Robbie narrates his journey with dad to the highest mountain in Kenya, and the 2nd highest point in Africa: Mt Kenya.

Robbie, in "the Healer"

Lesa and the kids have had a busy and productive time at school the past few months. Late last year saw Robbie’s theatre debut, in the middle school portion of a night of student-written one acts Lesa produced. And with a giant Bollywood style ending no less!

In January Lesa had the opportunity again to lead a group of high school students to Olepishet, our Maasai village where we’ve been adopted by the community, for a week-long cultural field studies program. It was a great time for her in continuing to build a relationship with this community, helping students to engage with Maasai culture, encourage and support the local church, and provide some basic community health care training.

Lesa, director

In addition to teaching drama, discipleship, and directing the 4 high school worship teams, Lesa is in production week for Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the HS Drama department spring play. Following that, in April, will be a weekend production of a musical revue, spanning 20th century Broadway hits.

One of the most important parts of ministry to teens is the discipleship. In all things Lesa sees her most important role as being not just a mentor, but a discipler. Seeing kids develop their full potential in Christ, not just artistically, is very exciting, and what keeps Lesa energized. Check out the portfolio of Sonia Kuguru, and see what caliber of students she gets to work with and develop!

And somehow in there she finds time to work in weekly homework assignments for her Master’s in Theatre Education…

Olepishet

Many families around here like to travel over Spring break. Some go to the Maasai Mara to watch the migration of the wildebeest. Some go to the Indian Ocean and relax on the beach. Some even squeeze in a quick trip to Europe.  Well, our idea of relaxation this Spring Break was a bit different, but still just as rewarding.  We decided this was the best opportunity for our family to invest in the tiny Maasai village of Olepishet, where Lesa had led a group of HS students in January (Click here to read “More than I thought it could be”). We packed our Land Rover to the ceiling, including extra fuel and lots of water, and drove about 5 hours, way past the end of the paved roads, crossing rivers, driving up and down steep, rocky terrain, to reach this special place in our family’s heart.

We didn’t have a big agenda, other than camping and living in the community for a few days, and exploring ways that our school, and our family specifically, could invest in the people and church here. We spent several nights, sitting around the fire, eating roast goat and talking with the people about what God is doing in this community through the local church. We felt like real missionaries for once. Hours away from the nearest wazungu (white people), no longer under the supervision or care of some senior missionary. Just us and the Maasai.

At church Lesa and I were honored with Maasai necklaces and shukas (blankets) and staffs. We left feeling more encouraged by the community there than vice versa I’m sure, and that the beginning of a new friendship had come.

A few weeks ago, the pastor and an elder from the church came and spent the weekend with us at our home in Nairobi. We continued to share experiences together and talk about what the needs of the village are that the local church is trying to meet. And how we as a family, or the school, might try to help the church meet those felt needs. One of those needs was the area of HIV/AIDS and general health training and awareness. Another was in the possibly of helping to establish a medical clinic in the village (right now it is a couple hours’ walk to the nearest clinic), the first step for this would probably be some kind of vehicle for driving people to remote clinics until a dispensary is established in Olepishet. Another possibility was in educational needs of the community and/or sponsoring the pastor/elders for further theological training. At this point, there are no outside sources of help/community development in Olepishet.  We may be the only people who are aware of these needs and who are hoping to meet them.

We’ve decided to pray on these things, and when we return in August to get together again when the school calendar allows. There is a possibility that Lesa will help lead a group there from school to do medical work 1st semester.  We thank God for the opportunity to be a part of the lives and church in this special community. Please pray with us as we seek to build this relationship and encourage the church.  As things progress, we will keep you informed of the needs of Olepishet, as any major community development projects there would require funds from outside sources.  Please be in prayer about how God may lead you in this direction.

Seussical

Upon returning from Olepishet as a family, we jumped right back into the thick of things at school. Rehearsals for “Seussical: the Musical” were in full swing, and Lesa’s cast of over 80 actors, crew, orchestra, managers, and directors kept her busy. Our whole family was busy, actually, with Andy serving as Technical Director and also playing bass guitar in the pit orchestra. Sydney had a short starring role as the elephant bird during the evening performances. And Robert and Avery pretty much think they own the theater.  The show was a huge success – the best we’ve done yet! (Did I mention that I have the best job in the world?)

OFM

Mere days after Seussical closed, Andy was traveling with the On-Field Media team, finishing production on some projects that he’d been pushing off until the show was over.

He started with a trip on AIM AIR to Marsabit and Korr, and because OFM had chartered their own airplane, he had an extra seat and the opportunity to bring Avery along. Avery was put to work, though, as a grip, best boy, and official bird chaser (or any other animal that was making noise during filming sessions).

Avery was like a celebrity everywhere he went. Small white kids are a rare sight in these parts, and Avery’s entrance onto a school in Marsabit almost caused school to close for the day as every student wanted to shake his hand, touch his hair, ask his name, and generally just crowd around him staring. At one point, Avery, surrounded by maybe 100 kids, took off running quickly across the football pitch. It startled the kids so badly that half of them screamed, only to join Avery moments later in his mad dash.

In Korr, Avery’s favorite part was riding out into our many excursions into the desert on top of the Land Cruiser. He made quick friends with Pastor David Gargule’s children, as his children had 2 things most young children here didn’t have: English and pants. He also joined in, and nearly won, a limbo contest one night at the local secondary school.

Andy greatly enjoyed having Avery along on this trip, as nothing helps a 2nd grader understand what his dad does for a job better than taking him along. Later this summer look for the new AIM Identity film, which was shot on this trip.

Days after returning from this trip, Andy took Robert up to RVA for the weekend as Andy was a guest soloist/clinician in a concert with the RVA jazz band. A few days after that and Andy was off again to Rwanda for a few days on further production for the AIM Identity film.

Transitions

The past week has been a time of intense transitions:

After 7 months of leading the OFM team, Andy’s friend and teammate Ted Rurup has returned to Kenya. Andy hands back the leadership of OFM to Ted, very thankful for the administrative burden to be lifted, but also glad for the opportunity to provide leadership when it was needed.
2 days after Ted arrived, the OFM team said goodbye to Kate Joyce, the OFM photographer for the past 17 months, as she transitioned back to the US.

We have recently transitioned into the role of leaders for the music/worship ministry at our church, International Christian Fellowship.  We have seen God’s hand in this whole process at the church and are quite pleased and honored to step into this role.  Of course, you all know that doing this brings us joy and is a huge part of who we are.  We have enjoyed getting involved in the Leadership Team of the Fellowship and look forward to helping next year as it is also in a time of transition in its structure.

Life at school has been amazing for me (Lesa) this year.  I have been on a sharp learning curve, as it had been so many years since I had been in a classroom.  I’ve finished up the year feeling pretty good about my classroom teaching and great about the shows.  Next year I will increase the number of classes I teach. I will also be overseeing all the high school worship teams for chapel, as well as teaching a few private guitar and voice lessons.  This is all a tremendous privilege and joy for me.   My rosters for next year are much fuller than this year, as I guess its gotten around that Mrs. Brown isn’t so bad after all.

These are my courses for next year:

1st semester High School: Intro to Theatre, Communications, Worship, 2 Independent Studies (Acting/Directing and Playwriting).

Middle School: 8th grade “Careers” class and 7th grade Speech

2nd semester High School: Intro to Theatre, Acting, Discipleship. Middle School: 8th grade “Careers” class and 7th grade Speech

I have been blessed by how much love God has given me for my students.  I’ve had some wonderful mentoring opportunities with many of them, and pray that these will continue with them next year (and even with the graduates over FaceBook!)  Please pray for me as I minister at school, not only to missionary kids, but also to many students from a variety of cultures (36!) and faith backgrounds.  Graduation was a bittersweet time for me.  It was such a privilege to sit amongst the faculty on the stage during the ceremony and hear about the students’ accomplishments and future plans, as well as to attend grad parties.  What an amazing group of students and what a school to get to be a part of.  But it was difficult, as some of these students have been in all four of my shows since I came to the school last year, some went with me to Olepishet for CFS, and all have grown dear to me.  I can’t imagine how I will cope with this year after year!

Summer schedule

June 1- Lesa and the kids leave for America
June 11- Lesa’s sister, Katie, gets married
June 22- Andy flies to America to join the family
July 5- Lesa starts 3 weeks of summer school at University of Northern Colorado (Masters in Theater Education)
July 31- Andy’s sister, Emily, gets married
August 1- We fly back home, to Kenya

In closing

We wish we could see you all this summer, but as it is not a furlough summer for us (and will be full of family commitments!) we are spending most of our time in Kansas and Illinois, with Lesa in Colorado for 3 weeks for grad school. Summer 2011 will be our regularly scheduled furlough, with our full circuit from Virginia to Colorado and every state in-between.

Thanks for the opportunity to be your missionaries in Africa. May God bless you richly for your prayers and financial support over the past 3 years.

In God’s grace,
Andy, Lesa, Robert, Avery, and Sydney Brown

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve shared with you, ok maybe a few months if you don’t follow us on twitter or facebook, but we do have some immediate things we need prayer for:

On Friday, Lesa is leading a group of over a dozen 12th grade girls on a CFS trip (Cultural Field Studies). She will be taking this group of young ladies into the heart of Masaai land, staying in local homes, participating in local culture, building cross-cultural relationship, for about 5 days. She will also be mentoring and discipling these girls, which is something Lesa loves to do more than anything! Please pray for her safety and comfort and for great relationships to be built, both with the high schoolers and with the Masaai. Also pray for special “dad” time with the kids while Lesa’s away.

In just under 2 weeks, Andy is leading the OFM (On-Field Media) team to North Africa, to a country he’s never been to but has always wanted to visit. A country where there are no “missionaries” because such a thing would get you expelled from the country, or worse. A country where the cost to local believers for following Christ is more than most of us could bear. And yet the church lives, and we hope to share in that, encourage the church, and capture some of these stories and people and culture on film for the edification and building up of the worldwide church. Please pray for safety in the air and especially on the ground, for open doors to be able to capture the stories and images of these people, for salt and light to be shared.

In just over 2 weeks, Robbie (excuse me… it’s “Robert” now) will be going on the 5th grade CFS (Cultural Field Studies) trip, something new and exciting for him! Pray for God to continue to mold and shape Robert’s character into something special, beautiful, unique, and Christ-like through this experience.

Lesa is also in the thick of rehearsals for a middle school play, and the high-school spring musical. Pray for balance and managing stress and especially for good relationships and experiences for the students involved.

Andy is in the thick of managing the OFM team, which has now grown to 3 full-time, 2 part-time staff. (In contrast, Lesa is managing over 60 students in the high school musical!) He’s trying to finish videos shot 6 months ago, having shot 3 projects since then that are sitting on his desk waiting to be captured and logged. Pray for him to be a good manager and for good time-management and prioritization. Pray for the team’s efforts to continue to bear fruit all around the world for the cause of missions.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support of our ministries here in Africa. God knit us together for times like this, that we can support and prop each other up in prayer. We thank God for you all.

-Andy and Lesa

We have been grateful and blessed by your prayers and emails and chats and thoughts over the past 10 weeks since we’ve returned to Africa. We have been trying to find time to get an email update written, and are very sorry it’s taken so long! Please know that you have been on our hearts and minds as well, as our goodbyes this summer are still fresh in our memory.

Over the past 10 weeks we have:

• flown across 8 timezones and eventually conquered jetlag
• Lost 2 friends in the AIM AIR accident (http://brownfamily.ws/2009/08/17/the-update-i-didnt-want-to-write/)
• Did what we could to support those 2 families who lost their husbands and dads
• Moved into a new house (our 5th house in Nairobi!)
  

  Kids, in front of our latest house

• Lost all the weight we’d gained over the summer in the US
• Struggled with electricity and water rationing, often both at once!
• Started having health issues and had a colonoscopy (Andy), the 2nd in 3 months!
• Started over at a new school
• Saw our little girl become a schoolgirl (Sydney- kindergarten)
• Saw Lesa’s return to full-time teaching
• Celebrated a birthday (Robbie- 11)
• Started regularly leading worship on Sunday mornings (after a 2 year hiatus)
• Spent 5 days in the Northern Frontier District filming (Andy) (http://brownfamily.ws/2009/10/16/worship-from-the-desert-place/)
• Driven over 600 miles through Nairobi traffic on a motorcycle (Andy)
  

  Andy, rainsoaked, and his motorcycle

• Are 8 weeks into the 11 weeks of rehearsal for The Diary of Anne Frank (Lesa)
• Praised God over and over that He has placed us here, doing exactly what we were made to do

Over the next 10 weeks we will:

• Celebrate two more birthdays (Lesa, Oct 30 and Sydney, Nov 11)
• Direct 3 HS performances (Lesa) of the The Diary of Anne Frank (Nov 5,6,7)
• Take over the leadership of On-Field Media (Andy) while Ted is on home assignment
• Spend a week as cameraman with Billy Graham Association (Andy)
• Spend 8 days in Lesotho (South Africa- Andy) on filming a documentary on the nomadic, underclass shepherds of this mountainous country

The first month of our return to Africa was a rough one. Between our friend’s deaths, the funerals, moving houses, starting a new school, not to mention being terribly jetlagged, we were a mess. Through that time we held fast to God’s promises, that he is faithful and compassionate and understanding and works all things together for our good. All things… every single thing.  We are still holding tight to Him, as life is completely different now in many ways and we are all still getting used to the many changes.

We are finally seeing some rain after a severe drought here in Kenya. People and livestock have been suffering terribly over the past few months and it seemed as if the rain would never come.  We’ve never gone without water completely here in Nairobi, but the city has been rationing water so that most of the city only received water a few days a week.  Everyone stores the water when it comes, so while it has been inconvenient, we have been okay.  The electricity was also being rationed (off 3 days a week) because of the water shortage.  The rains started up this past week and haven’t let up too much.  The rationing appears to be over and we feel quite spoiled to be able to turn on the faucet and see the water pouring in every day!  Our prayer now is that there won’t be flooding all over Kenya, which can be destructive as well.

Lesa has her 3rd drama production coming up, the The Diary of Anne Frank. She is also teaching 2 high school drama classes and a middle school drama class.  She will direct a middle school play second semester, as well as a musical production for the high school.  Returning to work has been challenging and tiring for her – teaching at 35 with three kids is much different than teaching at 23!  Despite the sharp learning curve, she is loving her time at our school and feels a deep sense of purpose in mentoring and equipping these students to use their gifts for God’s glory.

Andy, filming in northern Kenya last month

The children have been busy at school with activities and getting to know new friends.  Robbie is now playing the trombone and will also be in the upcoming elementary Christmas production as a shepherd.  He and Avery are taking piano lessons at school and are both doing quite well.  Sydney is… well… still Sydney.  She loves school and is as social as ever.  She has a wonderful teacher, whom she loves.  We feel very blessed to be able to have our children at such an amazing school.  Our house has been a blessing too, though quite a bit of work for Andy as he has been working on some plumbing issues ever since we moved in.  Living so close to the school has made all the difference in the world for Lesa and the kids – no more hour-long bus/car rides.  Now we can get to school in under two minutes!  And of course, Andy loves riding a piki piki (that’s Kiswahili for motorcycle).

Lesa, leading worship on a Sunday morning

Us, with Wyclif, Selina, and Brian

We would love to hear from each of you to know how you are doing since we saw you last.  Please drop us an email and keep in touch!  Thank you again for all of your prayers and support.  We couldn’t be here without you.

In His Precious Name,

Andy, Lesa, Robbie, Avery, and Sydney

Prayer requests:

• Lesa’s show – that the students would do their best, that God would be glorified, and that our family will survive the stress!
• Andy’s trip to Lesotho – for safety and opportunities
• Kenya’s drought – that the rains would make it throughout the country (but not too much!)
• Andy’s health – please pray that the Ulcerative Colitis, which reappeared after our stressful month in August would go away again (last time it was gone for 8 years).
• AIM AIR – please pray for our friends at AIM AIR as they are still putting the pieces together after the accident.  Also, please pray for the Williams and the Toew’s families who each lost a husband/father.

Things are slowing down for us a bit.  Andy has returned from his trip and had quite the tropical island experience!  They had some incredible opportunities to film in this creative access country at locations which are usually closed off.  Check our website soon for stories and photos from that trip. His team doesn’t have any more trips planned for the near future, but will settle in to work on several video projects that they have been assigned, including one about their last island trip, an AIM orientation video, an AIM medical ministries video, an RVA (AIM’s boarding school) video, among others.

The boys’ school is wrapping up this week with Christmas parties and such.  Robbie’s class gets to take a field trip to an orphanage to share in Christmas activities with the children there, which should be a memorable experience for him.  His first band concert went quite well, too.  He’s quite the budding saxophone player!  Sydney and Avery are as busy as ever – we just keep the band-aids flowing.  We stay busy leading worship for various events, helping to lead a youth group, and meeting once or twice a month with the “Inbounders” (short-term and first-term missionaries with AIM) at our house for fellowship. We are all looking forward to the visit of our friends, the Lang family, in January.

Lesa’s first play at school is over (click here to see photos of Little Women) and she is taking a break before next semester, when rehearsals for the next show, The King and I, will begin.  There will be nearly 50 students involved in the cast, which is quite a daunting, yet exciting challenge.   Our family is looking forward to the next school year, which will bring many changes, as our kids will begin attending this school and Lesa has been asked to teach drama/fine arts full-time.  We will keep you posted on all that this will mean for our family, as we are in prayer about if and when we may need to move nearer to school.

We also want to bring you up to date regarding our friend, Wycliffe, and his 5 year old son, Brian, whom we told you about in our last letter.  Much has developed since our last letter!  We had known that Brian needed some medical attention to address possible hearing problems, as well as developmental problems, so we have been taking him to doctors.  As far as the hearing issue (which the doctors advised us to tackle first), we are actually picking them up from the hospital today after surgery to get tubes in his ears.  The ENT doing the procedure thinks that this will potentially solve his hearing problem.  If it does, then the next step will be speech therapy, followed by physical and occupational therapy.  We will be looking for a special school for him (special education is not typically a part of the schools here).  Including this surgery, Brian’s medical expenses have reached $1,000.  In faith, we have been covering these, but need help after this surgery (it’s on our credit card)! A few of you have indicated that you would like to help with the costs (thank you!) and we are praying that God would raise up more to help sponsor Brian on a one time or on a regular basis.  If you, your church, or someone you know has a heart for children with special needs and would like to help out, please email us.

God has been so faithful to put it on many of your hearts to pray for us continually and to support us financially.  Thank you so much for your faithfulness, it is what encourages and keeps us going.  At this point, though, we are under-supported around $1,500 per month.  We have an AIM savings account of sorts that makes up the deficit each month, but that will run out by May or so.   What this means is that if we don’t find more people to support us monthly, we will not be able to return to Kenya after our trip to the States next summer.  Will you pray for us that God will lay it on more people’s hearts to commit to supporting us monthly?  Would you also consider talking to your church about potentially supporting us (if it doesn’t already)?  We completely believe that God has placed us here for purposes of His own and that He will make it happen.  He proved it before when He got us out here and He will do it again, we know!
Upcoming events:
5-Jan: Andy’s birthday and the 1st half of the Lang family arrives.
19-Jan to 23-Jan: We’ll be vacationing with the entire Lang family on Kenya’s coast
24-25 Apr, 1-2 May: Lesa’s 2nd show as drama director: The King and I
15-May ?: We begin our 3-4 month home assignment, setting foot in America for the first time in almost 2 years (for most of us, anyway)

Only five months until we’re back in the States for a few months and we know that we will be so busy that the time will fly.  We can’t wait to see each of you!  Have a very Merry Christmas!

All our love,
Andy, Lesa, Robbie, Avery, and Sydney

Just the previous weekend I had gone camping with Tim and a bunch of other AIM guys at the annual men’s camping retreat. The same retreat that I wrote about a year ago in “Camping with Hippos“. So, I thought I had the whole “camping in the wilds of Africa” all figured out. We were going to go to Hell’s Gate National Park, near lake Naivasha, and camp out in the wild, do some hiking, rock climbing, cook our food over a fire, and have a memorable weekend that would hopefully stay in our memories forever. Boy, will it ever!

Hell's Gate, rain clouds brewing

Robbie and I arrived at Hell’s Gate (about a 1.5 hour drive from Nairobi) around 3pm as the rain clouds were starting to form. As we paid our admission and entered the park and found our campsite, it was starting to rain. The campsite was up a steep, volcanic silt road, situated on the edge of a cliff overlooking much of the park. From there we could see Fischer’s tower, a two hundred foot high lava plug left over from a volcano. We could also hear steam vents several miles away, and were literally surrounded by animals: zebras, buffalo, gazelle, giraffe, warthogs.

After the rain subsided, Robbie and I decided to let the ground dry a little before setting up our tent and that it would be a good idea to scramble up the cliff about 10 minutes to the crest and catch the view from there. The view was magnificent, and I decided to grab a quick photo of Robbie overlooking the park. As Robbie stood on that precipice, I walked a short distance to the adjacent precipice where I could get a good framing for the photo.

the African Cape Buffalo

As I stood there taking Robbie’s photo, I had a terrible sensation of something running up behind me. I spun around and caught sight of a 1000-1500 lb cape buffalo, one of the most dangerous animals in Africa, charging me, maybe 15 feet away and running at a mean gallop.

I didn’t have time to think, it was pure instinct at that point, absolutely no conscious decision-making abilities. The only thing that my body could do was shout/scream a shout of surprise/terror. Again, totally sub-conscious, it just happened. But it seemed to have been loud enough that it temporarily startled the beast. He stopped for a second, his huge curled horns tipping side to side as he pondered his next move. A second’s pause, then he charged at me again. Now remember, I am standing on the edge of a cliff, with my back to the cliff and my front to a buffalo that is about to gore me. Again, nothing but instinct: a startled shout erupts from deep within my bowels and comes out of my mouth sounding something not totally unlike a roar. Loud enough to startle the buffalo and stop him for another second.

That second was all I needed. I jumped off the precipice I was on, to a small ledge below and turned and shouted to Robbie (who had been watching the whole time), “Run!”. Robbie and I both scrambled back down the cliff as fast as we could, and didn’t look back until we were about half way down and we realized we weren’t being followed.

Robbie: “Dad, don’t ever ever do that again!”
Me: “No kidding! You think we should call mom and tell her?”
Robbie: “Nah”

We had a good laugh at ourselves as we set up our tent. Hours later as we were trying to light a fire to cook our supper I was still shaken. I started rehearsing in my mind how to tell this story to Lesa and Tim in a way that would be entertaining, and thinking this would be the most exciting part of our weekend. Not yet!

As we tried to cook our supper over a fire in a light drizzle, the sunlight faded fast. On the equator, you have 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of nighttime every day of the year. It doesn’t vary much from summer to winter, and when the sun sets or rises, it does so very quickly, unlike the US where it can last for a couple hours in the summer months. It starts getting dark here around 6:30, and by 7:00 is pretty much nighttime.

By the time we started eating it was 7:30, and as the drizzle was putting out the fire I noticed how dark it was everywhere we looked. I’ve never camped in total seclusion like that before, where there is no streetlights, car lights, campfires, or city in the distance. I realized that we were probably the only people in the park right now, and all the animals we saw earlier, including the buffalo, were still here, out there in the darkness somewhere, maybe just out of reach of the flashlight we kept sweeping around in a slow circle. Animal noises surrounded us on all sides. Unlike the previous weekend’s camping experience, there were no guards and no fence of any sort separating us from them.

Needless to say, we didn’t sleep terribly well that night, but we didn’t have any encounters with animals. We woke up around 6am with the sun, and had a couple more laughs about our experience with the buffalo before trying to get a fire lit to cook our breakfast.

After about 30 minutes of messing with the fire, I finally had it hot enough to start the sausages cooking in the frying pan. As we sat there, mouths watering, waiting for them to finish cooking, I had that sensation again of something rapidly approaching me from behind.

I spun around, and with another started shout of surprise, came face to face with a huge baboon jumping up onto the picnic table immediately behind me. The shout startled him as well, and he grabbed our tupperware container with a half-dozen uncooked eggs and took off.

Robbie, watching baboon eat our trash

At this point, I’m thinking 3 things:
1. We have several friends here who have been seriously hurt by baboons. They are not scared of people, and have sharp teeth and mean dispositions. The baboons, that is, not our friends.
2. He’s just a baboon. How tough can he be?
3. I’m really hungry and he just stole half our breakfast

So, I grab a burning stick out of the fire and take off after him, yelling and banging the stick on the table and the ground as I pursue him. I can tell he’s not scared of me. He also doesn’t want to get hit by the stick. I raise the stick, he takes a step back. Then he takes a step forward, testing me. I make a louder noise and more threating gesture. He drops the eggs and takes 2 steps back. I grab the eggs back as he runs back to the campfire where Robbie has grabbed a stick as well.

The baboon grabs our trash bag from the previous night and runs about 10 feet away. For the next few minutes he eats the aluminum foil we cooked our food in, as I grab all the food off the picnic table and put it in the car. That’s when I noticed the muddy handprints on the outside of the car doors. And the inside.

You see, I didn’t lock the car that night as I didn’t see the need. I didn’t know baboons could open cars. I didn’t know they were smart enough to let themselves in, rummage around, then let themselves out and carefully/quietly close the door behind them.

About the time I finished putting the food in the car (and locking it this time!) the baboon finished eating our trash. I thought Robbie and I could sit around the fire, forks in hand, and eat the sausage right out of the pan. I figured the two of us could keep the baboon away. So, the baboon runs over to our tent. Our friends’ tent, to be exact, who had lent it to us for the weekend. A really nice tent.

The baboon grips the tent wall with both hands and prepares to rip it open looking for food (there wasn’t anything in the tent). Here I have a difficult decision to make: eat the sausage or save the tent. I decide it would be better to go without breakfast than to have to buy my friends a new tent. I take off after the baboon with my stick again.

He runs away from me, in a big circle, back to the campfire where Robbie is waiting with his stick. “Let him have the sausage!” I yell back to Robbie. The baboon jumps up on the fire grate, shouts briefly in pain, and grabs 4 sausages out of the pan and crams them into his mouth. I run back over to the fire, grab the remaining 4 sausages and chuck them away from our campsite, buying myself enough time to hurriedly tear the tent down and cram it into the trunk of the car. Robbie and I decided to evacuate the campsite sans breakfast as the baboon starts barking into the distance (calling in reinforcements, we assumed).

Robbie, on our walk through the gorge later that day

So, that is the tale of our manventure. A right-of-passage of sorts, and a 10th birthday Robbie and I will never forget!

The summary of our first year in Africa, what it’s like to pack up and move across the world, orientation, culture shock, what it’s like to live here, and the ministries we are involved in.

Our backyard

Greetings once again from the city of cold water (that’s what Nairobi means in Kikuyu)! At least 4 days of the week that is true, the other 3 days it is the city of “hakuna maji”, or no water. Which is why we have 2 giant tanks in our back yard to store up water to get us through the dry days. Which means no laundry and few showers during half the week, making up for it on the other end.

Not that things are dry here, quite the opposite in fact. The short rains (one of two rainy seasons here) have started this week and everything is muddy and wet. It’s even cold, which helps us remember that back home people are getting their turkeys and raking leaves and thinking about Christmas. It’s going to be a weird Christmas for us here, the start of summer and probably the 1st time we’ll have been hot since we left the US at the end of June.

On Field Media

Andy in the northern Kenya desert

The last time we wrote an update I (Andy) was just starting my job with the new On Field Media team. Mike and Ted and I have had a great time the past couple months pulling together our first video project and building our website to host all our content.

Andy and Ted in front of a Rendille hut

Our 1st video, Psalm 40, is a worship video. Ted and I shot all the footage, in Kibera slums at a literacy class, in another slum at a health clinic, in Machakos at Scott Theological College, and in Korr, Kenya, in the remote desert northern frontier. After weeks of planning, 2 weeks of shooting, and 1 week of editing, we finished and are now presenting it for you, our friends and family, as an opportunity to get a glimpse of life throughout Kenya, as well as worship God in a greater understanding of the work he is doing here.

You can watch the video and check out the OFM website (also by me!) here: http://aim-ofm.org.

Kibera child

I also had the amazing opportunity in each of those places to take some incredible photos. Not that the photos are incredible as a result of my skills, but really the result of a great camera (thanks again Andy Peterson!) and a country full of beautiful people and children just waiting for a camera to tell their story. You can see the best photos on our website.

Teaching ministry

As you know, I (Lesa) have been waiting on God’s direction for ministry here. He has opened up a few doors that have, honestly, surprised me, including a chance to speak to some women at our friends’ church about the Discipling ministry I have been involved with since college. In preparing for my talk, God pulled together many pieces of my experiences to see how this ministry truly transforms lives (including my own!) and could transform a church, and clarified more how this ministry is optimally organized – based on my own experiences and on a great book “Transforming Discipleship” by Greg Ogden.

Now, I have another opportunity to get together with some of these women, a mixture of Kenyans and missionaries, again to go into more detail about it. Along the same lines, I also have a chance to do a workshop at our January AIM ladies’ retreat on “Breathing New Life into Your Daily Time with God.” I would love to see this all grow into a broader ministry here – but know I must wait on God to orchestrate it. Please pray for me that I will follow God’s direction and be patient with the results.

Worship ministry

We will also be leading a workshop at next week’s regional conference called “Guitar and Piano for Worship.” We hope to equip people who find themselves leading worship for Bible studies, meetings, or church, but who don’t feel confident in their abilities. Andy will also teach a workshop at the conference called, “Using the Internet as a Tool to Communicate with Supporters.” As you know, Andy is so amazing and creative at this, and many people are already asking us how he does it.

We are excited, also, that many doors are opening for us to be “worship leaders to missionaries” as we had originally envisioned. We have been leading weekly at a youth group, Lesa has been leading for her ladies’ Bible study, we are leading at the conference next week for two of the main sessions, and a few more upcoming opportunities.

Church

24 Sundays ago we worshiped with our home church who loved us and knew us well. The past 24 weeks we have worshiped at 18 different churches, and while that has been wonderful for some reasons, it has been hard for others. It has been hard to sit on the sidelines after being in the game for 10 years, every Sunday. And we long to fellowship with a church that knows community like our home church and where we can experience that community with Kenyans, and are still waiting on the Lord to find out how we might be involved in serving in a local church. Please continue to pray for us as we are searching for a church home and how involved we should be at the local church level.

Family

The kids at the Maasai Ostrich Ranch

Robbie and Avery have been enjoying West Nairobi School – making new friends and doing well at their studies. African life is becoming more and more “familiar” to the kids, which is a relief to us parents. Robbie had his 9th birthday in September, Sydney turned 3 in November, and Lesa turned ?? in October, so we’ve had a good time celebrating for first birthdays here (though baking cakes in our somewhat sketchy oven has been an experience)! We have been enjoying our house, but have struggled since we moved in to find a place for our office/studio equipment. God is so faithful and has provided us an opportunity to move into a different house at the end of this year that has a room for an office AND an extra bedroom for guests! Now you all have no excuse not to visit us!! It also has an extra big yard for the kids to play with our new German Shepherd puppy who has been providing us all with hours of entertainment.

Finances

Financially, we are blown away each month by the gifts that have come in. Blown away at the size of this task, each and every month, and that God is faithful to answer it, through you!

We’ve found out, during the past month or so, that we are slightly undersupported, and that the support rates for missionaries in East Africa are going up, across the board, at the end of the year. This is mainly a cost-of-living increase, and we are thankful to see the support rates going up as we have realized how hard it is to feed the ever growing appetite of our children (Robbie now eats more than Andy!). We also try to have enough “excess” funds to be able to help our Kenyan friends when needs arise.

Anyhow, we need around $500/month more in support by the beginning of next year. Clicking the green AIM banner on our website is probably the easiest way to do it. Like we said, we have been blown away each month at what God has provided, and know that he’s not going to send us home over such a small thing as money. We trust completely that he will provide, and ask you to continue praying with us for our trust and his provision.

Closing

Our street

As we say each time, we are so thankful to God, and to each of you who support us in your prayers and in your sacrifical giving. So thankful for the opportunity to be here.

Trying to be obedient, one step at a time,

Andy, Lesa, Robbie, Avery, Sydney

Robbie riding an ostrich

After 5 years of spending Robbie’s birthday at Cox Farms, we decided to do something different… we drove about an hour to the Maasai Ostrich Resort and the kids rode ostriches and we toured the farm where they raise 2500 ostriches for racing and for eating. Click here for photos from the park.