Well, we spent the day stuffing and sealing envelopes. I still have the terrible taste in my mouth from licking all that glue!

We got Hannah helping us too – here she is on the floor sealing the envelopes using a little sponge and water (ingenious child!)

Hopefully all the prayer and information packages will get out into the mail this week!

It is with great excitement, joy and thankfulness to God (along with shaky knees) that we would like to share a new chapter in our lives with you! We have felt the call by God to go as a family to serve as missionaries in Kenya with Africa Inland Mission (AIM). Just getting to this point has been quite a wild ride – from the initial sense of wanting to do more with our lives to wondering how God might use us. Through prayer and seeking God’s guidance and direction, we have handed our plans over to Him and said ‘have your way with us’. Now a perfect opportunity has become available for us to begin in the summer of 2008. (Just a few short months away!)

We are stepping with excitement and anticipation from everything that is familiar and dear to us, into a new country, a new culture, and a brand new way of life. We look forward to all this learning and we hear that flexibility is the key! Our ongoing goal is that our lives could be used to make a lasting difference in the lives of others, that our faith, our skills and our energies could be shared. As a family we look forward to developing lasting friendships, embracing diversity, and developing a new global perspective. We have committed to a two year term with AIM.

Rift Valley Academy

With AIM, we will be serving as support personnel at Rift Valley Academy in Kenya which is an hour north of Nairobi. The academy, run by Africa Inland Mission International, provides a quality education in a boarding environment for the children of missionaries serving all through Africa and has done so for over 100 years. Many of these missionary kids (MKs) have in later years returned to Africa as second and even third generation missionaries. The current student body of 495 includes more than 20 different nationalities. The families these students represent serve with 80 mission organizations in over 20 African countries. As a former student of an MK boarding school in Malaysia, Sue greatly benefited from such a close-knit, loving environment and looks forward to the challenge of working at RVA!

By partnering with us as we care for these children, you are actually enabling hundreds of missionaries on the field – from doctors and nurses, to pastors and church planters, AIDS workers, water experts, teachers, peace negotiators, translators, and more. Knowing that their children are well taken care of in a safe, nurturing, Christian environment, these parents can continue on with their work with peace of mind in often remote and dangerous parts of Africa.

What we’ll be doing

Andrew will be working as IT manager at the school, managing computer services, with the opportunity of supporting other projects in the healthcare field and community. Sue will be joining the Student Health Services team as a full-time school nurse overseeing a twenty bed student infirmary and looking after everything from administering immunizations to caring for children with injuries and illnesses. We will live as a family in an apartment adjacent to the campus infirmary. Hannah (5) and Beatrice (3) will be integrated into the school and community life. We are excited about connecting with parents of the students at RVA and hearing about the work that they are doing on the field. We look forward to joining other staff of RVA who very active in the community and surrounding area – volunteering in orphanages, food programs, attending local churches and working on special projects.

We also look forward to continuing our relationship with Dr Michael Tut Pur and his family. He is a Sudanese physician from our home church in Oakville who was one of the ‘Lost Boys of the Sudan’. He is currently managing a small poorly equipped hospital in South Sudan (as the only trained physician for over 100,000 people!) The conditions and circumstances under which he is living and working are very difficult and we are committed to being a link and support for Michael’s work back to our home community and friends.

Partnership Opportunities

For us to embark in July 2008 on this next phase of our lives, we need our family and friends to join with us and embrace our vision. There are many opportunities for your partnership and we ask that you prayerfully consider if you can be a part of any of these:

Prayer Support Team: We will need a committed group of prayer supporters/intercessors willing to cover our family in prayer on a regular basis and praying for requests that we send through our prayer updates and email communications.

Home Support Team: We will need a strong sending team – individuals and families who can help in various areas with preparations prior to our departure, helping with fundraising ideas and projects, communications while we are away and helping us transition when we return.

Financial Support Team: AIM is a “faith mission” organization. That means the missionaries who work under the banner of AIM are all individually supported, and the responsibility to raise that financial support is the missionary’s. AIM does not employ us. They simply represent us, and us them. AIM has determined what level of support is reasonable based on our family size and specific ministry overseas. This is our “support target,” and monthly contributions from individuals and churches will make up this support structure for us. We rely on these gifts to live and work, and ultimately we trust in faith that God will provide what we need. All money given to AIM gets allocated for our various needs.

Dr Tut Pur

We also look forward to continuing our relationship with Dr. Michael Tut Pur and his family. He is a Sudanese physician from our home church in Oakville who was one of the “Lost Boys of the Sudan”. He is currently managing a small, poorly equipped hospital in South Sudan (as the ony trained physician for over 100,000 people!) The conditions and circumstances under which he is living and working are very difficult and we are committed to being a link and support for Michael’s work back to our home community and friends. Please click on the Uniforms for Akobo section on this website for information on our first project to support Michael’s village.

Here is a link to a youtube movie trailer about the Lost Boys of Sudan and the struggles that they had to endure. This will give you a better idea of the journey that Dr. Michael Tut Pur has been on, and now his desire to be a part of rebuilding his country.