He will Lead us!

Hello All,
We are back in our home here in Michigan.  It is good to be here, but seems surreal.  It feels at times like we are moving through a picture.  Everyday tasks are being done but with a sense of mechanics.  It has been wonderful to catch up with old friends and get the house ready to live in.  We have moved most of our things from the garage back into the house, but all is far from settled!  It is taking longer it seems to unpack than it took to get boxed up to leave!  That is probably not the case, but it sure feels like it.  The renters that were here did a great job at taking care of the house, but there are just those things that need some TLC.  And, when they occur at all the same time, it is a bit overwhelming.  So, we are taking it one day at a time and it is good.

We traveled home from Arizona and were able to catch up with an old friend of Jim's from high school.  It was fun to see him.  Here is a picture from his front yard:

So great to see these lovely ladies!  Aunt Georgia, Me and Mom

Timothy and Sallie attended summer camp for 6 days and had a blast!  They always have a great time at Springhill camp.

During that time, Trevor and I were able to get a bit more done to get him ready to leave for Houghton.  It was comical shopping at Target for the "stuff" he needed!  These big stores know exactly what is on the packing list that the colleges send out.  They have everything shelved in one large area.  All the other moms and kids were shopping, going up and down the aisles looking for the "stuff."  One mom and her daughter were even having a "discussion" on whether or not she was even going to go to school!  You just had to laugh!
We got the "stuff" that he needed, and dropped him off at Michigan Tech last week end.  They had orientation all this past week and start classes Tues.  He has been changing his schedule a bit and trying to get the books he needs, but I think it is all going well.  I told him that if I didn't hear from him at least once a week with a minimum of 3 sentences that I would post baby pictures of him on Face Book!  Hope he realizes that I am serious!

 Sunset from the Mackinaw Bridge as Jim and I returned to our house

We sure miss him already, but I know he is glad to be on his own.

Jim and I celebrated our 28th anniversary this past week.  It is amazing to think that 28 years have gone by.  I thought only old people were married that long!  Wait, I guess that makes us ........!

Jim and I on our wedding day

We still are moving in and unpacking things.  I have a very large stack (that is still growing) of stuff for a garage sale.  Not sure when or where that is going to happen but it sure needs to.  It is amazing how we accumulate so much stuff over the years!  As we were pulling boxes of Trevor's things from the attic and he got up to about 20 he was a bit overwhelmed and decided to commit to being a minimalist!  Not sure that will happen as he likes to collect old things - especially books.  But, we are getting through it and will soon be ready to "live" again. 

We acquired another horse this week!  He is very cute and will be a project for Sallie.  He is a nice addition to our little farm!

Hank and Meeko

We were talking with some friends last night about how God leads us to where He needs us.  In our case, we were not exactly sure how we would fit into life in Kijabe where all the missionaries are doctors or educators.  But, He quickly showed us that His plans are wiser than ours!  He didn't need us to make any of His plans come about, but He put us there for a time to grow our faith and trust in Him.

We are so grateful to God for helping us through this transition.  As we continue to settle back into life here, we are waiting to see what He has in store for us.  Not sure what that will look like, but it is comforting to know that He wants the best for us and we just need to follow where He is leading.

In His Hands,
Jullie T

Home again?

Hello All,
We are back stateside!  We had a few adventures and mishaps along the way, but we arrived back safely and with most of our "stuff" intact.  Since we've been home, we have suffered from jet lag, had a family reunion (weekend long), shopped till we replaced some of our clothes that were "holy," flown to Arizona, visited the Grand Canyon and suffered from another bought of jet lag!  Arizona is another 3 hours further than Michigan and, after just 5 days trying to recuperate (up at 3:30 in the morning!), we had to do it again.  We go back to Michigan on Monday so hopefully, going the other way will set us up right for the eastern time zone!  Here are some of the good-byes being said:

Us with the engineering team in Kijabe

 Jim and John and I being honored with a celebration

Timothy saying good-bye to LP

Many of my Kijabe and missionary friends will understand this, but I feel a certain amount of loss and sadness and disappointment when living here.  The loss and sadness come from the separation from friends and our life in Kijabe.  The disappointment comes from looking at life around me and seeing the abundance and the lack of understanding about the abundance.  It is hard to explain.  I constantly see in my mind's eye the people that I know in and around Kijabe that need school fees, shoes, shelter, clean water.  I think about what my Kenyan friends would think about life here if they just saw the roads and the houses as you drive!  And the mountains of stores where you can buy anything at all!  They surely would think that life is golden here, but we know it is not.  There is just as much (and maybe more) darkness, as people are separated from God.  When you are in need, you tend to turn to God for daily help.  When we have so much and don't "need" we think we can do it on our own.  I get stuck in this trap constantly.  It is so great to be able to go to Him with all of our failings!

Rom 5:17
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 

NIV

I was standing at a large grocery store the other day in front of the bananas and a wave of emotion came over me and I started crying.  I realized that these were not Kampala bananas!  I told my sister in law about this "break-down" and she said, "what was wrong with the bananas?"  It was very funny.  I am sure some people at that store thought there was something seriously wrong with the bananas after seeing me stand there crying in front of them!

My mother lives in Arizona and we have flown here on all of those sky miles to visit for a week.  It was such a breeze flying with just one small bag per person and just one flight at only 3 1/2 hours!  It was like getting in a car and ending up at your destination with no hassle!  Here are a few pictures:

 The grand canyon

The grand canyon is an amazing sight!  It surely reminds us of God's power!

We will travel back to Michigan this week and actually drive up to our house.  It will feel surreal I am sure getting settled back in for a time.  If you are close by and would like to help us move some furniture for a few hours, we will be gathering from 1-3ish on the 7th. 

Not sure that this will feel like home as we have moved about 21 times in the past 28 years!  But, as we put it on band tour a year ago - "We are not home yet" and will not be until we meet our Lord.  No matter where we are here on this earth, we are foreigners, living a life for His sake!

Not sure how much more blogging I will do as people don't want to hear about life in a small town in Michigan!  But, I am sure I will write occasionally as I enjoy it.  Sitting down on Saturdays with a cup of chai and writing about our week has been one of the things that has grounded me and kept me thinking. 

Please pray for us as we travel, get settled, get Timothy and Sallie to camp and get Trevor ready for college.

In His Hands,
Jullie T

Woodpecker in Arizona

Graduation Day!

Hello All,
This was a really great week - highlighted by Trevor's Graduation!  What a wonderful ceremony to mark the end of a time with this great group of young adults.  Sitting there watching this group that I have worked with over the last 4 years walk in was very emotional.  They are going to places all over the world and have such a tight bond.  They will really need each others' support over the next few years and hopefully some will stay in touch.
Trevor graduated with Salutatorian honors!  We are so proud of all his hard work.

 The whole class and Mr. Hall

 Timothy, Silly and Karissa being typical 7th graders!

Getting ready for the big event

 Trevor and one of his best buds, Chris

Sallie and her "big Sister" Tegan

 Chris, Trevor and Braden - love these guys!

 Trevor and Benji

 Trevor and Micah (Both trumpet players extraordinaire)!

 Trevor and Njoki (we helped her with her house in 2011)

 Trevor and Mr. Taylor - Band Director, Mentor and Friend

 Timothy and his bud Landon

Last Saturday, the jazz band performed its last.  They are so amazing.  It is one of my favorite events.  Trevor and Micah play trumpet and they rock!  They play old jazz songs that are just classic.  I know they will miss playing together.  Hopefully, Trevor will find a new group of people to play with up at MTU.

Trevor and Micah being photo - bombed!

Just before the jazz band concert, there was an alumni dinner.  It is really a dinner for the seniors as they are becoming alumni.  We were invited to go as sponsors of the class.  What a great opportunity to get dressed up and have a dinner and a concert!

Us with our friends the Carters

Trevor and Min

Timothy and Trevor got a chance to play again the next night.  It was concert night with the concert band, strings, wind ensemble, and choir.  About 2 hours later, we had listened to a whole bunch of great music and really enjoyed it. We will miss these opportunities to hear the kids play, but maybe others will come.

Timothy after the concert

Last Monday was the annual awards ceremony where the school gives the academic awards for the high school and junior high.  Trevor walked away with the top honors in his computer science and statistics classes (we love our geek)!

This certainly has been a week of good-byes.  Lots of tears shed.  But, I am waiting for when I am sitting on that airplane seat.  Sallie and I have decided that we will bring tissues and cry when we get settled in that seat!  We also had Senior night on Wednesday.  It is a 3-4 hour event that highlights the time the kids have been here.  Some arrived in preschool, some came just last year.  It was so much fun to see pictures of these kids as they were just itty bitty things!  Then we had a ceremony with just the class and the adult sponsors saying good-bye.  The sponsors stand up front to start the procession, and the kids come up in order of who has been here the longest (starting with preschool and going through last year) and we all hug and say our good-byes.  Each person gets a chance to hug every other person.  It takes a while but is well worth it!  Then we had a candle lighting ceremony.  At the end, as we were in a circle, we all were told to turn and face the outside.  This was symbolizing everyone taking their light to the world.  It was a great symbol.

As I sit here writing, there is a procession of people coming to the door.  They are saying their good-byes but also wanting what ever is left over.  It is one of the hardest things that Jim and I have had to adjust to.  But, as I listen to some of these people tell me how I have impacted their lives, I feel grateful.  I feel grateful to have had a chance to do that.  We had another going away ceremony with the engineering team at the hospital where many speeches were made.  One person said of us that as he walks around with us, people are always coming to greet us and as he sat in our house, there was a steady stream coming to the door.  And, even though the buildings may not be 100% complete, we had done our job.  The job was in the relationships, not the structures.  Glad to know that we got something done!

I had a final site meeting this week with the Arts Center at RVA.  I am so glad that Tony is here looking at things with fresh eyes.  The class is going to give a gift to the school in the form of an inlaid buffalo head (school mascot) on the balcony.  It will be about 4m x 3m in a circle or a rectangle.  We have the graphic arts teacher helping with the stencil and the man that does the terrazzo says he can do it.  Just hope it turns out that way!  They started with walls on the upper floor this week!

We also had a final walk-through with the Bethany Kids project team.  We found some things that needed attention and some additions, but overall things are going well.  I am heading up in a bit to paint the "river of life" on the floor so that the terrazzo man can have the same vision as Mardi and I for the floor.

The "Whites"

 The nurses station

 Just got back from painting the "River" on the floor.  Hope it helps them to see the vision: 

Acacia and Ali

Trevor

The Team!

Sallie had a fun event this week.  They had built a hot air balloon and filled it using a propane tank.  The second time they flew it, it caught on fire!  They were screaming and had a great time watching it go up in flames!

If you want to see the "burning of the balloon," go here.

Next time I write, I will be in the states!  We leave on Tuesday.  We are all ready to come home for a while.  Not sure what God has planned for us during that time, but I am sure it will make itself known!  

Please pray as we travel and that we will finish well over these next few days; preparing and saying farewell.

In His Hands,

Jullie T

PS - Just a few more pictures:

Worship = Action

Hello All,
We are down to a week and a little bit here in Kijabe.  There are so many things left undone, but it is the way it is.  We will turn the projects over and pray that they will finish in God's timing and be a blessing to the people who will use them.   

We had a Graduation party last Sunday after the baptisms that took place at RVA.  There are 7 graduates from lower station (families who live around the hospital and not at RVA).  It was so fun to get together with all of these families and acknowledge these young adults!  

Graduation happens this coming week - finally!  Colleges are asking all these kids for final transcripts and they just keep having to put them off.  Following the 3 term system is difficult for some of us but it does work in the world context.  Some schools don't start until January, some start in August.  It will all be worked out somehow - it always does!

I finally got a chance to get something done that happens after we leave here.  Jim has been sailing that ship for a while, but I have been so swamped I just can't think beyond the 22nd.  But, I had made a reservation at an inn up in Houghton for Michigan Tech the weekend before Trevor's school starts.  Come to find out, there is an orientation week and we needed it to be a week earlier.  Everywhere I looked, there were no rooms available.  I eventually just started calling places (after thinking that we would be camping!) and the first one said they had been booked for months for that weekend, but had just had a cancellation!  God is good!  We will at least have a place to stay when we drop him off.

The pastor spoke about worship in action a few weeks ago.  We are surrounded by people (missionaries) who are here living their lives in this thought, so it is easy to see it happening.  But, it is not just the "Missionary" (I didn't even know how to spell missionary before!) that should live like this.  It is all of us.  It is, admittedly, not easy to do, but it is something to strive for.  We will constantly fail, but if we can hear God's words in our ears, than we can push on:

1 John 3:14-19            14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. ...............16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

Phil 2:1-8         2 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded...............

John 13:34-35             34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

 Isa 58:10-11               10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.  11 The Lord will guide you always;................

 We have many friends that have been stopping by lately.  Below is a picture of Trevor and his Masaai friend Samuel.  Samuel is a guard up at RVA, but he also sells the beaded jewelry and other items of the Masaai.  He and Trevor have been trading and bargaining for a long time!

Graduation this week!  Yea!  It will be official.  Then we will focus on getting home and getting settled back into life in Reed City.  Please continue to pray for us as we make this transition.

In His Hands,

Jullie T

God - our biggest Fan!

Hello All,
We have had a good week but can't believe how short we are getting.  Tony and his wife Judith came this week to relieve both Jim and I on the projects.  We have started the turn over part and pray that he won't be overwhelmed.  

Bethany Kids:  The senior management has pretty much changed over in the past week.  There is basically a new contractor's project team.  Hopefully, they will add some new life to the project and this thing will finish up in the next 6 months or so.  BK has delayed the official opening ceremony till later in 2015 so that they can have an operational facility (with patients).  It is disappointing to not see it operational now, but we are over it and just happy to see it still moving forward!  Expectations are a funny thing!

RVA Art Center:  Things are moving now that we have a new contractor.  We are happy to see things happening in parallel and not in series!  We finished pouring the upper ground floor walkway and are heading on to the columns on the third level (that will support the roof). Tony is taking over for this one too and spent some time reviewing all the paperwork.  He is also helping me finish up the water project there.  We are in the throws of writing lots of paper to capture the findings.  It all starts to swim in my head after a while and I have to step away for a bit.  I am really ready to leave it and start looking towards the transition, but just have to finish it first (hopefully this coming week will see the end product).

The new water tank for Kijabe Hospital is almost on line.  We are very excited to see it up and even painted!

Hopefully this week, it will be filled with water and flushed and soon will be operational.  

Kijabe Station is also putting up a tank.  It will supply the community.  It won't be as big as this one for the hospital but it will do a great job at keeping a supply of water available so that they don't run out.

Yesterday was the fourth of July.  I love this holiday - but have missed it for 4 years now!  It is usually a bit cold here and school is still going on, so not many fireworks and BBQs happening.  Sallie's class did a history study on America so they had a bit of a celebration yesterday to show the kids what it is like.  They had hot dogs for lunch, a softball game, apple pie (some had never eaten apple pie!) and a hike.  It was a little taste of a 4th celebration:

Looking down on Kijabe hospital

In a place where some have spotted an owl family.

We will certainly enjoy tubing down the Muskegon River next year with our church!

Below is an excerpt from the Oasis for Orphans Newsletter.  It is about being a "fan" for an orphaned child. The Smiths are friends of ours that live here in Kijabe and work for Moffat Bible college and also Oasis for Orphans.  In our bible study, we were talking about grace and how God is our Fan!  He is the one cheering us on and encouraging us.  Phil 2:13 says, "for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort - for the sake of his good pleasure - is God."  He is our biggest fan.  In the book of Ruth, her story is one of despair at the beginning, but as she follows the plan laid out for her (in faith at every step), her tragedy turns to hope and blessings.  And, it leads to the birth of King David down the line. It shows that God has far reaching plans that can be worked even through what we see as pain and suffering at the moment, but latter are turned into the fulfilling of His plan.

Looking for Fans Who is your biggest fan? We all have people in our lives who believe in us, who think we can do almost anything. Maybe your parents have always been your greatest devotees, cheering you on since your days in little league? Maybe it's your spouse who has supported you, encouraging you to go after your dreams? Perhaps your kids are the ones who look at you like a hero, building you up with respect and admiration? Most of us have at least one, if not many fans in our lives to encourage us, love us for who we uniquely are, and remind us of our worth.  Sadly, there are millions of orphaned children in Kenya with no fans at all...not even one. They never hear the words, "I believe in you." No one cheers their names. No one sacrifices comfort or time to ensure they have opportunity. No one tells them how precious they are. How can these children hold onto hope when there is no one to tell them what hope is?   In contrast, our Oasis kids have fans we like to call "sponsors." Our sponsors are our Kenyan kids' biggest fans. It is our sponsors who pray, cheer, encourage and enthusiastically support the children who God has entrusted to the Oasis family. Children's lives are changed and eternally impacted by the special relationship that forms between a child and his or her sponsor. Our sponsors make it possible for us as an organization to implement the holistic development plan that is protecting, educating, developing and preparing these children for their future.  As Oasis turns the page from being a single site to opening a second site, we are looking for fans to join us on our exciting journey. We need new sponsors who will enthusiastically commit their hearts, minds and resources to help us love and cheer on 30 more children in southwest Kenya.   Would you consider being one of our newest fans? For more information about sponsorship, please take a look at our website under sponsorship and/or contact Diane@oasisfororphans.org

I love how being a fan for a child is expounded on here!  This is where it starts and as they grow and know the love of their fan, they can come to know the love of God who is their biggest fan!

Please pray for us as we close out this week of turn overs.  Trevor's graduation will be on the 17th (a week from Thursday), then we can concentrate on moving all of this stuff!

In His Hands,

Jullie T