able to get complete tours of Westminster Abby and St. Paul’s cathedral which we both had wanted to do. We also booked a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath which, except for the COLD, were also wonderful. Stonehenge is even more spectacular and mysterious than we ever imagined. We left on our trip around 7 AM and returned at 8:30 pm. A long day for sure. We had breakfast at the shard and that was a spectacular view of London. Our last day, Anna accompanied us to Kew Gardens for a nice orchid display.  Kent, Randy and Raylene enjoying a nice local meal in Moduli We left for the...

17 February 2019 Many of you may have noticed Peggy has written most of the recent blogs after we had to change the name because of the situation here. I am grateful that she has been willing to do this. The reason is I have finally started writing the book which some of you knew was in the back of my mind for years. Along the way I have received a lot of insight about how to approach getting it published and a major requirement for an unknown author is to have a complete text of all the chapters. I am now about one third of the way along with an estimated thirty chapters-this weekend I finished chapter ten which will be the most difficult one. Why do I think the world needs another book? Well, the answer is to provide another example of the fabulous grace of God extended to me over the years I have known Him. The few others who may find themselves in a similar situation can take heart that God is faithful in grasping us by the hand (Ps 73; 21-26) and leading us through some things ...

We have been back in country for nearly 2 months now, so I think it is time we published a new blog. Life has been a whirlwind since we returned and we are wondering where all the time went??!!  We have had several weddings of staff with all the parties associated and they have been fun. We have two coming up this next weekend. The children are nearly finished with their school year.. ending this coming week. The National schools here have already finished for 2018 and are looking forward to 2019. Our laboratories are making great progress but we still do not know if our registration will be ready for January 7, 2019. If we are not approved we will be sending our 8 students plus 7 new students to the National School. Please pray with us that the district will look favorably on our efforts and our students will again be at the Rafiki Schools. Ayness and Joseph's Wedding Speaking of prayer requests, we have two wonderful answers to prayer! Peggy received her work permit on N...