We are Not Home Yet

Hello All,
I am back from a day and a half on tour with the band.  The RVA band goes out into Nairobi each year for 3 days and plays from 5-6 concerts at different venues.  This year they are doing 5 concerts.  We left yesterday morning (Friday) with 73 kids and 3 chaperone's to The School of the Nations.  It is a small school with about 100 kids from K - 8th grade.  They really enjoyed seeing a real High School band playing.  We had a bit of rain so had to move around some (those woodwind instruments can be a little picky about water!) but all turned out well.  After the performance, we had a wonderful Kenyan lunch (stew, rice and cabbage) and headed to the next venue at Africa International University.

Getting ready at The School of the Nations (notice the dark sky!)

Mr Taylor is a great band director

The trumpet section (yes, that is Trevor)

The kids from the school

The kids love to sing!

We got to AIU with plenty of time to spare and had another great concert, this time indoors!  The acoustics in the chapel where we were set up were wonderful.

Setting up at AIU

All set up and ready to go!

The theme of this year's band tour is "We are not Home yet."  One of the kids had a great quote (from somewhere else, she could not remember where), "As Christians, we are not citizens of this earth trying to find heaven, we are citizens of heaven enduring this life on earth."  I loved that!  What we call "Home," can be lost here in an instant or even not exist.  Another kid gave a devotional along those lines.  He is Korean and has lived in Africa many years.  When he was little, he was the only Korean kid at RVA (now the Koreans number about 17%).  One of his "friends" told him he did not belong there and he should go home.  As time passed, his family went back to Korea on furlough.  He was so excited to get to go to a Korean public school.  Once the kids there found out that he was from Africa, they told him he didn't belong and that he should go back.  He was not accepted anywhere.  This is common among MKs (Missionary Kids) because they don't fit into the culture their parents are ministering to, and they don't really know their "home" culture.  Once this Korean boy thought about it, he was comforted to know that he belongs to God and his home is really not here on this earth at all.  1 Peter 2:11-12 says,

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
NIV

Even though we live here, life is just a breath, and will be over in an instant.  We are here to do the works He set out for us and then "go Home."

Our CT Scanner is set to come on Monday.  And the crowd cheers!  It will come on a 40 ft container truck and hopefully fit into the parking lot.  The truck also has wheelchairs and microscopes (5ft ones) and other sundry things.  many people will be happy that it is here.  The room is almost ready to receive the scanner, but we still don't have the electrical gear that we need.  It will be another 3 months or so before we can hook it up and test it out.  This is a shame because the man who was behind it all is leaving in July and will not be here to see it operational.  But, he will leave a legacy here and we are very grateful for that!

The kids at RVA are constantly busy with things.   Today, the little kids had an outreach.  They all go to different venues and do whatever.  Timothy's group stayed at RVA and the children of some of the Moffat Bible College students came up to play.  They were little kids and they had a ball.  Timothy said he was kind of bored, but he realized that he wasn't there for himself, he was there for the kids.

Next week we are going out for tender with the Bill of Quantities for the pediatric wing.  Once we get the bids back from contractors we will know whether or not the BK board will be able to afford it!  Please pray that this final process of picking a contractor will go well.

We are not Home Yet, but we will be coming "back to our Michigan home" in August.  We are looking forward to the visit and getting some shopping done (especially for chocolate chips as I am at the low level alarm)! 

In His Hands,
Jullie T.