More pictures from Jan trip to Kenya

This was my seat in Business Class - so wide and a recliner.....can I fly economy again????? Yay for upgrade!
Shalom and Shammah - two beautiful girls~ their parents were one of our first members and leaders in the church we pioneered. They were students attending the Bible school we pioneered. They were both single when they started classes with us. Mary, their mother passed away a year ago. I was so glad the girls are doing well and Anthony too. Shalom, the older girl looks exactly like her mom. I miss Mary. She was a wonderful Sunday School teacher and a wonderful woman of God.

This is Pendo ( ithink! it means love in swahili). She is the beautiful daughter of Sach and Pauline. Sach is a former well known gangster in a slum in Nairobi. He got saved, spirit filled and went to Bible school. Today, Sach is one of the pastor at River of God church. What an amazing testimony of the power of the love of God.

with church members of River of God church - I miss everyone so much!

Pastor Tony Kiamah, the pastor of ROG now. He was very kind in his introduction before I preached. He and his wife, Carole is doing a great job!

Aiden, one of Kathryn's kids. He seemed to be thinking - she looks like Kathryn but I think not :)

Anna Banana! That's what we like to call her. The girls grew up with Anna. They used to be one of our neighbours in our compound. It was so fun to bump into her at the Masai Market. She is like a foot taller than me! How time flies!

I also visited Rehema and brought a donation that Kathryn and Vickie helped raised for them with a Famine Drive. They raised over RM4000!

Our good friends, Roger and Shireen cooked our favorite meal !! Roasted leg of lamb!!! It was so so good!! It was good for me to be able to spend time with the Wests. We have been friends for as long as we have been Kenya. Their friendship and passion for Africa energises us!

First return to Kenya!

I am so thankful to the Lord for providing for a return trip to Kenya early this year in January. I was able to reconnect with our ministries and put some plans together our ministries in Kenya to continue to go forward. We graduated ten pastors in Beni. I met with Bethuel, our congolese pastor and brought their certificates with me from ICM for the graduates and money for their graduation in Beni. I should have some pioctures somewhere!

David (on the right) is Lucy's husband and run the orphanage together. On his right, is Bethuel, our pastor from Congo. I wanted Bethuel to visit our income generating project at the orphanage - our chicken farm! David was moved by the need in Congo and donated 20 chickens for Bethuel to start his own project in Congo! It blesses me when I see how we reach out and help one another!

Praise the Lord that our food store was not empty!! However, beans and rice and all our staples have gone up considerably and surviving month to month is still a challenge. Yet, we thank God for His daily provision.

Because I was vistiting, there was meat! Glad Tidings Klang sent me money for a big meal for the kids and so it was a HUGE treat!

Potatoes! Lots and lots of potatoes!

Classes going on well!

Happy productive layers!

This is a coffee table at the Premium Lounge in Dubai! I was able to enjoy the lounge because I was upgraded to Business Class on my way to Nairobi!!! YAY!!! I am never flying with my family again!

Huge flood near where we used to live...I don't miss this at all

OR this....massive road contruction going on for a supposedly super highway. This translates to massive and insane traffic jam....I DEFINTELY do not miss this part of living in Kenya!

While I was gone, the girls continue to be very busy with school and Next Degree - the name of their Christian Fellowship. Both girls are leaders in the fellowship and Kathryn has been also playing the keyboard, leading in worship and emceeing. Vickie is busy ushering and is part of the worship team.

First Chinese New Year for the girls....ANG POWS!!!! For those of you who are not familiar, one of the practices of the Chinese New Year is the giving of these angpows - little red envelopes like these to children. THe contents.....MONEY!!!

The girls are excited!!! (pssttt... someone please tell me how to rotate pics in blogspot!) They wanted to know if we celebrate Chinese New Year every month!! They made quite a pocketful!!

Chinese New Year with a very bashful little girl!

another lopsided picture! don't strain your neck, ok?

Many firsts....

This is a picture of the girls with their brand new friends from church, Kelly and Suvien. This was taken in the bus where the girls went for their first Rangers Camporama! That was two weeks after we landed in Malaysia. The girls only lasted one night in the camp :-( it was too hot and humid for them and Vickie got really sick. Daddy has to go and picked them up from the camp!

Our first trip to Singapore and the girls first Christmas away from Kenya! We stayed in a hotel on Orchard road itself and enjoyed the amazing Christmas deco along Orchard road and in all the malls.

Tony graduated with his MA in Africa but did not get to enjoy his graduation with his fellow classmates. A friend organised a small party for him and we had fun. I am so proud of him!

I want to be like my daddy when I grow up!

Here she is singing a solo during awards night, she was also awarded an academic award. She scored the third highest GPA in her grade - yay!

Kathryn was part of a quartet - you go girl!! Both girls are very involved in school actitivities - we are so grateful that they are enjoying school and are both so very busy and making new friends...

Tony got me these beautiful flowers which cost 10 times what they would have cost in Kenya! But it was worth it because I love it! I missed having fresh flowers ALL the time! I was so spoilt in Kenya,

I ordered these custom made cupcakes for Tony. He truly is my hero!! It's fun to be able to find fun stuff like these.....I think I might make it after all :)

We were so blessed to celebrate Tony's mom 70th birthday, here she is with all the grandchildren. As usual, goofing around! My mother in law looked so confused here...maybe because there were too many cameras that evening!

Like I said, a lot happened in the one year! Keep checking for more ... i feel like I am on a roll...

ONE YEAR LATER!!!

Yes, it's one year later since our return to Malaysia and Max made it and is still with us :-) I cannot believe that it was a year ago since I posted my last entry, and I am finding it even more amazing that we have actually been "home" for a little over a year! I can say that life in Malaysia has been full of suprises and is fast and furious. I was inspired to blog again when I was going through our digital photos and doing some digital decluttering. I was amazed by how much has happened in just a year. So, over the next few days, I am hoping to get you all caught up withn all that has happened the last 12 months and I will try to post as many pictures as I can.....I am not very patient waiting for pictures to upload :-)

Max - survived the 24 hour journey and seems to have adapted pretty good to Malaysian life. We are so glad we brought him with us!

Reunited with their youngest cousins ... Annabelle and Isaac. I think they will featured quite regularly in this blog.

One of the biggest treat we had when we first got back and the girls were missing Africa terribly was an opportunity to watch a live game between Manchester United and Malaysian team. For those of you who may not know, our family (minus yours truly) are hardcore MU fans. The girls took over 1000 pictures but I will spare everyone and just upload a few! God is faithful to help us along the transition with special events like these.

We were at the stadium from 5 pm to midnight. It was quite an experience. I even had to admit I had fun watching the game.

I will keep posting pictures and comment on them the next few days, I will try to keep them in some chronological order...so keep checking!

MALAYSIA!

It's been over a month since we landed "home" in Malaysia - 1st June! Lots has happened since then, firstly, we set up house from scratch....it was amazing to us the choices we have here in Malaysia and the prices here were at least 2/3 cheaper than what we were used to in Nairobi. Eating out is so affordable and so tasty as well! Goodbye to my cooking days - YAY!!! Secondly, we bought a car, Tony has one provided for him but we needed a second car for me to get the girls to school and back and of course to shop!! Talking about shopping, I never thought I could be tired of shopping but I have to admit, that after the first two weeks of outfitting the house, I was shopped out!! I have since learn to drive to a few places. Tony officially began work 1 July but he was in the thick of church ministry the same week we arrived. I too was asked to teach 4 Fridays for the July Bible month, a ladies meeting and and one Sunday service in July and to co-speak with Tony for the church camp in August. There's lots to do in this new church we are in. We are grateful to the Lord that He has given us this opportunity to minister to the Body of Christ. But we sure needs lots of prayers!!

My heroes....goofing off at Doha International Airport!
The girls are troopers and my heroes - everything is strange and new to them in many ways and they miss their friends and life in Kenya but they are trying and making a go at it, we are so proud of them. Pray for them to adjust in their new school, and also to the youth Group. We are glad that they have a great youth group and a youth Pastor. This is something that they did not have in Nairobi. We are trusting that the Lord will grow them through this stretching period in their lives.

Okay, now to the photos - they are kinda random and from the girls camera. I still do not have my new computer yet so we are all sharing Kat's laptop and I have not loaded my pics in her computer as I didn't want to take more memory from her laptop. I will try to do better at blogging....I am kinda excited to blog about our adjustment here as I believe God has tremendous things in store for us and I want to have record of it!! Anyways, the pics...
Our van to the airport. Kathryn making sure that Max carrier is in!

Touched down in Kuala Lumpur - freeways, tolls, NO potholes but hazy weather!

We had supper with a friend at a hotel and the band sang to us. It was fun and they sounded pretty good. The band is from Indonesia but they sang in English, Cantonese and Mandarin!!! One of them asked us to pray for them when they realised we were Christians. Awesome evening!

Getting ready to leave Nairobi. Btw, we lost one suticase. You see the two black suitcases on the right? Well, one of them didn't make it to Kuala Lumpur :-(( It was pretty sad...we lost quite a bit of personal momentos and souvenirs...we were pretty sad about it...


Vickie with one of the youth member at church.

Vickie having her last chili dog from Java House at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.

Java House - one of our favorite restaurants....best coffee ever!

Our poor baby Max has to be in his carrier for over 24 hours! He did really good and we were so excited to see him in the KLIA airport. He was quarantined for 7 days and is now home with us. One of the best decisions we made in this transition is bringing Max with us. He made our family complete!! This little guy has surely wormed his way into our hearts.

The girls took a picture of this sticker on the van gthat took us to the airport....my two african girls missing Kenya already...even before we left :-(( I think our girls are so brave to leave everything and everyone they know as they follow God's leading for us as a family. I know God has something special for these two young ladies!

Before I go, I thought I post a link for Tony's installation at our church. My brother in law, Eddie took this video with his phone, so it's a little blurry.
http://www.newszapped.com/tunein.php?watch=535