Haiti

While we will be traveling around Montana next week in some of this,

Hannah has the unique opportunity to travel to Haiti with our church’s youth group. This was kind of a last minute thing, with a spot opening up and Hannah having a passport and almost all of her shots. It might seem strange that we are home from Tanzania and Hannah is traveling to another part of the world entirely, but we are SUPER excited for this chance she has to minister in a different place. Tanzania is very home to her! She has always had a heart for missions, so this will be a good testing ground for her faith and service. She is also going with an amazing group of people!

 They have a blog that tells all about what they are doing, and they will be updating it every day they are there. Please pray that Hannah would be a bright light to the dark and despairing country of Haiti during these days. We are praying as a family that she would come back with a better understanding of the need of the world, a greater heart for what God is doing,

 and we would catch more of that as well!

Change we treasure

People have been so welcoming to us in every way. They have tried to understand that this might not be “home” for us anymore, and maybe we don’t find it as enjoyable as we used to. However, nothing could be further from the truth! Tanzania has become more home, but we still enjoy Bozeman tremendously!


There’s nothing sad about coming back and worshiping in our language. Listening to the Word in church, on the radio, podcasts, websites, anytime you want it doesn’t make us sad either. Rubbing shoulders with our “old” friends makes us remember what it’s like to have that constant sharpening. Raising the standard a little bit for our children is refreshing. Watching so many godly families work through issues with their kids is an example and encouragement. It does feel a bit like drinking from a hose when we are back, trying to take in every little bit until we leave.

And then there are all the “non-spiritual” things. No one cares when we go for a walk. It’s not funny to them that we are walking to exercise. No one points at us and laughs. :) We don’t stand out in a crowd most of the time. We can be relatively anonymous. That feels really good.

We can use the toaster, iron,  microwave and hairdryer without shutting down the entire solar power for the house. We can even use them all at the same time if we want to! The entire world outside our door is a refrigerator at the moment.  We have never had so much freezer room and so little need for it.

When we forget something that we need to make a meal, we can run to the store, pull bread off the shelf, or order pizza. That doesn’t make me sad.  I mean, there's nothing wrong with being a prarie woman, and I usually really enjoy it, but the option of not being a prarie woman on occasion appeals to me as well. :)

The water doesn’t smell fishy and we aren’t thinking about draining a tank.

We eat cheese just for fun.

Chocolate is an important part of our diet.

The roads don’t feel like an adventure.

This isn’t to say there’s nothing hard about America. In fact, I’m wondering these days how most of you keep your heads on straight in this culture. I’m not sad to miss all the technology that ever encroaches on having a moment’s solitude. I don’t know how we would handle all the opportunities available to our children—even just the good ones.

 I’m not sure how to help kids see how blessed they are here—we struggle with that, and we live right with the poor. It seems to me that it has never been so convenient or easy to waste your life. Granted, you can do that anywhere. But it does feel like the pull is a lot stronger here. So my cultural hat is off to you. When we come back, we learn from you. We learn how to guide our kids through this culture that they will one day probably be a part of. We learn how to keep our focus on God and not stuff from YOU. We are amazed and encouraged by your faith and your perseverance. We are blessed by your faithfulness in suffering. We praise GOD for how He is using you to shape and mold us.

And yes, we'll be excited to go back when the time comes!

Challenged with the WORD

Megan's wishes for our time: "Mom and dad, I love you.  I hope that you having a good time at the conference.  I love you."

Dave and I had the privilege of attending the Biblical Counseling Conference in Lafayette, IN last week. What a refreshing, encouraging, CHALLENGING kick in the back side! It was like drinking from a fire hose of information. So now the work actually begins, as we apply what we have learned to our lives. This was the second time we have been able to attend, and both times we have been overwhelmed with a renewed passion for the Word of God and prayer and desire for a deep and purposeful walk with GOD. We pray this overflows to our children and others in our lives.

A couple highlights from the conference that we learned or were reminded of:

Insight without change=hypocrisy; with knowledge comes great responsibility!

The CROSS—the foundation for all of life and helping others

Humility—we are all on level ground at the foot of the cross

Taking up our cross means all that dying to self entails. We are not taking up a weapon, we are taking up a means of death!

Gluttony is not always overeating, it is also demanding the food you want, how you want it (yikes)

Any laws we make for ourselves to be approved end in slavery. The only approval we have is being in Christ!

I want strong-willed children—children whose will can stand up against their emotions to do the right thing (and I want to be that way too!).

Worry is just taking on responsibility God never intended for us to have (Matt 6)

God’s mercy keeps us dependent on Him by physical or other weaknesses in our lives.

We resemble what we revere, either for ruin or restoration.

God’s will is my sanctification, which includes any and all kinds of trials, suffering, and difficulty.

And last, a great reality:

I really like being with my man, and we even got in several conversations in without an interruption!

Our family, by Megan.  Dave refuses to wear anything but his orange karate suit.

Back on the home front, Grammy had the kids busy doing crafts, running around, and eating candy.  They were happy to have us home (I think!) but they sure had a great week without us. And moms aren’t nearly as generous with the goodies as Grandmas are, so they are showing some withdrawal symptoms. What a great week for all of us. As Kelly Marple stated so succinctly, I think we “grew our brains out!”

Grammy and the boys (that is a decorative heart on her face)

The little girls' favorite pastime, until Kate drinks the soapy water.

Two Worlds

This gorgeous little girl is Pili, our most recent Mavuno arrival.  Pili comes to us from Forever Angels, so joining Michael, Aika and Bianca is just meeting up with great friends again.  She seems to be adjusting well.  If you want to read more about Pili on the Mavuno blog, click here!  We praise GOD that Pili has been able to become part of the Mbugua family and that she now has a mom and dad who love her (and lots of siblings to make her feel at home!).

We have been blessed to spend the last two weeks catching up with old friends and even meeting new ones.  It is hard to describe how FULL we feel from times of fellowship and encouragement--and we just got here! 

Musa got off to a good start at the Bible college and seems to be doing well adjusting to life here.  He went skiing on Saturday with Dave, the kids, and lots of friends.  He didn't turn out to be a big fan of the wintry slopes, but he did get past the bunny hill, which was a lot better than I did, since I didn't even go!

Musa continues to be amazed at various things in our culture.  It has been fun to watch, after all of our comments about the interesting things in his!  He has had a difficult time understanding the roles of dogs in our society.  In Tanzania where we are, people don't ever pet their dogs, and they don't feed them on purpose either.  Their only job is to bark if someone comes around.  You might let a chicken walk through the house, but NEVER a dog.  So trying to find words to explain a dog with a hooded sweatshirt on, its own bed, a picture of it in the house, was beyond us. :)  He has said more than once, "what is this dog's JOB?"

We had a candle lit the other day in the livingroom.  Musa asked Dave, "Why is that candle lit?  Is it for light?"  Dave said no, because the lights were on and it was also daytime.  "To warm up with?"  No, just for smell and sight.  That sounded kind of lame after we thought about it. :) It is enlightening to have him with us.  I am still enjoying candles in this snowy weather. 



Our African Kate, loving the SNOW!



Speaking of winter, I find it humorous that my one big goal for this time back was to not complain about the weather, as I am more of a fair weather kind of gal.  God obviously knew that the temptation would be too great for me at -10 and has given us this great warm(ish) air, right about 40 degrees most days.  I am SO THANKFUL.  Musa even took his coat off at 46 degrees the other day and declared the day WARM.  Our blood must be thickening. :)

What are you going to do until May?  Several people have asked us this.  Our plans are to spend lots of people time--catching up, sharing the great things God has done and is doing at Mavuno.  Dave is taking a Spiritual Warfare in Missions class at the Bible college, which he is excited about.  We are trying to fill up on times with others in the Word, individually and as a family.  We are also trying to combine trips that we need to make so that we take time to rest and get some perspective and have time to be still.  We are praying GOD would also speak to us during this time and prepare us for who we need to be when we head back.

Psalm 47:8 "God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne."

Culture Shock

We usually think of culture shock in regards to heading overseas and eating goat intestines and the like.

It is harder to think about strolling the aisles of Wal-mart and staring blankly at the many choices looking back at me.  However, that is what I found myself doing as I searched in vain for PLAIN TEA and instead considered the many flavors available.  This included hot chocolate in new varieties including WOMEN'S WELLNESS HOT CHOCOLATE.  I thought I had heard of everything!

Watching Musa's reactions to things has also reminded us of how far apart our worlds are.  Imagine coming from a land where you carry every drop of water on your head to a land where (in the Minneapolis airport) there are fountains that run all day simply for visual enjoyment.  And from using precious wood to boil the water so that you can drink it, to being able to drink from that same entertaining fountain if you needed to!

While in South Caroline, we went to another astonishing place.  As Musa said to Kate, "Katie, you and me will see something amazing, called ZOO."  Musa stared at the aquarium of sea creatures and all he could say was, "God is very wonderful!"
Lauren and Megan were at the giraffe area and one zookeeper lady pointed out the baby giraffe that she said we were lucky to see, as sometimes it didn't come out.  The girls, having seen their fair share of giraffes, told her excitedly, "We saw a SQUIRREL EATING AN ACORN!"  She wasn't as thrilled as they were. :)

Musa started Bible college yesterday.  Last night I asked him what he noticed or what was different for him.  I thought he would be astonished most by the library (which was incredible to him).  But what he was most taken aback by was that the teachers and the students sat together at lunch and they even ate the same food.  In Tanzania, a teacher wouldn't lower himself to be with the students, and if they did happen to be in the same area, the teachers would be eating better food.  "We were there together, reaching for the same pizza."

One of the biggest blessings for us is just seeing our friends and family again.  The kids' friends welcomed them back like they were playing together just yesterday.  Aside from them being about a foot taller, we wouldn't know anything had changed!  And our Bozeman family had everything ready for us.  At the beginning of December, we didn't have a house or a car.  By the time we got here, we had three houses and so many vehicles we had to say no thank-you!  God has been so gracious to us in every way!  And so have you all!

Christmas, and beyond

I know I’m a little late, but I am going to have to cram Christmas and the trip home all together. We had a GREAT Christmas with Chris and Lindy, the Millers, and 8 of Chris and Lindy’s boys that they have gotten off the streets, helped get an education, and done some much-needed loving on! It was such a privilege to spend the day that we celebrate the humble birth of our Savior with these boys—ice skating, if you can believe it!—getting to know them and see their love for Chris and Lindy and the excitement they had. Our children enjoyed them and Jake in particular had a engaging time with them. Unfortunately, we shared our pictures with Chris and Lindy and forgot to save some for us. So if you want to read more about the day, click here to go to their blog and see the pictures.

Musa, Jake and Carter keep themselves busy

Our trip back went very well. We had a short 5 ½ hour flight to Doha, where the airline put us in a very nice complimentary hotel overnight. Musa wasn’t the only one who was amazed by this place—it was incredible! Definitely a quick start on culture shock for all of us!

Whoever makes kids’ meals on airplanes has never traveled with an actual child, I’m convinced. Every meal, including breakfast, had a bag of candy. Lunch had a bag of candy plus a candy bar, and breakfast had the same but also included a bag of chips! Maybe it was a cruel test the airlines was doing on small children—load them up with sugar, then make them sit still for 14 hours. Yes, the second flight was 14 hours long. Thankfully, the kids are television deprived, and could pass the time watching family movies.  We were all glad to finally arrive in DC.

Because we had a decent layover there, we weren’t worried about getting through immigration, etc. What we forgot was that Musa’s immigration line would take much longer as a non-citizen. After a lengthy waiting time, we finally decided the kids and I would go ahead and try to make the next flight to SC while Dave waited for Musa.

Long story short, Dave and Musa ended up getting on the later flight that night, and by the time the kids and I had gotten through the airport checks, the later flight was all booked up. SO, we spent the night in the DC airport and got out early the next morning. Not our original plan, and Dave sure didn’t sleep very well in SC, but we all made it just fine and the kids and I even slept most of the night. I’m pretty sure this was the reason we had listened to a sermon on Romans 8:28 on our way to Nairobi!

We are so thankful to be here at my parents’ house, and to see my brother and his family as well.

Cousin Alex and Carter

My brother just returned from Iraq two weeks ago, so it is extra special for us to have this time with them all. It is such a gift to be with family again.

Cousin Kaitlyn and Megan

We head back to Bozeman next week and are excited to see many of you again. God has been so faithful and good in every way. And Carter’s foot, while still a funny color, is completely healed.

“Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17

update on Carter's foot

Wanted to write a quick post to say thank-you to those who prayed for Carter's foot.  Two nights before we left Nairobi, he started walking on it again.  Within minutes he was running around on it!  He had no pain during the entire trip, for which we were extremely grateful to God.  And Carter was able to see God's great care for him during this time!