The Leaving Part

Tonight we're in Denver, writing from the hotel, jumping on a 10:30 flight to New York in the morning.  Yesterday we had a wonderful and encouraging commissioning service in Paonia at one of our supporting churches.  It was a wonderful time of focus on missions, our call, and encouragement for us from so many people - some life-long friends of mine, others whom I (Jim) only met yesterday.  The hardest part, though, was saying our last few goodbyes.  This, I've known all along, is the hardest part for me.  I'm comfortable here, I love the mountains, people here know and understand me.  I have role models here and people who look up to me.

I'm sure excitement will take over sometime soon, but for now my mind is filled with the leaving.  From friends in Woodland Park over a month ago to my parents in the morning, it's been a long goodbye tour: friends, jobs, mountains, homes, family...  It's a blessing to know we're following God's call, a blessing to feel so well supported in prayer and a blessing to have so many behind us, holding the ropes.  Thank you!

The final details

We're working out the final details today for many things.  The bags are getting packed, we're changing the addresses on the final bills and accounts, we're chatting with friends and family one last time from Colorado.  Tomorrow we have a commissioning service at the church here in Paonia, followed by a brunch in our honor.  We are looking forward to connecting with supporters one last time, being encouraged and sent on our way.

Monday afternoon we'll drive to Denver (about five hours away) and spend the night so that we can take our time getting to the airport on Tuesday morning.  We fly non-stop to New York in the middle of the day, and will spend until Thursday afternoon at Africa Inland Mission's headquarters in Pearl River, NY.    From there, we fly to Kenya via London, and will get there just in time for a good nights rest Friday night.

It's hard to feel like there's time to write any deep thoughts, much less think them right now.  It's surreal to be going, when we've "been going" for almost two years now.  We are grateful from many perspectives that we've had so much time in preparation: physically, spiritually, emotionally and relationally.

We've gotten everything packed into thirteen 50-pound bags.  Yep, that's a lot of stuff.  Or a little depending upon how you look at it.  You can get quite a few "things" in Kenya, but it's still very different and limited, so hopefully we have a good balance of what we will need and what will be helpful to have to make our new house feel like home.  We are allotted twelve at no cost, and we were hoping to not have more than that, but decided the stress of getting the last bits distributed among the already packed bags and carry-ons was not less than the cost of one extra bag!  Right now, it really feels priceless!  The challenge now is making sure that the kids have something to wear the next few days... Jim too!  The kids played in the sprinkler this morning in t-shirts and underwear!  We are quite a sight around here.

The kids are doing well.  Pray for our travels with them.  They are excellent travelers, but we will all be tired and an extra measure of grace would go a long way.  Pray for our last goodbyes with Jim's family, and pray for safety and health over the next week.  We appreciate your support - through interest, prayer, and finances.  We know this is a big step we are taking.  And we are so grateful to have many people behind us in love.  And most of all, Jesus.

One week

It doesn't seem possible that we'll be on our way to Kenya in one week when we've been having so much fun...

We've also been getting some much-needed rest...

And did I mention that I'm now married to a 30-year-old?!  Happy birthday, Jim!

We're not quite ready for our lives to change so much, and so soon; 

so we've been soaking up every minute 

of this.

New friends

We said goodbye to many, many good friends in Woodland Park, but we also know that we'll make new ones.  It's a blessing to already know some, both in person, and through email.  Meet some of our new friends:

We first met the Beckers at our candidate week at AIM's headquarters in November of 2008.  Their daughter is a year older than Faith, so they won't be in school together, but I'm sure they'll find plenty of time to play together!  Karl is a English teacher and Laurel will be helping out around the school like Heather.  They are departing the states with us in a few weeks and will attend orientation with us as well.

The next family we came into contact with was the Unruhs.  They have four children, all of whom (I think) were born in Kenya.  Faith and Rodney have been at RVA for many years, and so through numerous emails back and forth, they have helped us prepare and know what to expect and what to bring.  They serve as dorm parents and Rodney is the school purchaser, which means he travels to Nairobi frequently.

The Shirley family moved to Kijabe in November, and unlike the other families in this post, they live outside of the RVA campus because Rhett is a doctor at the Kijabe hospital.  Megan stays busy with their three kids under 4!  Claire is a year younger than Faith, but they are looking forward to meeting each other!  Megan and Heather share a love of smocking and Southern Living magazine, and Heather has appreciated Megan's fresh insight and advice from their recent move.

Our most recent contact has been the Gonzalez family.  Tony and Bethany attended candidate week in August of 2008, have been preparing just like us, and will depart with us in a few weeks.  Tony teaches history and Bethany is a Chemistry teacher.  Their two kids, Ellie and Marcus, are exactly the same ages as Faith and Joel!  Heather had a few friends in Woodland Park that had same age and gender kids, and was praying for another family like that, so what an answer to prayer!