Welcome to our new website/blogsite.  We hope this will serve as a means for us to keep family, friends and supporters up to date on what’s going on in our ministry at Rift Valley Academy.  Feel free to poke around on the site.  All of the page links are located on the right.  You can return back here anytime by clicking on “Blog” or our most recent post.

To give you all a brief update, we left the states on July 17th and arrived in Kenya on July 19th.  The trip was mostly uneventful, which was a HUGE answer to LOTS of prayers.  Our biggest concern was Ian (our youngest).  At age 1 he’s not the world’s greatest traveler.  However on both flights he did wonderful.  There were moments but thankfuly they were only moments.

We had a 22 hour lay-over in Zurich, Switzerland which at the onset I was dreading.  In the end it turned out to be the best part of the trip.  The airline arranged for a hotel over night.  They also checked our bags straight through from Chicago to Nairobi, which meant we didn’t have to collect all 11 pieces, haul them to the hotel, then back to airport to recheck them in the morning. What a blessing!  Just down the street was a public pool which the hotel gave us free access to.  It was a bit chilly but the kids had fun just the same.  We able to get some sleep that night…well not all night but 1:00am we were all up and playing for about two hours.  Gotta love jet lag.  By the end of the layover we were all rested and ready for another 8 hour flight.

Our arrival in Kenya was one of the smoothest ever.  Fifteen minutes after disembarking the plane we were collecting ALL (not one piece lost) luggage and heading out through customs to the waiting arms of the Hovingh.  It as good to finally be with Jason and Lisa and all the kids after almost 2 years.  Soon we were off to Malewa (Jason and Lisa’s home in Naivasha, Kenya.)

Our first two nights were spent reconnecting with the Hovingh family.  I say nights because our bodies were on the wrong timezone and sleep didn’t happen when it was dark…for any of us.  On Monday, July 21st we loaded up our car and made the 1 hour trip back to Kijabe and Rift Valley Academy.  Ahhh, we were finally home.  It was great to be back in our own house, our own beds and see some familiar surroundings.  It had been nearly three weeks of transition and moving from house to house for our family.  The kids were so excited and jumped right back into life here.  I think it took Megan all of 10 minutes after arrival to find the grapefruit tree in the back yard and climb to the top and start picking our tart little fruits.

By now all of us are in the correct timezone.  We’re sleeing when we’re supposed to and even Ian is back on his normal napping schedule.  Thank you all for praying us out here.  We definalty felt your prayers and could not have done it as smoothly as we did without your support.  Please check back often as we will be posting more updates soon.