Happy Fathers' Day!

Well, the last couple of weeks have sure been fun! We are gearing up for the 516 Missions group that will be coming in July, but in the mean time we've celebrated 3 birthdays! My last entry was at the beginning of the month, so it's been three weeks since I've written, and in that time we have crammed in a lot.

Lynn and Brenda completed their time here in Kenya after a very successful Hebrews class. Lynn has recorded several courses in Swahili for the Bible Insitute (LBBI) that have been used for years and will continue to be used to train these local pastors. We are so thankful for the work that Lynn and Brenda do. As a final gathering together, we went out to eat at a new Indian restaurant. It wasn't the best restaurant, and it definitely wasn't the Indian food that the Raburns had been craving, but we had fun none the less. They headed out back to the States the next day, June 4.

That weekend on Saturday, Kenya made the first of many cakes for the week. One of the babies at the church in Malindi turned one year old, so Kenya made him a precious tractor birthday cake and took it to his party.

Happy Birthday, Bradley!

The next day (Sunday) was James' birthday, so after church services we celebrated with cake and ice cream.

The next day (Monday) was Josiah's 14th birthday! I met this kid when he was 10 years old. It's been a blessing getting to see him grow the last 4 years. We had a Nintendo themed party Monday night for him. We all dressed up like different Nintendo characters and had a super (Mario) fun time!

Kenya's awesome cake! 

Goomba

Clayton's rhyming ability is exceptional

Super Star

Yoshi and Baby Rosalina

Princess Peach

Toad

Bowser

The start flag and a tree/?block combination

Rosalina

Luigi and Shy Guy

On Wednesday it was MY birthday! We had a "nerdy" party including the coolest (and yes probably the nerdiest) cake in the whole world! Kenya worked all day on making The Periodic Table of Elements in its sweetest form. It was absolutely delicious. I felt so special on my birthday with my Kenyan team. This has been an awesome year! I can't believe I am 28 years old. Where did my twenties go??

The cake baker for the week! So much work and love went into this!

NERDS candy-strawberry

NERDS candy- strawberry

NERDS candy- strawberry

Some of us played at the beach on my birthday

Playing at the beach on my birthday!

The next day (Thursday) we made sure the guest house was ready for some missionaries that live a few hours north of us. They came down to Malindi for a week to just spend time with us and take a little break. James, Clayton, and John met the Witts on their survey trip to the North. We had no idea that there were American missionaries up there, but now we have the privilege of knowing them. Jason and Bekah and their 4 girls have been up North for 7 years. It really was so much fun getting to hang out with them. While they were here, we went to the beach on Saturday and had so much fun! On Friday, the kids set up a limeade stand. They thought if they did all the juicing inside they wouldn't burn their hands like they did the last time they set up a limeade stand, but they were sorely mistaken. For the next several days, the girls' hands were blistered up and they were pitiful. This didn't stop the kids from having a blast all week playing with their new friends. We ate dinner as a big group most nights and Jason cooked a few meals for us. He is an exceptional cook and we thoroughly enjoyed the meals he prepared for us. We even had a seafood night and ate crab and shrimp. We watched movies, went to church, went out to eat, and just hung around fellowshipping. They even got to experience our Friday Family Fun night with Mexican food and all. We all shared the different ministries that we are a part of and I think that God brought us together for a reason so we could minister to each other. It really was a great time.

We're still having our meeting every morning and we are getting close to finishing Preventing Ministry Failure. I would strongly suggest anyone and everyone in ministry read that book. It's been great to go through as a team and discuss the different topics presented. We are also doing a lot of preparations for the mission team that will be coming in mid-July and for when we leave at the end of July. I have been doing a lot of work via the internet to get ready for teaching 8th grade math next year at Elm Grove Middle School. There is paperwork that has to be filled out, emails to send, workshops to sign up for, and even just mentally preparing to teach middle school. Kenya has been packing up all of their things to store it all while they are in the States. We have less than 5 weeks left!!! She's also been working a lot on getting the kids signed up for school in Monticello. Speaking of which, we got the kids standardized test scores in! They all did so well!! Whew!


This week I've also spent a lot of time on a different project. The drum from the church at Bokole was damaged in a house collapse. James bought a new drum head to repair it, but none of us knows anything about repairing a djembe. So.......I watched some youtube videos and can now tell you that I have successfully repaired a djembe.

This week, the puppies got "fixed." They are so pitiful with their little cones on!

Also, sweet baby Daisy turned 3 months old this week!! She's growing up too fast!!

This blog post wouldn't be complete without a huge shout out to all the fathers today on Fathers' Day. I have been in Kenya for three of the last four Fathers' Days. I sure do wish I could give my dad a hug today. All my life my dad took me to church and showed God's love so well that I fell in love with the Heavenly Father and want to serve Him in all that I do, no matter where that leads me. There are tons of people who grow up without a father or with a father who is a poor example of love. I am so grateful for our family. I am grateful that my parents have been married for 33 years, raising 3 self-sufficient, well-mannered, good-looking, movie-quoting, car-singing, church-going, tax-paying, precious little angels :). I am grateful that they taught us how to succeed and how to accept disappointment. I am grateful for all that they sacrificed over the years. I am grateful for the board games and puzzles that filled the dinner table. I am grateful for the clothes, food, and shelter they provided us. I am grateful for the amazing leader that my dad is. He has led and protected our family all these years, and I will forever be grateful for his incredible example.

I also want to say how excited I am that my brother is celebrating his first Fathers' Day. I know he's only going to get better at this whole dad thing, but he's a natural. That beautiful baby girl is so lucky to have so many wonderful men and father figures in her life, but she's super fortunate to have my brother as her daddy.

Happy Fathers' Day to the one true Father who gave His only son that we might have life. Thank you, Father, for your Word. Thank you, Father, for your love. Thank you, Father, for your son. Thank you, Father, for eternal life. Thank you for grace, mercy, and forgiveness.

I love you.

In Christ,
Ashley