The race is on for the end of term! Once again, November is filled with events as we try to fit everything in before the December vacation.
Pinewood Derby is a big event at RVA. In October kits were handed out for kids (and adults) to build cars out of wood to race. I've spent many afternoons in the woodshop helping kids with their cars. Friday was spent in the gym helping to set up for the big race day on Saturday.
After everyone had a chance to look over the 120 Pinewood derby cars on Friday night, we had five 5th and 6th graders at our house for the last of our "Aviation Club" events of the term. We built airplanes out of Lego and flew them down a string.
Saturday we spent most of the day watching cars race down the track, then to the awards ceremony after supper. Julianne's telephone car won first place in 6th grade for speed. I got an award for "best engineered" for my RVA van. After that 6 High School students came to our house for an evening of pizza and games.
On Sunday morning we had seven grade 7 girls in for Sunday School before we all headed down to an outdoor Baptisimal Service. It takes a lot of courage for kids to take the step of faith to stand in front of all their friends, classmates and teachers and declare their faith. Sunday afternoon Bernadine went out with the group from the local church.
Bernadine writes:
AIC community visits-The outreach
team and I went out to visit a widow in October. There I was again,
the only “mzungu” among a Kikuyu group. When I
enter an African home, I often get a glance of perplexity and surprise
by the ones we
visit. This widow gave me one of those looks. I quickly learned that
she had a high regard for missionaries from Kijabe. She was
interested in what work I was doing and her eyes lit up when she
asked if I knew her old missionary friend Margaret who had opened
the first dispensary in Kijabe. During our visit, Blasto our driver
spoke fondly of missionary friends he had while growing up. He claims
his youthful appearance is due to the influence of the missionaries
and his faith. The more I hear the stories of the Kikuyu people the
more I realize 100 years of missionaries in the area have made a
difference to the local people. As I watched the group sing, dance,
and beat their drums in worship with real joy, I couldn't help think,
“where would these people be without the gospel?”
Africa
has so many serious problems. These people have hope.
In November we visited grandparents who are taking care of five of their grandchildren. The father of the children is deceased and the mother died two years ago during childbirth. Being told of this situation ahead of time, I expecting to see a family who was scraping by with their basic needs and being in total despair. Instead, I found five children who were neatly dressed , appearing well fed, living in an adequate home with two very loving grandparents. The families' main concern was to be able to pay for secondary school for three of their grandchildren who were close in age. The grandparents told us that we were the first people to visit them to give them some encouragement about taking care of their grandchildren.
Visitors from NB- Three
ladies from our home area visited us for a day. After 4 days in
Kenya, Muriel, Donna, and Greta could not believe that they are in
Africa. As we showed them around, they were like three wide-eyed
children seeing things for the very first time. They took photos of
absolutely everything: donkeys pulling their cart, coca-cola
stands,
view of the valley,etc.. They will be taking care of orphans at the
New Life Home in Nairobi for three weeks. The next visitors from
NB we'll be Mike's parents who will be coming with two other
couples.
Steeves' Christmas Bible Project- Thanks to all those who have given to the Bible project. At this point, we know we will be able to purchase at least 100 Bibles. We look forward to the additional Bibles that we will be able to give to people here who need them.
" ..let us run with perserverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1b
Blessings,
