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