Our Exploratory Trip to Kenya

It has been over a month since we got back from Kenya.  I know that is a long time to wait to post pictures on our blog, but here they are - better late than never, right?  Some of you do not have Facebook to see the pictures from our missions page, so I thought you would like to see these.  I took over 1,000 pictures, so there is no way I could have put all of them on here, but here are a few.

It was a huge blessing to have Marc and Melodie Sankey go to Kenya with us.  Having them there was a comfort and help in so many ways.

This was our first sight of Kenya!  We were very excited when we saw this!!

They piled the buses entirely too high for our comfort in Kenya! 

Keith and Marc outside of the house we stayed in.

Crystal with some of the orphans. 

Marc and Melodie

Crystal and Esther - such a darling little girl.

In Kenya, they drink "spoiled milk"  They milk their cows twice a day, and put the milk in a gourd for about three days, then "plop" (gag) it out into a cup and drink it.  They asked our first morning there, "Do you take spoiled milk?"  We assured them that we did not take spoiled milk. :)   We were feeding this sweet baby her breakfast - spoiled milk thickened with cornmeal.  :)~

I LOVE this lady so much!!  

Three handsome boys  Barak, Eliud, and Felix

Theressa and Little Esther - she was a wonderful hostess to us and as sweet as can be.

Esther and Baby Esther

Keith enjoyed playing with the orphan boys.

The Kenyan people are so hungry for the gospel.  It was wonderful seeing them using their new Bibles and really understanding what it said.  Marc and Keith spoke during the special services they had while we were there and God really helped them.

This is how they wash their dishes.

Melodie and I had special services with kids.  We all had a GREAT time - we learned their songs (they all have LOTS of action songs) and we told them Bible stories, which we had them act out.  A great time was had by all. :D

Crystal and some of the girls after church was over.

Keith and Edwin - a good man.

Very friendly people that want to know all they can learn about God.

Crystal and some of the ladies.  I took head scarves to them - they were very happy.

Keith and Pastor Kennedy.  There are three churches there that are growing and more places wanting churches in their villages.  This man is a pastor of one of those places -It was nice to be able to talk to him - very nice man.

The people there were very interested in how we showed affection toward each other as husband and wife. (Holding hands, sit beside each other, putting an arm around each other)  They said they liked it that we showed everyone that we weren't ashamed of our spouse and they wanted to start doing that.  This couple came to us and proudly proclaimed that they were "Like Americans" because they were not ashamed to publicly show their love for their spouse. :)

The kids loved doing "Funny Faces"

They cannot pronounce "Keith" in Kenya, so they called Keith "Kate" much to our amusement!   One proud man came with this baby and told Keith "we have named our baby after our new missionary.  His name is Miles Kate"   Haha - we got a great laugh (after we left) over that one. 

This beautiful orphan was very, very sick the day we got there.  She could hardly lift her head and was burning with fever.  We prayed over her and by the time we left, she was out walking and playing with the other children.  I'm so thankful!!!

Some of the orphans and the man that takes care of them - Dennis (in the brown and white striped shirt by Crystal) 

How can you not love these kids that have already faced more in their little life than I will probably ever face in my life.  Each one is so very special to us and to Jesus.

Love these people!!!

I don't know how to rotate - sorry!!  Melodie, Theressa and I in our matching wrap-skirts. :)

This is a Massai man from the Massai tribe in Africa - they are the tribe that has kept the old ways and traditional dress.  They are very revered in Kenya.

There is a section of road that we cross through that is FULL of Baboons. :)

Back on the plane!

Mama and Baby!!

We had a wonderful trip to Kenya - it was an exploratory trip to find out cost of living among many other things and we got lots of answers but also came up with more questions.  Instead of rushing over there without being able to fully answer the question, EFM has decided to patiently wait for a time before we go to Kenya. This will give us time to fully answer the questions and let God lead us in His time.

But God had this all in His plan:

Over the last school year, the director of the school in Guatemala passed away quite unexpectedly  and put the school in quite a hard place.  EFM has asked us to consider going to Guatemala for the next school year to help them out until the new director is trained to take over.  This will give us an opportunity to serve on an established mission field for the next year while we get all the details lined up for going to Kenya.

So our plan is to go to Guatemala in January and be there through their school year which ends in October.  Then come back to the states and make plans to go to Kenya.  Over the next year, Keith will be making more trips to Kenya to get things settled and lined out before our family goes full time.

We are very excited and are thankful for God's leading in our life.  Thank you for sticking with us and keeping up with our blog, even though I haven't done a very good job of keeping up with it.  I hope that as our life is more settled in Guatemala, I will have a more regular time to update.

We love reading who is still keeping up with our blog, so leave us a comment and let us know you're still out there.

Help Needed!!!

Could any of you more knowledgable friends help me with knowing how to make the header picture a smaller size?  I don't know why it's SO HUGE!!!

Thank you in advance. :)

What's Been Happening.....

We have moved to Oklahoma and our new place does not have internet, so posting to our blog is quite a challenge.  But I do plan to continue our blog if I can, (when I can) and hopefully we will have internet in Kenya, so I can keep posting while we're there, too.  I really do enjoy our blog a lot, so I'd like to keep posting.  AND since I know that there are so many of you that enjoy it, too, that makes it more fun for me to post as well, plus I have some non-FB friends that still love blogs. ;)

Thank you all for your comments and for following our family blog.

Here are a "few" pictures (okay, so that's a stretch - there are a LOT of pictures) of the last month, or so.  I wish I could update in detail, but for right now, this will have to do. :)


Our Aunt and Uncle BLESSED us tremendously with this van for us to use while we are traveling on deputation.  It has been such a blessing with five littles.  The extra leg room is so wonderful!!  Thank you, Uncle Gary and Aunt Ruth, we appreciate it.    Uncle Gary was just diagnosed with lymphoma this week and is undergoing chemo right now and will be for a while.  I know they would covet your prayers!!!

The middle of June, we left our beloved home in Troy, MO and moved to Oklahoma.  We all cried. :) We have brought all of our babies, except Kristyn, home from the hospital to this house.   It's all our kids have ever known.  A new family is enjoying living there now and we are so thankful that God called a new family to fill our spot there.

How did we collect so much stuff??

Our SWEET Kristyn turned double digits in June.  I can't believe 10 years ago, she was born and we were the proud parents of a precious baby girl!  Kristyn, we love you so much and are thankful that God chose us to be your parents.

For the Fourth of July, the kids wanted us to make their shirts.  So they got all creative and decided how they wanted their shirts.  I think they all turned out very cute!!

Waving at the parade...

One happy boy that got to play catch with Grandpa.

Tuckered out watching Daddy play ball.

Our handsome Jeren turned FIVE years old.  What a little ball of wonderful, giggly energy he is!!!!!  I can't imagine our life without this little man.

Misty's family was there for the weekend, so they helped us celebrate. ;)

He was VERY happy with his present from Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa....

Last week was Youth Camp.  We were blessed to have almost al of our nieces and nephews there to enjoy.  It was so much fun for us and our kids to be together - some on the same teams.  We will treasure this Youth Camp as it will be our last one for a few years.  It was a good camp this year.

Thank you to Ryan and Alicia for having Kristyn on your team.  She is still talking about it.

Karissa batting in soft ball.

Mark and Jana.....you know it was "TOTALLY COOL" that Owen was on your team this year.  He was kind of worried that he wouldn't get to be on your team this year since he's was a "real camper" now.  He was super excited!!  Thank you for investing time in him for the last few years.  He thinks a lot of you all and we do, too.

Best Friends!!  Kristyn and Rachel

Tori, hitting a home run.......  :)

Rachel the slugger....

 Kaylee kicking a fast one in kick ball.

Little fire crackers - Ashlyn and Isaiah

I love this picture of Keith and Kyle.  Very typical of them.

Uncle Kyle doing what all the kids love - riding on the four-wheeler.

After Youth Camp we went to Grandma and Papa's for dinner.  Ashlyn helping Grandma with the chocolate pie.....yum!!!

This week, we needed to travel to Pennsylvania to a camp meeting for a deputation service.  It's a 19 1/2 hour trip from our home in OK to where we needed to be in PA.  We broke up the trip and stayed with my cousin in Indianapolis for a night, then traveled to Hershey, PA to do some fun things with the kids.  We have been praying that God will help our traveling to go well with the kids.  We don't want them to dread our traveling and we know it's necessary right now.  We have tried to do fun things along the way with them and so far, it has gone very well.

One of the fun things we did yesterday was visit the Hershey Chocolate Factory!

No, we did not let her buy this.

 How the kisses are made....

Our silly boy....

We got to the Hershey Factory early - we were the first ones to get on the train to tour the "factory".  It's not really THE factory, but one set up like the real one. ;)    That was a HUGE blessing and we didn't even know it!  When we came out of the tour, it was eyeball to eyeball people!!!  With five little persons in our family and needing to keep track of them,  packed places do not set well, so we quickly got out of there!

Pennsylvania is a beautiful state!!!!

A friend mentioned that we needed to visit the Wilbur Chocolate Factory in Lititz, PA.  Since we didn't spend a lot of time in Hershey, we decided to drive the 20 minutes to Lititz to see the Wilbur Factory.  BEST decision EVER!!!!!

We enjoyed this Chocolate Factory SO MUCH MORE than we did the Hershey factory!  For one, it's a little Mom and Pop place that is super family friendly.  Not so commercialized and "stuffed" like the Hershey Factory is.

These are some of the molds that they use.

You can sit and watch the ladies making, pouring, freezing, coloring and carving the chocolate......

Check out this slab of chocolate that she's getting ready to break down to melt.....

We watched Kathy pour lollipop chocolates. She talked to the kids the whole time.  She used white and red chocolate for these.  She also made hamburgers (very cool), super man lollipops......you name it, she made it.

She made these paint brushes out of chocolate, then she wanted to dip them in colored "paint" (chocolate) and was asking the kids what colors she should use.

How cool is that?

We watched them make some of these and put them out.

Wilbur Chocolate is known for their Wilbur Buds.   It's little "kiss" shaped chocolates.  We all agreed that we liked them better than the Hershey Kiss.

Right outside of the Factory is a gorgeous park that we spent the rest of the day at.  This was a much needed time for our family.  There was a spring that fed a "creek" that traveled all throughout the park.  The ducks were very friendly. :)

The playground had a fun train to play on.

Lots of placed to climb and sit and enjoy God's BEAUTIFUL creation and enjoy each other.

Keith spotted a stump to prop the camera on and decided that we needed a family picture.  I may be biased, but I think God blessed us with the most beautiful children ever created!!!

After the park, we headed back for the night.

So the bottom line is, if you travel all the way to PA to visit the Hershey Factory, that's fine.  Spend an hour in Hershey, but leave the rest of your day open for the Wilbur Chocolate Factory and the beautiful park next to it and the gorgeous little town that it's in.  (it's only 20 minutes from Hershey)

At the Wilbur Factory, we saw the video that plays (information on how chocolate it made) at the Hershey factory, you get the same information, you get to actually watch the chocolate being made, not just see a video on how it's made in the "big places".  You get free samples at Wilbur. :)  Yum!!! The Wilbur Bud is actually 14 years OLDER than the Hershey Kiss.   The staff at Wilbur is over-the-top friendly, even to big families' (a big plus in our book).   So this is not a knock on Hershey at all, just another option for families when you're in the area and another Chocolate place that we enjoyed a LOT!!!!

Some beautiful Pennsylvania farms......

Thank you for sticking with us.  I hope that as we figure out a new "normal" for our family, I will be able to post more often.

We covet your prayers for our family!!!

Have a great Sunday!