When we arrived at Tenwek after language school at the beginning of last year, I started working with the Tabitha Ministry Bible Study right away.  I love more than anything to go out into the village and hear the women singing and laughing together.  I love watching everything!  I love the food, I love the language, the interactions. Everything.  I had hoped that Eden would love it as much as I do.  She takes everything in, in a deep way.  So being out is harder for her.  Honestly, she doesn't love it.

She has heard me talking about the ladies in the bible studies and how in awe of them I am.  She has heard me tell visitors over and over how each woman can earn a bible in Kipsigis by memorizing 17 verses and consistently attending the weekly bible study.  A few months ago, it was like a light went off for her.  She still doesn't love going out into the village, but she has found her niche.  She has been doing different things to raise money for bibles.  She's made bracelets, baked cinnamon rolls and muffins.

She just went up to the bookshop to turn in her hard earned money for four beautiful Kipsigis bibles.  I couldn't have been more proud of her, for so many reasons.  She is passionate about sharing Jesus.  She figured out what her strengths were and used those.  And most of all, she is embracing the truth that she is a missionary and called just as much as her parents are.  It's pretty awesome to see God answering my prayers for her, but in His design, not mine.

Just a quick update to say that instead of the traditional four years overseas and one year back in the US schedule, we are coming back at the end of July for a few months.  We plan to be in the MA/NY area for that fall and then after Thanksgiving, go to NC for the holidays.

So that means a little over two months here at Tenwek before traveling.  We would appreciate prayers as we make plans, make decisions and get ready for traveling.  We would love to catch up with those of you that we can!  If you will be in the Mass and Albany New York area in the fall, send us a note, and as we get more of a schedule we would love to see you.

A few things on our list of things to do, see friends, see family, catch up with supporters, eat american cheese and drink american milk!!  We're looking forward to it!!

Due to circumstances beyond our control (nation wide shortage of butter), we are now learning a new skill (making our own from scratch). Our choices were to live without butter, or go with the flow....And we can't live without butter.  

Barb has been making her own butter for years and is a pro.  So she got a few of us together one evening to show us how its done.  On a side note, she also showed us how to get half and half (something I've been missing in my life) and buttermilk out of this process.  Thanks, Barb!

Positive notes:

• I got to learn from Barb, one of the first missionary nurses here at Tenwek.
• We used a good ol' food processor instead of the Little House on the Prairie churns.
• I had lots of help in the kitchen.
• We can now make butter from the milk we boil everyday for drinking and cooking.

We're excited to have Dr. Drew Huang here this week helping Mike care for kids with cleft lips. 

Thank you so much for praying with us and for us.  God has moved hearts and changed minds and the doctors are returning to work!!!  We are so relieved.  Now comes the rebuilding.  Will you continue to pray as the country finds it way forward?  It takes more than a minute to get over a doctors' strike that lasted 100 days.

by Julie

I want to tell you one of the coolest stories.  One of the big things I get to be involved in at Tenwek is a bible study for women called Tabitha Ministry.  This is a bible study that started with one missionary mom and two Kenyan women that met together weekly to study the bible.  More and more women showed up each week and it just kept growing.  That was roughly ten years ago.  Today there are hundreds of women along the countryside around Tenwek that meet in small groups to study God's word together.  If a woman attends the weekly study for a month and memorizes 17 bibles verses, she can earn a Kipsigis bible. Presently, there have been over 10,000 bibles earned and received.  I know its easy to get excited about numbers, but that's not even the cool part of the story.

Recently we got word that there was a group that had started three hard hours away.  And they were asking for someone to come listen as they recited the memory verses. WHAT?!?  Three hours away?  How did that happen?  Well, here comes the cool part...

A leader from one of the groups right by Tenwek moved three hours away to a place called Kuresoi.  She had earned her bible and had kept some of the studies she had worked through.  She started a small group of about 20 women in her church there and read to the women from a bible in their native tongue.  After some time, things changed in her life and she stopped teaching the group of women that had formed.  But the women had gotten a taste really studying the bible and now they were hooked.

After a while another woman from around Tenwek, named Selly, moved to that same area.  The women who had been in the first bible study asked Selly if she could teach them and read from the bible that she had earned.  At first Selly said no, she had too much work to do around her house and family plot of land.  The women would not take no for an answer.  They said they would weed her garden while she sat and read to them.  So for about a year, they would come and weed her garden and help with her crops so she could have time to teach them from the Word!!! Amazing!  

So when she sent word back to us, she said they had been meeting together and were ready to recite verses and receive their bibles.  We were excited and wanted to know how many women were waiting for us so we could know how to prepare.  A FEW HUNDRED!!!! Again, amazing.  We made arrangements to go and visit them.

​Every time I think of this day and the amazing things the Lord is doing here, touching hearts, drawing people to himself, and changing lives, I am in awe.  I told you it was a cool story.  God is really doing things!!!

About a week ago, we celebrated the fourth class of residents to graduate from the Surgical Training Program at Tenwek. It was so exciting to see four very qualified, godly residents finish their training well. What an encouraging highlight in the midst of some very hard weeks. Please keep praying for the doctors' strike in Kenya. We haven't seen any movement toward a resolution. The patients are suffering and those still working are growing weary.

The four new residents that started their surgical training this January at Tenwek.

As we looked back as a family at 2016, we talked about some of the highs and some of the lows.  There were many of both. Last year when we finally finished language study and settled in here, there was only one other second grader at Tenwek.  And since we were halfway through the academic year already, Eden finished the curriculum she had already started and first grade without any classmates.  

Then over the summer, there were many transitions with lots of other families coming and going.  July found Eden to be the only girl near her age here.  Thankfully God brought more families in by September.  And now, Eden is one of five kids in second grade!!  I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but after spending many long months together at the dining room table, just she and I, trying to get through school, 5 classmates seems like a million....in a good way.

So this morning as I went up the hill to the schoolroom to start back up teaching the second graders again, I thought back to this time last year.  I'm grateful for the lessons learned in the transition of last year, but I'm also grateful for a fuller classroom this year, and all that that means. 

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Thank you so much for all of you who have taken the time to pray for the current situation with the doctor's strike. I am writing to ask that you continue to pray for Kenya, especially those sick and in need of medical assistance.

We are now finishing the fourth week of the nation wide doctors strike which has seen over 5000 doctors leave their posts, resulting in the closing of most government hospitals. There does not appear at this time to be resolution in the immediate future.

This leaves mission and private hospitals to care for nearly double the number of patients typically seen. Our hospital, by the grace of God has been able to accommodate most of the people who have come to us from other facilities, but both the hospital space and the staff have been overwhelmed and personnel have become exhausted from the workload.  Patients in other parts of the country, away from any mission hospitals, have not been able to access any medical care for four weeks now.  Please pray for the staff of Tenwek and other mission and private hospitals as they take up the call to serve with compassion in these circumstances.

One amazing answer to prayer is that our nearest government hospital has chosen not to go on strike. I believe this has kept us at Tenwek from overflowing even more than we are!  Praise God for the doctors and nurses who have stayed to serve their people. Many of the doctors working in that facility were trained at Tenwek including their medical superintendent who was one of our Family Medicine residents.

Within the difficulty also comes opportunity. Many people coming to us now might never have come to Tenwek, instead seeking care at a closer facility.  Please pray that Tenwek can be a beacon of hope and love to these patients who so desperately need God's healing both physically and spiritually.  

As we begin this week, may we have open hearts to see each one with compassion, and to share the love and hope of Jesus

Many thanks for standing with us in service to the people of Kenya.