Merry Christmas

Lu 1:14 "And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth."

We pray that you find yourselves rejoicing in the beauty of this season. We as missionaries continue to praise our Lord that He was the ultimate missionary, choosing to come to to this earth from heaven above and not only minister but die on a cross and pay the price for our sins so that we would have an abundant relationship with Him and have eternal life.

Please know we thank the Lord for all of you and for the opportunity to celebrate this special holiday with family in America.

Jesus Bless You and Merry Christmas!

Love from The P3

1st Thoughts on America

It is amazing to be back in America and be with family and friends!We are being blessed right and left! Here are some first thoughts on America:

There is order...even on the roads in traffic jams...
Toilet paper is soft.........
Most homes have carpet on the floor....
It's cold....
Food tastes way too good......let the furlough fifteen begin
Blueberry Waffles at Trader Joe's made me cry......miss that place
Hugging and touching family and friends is indescribable....

Looking forward to our Meet N Greet (a.k.a Open House) Sat. Dec. 12th from 10am -2:30 pm. If you are in the area, stop by, have a snack and say hello! :)

God is so good and we are praising Him for this time!

MInistry in Kisumu

As we are getting ready to head back to the states for a couple months, we thought it a good idea to put up a ministry update blog post. I thought it would be helpful to share several different aspects of ministry that we are currently involved in here in Kisumu. Hopefully you'll get an idea of life, ministry, praises, prayer requests, etc. from reading this brief update.
Wednesday Night Bible Study: One of the biggest highlights for us in this season has been the Bible Study that has been started on Wednesday nights. We meet in Pastor Stephen and Maureen's house and typically have between 8 and 12 people (mostly men). As the African stereotype goes, things never start on time... but this is one exception. Most people are there 5min early because they don't want to miss out on the teaching of God's Word. After the first week as an introduction (topical study on The Word) we've begun the trek through Genesis (just this week finishing chapter 4). We start with a couple worship songs (sometimes in Kiswahili and sometimes in English) and then begin digging right into the Word. Pastor Stephen has been teaching in English with an occasional kiswahili interjection or explanation. After the 45min teaching and closing prayer the floor is opened up for question and answer. There are always a handful of questions, some which have sprung from the study and others that have been waiting for a time and place to ask from long before. I'm blessed that I often get to be part of fielding some of those questions. We then close with a song and prayer and depending on if the evening storm has come or gone, we then head out back to our home across town. Something that Peggy and I have truly enjoyed is the commitment and enthusiasm of the men who are coming (and at this point it is mostly men coming) for the Word. We are praying that the first leaders of the church will be from among this group.
Friday Night Worship and Prayer: Among other highlights, our Friday night worship time has been high on the list each week. We sporadically started this gathering by informally inviting a few over to just sing worship songs and pray for each other. We didn't know that it would grow to an average of 20-25 people each week. Unlike the Bible Study where we are the only white people, this group is mostly people from foreigners (like us) to Kenya. I'm blessed to have an opportunity to use the talents that God has given me to sing and play and lead, and also to have a venue where I can Worship the Lord in song the way we are familiar with in our own church back home. There have been several of these nights that the presence of the Lord has been so real amongst us that it is hard to bring it to a close. Another aspect of this group is how diverse everyone is in terms of their religious affiliation (all Christians) but very different backgrounds.
Discipleship: Both me and my wife have been making a point to get together individually with Stephen and Maureen in a discipleship manner. Stephen and I have been spending most of our time discussing the in's and out's of church ministry here in Kisumu and how the Lord would have us move forward. Peggy and Maureen have been studying the book of Philippians together. Each of our times has been so delightful and fruitful. Even if the Lord took us to be with Him or sent us away to another place, we know that this couple would be just fine to continue the work the Lord has purposed here in Kisumu.
Men's/Women's Bible Study: Peggy and I have also been blessed to join a Men's/Women' bible study respectively, where each of us are able to connect with other missionaries of the same sex for prayer, accountability, and studying through the Word. We know that having this component will be key and crucial to our 'long term' desire to live here and continue to be effective in a cross-cultural setting.
LIFE: Although I could go on for a while several other things which each have their value, the aforementioned ministries have been the major areas we've been blessed to serve through here in Kisumu so far. Aside from these there's a ministry of Daily Life that always presents itself, and should not be undervalued or missed. Almost daily we have visitors knock at our gate seeking for help (usually financially) or some other need. We also have those who are with is daily in and around the house (Mary, Cynthia, Sunday, Joseph, Thomas) just to name a few. Our lives are constantly on display and opportunities to pray for them are always there. We are blessed that Sunday has prayed to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior and spends several hours a day reading the Bible in his native language (Luo). We also have the ministry to one another as a family (husband to wife, parent to child) which if these falter or break down at any time our effectiveness any where else is greatly diminished if not rendered completely ineffective. Thus, of all we do, this is perhaps the most valuable and pivotal of all our ministry opportunities. So please keep this and all these ministries in your prayers. We are stoked to see what God will do in and through us here in Kisumu. And we are also excited to be able to spend some time back in the States regrouping, catching/refining vision, and connecting and re-connecting with family and friends.
May the Lord richly bless you today!
Matt for the P3

First Bible Study for Church Plant

The first Bible Study for the church plant was last night at Pastor Stephen's new home here in Kisumu town. As we drove as a family to the Bible study the giant hills that line one side of Kisumu were lit up brilliantly with the shinning of the sun. It was an incredible sight and we were wishing we had the camera but chose not to bring it for the first study. As we turned into a busy intersection we had to stop and reverse suddenly as to not run into several boda-bodas. (Taxi bikes) As we reversed several young men began pounding on the back of our car. Matt looked at me and said, "I don't like this intersection," and I agreed wholeheartedly. We journeyed down a dirt road just for a short time and then turned down a smaller road. When we reached Pastor Stephen's house we noticed the community of houses were surrounded by big trees that created a nice shade for the children playing and the women working. We were so glad the first study was going to be in his home. It was so exciting to be at their lovely home and pray for the service as well as see John Mark their son and Kenya Grace greet one another so happily. As we gathered together in the small room Matt led a couple of songs in which Kenya Grace sang the chorus to one of them loudly. :)As Stephen began to teach and a few more people arrived I couldn't help but smile as I remembered three years ago sitting with Stephen and Matt asking him why he wasn't pastoring. Stephen felt at that time that he was called to be an assistant but here we were three years later sitting in his home and listening to his powerful teaching of the Word of God. As chickens roamed by the door to the house and rain began to pour towards the end of service I thanked God for this amazing experience and knew that this was one of the reasons we had come to Kenya; to help support this kind of work. As we fight feeling well today in our household we thank God for His greatness and rest in peace that He is already doing a great work! Glory to God!

Update on Life!

Though we have only been here two months in Kisumu it seems we have been here forever. Our weeks are passing quickly and fill up very fast. We have had the privilege to meet with many missionaries here in Kisumu and glean from them about ministry, living, and being parents on the mission field. We have been so blessed to hear what many do here in Kisumu for the Lord and we have learned so much from them. We continue to be so grateful for the missionary community here and the family we are to one another even in such a short time.

We now have Kenya Grace visiting a pre-school for a short time one day a week to connect and socialize with Kenyan children in the community. It has been a blessing for both Kenya Grace and I as we get to know people and build relationships. We also are involved in a play group that is a huge blessing and a chance for Kenya Grace to be around another girl her age. Of course where ever we go she receives lots attention so our girl is definitely not lonely.

We have been so blessed by the young man Sunday that God brought into our lives as he as received Jesus as Lord and Savior. He walks with a new joy and a new smile and it is such a blessing to see him reading his Bible every chance he gets. He soaks up every minute when he and Matt get into the Word together. Praise God!

We are so happy that Stephen and his family have moved into their new home and we are so thankful for the time he and Matt have been getting to connect about starting a church and what that looks like and to spend time in prayer together. We are praying this week might bring even more direction.

I have been able to attend a women's Bible study in one of the slum areas here and assist in the teaching. It was such a huge blessing and felt so right to be in that area. Lord willing I will be assisting a woman named Mary Lynn (from Texas)on Tuesdays for the study. I am so excited about this small group of woman and their desire to grow in the Word.

We continue to rejoice in the fact that God is using the Friday night worship times as a time of refreshment and even uniting the community of missionaries here in Kisumu. It has been such a blessing to enter the throne room together and see what the Lord is doing through it.

Of course we face daily challenges in just living here. Wether it is water, electricity, heat, driving, exhaustion, communication, facing unmoral living, etc. we find ourselves often facing the opportunity to die to ourselves and live for Christ. It is more challenging some days than others but we rest in the fact that we are works in progress continuing to learn to surrender to our Savior and respond according to His spirit!

We thank you for your prayers and love. We are looking forward to our visit to the States over the Holidays and seeing family and friends. :)
God bless you all!
Peg for The P3

Prayed for Rain, and it Came

Tonight I told my wife, "when we pray for rain, we must expect it." God has brought a big rain storm in tonight here in Kisumu and the winds with it in the beginning brought about 2 inches of water into our upstairs balcony (which apparently wasn't draining properly... glad to know now)... so we had quite the adventure of keeping our house from flooding...and acted like we were on a sinking ship and started bailing water from our balcony (I'm sure our night guard was having quite the show, with my wife singing praise songs, and me singing 'yo-ho yo-ho a Kenyan life for me'. We laughed through the whole thing and had to fetch buckets of all shapes and sizes to put under new found leaks in several of our rooms (including one that developed just over our bed *sigh*). Moving our queen size bed with attached mosquito net frame wasn't the easiest task. But we thank the Lord for the heat in the day time so that things will dry off sometime tomorrow. We'd planned to call for some repair people tomorrow but remembered that it is a holiday here tomorrow and so not sure if they'll be working or not. Hopefully we can get the leaks in the roof fixed and figure out a better drainage system for our balcony. Any way, just a little story to share (and an informal prayer request as well).

We are finally here in Kisumu and it feels like we are offically home! We are in our home that the Lord has given us and it is amazing. We are settling in and have already begun ministry as we share the Gospel with a young man the Lord has brought into our lives. We have also begun to develop relationships with the fellow missionaries here and are finding a very sweet family in Kisumu. There have been a few challanges including sickness, adjusting to the heat and learning to live with new critters but as we have been encouraged by a brother in the Lord we are working on not letting any of these things distract us from the calling of the Lord here. I had to include an excerpt from his e-mail about critters because I was so ministered to by it and thought you all would be too!

Excerpt from e-mail:
You are a Christian. You follow Christ and have in you the mind of Christ Jesus, "who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross..."

His mind was to serve, in an extreme way, and you are following that example.

You are a Christian, and a missionary...one who is following a call of extreme service. You've named your child for the country you serve. You are learning the language of the people you serve. You live with the bugs of the people you serve.

God made the bugs (and the bats, and the mice). They are all amazing creations in their own way. It is okay to take precautions, but it is not okay to allow them to distract you from your service. For you, it means you ignore them, and don't let them upset your balance as you love and serve the people around you. For me, if I was called as a missionary in your place, it would mean that I would have to ignore them (in the totally opposite way), so they would not distract me from my service. It is all about service, not bugs. "I can do all things through...(finish the verse)"

I continue to think of Jesus as the ultimate missionary who coming from heaven and taking on the form of man must have had so many opportunities to be distracted by things of the earth, yet He didn't let anything distract from His calling and purpose here. We praise God for this kind of encouragement as we face many things that could easily distract us. Thank you for your continual prayers as we minister in this new land. Please pray for open, tender hearts as many are involved and following false teachings.

God bless you all!

Peg for The P3

Arriving in Kisumu

I must tell you that our hearts were mixed with feelings as we prepared to say goodbye to the team. We enjoyed them so much and were so blessed by their visit. The day they left was Matt's birthday. It was an interesting day as we got to enjoy time together just the two of us in the morning and then lunch with the team at a beautiful place called Amani Ya Ju but then we started having major car problems and Matt had to take the car in to get the car checked out. That is when we discovered that the car was falling apart. The timing was fairly interesting as we were to leave the next day for Kisumu. We knew immediately it was spiritual warfare. KG and I got to spend lots more time with the team which was a huge blessing. When we discovered that the car would not be ready for Kisumu we called our housemates for help. Jacob and Noelle let us take their car to Limuru and then to Kisumu. We praise God for family in Kisumu. :)
The goodbyes to the team were so hard especially to Uncle Brian. I started crying when KG began to kiss every member on the team. (She knew it was goodbye.)
The Lord really blessed us as we woke up and started getting the last things organized and packed. Everyone from the school came over and even Pamela and Joyce came to say goodbye. We loaded the truck and then headed out around 10:30. We were able to carry some of Stephen’s things (remember he is the man we are coming behind here) and some things of our dear Kisumu friends Steve and Diane. The drive went well and we praise God for how wonderful Rachel is with KG. KG adores her. We stopped in a little tea town called Kericho and it was pouring rain. It is so fun to have rain and so needed in this country. We arrived in Kisumu just after 5pm with no problems. PTL!
Now this next part is really unbelievable but true. I just want to prep you all by saying that we knew Mama Grace our new landlord is a believer in Jesus and we could tell she liked us and really wanted to make repairs on the house so it would be nice when we arrived but we had no idea what the Lord had in store. She had wanted to paint the whole house because it needed it and agreed to paint the master bedroom and bathroom with some purple and KG’s bedroom pink. That in itself is unheard of here because the tenants usually do all the work when they move in, so needless to say we were grateful. Well dear friends when we stepped into the house what we saw brought me to sobbing tears. It was absolutely incredible!!! First of all she had put screened doors on the front door so we could have it open without critters and such coming in but as we looked down we noticed that the entire floor had been retiled in a beautiful light green color! Three walls downstairs had been painted purple and brand new, beautiful light fixtures had been put in. It is so incredible I don’t even know how to tell you! Then she had the kitchen painted purple as well. This is all in addition to the other repairs the house needed. (If you know me you know that my house colors are purple and green.) Then in KG’s room she put the most beautiful light and in our room as well! I cried not just because it was so beautiful but because I have never known anyone to do something like this who hardly knows us.
Mama Grace told us that we were now her children and she wanted to bless us. This is truly amazing! We learned yesterday that Baba Grace was really nervous because not everything with the house is finished and he thought we might be really upset. (It makes me wonder what kind of experiences they have had with white people.) When he saw that we were not upset and just so grateful for everything he told Mama Grace that he loved us too and we were like his children. Guys this is unheard of and totally our LORD! We are still in a bit of shock at this gorgeous house the Lord has provided and don’t totally understand but I am learning not to question the blessings! I spent yesterday at the house doing what I could do as a woman named Anna helped cleaned and lots of workers came in and out of the house finishing up projects. Mama Grace helped us order some “twin” beds that were handmade and they arrived yesterday. They are the largest twins we have ever seen! :0 They had to take them apart so they could get them in the room. I think our guests will like them.
The best part about yesterday was serving everyone Chai outside where Mama Grace sat in her chair supervising everything that was going on on the house. The men were a little awkward about it but super happy to have chai and biscuits. (cookies.) Mama Grace shared her testimony with me and it was so amazing! I am not quite sure what God is doing but I can tell He is doing something. It feels so right to be here and like we are home! We are staying at a little cottage down the street from the house until we can get beds set up and nets, etc. It is so interesting to be setting up house sort of like a newlywed again but this time a really large one. I am already enjoying opening the things that were on the crate and excited to put them around the house. May it be a home that is always filled with Christ’s presence and brings Him glory by all that goes on in it.

Enjoying Visitors

We are thoroughly enjoying the team from Shoreline Calvary Chapel and must admit the days are flying by. We have been so busy between packing, moving Jacob and Noellie and the baby, and then moving ourselves to Nairobi and now being with the team. There hasn't been too much time to blog but before we hit the month mark, we wanted to let everyone know how things were going. God is doing amazing things among and through this incredible young team. We have been amazed by their sensitivity to the Spirit and their willing hearts. We love them all and Kenya Grace has not only warmed up to them she is praying for them and wants to know where they are and what they are doing when we are not with them. :) We have been so blessed to come along side their ministries here and help translate a bit and encourage them and see God working through them. We confess that the pace is a bit fast for us and we are grateful our normal life is not like this but we are soaking up every minute with them and trying to be wise about our time too. :) Matt had a great experience this week as we had to have some car work done. He got to share with two Indian men, a father and son and sat and talked for a few hours about Jesus and the truths of the Bible. The team's departure as well as ours is rapidly approaching and we will be sad to say goodbye but look forward to all that God has in store for Kisumu. Please continue to pray for us for rest, strength as we move this Friday, wisdom and sensitivity to His Spirit. Please also pray for safe travels for the team as they head back to America and for us as we travel with Rachel to Kisumu! :) God is so good and we are so grateful for your prayers. And don't forget Matt's B-day is Thursday. He will be 29! :)

Kisumu

Leo ni joto sana Kisumu! It is very hot in Kisumu! Oh my, coming from winter right into summer is crazy. The mornings are beautiful but the afternoons are not fun when driving in a car. We know our bodies will acclimate in time but like some of our friends are praying, we pray we would be like lizards right now. :) Figure that one out. :)
We may have found a house. Heading to a meeting with the landlady. Trying to escape the heat while Matt runs errands. It can be overwhelming looking at all we have to do and all that is in store but we are hanging on to Psalm 63: 1-8 and Colossians 3! :) Thank you for all your prayers! Please pray for the timing of everything and continual wisdom. :)It does feel like we are home so that is exciting! :)

The Lord Did It!

We praise God for all He has done in this season that has come to an end. We are officially finished with school and it is honestly a strange feeling. On one hand we are so happy to have completed everything and praise God for doing so well on our finals but on the other hand we are sad to see this special season come to an end. We are so thankful for our teachers and the staff at this school as well as the other students who have helped us as well. We will always be learning as this will always be a second language but we are so grateful for a foundation to launch from and look forward to speaking fluently one day. :) We now pray for people who will be willing to correct us when we say things incorrectly so we don't start speaking our own created language. :) Tomorrow morning we are off to Kisumu and could use prayer for safe travels and to find and secure a home. We thank you for all your prayers in this transitional season. Our God is so gracious! He continues to bring Ephesians 3:20-21 to us. :) What a mighty God He is!

Busy June

All of a sudden the month of June came upon us and our lives began to pick up very quickly. After recovering from colds and celebrating my birthday in Nukuru we buckled down and focused on school. Matt's sister Jen and her husband Kyle arrived around the 21st and it was amazing to have family in Kenya. We were able to go on a Safari all together and visit the beautiful Tea fields. Kyle left last week on Wed. and we have had the joy of having Jen stay with us. She will leave this Sat. evening. In addition to giving Jen a taste of our land we have been wrapping up school. In the midst of all of this our wonderful house mates went into labor last Tuesday early morning and delivered a beautiful baby girl Thursday afternoon. I had the honor and joy of going to the hospital with them and acting as a birthing companion. It was amazing to witness this little girl being born and to have a part in getting her here. They are doing well but have had to stay in the hospital longer than desired as Grace Renee has jaundice. Having gone through all we did with Kenya Grace, we have completely understood all they are going through and have been able to love on them and encourage them through this time. We can't wait till they are home. We are beginning to feel the end of our season here as we did our "final presentations" which was leading our devotional services that are held on Mondays. The Lord did amazing things through it and for mine I taught on John 13 and did a foot washing. It went incredibly well and even I was surprised in addition to everyone else. The director of the school said that if I go to Kisumu and do what I did for the devotional no one would ever know what I am struggling with in the language. That was a high compliment. But Mathayo received the highest compliment of us all as he taught on Isaiah 55 and led a beautiful service! I don't think anyone was surprised by the incredible job he did but the director said after he was finished, "Mathayo, I do not have words Pastor!" We praise God that we are nearing the end but the emotions are starting to come as we know we will say goodbye to so many people we have come to love dearly. This week we are going to play and show Jen some of the incredible places in this country. We are planning a trip to Kisumu soon and could really use prayer for finding the perfect home in the perfect place. When we return we will begin packing up and preparing to spend time with the Shoreline team that will be coming in August. At the end of August we will officially move to Kisumu! Thank you for your prayers and love. We are so grateful! And we are all officially healthy and that feels so wonderful! God bless you all!

A Refreshing Getaway

To celebrate Peg's 35th birthday and to have a little family getaway we had the blessing of visiting a nearby National Park in Nukuru. The area is only about two hours from where we live. It was an amazing time together looking at animals and God's beautiful land here in Kenya. We fell even more in love with this country God has us in. :)We were blessed beyond measure with our whole experience and came back feeling refreshed and even more excited about where we are.

Some exciting things in the ministry

This past month has been exciting in that I have been able to visit my friend Stephen Otieno a couple times at Calvary International Fellowship (CIF) a Calvary Chapel church in the slums of Githurai outside of Nairobi. A few weeks ago Stephen was ordained as an associate pastor at CIF and another faithful brother Julias Mwangi as a Deacon. Not only was this an exciting step for the church there, but during the ceremony Ed talked about sending Stephen to plant a Calvary in Kisumu, which we are also very excited about as we see it as a crucial part in our ministry too, to have a Kenyan pastor that we can work with and get behind.

As the Compeans are away in the states on furlough Stephen will be teaching the Sunday sermons and helping to fill in for some of the pastoral duties that Ed would do. This last Sunday we visited CIF again and were blessed to hear Stephen preach on Amos 1. He is an excellent teacher, and we were blessed to be able to hear his message in Kiswahili (and to understand so much of it).

Another blessing that God is providing through Stephen is that he is translating some verse by verse observation questions through the Bible that are from Shoreline Calvary Chapel's Bible College. He is translating them both into Kiswahili and Kiluo (Luo is the major tribe living in the region of Kisumu). Even as he was talking to different people about this project, he received so many comments from people that this would be an incredible resource, as there are no resources like this available in those languages (most people are expected to learn English to get something like this).

Also, several of Stephen's friends in Kisumu are spreading the word of our coming to start a "Bible teaching church" there, and many people (including pastors) are eager to be taught the word and to grow deep in the word of God. It seems that God is stirring up a group of eager people ready to receive his word there and to grow in it. We are excited to begin that work 'hivi karibuni' - very soon.

Birthday Fun

Well, we officially have a daughter who is two years old. It is hard to believe but so much fun! She is quite the talker and ball of joy and energy. I tell her how much I love being her mommy and it's the truth! She truly brings so much joy and laughter to the people around us and we thank God for that! She continues to pray for people and sometimes she will look out the window and say, "Jesus is coming!" She will even point. What a gift to have a little girl who reminds us to look for His return and live as if He were coming back today. :)

The birthday week was special but with Mama down and sick we are just praising God for His grace and mercy on us all. Pamela and Joyce (the women who work for us) took amazing care of us and everything really for KG's birthday. We had a small celebration with the school staff and their families and our household. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and people played ball and Frisbee, while others played with playdough and still others chatted. We started with the cake while everyone was there and sang to her and then in Kiswahili. If you ask me I think she preferred the Kiswahili. :) We then ate and some played some more while others looked at some photo albums and then it was over. We had a Mickey theme which was so fun. It was a blessing to find Micky things at a toy store here. To eat we had mandazi (Kenyan doughnut)fruit salad, banana bread, sugar cookies, chips and guacamole, sodas and cake. :)

We have been so blessed with so many packages from so many people.Thank you to all those who blessed us and all the special birthday wishes. God is so good! We praise Him for his blessings!

Kisumu Adventure

Many of you know that over our spring break (a couple weeks ago) we took a trip to Kisumu (our future home Lord willing). Over all our trip went very well (both the journeys to and from as well as our time spent there). We wanted to brief you on a couple of the highlights from our trip.

The first and probably most exciting one was the progress made towards our future ministry there. One of the days we were there we went out to meet up with our friend Steven and his family (who had traveled with me in the car from Nairobi to Kisumu). While visiting with him (a fair distance outside of the town (aprox 40 miles) we met his extended family as well as some of the men he has been studying the Word of God with. I (Matt) got the chance to sit with Steven and two of his friends and share with them our vision for seeing a sound Bible teaching church planted in that area. They were so excited to hear the vision and are eager to be taught the word of God. They reiterated their desire to grow deep, and to understand God's word, especially so that they could also share that with others. They are already in the practice of doing home visits and witnessing to many people in there area, it's only that they don't have a place to fellowship in the Word of God that hasn't been polluted by doctrines of men and other things even worse. Also during this time Peg was able to share a little bit with Maureen (Steven's wife) who also showed an eager desire to be discipled and to grow in the Lord. We are excited that after we move there, this seems like a likely group of people to begin investing in (along with a few others who have also shown great interest in growing in the Word). And it is our desire that this could potentially be the beginnings of a church in Kisumu.

Another aspect of our time in Kisumu was making friendships and connections with the existing missionary community. We were blessed that almost every meal we had was shared with another family, couple, or group of people. We were so welcomed by the missionaries there and several also expressed a desire to have a "Bible Study", as they are hungry for more of the Word. So many of the couples blessed us and gave us some very helpful wisdom as we prepare to be long term missionaries there. Some of the couples we met had been living there for over a decade, and we found there experiences very helpful. Although we know that we've not been called to target and reach this group (as they are already believers) we do have a heart to encourage them and to spur one another on in the Word of God and the works to which He has called each of us. We also recognized the invaluable resource of having people near by who know your culture and background and can be there to help you through certain things that a national couldn't understand. We are praising the Lord for this new family in Kisumu.

Lastly, one of our major objectives in this last trip was to "begin" our house hunt. We knew that the practicalities of finding a place to live probably would mean that this trip wasn't going to secure a place for us, but non-the-less we did want to become more familiar with the different neighborhoods and areas. In searching and seeing several places, as well as getting a good idea on prices, we feel much better about our next visit, that we know what we are looking for. So although we didn't get a place yet, good progress was made in that direction.

Now we are in our 2nd term of school and although we've only had a little over a week of classes, they are already seeming to fly by. It feels like we have just arrived here in Kenya a little bit ago, and now our 6 months of school are winding down. This week we take our 3rd major test (mid-term) on Friday, and thus are preparing for that. We have been saying a lot lately how blessed this time has been to learn, adjust, befriend, grow in our understanding of culture, etc. We do feel so blessed by this time God has had us here in Limuru at school. And on the flip side of that, we are also excited and looking forward to what is ahead.

We have so much to praise the Lord for. Thank you for praying with us as we learn to do His will here!
- Matt for the P3

Spiders, Bats, and Chickens

Well, over the past couple of weeks we've had a few strange things happen. The first of them took place when I (Matt) was leaving Kisumu to drive back to Limuru. I had just dropped Peg and Kenya Grace off at the airport, packed up the car and left to go pick up Steven and his family for our 5-6 hour drive across the country. Steven's family live on a farm (shamba) about 65 Kilometers (40 miles) outside of Kisumu Town. This was my third visit out there in our 5 day stay, so thankfully I was well familiarized with the unmarked dirt roads and how to get to their place (through a maze of sugar cane fields). After greeting the family again, and having some small talk, we got in the car and started our journey back to Limuru. But as we were nearing the main cross road leaving their house instead of turning left to start the journey home we turned right to make a brief stop for Steven's wife to say farewell to her mother. While we were there Steven said it would be okay for us (he and I) to stay in the car as he knew that if we had got out of the car it would take even longer for us to start the journey back. Well, about 5 minutes later or so, his wife (Maureen) came back to the car carrying her son in one arm (who had been with her the whole time) and a live chicken in the other. Immediately I wondered, "Are we going to drive all the way back to Nairobi with a live chicken in the car?" And sure enough we were and did. Steven could see the look of slight shock on my face and made a comment about how it was traditional in their culture for the mom to send a chicken home with her daughter when she had visited. He also noted that I probably wasn't too used to having live animals in the car. To which I said I wasn't, but I was sure it would be okay. Thankfully the legs were tied together, and she stuck its back end in a plastic bag (which comforted me). Most of the trip home the chicken was quiet, only a few times it would struggle and cluck or squawk, probably wondering where it was going... or why the road so bumpy. So, I can now officially say that I have driven with a live chicken in my car.... and most likely, it will not be the last time.

The next day or so after we had returned from Kisumu, we encountered to strange things which added to our 'wild-life' experiences here in Kenya. One was that Peg discovered a GIANT Spider up in the corner above our front patio. Often we'll eat out there when it's a nice day and we don't feel like being inside. When she first looked up at it she thought it was some sort of nest, but after I got a closer look I quickly found that it was a very large spider (slightly smaller than a tarantula but close in comparison). Just after the escapade of killing that spider we found a bat that was crawling in front of our door. Since bats are nocturnal, we never really see them, in fact, Joyce, our Kenyan friend who watches KG in the mornings saw it and said she'd never seen one before. We found out the following day from a missionary friend that bats are our friends as they eat thousands of mosquitoes every night, and in fact they are starting to bring bats into areas that are laden with malaria to eat the mosquitoes as one way of trying to cut down the malaria epidemic. We relocated our bat friend to the bushes... we weren't sure if it was sick and dying or if it was a baby and had fallen from a nest and perhaps that was why it was out crawling in front of our door that morning.

Well anyway, those are some fun stories as of recent that spice up our life here as we interact with nature. God is so good, and we are so blessed!
- Matt for the P3

Passover

Hello Everyone!

We are currently in Kisumu and praising God for all He is doing and showing us! We will blog later about our time here (it's really amazing)but we wanted to share with you about our Passover last Friday before we forget too many details. We have been non stop since last Thursday and will continue until we return home really. Thank you for those who are praying for us on our trip. We are feeling those prayers and certainly needing them. We are feeling ware fare but praising God for His greatness, victory and might! Please continue to pray for our girl who is once again having tummy issues and that we would continue to have wisdom as we search for a home or at least home area and meet with people regarding ministry here. For our family who is checking this blog please know we will send our pic e-mails out soon. :)

Passover was a very special evening for everyone in our house and the community of believers that attended. It was a joint effort on all of our parts and we were so blessed with all that the Lord did. It started out with just a few families (ours included) but quickly began to grow in number. We decided we were going to need our classroom to fit everyone and the school was so helpful in allowing us the freedom to expand our house (moving a bookcase so our dinning room connected with our classroom. We had around 20 adults and 10 children. There were several wazungu (white people) and many Kenyans and the Korean family as well. :) Noelle and the guys set up the room so beautiful and Matt began with everyone outside doing the Psalms of accent. Matt began the service and went through all the elements and then broke for dinner and Jacob continued with the story and of course incredible connection to the Gospel. Both men did an incredible job. Matt seemed in his element and we both commented later how special it was for us because it reminded us of Shoreline. I cried as Matt sang the first blessing. :) I got to help in the kitchen to make sure dinner would be on at the right time and helped behind the scene and then took the kids upstairs for crafts and fun after dinner. (KG's toys were more of a hit than Veggie Tales on the computer. :) People commented as they left how much they learned and how much they enjoyed it and one Kenyan woman said she even renewed her vow to the Lord and rededicated herself. We were so encouraged and watched God answer so many prayers including how to fit everyone in, having enough food, and having a boy who is usually out of control calm and cooperative! We felt like it was 11 at night when most of the guests left (3 stayed the night including Stephen and his family. We had also had our ministry lunch with Stephen and Ed Compean that afternoon, so we were pretty wiped. After dishes and some clean up and a little fellowship and then a preparation for our early morning the next day (leaving for Kisumu)we climbed into bed (OK fell into bed) praising God for how mighty He is and filled with a joy that we had celebrated Passover and our Savior nonetheless in Kenya our new home!

Schedule

We had a change in our exam schedule and just had our oral exam today. Praise the Lord we passed and the teachers seemed pleased! We are relieved to have our first oral exam completed! We now have our written test on Thursday but the focus in the house is our Passover dinner that we are hosting on Friday as well as some overnight guests and our trip for Kisumu. For those wanting to pray for our trip, here are some details:

Peg and KG leave at 5 am for the airport while Matt and our friend Steven and his family get on the road to drive.

Peg and KG's flight leaves at 7:15 am and they arrive in Kisumu around 8:00a.m.

Matt should arrive by afternoon.

We will be in Kisumu for 6 days and will return in the same manner.

Please pray for protection while traveling, favor in house hunting and for a sensitivity to the Lord as He leads us.

Thank you for praying for us! We look forward to posting our adventures in Kisumu.

Recent Update

Greetings From Tigoni!
We are doing well and praising God for many wonderful things over the last two weeks! A HUGE praise is that we received our crate that traveled all across the world. Not only was it amazing to get some things from home that we had packed and diapers :) but our church body put surprises all throughout it! It was so incredible and such a blessing. We felt so loved. Thank you to everyone who added something. WOW!
Another praise is that we both passed our second test this last week! Matt got a 98%! It feels good to have another test down and to know what we need to work on and what we know well. Our midterm is in two weeks and we have 20 lessons to cover, so please pray that we have alert minds and that we would glorify God on the written test April 8 and the oral test April 9th. :)
We also were so blessed with a beautiful tour of a nearby tea farm. The same family has owned it since the early 1900's and it was so incredible to learn about the tea industry here, the influence of it on the people, the process of making tea and the history of several British families. It was a nice break from our studies and a blessing to learn in a different way including a beautiful setting and wonderful food! :)
The Lord has blessed us with sweet opportunities to minister in Kiswahili and we are seeing the Kenyan church here come alongside us in our small opportunities so we praise the Lord for that.
Please also pray for our upcoming trip to Kisumu April 10th through the 15th or 16th. Please pray for safe travels on the road for Matt, in the air for KG and Peg, for the house hunt, protection from Malaria and great opportunties to minister the Gospel and love of Jesus Christ especially over the Resurrection season!
God bless you all and thank you for your prayers!!!
Peg for The P3

A Kenyan Wedding

Last Saturday I was privileged to participate in a Kenyan wedding. It all started because our teacher, Peter, who is also a local pastor here, asked Jacob & myself if we would be willing/available to drive the wedding party from their house to the church. Customarily the bride and her side of the wedding party get ready at a certain house and then they have a number of cars that will pick them and the family up to drive them to the church. The cars are all decorated with ribbon and some with flowers and they drive in a slow fashion with their e-lights on letting others know that we are all a part of this wedding procession.




So, as it turns out, our car was chosen to be the bearer of the bride (and 9 other people - mostly kids though). So on Saturday morning, after our guard had finished giving the car a thorough cleaning,(that was such a blessing) Pastor Peter showed up with the best man and another friend of the bride to decorate all the cars at our place (a total of 4). The Korean family who is learning English first and then Kiswahili came to experience a Kenyan wedding with their whole family. Everyone was supposed to arrive at 9:30 but as is common here in Kenya the wedding people came at 10:30. As you can see in the pictures, our car was beautifully decorated, it's very common to use ribbion on all of the cars.

I was a bit nervous about the big responsibility of carrying the Bride; the most precious cargo of the wedding. We left our house at about 11am (the wedding was supposed to start at 10:30 - we were definitely all on African time) and we made our way to the bride's house (about 20-25min away). When we arrived, my driving skills where put to a test as I had to back up through a gate into a courtyard of a small house which was crammed full with about 100-150 people (at least half of which were children).




So, here I am in this "monster truck" that has a pretty big lift and big tires (which are practically necessary with the roads as they are here in Kenya) and I have to navigate through a sea of kids and people (that are difficult to see due to the height of the car) so as to get as close to the front door of this house as possible (the least amount of dirt contact for the bride). So as I'm pulling up there are group of women who are singing and dancing in a circle and their song is calling for the bride to come out.




Meanwhile the family inside was using delay tactics (such as, demanding the groom pay more dowry) to keep the bride from coming out. This is very common here in Kenya as it is a way to show the Bride's worth and value but this brother was really causing some grief and delaying the process of getting the Bride to the car. Eventually the group of singing mamas get word of what room the bride is in and rush in (no stopping them) and pick up the bride in her dress and rush her out and plop her in my car. (It was quite a sight... especially as they had asked me to be stationed in a small room just inside the house where the commotion was all happening to capture what I could on my camera.) Needless to say, as I didn't know what was going on, but was witnessing what seemed rather horrific to have this young girl scooped up and rushed out (they even dropped her on accident in the room that I was in as they were trying to get her outside past those using the delay tactics) and placed in my car.




Once she was situated, we thought we were in the clear and ready to head off to the wedding, but lo and behold, the mother of the bride turned up missing (another delay tactic we were told), so Pastor Peter and another guy went to go look for them in their car, meanwhile I was sitting in my car all ready to go with the bride, the best man (her brother I think), his wife, and 5-6 small kids crammed in the back seat (praise the Lord for a big car). We were told to wait until they returned, and so we sat there for another 10 minutes while kids are standing all around the car asking me questions... "How are you?" "Where are you from?" and a myriad of other questions that were in Kiswahili and I didn't want to take the time to figure out. Eventually we were on our way to the church, where we met up with all the guests and those who were on the grooms side.




We were all welcomed with Praise Songs pouring out of the church, and soon the same women who sang to draw the bride out of her house now sang to draw the bride out of the car. The singing continued all the way until the bride made it into the church (about 10-15min longer)... and once they were all inside it seemed to quiet down for a bit... then the songs continued. About that time (2pm) as the wedding was supposed to start around 10:30, Jacob and I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and had been told we could leave if we needed/wanted to, which although we wanted to stay and watch the rest of the festivities, the church seemed over crowded as it was, and it being a rather hot day we opted to go home and relax (Jacob also needed to spend more time preparing for his sermon the next day, and the P3 had plans to travel into Nairobi later that afternoon as well).




So all in all, it was a very exciting time to witness, and one I won't easily forget. I learned much more about the Kenyan culture (Luhya to be specific) and was blessed that the car that God provided for us could be used to bless the people here. (One last side note, the main reason for our involvement in the first place was that the bride and groom couldn't afford the "big hoopla" that is desired for a wedding celebration, and when they had decided to do something small and simple, others rallied around them to support them and throw them a big wedding... hence their pastor, Peter, asking us to be used in the wedding caravan procession. What an honor).


- Matt for the P3

Projects for The Lord

Well we have had quite the projects for school lately. Our two most recent ones were to write out our testimonies in Kiswahili and then share them with songs at a local church, and to lead the devotional time at school together as a couple on Monday. Our God is so incredibly faithful and we confess we are grateful they are completed. J We’d love to share about our Sunday and fun experience at the local church we visited. It was our teacher’s Pastor Petero a.k.a. Petie (as KG calls him) church and fellowship. The drive there was beautiful! It was about 20 minutes from our home and up in the tea farms. It was a small building with lots of chairs set out and a lovely podium in the front. They also had a sound system set up and a keyboard.

There were two hours of worship and introductions where each different tribe in the church shared about themselves and then shared a song or two. It is common here to share an introduction when visiting a church but this Sunday was a cultural Sunday at the church and so every tribe in attendance shared. (Including the American tribe.) J We both thought we were going to pass out about the second hour in because we were warm, and we both felt yucky….lightheaded, stomach issues and probably some nerves. KG couldn’t stand how loud the music was and the keyboard guy was pretty keyboard happy so he put music to everyone’s songs and it blasted in the small building. KG only wanted to be outside, so we were wondering how we would even share and how it would all happen, but GOD is so faithful!!! We were called up and we both shared our introductions telling who we were and a little about ourselves. (Where we are from, what tribe, where we stay, what we are doing….etc.) Kenya Grace even said “Jambo to everyone in the microphone, which the people loved! And they LOVE her name. The people at churches always applaud when we share her name. J

We were able to share “Thank you for the Blood” (Thank you PT! That song is ministering to people all over the world. They loved it!) The keyboard guy tried to put a jingle to it, but Matt kindly said (in Kiswahili) that we didn’t need any music. J Kenya Grace stayed right up in front with us and only pulled the mic cords a few times. She had fun looking at the kids through the hole in the podium as they had gathered on the floor in the aisle. J We sang another Shoreline song in Kiswahili. J It was a blessing but at one point I (Peg) looked down and KG was half naked. She had taken her dress off and had it hanging around her waist. She was just looking at everyone and rubbing her belly. :0 I gently kneeled down while holding up the purple, puffy, microphone and managed to get her arms back into the spaghetti straps and got it pulled up. I wasn’t sure how the people would feel and it seemed distracting and I also wasn’t sure how far she would go. J Ha! She made it till the end of the song but wanted up at the very end. So we are praising God that she did so well.

Matt shared his testimony beautifully while KG sat with mommy and ate her beloved Gerber puffs, saved for just the right day. J When Matt introduced me to come up and share my testimony I left KG sitting perfectly on her chair (big person chair) eating her puffs. Somehow between me getting to the mic and Matt heading towards her she managed to fall off the chair and let out a huge cry!!! Praise the Lord it was short lived especially since Matt took her outside, so again we are so thankful for that. It really was a blessing to share and I think our teacher was happy. We were able to stay for the message and KG was so good! She shared all her snacks with a little boy who in turn shared with another little boy who looked very hungry. She kept saying, “toto!” to get his attention for another puff or raisin which is so cute because child in Kiswahili is mtoto. Matt told me later that towards the end she started calling him “friend.” The children loved her and all wanted to touch her when she outside. They would run up and touch her arm and then run away. Of course she didn’t like that too much but she didn’t put up much of a fuss. I also have to add that diaper changes at churches like this one are such a show. All the kids run to the car and while I change her “poopy” diaper on the seat of the car, they all strain to see and some even try to push in. That gets a little wearing on mommy but I know they can’t help their curiosity. J Wazungu (white people) are so interesting and different. J

We are praising the Lord for such a wonderful time and for KG making it till 1:30. It was a good 3 hour service and she did so well. J We also praise God for a beautiful morning of praise and worship through song and prayer all in Kiswahili. His grace is sufficient! Thank you for all your prayers! Our god is mighty! Mungu ni mkuu!

Peg for The P3

Last Week

Well, this week in Kenya was an interesting one but a little more on the challenging side with Joyce’s sister passing away and a few tensions arising in the area. God continues to be so gracious and faithful and MIGHTY and we are so thankful that today as we write, our area seems to be functioning normally with not as much fear on the streets. We are still cautioned to avoid certain areas and use wisdom when traveling because of a certain sect (gang) that is threatening to return to the streets after retreating for awhile. And a praise is that Mama Kenya Grace (that’s me) got to spend a whole day with Kenya Grace and loved every minute. Because Joyce couldn’t be with us one day, Kenya Grace even came to class with us for an hour. She repeated Kiswahili vocabulary or at least a portion or two of the words and our teacher loved that. :)
I wanted to share a little about last week. One of the conversant here at the school had invited us to her home to meet her family and enjoy some fruit and tea. On Tuesday I drove her home so we would know how to find her place and on Wednesday the P3 went to her family’s home for a lovely visit. Her family lives in a three story, small apartment building. The building is known by it’s two water tanks. They lived on the third floor and have a great view of the surrounding area. Their door is a solid, blue metal door with a large lock. As we entered their home (that reminded us of our Prefumo home in a way) we were welcomed by the Mama, Baba (father) the conversant Lilian and her brother. Their living room which was also their dinning room was so lovely and so clean. They invited us to sit down and we immediately got to use our Kiswahili. Though they speak English as well, they knew we were learning Kiswahili and wanted us to use it. At one point the Baba said to the Mama, “Don’t speak to them in English. Use Kiswahili!” So she did. Then a little while later the Baba was speaking to us in English and the Mama came in the room and went over to him and in a very Kenyan Mama way told him he better be speaking Kiswahili to us. It was really funny.
They served us bananas, fresh squeezed mango juice which Matt loves, tea, coffee, coco, and KG’s favorite mandaze! (They are like a doughnut.) She must have eaten 4! She was so happy and such a charmer. She spoke Kiswahili to them, was very content in their home, loved playing games with the brother and the fact that she was eating the mandaze up was much loved by the Mama. In fact Kenya Grace kept asking, “One more?” with her little index finger up and both the Mama and Baba said, “Let her have it.” I finally had to explain in careful words that she had been constipated and if she ate anymore it would cause her to be that way again. :0 They understood and I was so grateful but KG managed to snag one on our way out and take a bite into immediately, so we took one for the road. (That one didn’t make it in KG’s tummy but elsewhere.)
We had very sweet fellowship and they were so encouraging about us going to Kisumu. They are believers who go to the Baptist church here in our area and they recognize the need for Biblical teaching and correction of doctrine. They also had good advise about things for Kenya Grace in Kisumu. They did share at the end the need for their daughter to have enough fees to return to school in Uganda and were hoping her job at the language school would be enough. We were able to pray for them, thank God for their beautiful hospitality and ask Him to provide for their needs. It was such a nice visit and we feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to practice our Kiswahili and fellowship with a local family.

And a very Happy Birthday to Peg's dad who is 70 March 6, 2009. :) We love you!

The "P3" takes on a new Meaning

Just a fun short story this week for our blog update... but one that I'm sure you'll all enjoy. Last week I (Matt) wore my P3 Careteam T-shirt at school, and when one of the teachers (Zach) saw it, he wanted to know the meaning of the P3. I told him all about our amazing careteam and also how the P3 stands for the Pottenger family of 3. He kind of laughed, and I asked him if P3 had a meaning here in Kenya (totally not expecting for it to carry any meaning) and to my surprise he said that it did. So I asked him what it meant. He told me that it is the name of a police form that someone must get if they have been physically assaulted in some way. In fact, before they can even be treated in a hospital they have to get that P3 form from the police so that they can get treatment (not totally sure if that is the case in true emergency situations... but very likely to be the case in non-life threatening injuries). After hearing about this new "twist" on the P3 I began to think that we were sent here to Kenya to direct people who have been assaulted (spiritually) by false doctrine, poor representations of "Christianity", the many practices of false religion and other demonically oriented things to the true source of healing... the Cross of Christ. So in a sense, we have been sent to issue the Spiritual P3 form to those who are casualties of the spiritual warfare here in Kenya. We praise the Lord that we are not the answer, but merely the signpost used by God to direct people to where their hope should rest. May God increase our strength and faith for this task that we are embarking on. - Matt for the "P3" Police team :)

A Day In the Life of the Pottengers

Our day starts around 6:45 when Matt gets up and goes to Kenya Grace in her room. She is usually awake and waiting for daddy to come. After changing her diaper Matt brings her into bed with mommy, who loves waking up slowly with her whole family together. We start our day by reading a chapter (or so) as a family in the Bible. We are in the book of John and started in Matthew when we lived at Babu and Bibi's. We then read the stories KG picks out from her Toddler Bible. She often picks Zachius because she loves the song we sing or she picks the story of Mary and Martha. Then we all pray together. Afterwards daddy heads downstairs for his quiet time and enjoys some tea while reading the Word. Mommy enjoys her coffee from the French Press :)while KG enjoys her sweet rice milk. We both enjoy toast as we are now officially out of Cheerios. So mommy can enjoy some time in the Word, KG watches a video Baby Einstein since it doesn't always have too many words and mommy can focus on the Bible. :)

We then get ready for school around 8:00 and head downstairs to greet Joyce who arrives around 8 and we sing the "Habari Za Asahbui" song. As we often scramble to get our books, more food, and water together for school we try to head out the door about 8:30. We always pray with Joyce and KG (Kilo Gram...her new nick name....ask Tia Aunt Jenni) and that is KG's cue that we are leaving. It is such a blessing because as soon as we pray she reaches for Joyce and kisses mommy goodbye. We start classes around 8:45/sometimes even 9:00. (It's Kenya and we don't start until we are all there.) From 9ish to 10:15ish we have class with Dada (sister) Stella and then we break for Chai. (Tea) We can usually hear KG playing or growling like a lion or saying "Joyce" in her sweet voice during our class time. During Chai time we visit with all the staff and other students and everyone eagerly awaits the arrival of KG. She is as one of our teachers says, "our cinema." She is definitely entertainment. There is also another family here from Korea who has a little boy 13 months old. His name is Hajun and KG and he have warmed up to each other and are now doing high fives. He is sweet and it is so nice to have two "babies" around. (We can't really call KG a baby anymore though.) Kenya Grace will go around and give high fives to everyone, and laugh and dance and sing songs. As usual if everyone is not doing the song or motions, she will call their names. The Kenyans love this.

After chai KG heads back to the house with Joyce for an egg from Pamlea and more play time while mommy and daddy head back into class. Lately it has been with dada Stella but sometimes we have Peter. We end class around 12:00/12:15 and head back to the house where lunch has been prepared for us by Pamela (our Kenyan actress.) She is the one who cooks for us but she is also our entertainment (only around the girls) as she imitates KG and sings and dances and is so dramatic. She is so much fun and makes Joyce laugh. We enjoy lunch with our house mates and talk over class or laugh at funny words or vent frustrations. Sometimes mommy and daddy take a walk while KG is napping we get to meet some local people during these times.

Around 1:30 Matt heads to conversation where he practices speaking with local Kenyans. Lately he has been taking his Bible and having conversations around the Word. :)Peg, takes a rest or reads or tries to do some communication work while KG naps. When KG wakes up they play, read and have a snack. KG is totally on Kenyan time for lunch. She usually goes down for a nap between 11:15 and 12:00 and a good nap is 2 hours. If she doesn't get 2 we know it will be more of a clingy afternoon for mommy. At 2:30 Matt heads to his grammar lesson and Peg and KG usually eat a snack outside or play. Peg works on speaking with Joyce and Pamela during the afternoons. When Matt is finished with school we enjoy family time either playing Frisbee outside and watching our daughter laugh or watching an afternoon video and playing on our big bed. Around 5 we try to get dinner ready. If Peg is cooking that evening she starts earlier and we all try to eat around 5:30. Sometimes we feed KG and then do her nighttime routine and eat afterwards while enjoying fellowship with Noelle and Jacob. :) We still give KG a bath every night and read a few stories and then put her under her princess net, (she also has the name Princess Butterfly thanks to Bibi.) :) We pray for her and mommy rubs her back and then says goodnight. On our dish duty night it usually takes us a good 45- to an hour to do dishes and get food together for our guard which Matt takes out to him and has short conversations in Kiswahili. It takes time to heat hot water for the dishes and if there a lot you have to heat water up several times. When we finish we study, relax, on the weekends watch a movie, sometimes we read and then thank the Lord for another day in Kenya at language school. Before we turn in Matt goes in to check on KG and usually kills several cockroaches. Yeah Matt! We also pray that the fan we have will keep those mosquitoes away so we can sleep. :) Most of the time it works. :)This is a typical school day for the Pottengers. There are always adventures and stories but for the most part it pretty predictable. We thank you for your prayers and covering. We feel it and praise God for you! Be blessed this weekend encouraged in the Lord. He is MIGHTY!

Peg for the P3

The Highs and Lows of our Week

Well as every week has highs and lows this one for The P3 held some very some special highs and some interesting lows. I like to start with the lows and end with the highs. :) Getting food poisoning was certainly one of the lows but we are praising God that I (Peg)am completely recovered and feeling great! God is so good! We experienced several house challenges this week, with water not working, toilets having trouble, electricity getting blown and the discovery we have at least one rat in the house, but most things have been fixed and we are determined to get the rat out. :) The most difficult low for me was once again driving in Nairobi in the heat and traffic, and my computer giving me trouble so I can't send pictures. :( But on the scale of things the lows are minor! :)

As for the highs it is difficult to know where to begin. Praise the Lord we have our vehicle and all the logistics have been taken care of. It is a relief and blessing especially to Matt. It is sort of strange and normal at the same time to be driving. As for me and driving I will just be driving around our area and maybe venture a little further as I master driving on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road. Then there are the donkeys and matatus (buses) to consider. Oh, the Lord is good and I will trust Him! Matt is doing an amazing job driving! :) Another highlight was a special party we got to throw for a graduate of the language school. The woman's name is Julia and she is from Canada. She speaks Kiswahili so fluently and is has made such an impact on the staff at our school. The Lord allowed for us to host and plan the party. We had banana bread, homemade chocolate chip cookies, chips and guac, and a Kenyan favorite madazes. (These are KG favorite!) We ate and talked and then each person said something that had blessed them about Julia and it was so amazing to hear all of the staff share. Then they sang worship songs in Kiswahili with Julia leading. It was so beautiful and touching. Then we ended in prayer for Julia and a few kid's songs for KG. She is singing the line of Jesus loves me and says, "the Bible tells me..." and then she says, "soooooo," in her monster voice. Everyone laughed and loved it. (They really love her here.) Everyone seemed to have such a blessed time at the party. God truly blessed it.

I have to include in the highlights the evening we made chocolate chip cookies with our housemates. Well, our housemates did all the work, but we did dishes. It was SOOOO much fun making the cookies and they came out so good! We also had some sweet fellowship in the kitchen and just praise God for our new family!

These two blessed us with a date night on Fri. for Valentine's Day and we enjoyed ourselves so much. When we returned not only was our girl so happy and having fun, but they had decorated our room with rose petals and goodies and our bath tub too. :) What a blessing. We had a sweet celebration.

We also were able to visit Vicky and see three older girls from Imani. They were at Vick's for a Valentine's party and we were their surprise. It was really sweet.

My last highlight is that as I have blogged, we got to connect with Matt's parents and mine. It really does our hearts good to see and connect with them. So praise the Lord with us for His grace and goodness.

I know there are more higlights but our girl who is fighting a cold is ready for home. We love you all and thank you for your prayers. Please keep us in prayer this week as our first test is Wed.

God bless you!

Peg

I have to mention

Church in Kenya

We have been blessed to attend the same church (Tigoni Baptist) for the past two Sundays. As you can imagine, church here can be very exciting. Our first time to the church, as soon as KG walked through the doors, she got so excited and began clapping her hands. I definitely think she will fit in. She also has the "Amen" down (sometimes she'll yell it out at less appropriate times, like in the middle of a prayer). The service goes from about 10am to 12:30pm (which is not too long for an african church service). We were told in school that culturally they are not "task" oriented like we are in the West, but more "Event" oriented. In other words, there's no rush to get through things or trying to catch up if things take to long. It is customary for all first time visitors to stand up (one at a time) and introduce themselves (and say a few words).... as we had been learning our introduction at school in Kiswahili, we were preparing for our first "test" to see how well we would do in introducing ourselves. We were both very nervous, but God helped us say everything (and then some) to properly introduce ourselves and where we are from. Everyone clapped and you could tell they were blessed that we were speaking to them in Kiswahili. After service we were encouraged by some of the church members that we spoke very well and to keep it up. They were sooo encouraging. Today we didn't have to introduce ourselves as it was our second time, so we were less nervous. It was fun to hear more words this week than we did our first week, as we have picked up several more vocabulary words at school throughout this past week. Even though we are only able to pick up 5-10% of what is being said during the songs and message, we still leave blessed to know that we were worshiping our Lord together with our African brothers and sisters. Today KG was being entertained by a couple birds that were flying around in the church building (I was wondering if they would dive bomb us for our cheerios). Last week we came to church with our housemates (who have a car) and so our travels to and from church were much easier... today they had to go into Nairobi for church and so they dropped us off on their way, and now we are going to be walking back (it's normally about a 35 min brisk walk... we'll see how long it takes with a stroller and a very tired girl). We are praising Jesus for all that we are getting to learn and take in here. Sometimes I'll be laying in bed and all the sudden it will dawn on me that I'm not in Cayucos, but in Limuru... I'll chuckle to myself and thank God for taking us on this amazing adventure. Please be praying for us this week as we look at finalizing our car purchase (if everything goes smoothly), and also pray for our paper work for the student visas to come through so that they can clear our crate from Customs in Mombasa (the coastal town where all imports via boat come). We praise the Lord for His faithfulness and helping us into this new season of life here! Bwana Asafiwe! - Matt for the P3

Adjusting to Life in Kenya, Especially Nairobi!

As the saints say here in Kenya, Bwana Asa Feway, sema tena Bwana Asa Feway. Praise the Lord, say it again, Praise the Lord! Our day Thursday into Nairobi was more than adventure and a bit difficult but full of blessings. As we expected our paper work was not finished but that was not a surprise as everything takes time here in Kenya. What was a surprise was a bit of the difficulty of our morning. Our poor driver was pulled over by the police multiple times, set up and they were demanding a bribe. Because we (Matt and I) would not pay the bribe ($3) it caused more problems and was soaking up an incredible amount time. Our driver was given permission to take us to our next stop and then return as they had his paper work. Unfortunately our driver was very upset and began to drive unsafely, just missing a matatu (bus) and because he was on his cell phone while driving (also a no no here in Kenya) he sped away from the police man in the intersection who proceeded to bang his baton on the back of the car. (Praise the Lord KG was asleep at this point!) We proceeded downtown into heavy traffic and our driver pulled out into the oncoming lane and just as I said to please slow down, to calm down and not worry about things, and to remember that we had KG in the car, he pulled backed over into the correct lane and swiped another car. It was a small fender bender but here in Kenya you negotiate right then and there and even pay. So needless to say we were ready to get out of the whole situation especially as a stranger hoped into the car to negotioate. My amazing, wise husband got on the phone and called a brother in the Lord who has been helping us shop for cars and asked if he could come and get us. In a matter of 2o minutes her was there. We thanked our driver and paid him for his services that far and joined our friend. That was a blessing in itself. We were quite a sight as we walked down the downtown street near the Hilton, with KG in her front pack, our backpacks and Matt carrying KG's car seat. Everyone asked if we needed a taxi and everyone stared. It was funny. (Later not at the time.)
We were so grateful that the Lord kept us calm, safe and that we were able to get another ride as we had so much to do that day and didn't have time for negotiations, and bribes. After an American lunch (Java!) and a reprieve and a surprise meeting with a fellow missionary Paul Cowley, we headed back out into traffic and to AIM where we checked on the vehicle we are looking at. The vehicle checked out really well and were able to use it for our ride home (our friend John drove and Matt drove it once we were out of the crazy traffic.) More to come on the vehicle, but please pray for us in this HUGE decision. We were so thankful to the Lord for sustaining us especially through the two hours of thick traffic and fumes, for His safety and protection, for a sweet meeting with an incredible woman named Maureen who is going to help us with the vehicle, paper work, work permit, etc, and for the people the Lord brought us to that day. We didn't arrive home until after 7:30 that night and that was after another adventure at a Nakumat (grocery store) where I picked up a new item that was on the shelf but they couldn't get it into the system. :) After 20 minutes of waiting and causing a long cue they said, not today. :0 I had to laugh especially after the day we had had. We were are so grateful for our sweet refugee at lanugae school where we can rest and gear up for more of the adventures to come. :) Our hearts our blessed as we say, "Haraka, Haraka, Heyna Baraka," Hurry, Hurry no blessing, and "Everything, can't be easy." It was also so fun to be able to debrief and laugh over stories with our housemates. They had gone to see a doctor since Noelle is pregnant and the first thing the doctor asked was, "What is the problem?" You have to laugh. :) Thank you for your prayers and for laughing with us in our adventures. We love you all!
Peg for The P3

Adjusting to a new life

As one could imagine, there are many things, on many levels, that require adjustments in our way of living here in Kenya. The past two weeks of living here we have had our share of laughs, tears, stories, miracles, and more. It's hard to encapsulate everything into a few short stories, but I will try my best to share the highlights. After getting over jetlag (which took somewhere from a couple days to the first week) we ventured into new territory by moving into the language school about 45min drive from town (about $26 to take a taxi one way). Although we have visited Kenya many times, this was the first time for the P3 to be "on their own". We arrived at the school in time to say good-bye to the staff here for the weekend, and then it was just us (and a guard who would come just for the night time too). Some funny things that we noticed right away were the 'non-osha' stairs that have a big heart on them ("whoever built this house did it with love" we'd joke). A leaky faucet in the downstairs bathroom that during the course of the next week I (matt) tried to fix but ended up braking completely and almost flooding the downstairs entryway (I'm glad someone was there who knew how to turn off the water to that side of the house... and I'm also grateful that the floors are just cement... not a bit of water damage). Peg and I also had to adjust to being back in a classroom. Our first day met us with great anxiety, as every word was spoken in Kiswahili and we had no idea what was going on or how to follow along or what to do. (Later on we found out that it was a weekly, every Monday, morning devotion and worship time for the staff and students, of which there were a total of 10 of us in the room that morning). So once that time was over, Peg and I were to start our class, which was much more doable with interaction, note-taking, and the whole bit. While we are in classes in the morning, Joyce, our house-help, is taking care of Kenya Grace. We've noticed that this has been quite an adjustment for her too, as she has grown accustomed to having both mommy & daddy around all the time over the past month... and now she has neither of us for about 4 hours.

Now that our first week of classes has finished, and we are coming up on the second week of being in country, we are finding that the adjustments are less noticeable. For example, today Friday) the electricity went off in our morning class around 9am (of course everything continues without a blink) and didn't come back on till about 6pm this evening. (Even for Kenya that is a long time to be without power... especially in the middle of the day, but it didn't seem to be too hard for us to find ways around using power, and doing just fine without it).

Probably one of the hardest adjustments for us as a family is not being near family and friends back at home (whether that be in Cali or MI). Even the first week we were here we were able to have constant good-speed internet (I say "good" because it is way faster than the dial-up modem, but still pretty slow compared to U.S. standards) which allowed us to read and write email easily, and post things on our blog and facebook. But now at school internet is sketchy (and at dial-up speeds of less than 1kb per second) and works sometimes and not others. Also, for the past 6 months we have been living in community at people’s houses (even before that for a year next to close friends) which had provided a certain way of functioning that made us feel like family was always with us. To transition out of that and within a week of being here to be just the three of us in a Huge house out in the country... well you can imagine that the emotional adjustment has not been easy. But by God's grace, your prayers, and some time to go by, we are adjusting well. We are also finding daily blessings all around us, the weather, the people, the family time, etc.

I'm sure that we still have many adjustments to go through over the next few weeks, months and even this first year, but I know God will lead us through it. I'll end with a verse God gave me a couple days ago that really helped me. Psalm 139:9-10, "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast."(NIV) God reminded me through that verse that He is in control, that He is guiding us, and He is holding us tight! Bwana Asafiwe! (Praise the Lord!)
- Matt - for the P3

Doing Well

Just a quick update while we have Internet for a few minutes....we are doing well. Been so busy unpacking and stocking our house for living. Had a quiet and blessed weekend just the three of us and some very fun times of laughter. We went for a walk around our school area and met lots of locals who loved that KG said hello and waved with both hands. We also went to church today at Living waters and enjoyed seeing some kenyan friends, followed by lunch with Vicky another special missionary friend and got to snuggle with her son. We are taking advantage of being in town and getting our shopping done for the week as well as picking up the rest of our things at Ed and Kelli's. We are tired but enjoying setting up are new home. We are all fighting aliments to some degree, teeth, bug bites, stomache, but overall we are doing really well. God is so faithful and loving on us and blessing us left and right. We feel the best during this transition when we are with the local people. :) After all that is why we are here, so that makes sense. Thank you for all your prayers! We love you and will write more after this week of school!
Peg for The P3

Getting Up to Date

Hujambo! (Hi)

Well, we are officially missionaries in Kenya. It is an amazing feeling to finally be here. We were so blessed with smooth travels and a girl who was a real trooper. There were only a few moments of "I am going to melt down right now if I don't get off this plane," but they will quickly short lived, PTL! I reminded KG most people on the last flight felt the same way! :) God completely blessed us with shorter flights than normal, the wisdom to check in at Amsterdam to find out Matt's ticket to Kenya was all messed up and needed taking care of, smooth security lines and friendly helpful people all along the way. It was so neat to see these strangers grab the car seat or a bag and carry it on or off the plane. What a blessing!

On arriving, we did find that 9 of our 11 pieces arrived which is amazing. As we looked for the last two which included KG's bed, there was an opportunity to talk to a man named Lazurus who is not born again. It was a great conversation as he believes you become a Christian by works and being baptized. It was such a wonderful opportunity to share God's love and grace with him and he really took it all in. Ed Compean was there to meet us and he got to talk a bit with Lazurus and put him in touch with a Pastor friend of his who Lazurus lives near. PTL!

Of course customs stopped us and were very curious about all our stuff but the man was friendly and let us through and never even asked to look in our bags. That was a huge answer to prayer! Our friend Ed Compean met us and had hired a van to transport us to his house where we have been staying all week. He and his wife have made us feel so at home and comfortable and have been so incredibly helpful as we adjust and prepare for language school. We haven't had to worry about meals, Ed has taken us everywhere, they have offered incredible advise and encouragement and Ed gave Matt a driving lesson today.

We took a lot of our things to the school on Wed. and were so blessed by everything there! It really got our hearts excited which was wonderful after dealing with some homesickness and spiritual attacks. Our new home is wonderful and we have two of the rooms, one for us and one for KG. She is really excited and knew our rooms right away! We took all our bags in and unloaded a few. The beauty of the place is incredible. It is surrounded by tea farms and green, green, green and patches of colorful flowers. Have we mentioned yet, that the weather and heat feels so good and is such a blessing! :) The best part about going up to the school was meeting the woman KG will be with while I am in school. Her name is Joyce and she has the most beautiful smile. She is such a sweet woman and KG reached her hand out to her and let her carry down the stairs without any qualms. If you know KG you know this is huge! What a beautiful answer to prayer!

We have been getting things we need for our new home, taking care of many logistical things, and trying to rest when we can as we are all still adjusting a bit. Matt is probably the most adjusted to the new time (11 hours ahead of CA) but we are hoping we will all be there soon!
Today was exciting as Matt drove for the first time. This is a big deal because they drive on the opposite side of the car, on the opposite side of the street and there are no lanes. It's all about the largest, most aggressive vehicle. That vehicle is the one that gets the ride away. He did an AMAZING job! It was awesome to see him just go for it and his wife was able to keep her mouth guarded (which wasn't too much of an issue) so that is an answer to prayer. :) We also got to meet with the director of AIM which was as huge blessing as he is an incredible resource! We are now on the hunt for a vehicle so please pray for us in this. AIM may be able to help us with this as well as many other things.

We will move tomorrow (our time Friday) and we are unsure of our Internet situation. We do not think it will be very good, so we will not be able to do much computer work. We will however figure out how to get to good internet at least once week. We have had great internet so we have been able to stay in constant contact, but that may change, so know we love you, are missing you and praying for you. We are so thankful for all the prayers and feel so covered! Our God is so amazing! On one last note, we want to thank the people who sent mail to us already. We received a letter from Tess, Mike and Jenny and Tricia! There were even goodies in the envelopes, like taco seasonings and airbornne. :) There was no duty on it, so yah!!! It was such a fun surprise and a blessing! God bless you all! Mungu Akubariki!

Peg for The P3

We're Here!

We are in Nairobi! Glory to God. We have been so blessed! 9 of the 11 bags made it, so we are praising the Lord for that. We could use prayer as we try to head to bed, because KG's bed is in one of the missing bags. She will sleep on a mattress on the floor. Please pray for sleep as we Matt and Peg are exhausted. KG is wide awake after her two and half hour nap. :-0
Thank you for your prayers. We will write more later!
Peg for The P3

Made it to Amsterdam

PTL we are in Amsterdam and have been blessed all around. There was no line for check in at JFK, we had paid help with all the luggage, a yummy lunch, and security went well except for the flight stewardess who "thought" they were late for their flight, and separated us and our things. God is good and we are so thankful for a great flight. KG slept 4 hours and if the flight had been longer we think she would of kept sleeping. (It is her middle of the night as we type.)

We are now sleepily walking around the airport taking care of bussiness. God is so good as He led us to the transfer desk, to discover they had matt as a baby and Kenya Grace as an adult, 4 missing baggages and didn't even have Matt registered for this leg of the flight. It all got worked out and though we are not together on the flight we are hoping to take turns with Kenya Grace. We will all want to sleep. We are almost there and feel your prayers so much! Thank you!!!!! We love you and will write from Kenya!

An Incredibly Blessed Day

It is hard to know where to begin. I guess I'll begin by sharing my Christmas/anniversary present from Matt. I first opened a DVD of The Phantom of the Opera, which thrilled me because I love this movie, but that was not all of the present. The DVD was followed by a well designed flyer of the poster of the Broadway play and a picture of two tickets. As it turned out, Matt had purchased two tickets for us to see the play in New York City with our dear friends Paul and Dar! What an amazing husband!

Needless to say we were very excited and anticipating the day! We watched the weather and soon learned that it was not going to be very good, but we still wanted to drive because we were hoping to pick up our left luggage at the airport. We decided we would wait till the day came and make a decision wether to drive or take the train. When the morning came, though it was very icy and yucky weather we decided to drive. We left about 8:30 and took Kenya Grace to Paul and Dar's youngest son's house. His sweet wife was going to watch KG with her son "Logo" all day. Kenya Grace was excited and gave her normal, "I love you the best Mama," cry. So we headed out towards Dunkin Donuts for a sweet and coffee as traveled to City that never sleeps. As we were bopping along the wet, icy road chatting away like kids, we hit a huge pot hole full of water. Seconds later we heard Paul say, "Uh, Oh!" It' never good when a mechanic says "Uh Oh" while driving. It turned out a very important belt fell off when he hit the puddle. It was such an important belt that the car immediately begin to over heat and we had to pull over. It was clear we were not going very far in the car. We immediately prayed and asked the Lord to guide the day and the situation and our very faithful God did!

We were able to get the car slowly back to Paul and Dar's son's house and decided to take their car to the train station and catch a train to the city. Their car was nice and icy and we couldn't find a scraper (something very common here in these snowy cities) so Paul used a plastic pan. The first blessing we encountered was the ice was not too hard and came off super easy! Yeah, we were on our way! Shortly after being on our way we heard a loud alarm......ahhhh.....but it was only the alert for the driver to put his seat belt on. :) Phew! Paul remembered a wonderful Italian bakery near the train station, so craving a sweet we headed that way!

It turned out to be a darling little bakery with amazing treats! We got a box full, ordered cappuccinos, and a tea for Matt and piled back in the car to see what train we could catch. Another blessing. We were all easy going and in no hurry knowing we just had to make our play at 2. Paul dropped us off to get tickets and went to find parking. We found the next train was an hour later so we bought tickets and were prepared to relax in the old station and enjoy our goodies. Suddenly Matt saw there was another train that left in 5 minutes. We checked with the attendant and found that it was headed to the city, so we shot a couple of pictures and prepared to run for the train as we anxiously waited for Paul. Soon we saw Paul and as he paid for the parking we jolted down the stairs, hopped onto the train and found seating facing each other. Another sweet blessing.

The ride to the city was so quick and full of laughter, discussion, stories and fellowship, and of course the amazing goodies from the bakery. We exited the train at Grand Central Station and I was amazed at how nice it was! Because the weather was yucky there were hundreds of people in underground. (Of course it is New York, so it could be like that all of the time.) We decided to grab a small bite since we knew we would be starving after the play if we didn't eat something and joined the line for Chinese. It was such a blessing how Paul found a table for us (there were people everywhere!) and it turned out God had a divine meeting for us. After being in Africa I always pray with my eyes open so as we prayed I noticed this man watching us at the table next to us. When we had finished he smiled at us and shook his head in approval. It turns out he does ministry with young men in prison and is always looking for places for them to get away from gangs and be discipled. Well, Paul and Dar perked up as they are headed into a ministry where they will serve at a children's camp that ministers to inner city kids. They exchanged cards and contacts and everyone seemed a little awed and blessed the encounter.

We explored the station including the lobby of the Grand Hyatt. So elaborate with a huge waterfall in the lobby. We hopped onto the subway which is always an experience and being our jolly selves, there were several people watching us. As we got off the subway, Paul began to talk to this older man who was very engaged. This man stopped Paul and said to him, I saw you come on and said there is something different about all of them. They have a wonderful ora he told Paul. He told all of us that he noticed how we smiled at our spouses and he seemed amazed. Of course Paul ministered to him and shared that it was Jesus and prayed for him. It was so awesome! Another sweet blessing!

We then came up from the underground into the crazy, lighted, swarming with people city. It was fantastic!!! We headed towards the theatre and just had a blast walking. I was amazed by all the theaters and shows going on and had fun people watching in line. When we entered in and found our seats we found out just how close we were. Are you ready for this? We were orchestra, row two, just off to the left. We could see the actors cry, sweat, and see the expression in their eyes. It was incredible! If you have seen Phantom, I do not have to tell you how amazing the play is, but if you have not seen it, I just have to say, you must try to see it sometime in your lifetime. I could do a completely different blog about the Phantom, so I will save that for another time.

Before I loose this I will conclude this amazing day, by telling you we ended the day by walking and playing through the lighted streets, and eating a diner called Ellen's Stardust Diner where the waiters and waitresses sing. It was great food and fun entertainment. We headed back on the subway, grabbed a Starbucks, and hopped on the 6:30 train. In addition to wonderful fellowship, we had an interesting conversation with a principal from Harlem. We were able to share about Africa and talk a bit about forgiveness. To top everything off, Kenya Grace had done an amazing job for Jen (Paul and Dar's daughter-in-law) and was a good girl all day. How great is our God!!!!! Needless to say were all quite tired but so filled up with special memories and an incredible blessed day! Thank you Jesus!