Revival Africa

More pictures from Jan trip to Kenya

2010-08-13T08:17:00.005+03:00

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!

2010-08-13T06:29:00.006+03:00

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....

2010-08-12T12:16:00.012+03:00

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...

2010-08-12T11:41:00.002+03:00

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!

2009-07-08T11:43:00.011+03:00

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

Safari - at last!

2009-05-14T09:59:00.000+03:00

We arrived in Kenya in October 1992. Our girls were borned in 1994 and 1996 and all these years, we have never once been on safari in the Mara- that's right, not even once!! The girls do get to go to different mini safaris as part of their school activities and as a family, we have always preferred a beach holiday...yup, we are all beach people! Besides, the prices are always so high! Since we are leaving, we decided that we must at least be on safari once as a family. A great friend, Marigold, got us an out of this world kind of deal and we were able to go on a weeklong safari and enjoyed every minute of it! Here's some pictures...

The incredible scenery and landscapes of the great Masai Mara.

This huge baboon was climbing up the water tower!

pretty bored looking lioness, we were only a few feet away albeit safe and sound in our van!

beautiful rainbow after a heavy downpour

Our guide, Tita, drove us about 45 minutes up to a mountain to see these buffalos, I focused on this one because he looked so old, wise and strong....I didn't get a good picture of his legs but he also was wounded...possibly fighting with other animals...

I never get over how pretty giraffes are - especially their beautiful eyes and long eyelashes!

We saw so many herds of elephants and so many cute little baby elephants trailing behind their mama. Sweet!

Giraffe showing off how flexible she/he is!

Impalas...there were so many of them

our room in the beautiful lodge, Keekorok

One of the safari van got stuck and our van was the only one that was 4 WD, so we pulled them out.

My camera ran out of battery after this picture. this was a male lion walking towards a whole group of lionesses and cubs. There were about 14 of them. The girls got them in their cameras! It was a pretty amazing sight to see these majestic animals in their natural habitat.

These two "animals" were in our van the whole time! So pretty!

Lounging at the Lodge during afternoon tea

It also happened to be Tony's birthday...the waiters danced and sang for him

Hippos at the Lodge. The photo doesn't do them justice...they are gigantic!

We spent the last two days at a log cabin, it was restful after all that safari. I can now take my two Kenyan children back to Malaysia, satisfied that they have been on a real safari!!

Happy Mother's Day !

2009-05-11T21:14:00.007+03:00

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all the moms out there! Tony started the celebration with me last Wednesday by taking me out to a nice bistro kind of restaurant for breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day; especially when I don't have to fix it and when I have lots of choices! I love lingering over a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper and just having a slow start to the morning...a perfect way to begin the day, if you ask me! Then he got me this bouquet of gorgeous flowers, and then a meal out...he has to keep this up till my birthday on the 19th!! It's like a Jewish festival..and I LOVE IT!
I didn't take pictures but the girls got me cards and jewellery...and Kathryn told me that I am worth approximately $200,000 annually for my "mom" job! That felt good!

This was a Sunday service at a local church and it was a special service for us as we are telling the congregation that we are leaving for our new assignment in Malaysia.... :-((

After the "big" annoucement of our leaving, we were given a chance to say good-bye to the church....we love this church!

A few pictures of some of our friends and people whom God has brought into our lives in our ministry here in Kenya. It is such a blessing to see them actively serving the Lord.

including these two pretty girls! born and raised in Kenya!

We are so grateful to the Lord for His hand upon our orphanage. Recently we dedicated two new girls dormitories made possible through a generous donation from a Canadian church. God is good!

spanking new beds and mattresses!

Spacious, clean and new!

We took a quick picture before the actual openning ceremoy. We didn't stay for the entire ceremony as it was long and we had to be back on campus. The lady in green is Eva who helped raised money for our poultry project - our income generating project. The gentleman on her right is David, Lucy's husband. He supervised the building of the new dormitories.

beautiful girls

Lucy has been reaching out to some Masai in her area and they too came to the ceremony. They came in their colorful clothes and did a fantastic dance including bringing the members of the congregation to dance with them. Yours truly was also dragged out, thank goodness no one took pictures of that....! at least I didn't think so and I had the camera..phew...!

Part of the dance includes jumping as high as they can. The Masai men are hunters and they can jump very high as they do that to look for animals.

the women...

our older girls presenting a song and poem...see how smart they look in their uniforms

We were so honored that Lucy wanted Tony to give word of devotion to the people and to pray for the school and the leaders of the school. It is amazing to us how God grew this ministry to what it is today. He is so faithful and so amazing. It is true - He can do EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY, ABOVE ALL WE CAN ASK OR THINK OF!

Our very happy chickens!

Last Friday we also went for Vickie's final band performance. One of the many songs they played were a medley from Phantom of the Opera. They did such a phenomenal job! We are really bless that Vickie has a great music teacher, Mr Muniz. He has a real gift to draw it out of the kids. We are praying that Vickie will find a band she can play with when we return to Malaysia.

We have less than three weeks to go and so many farewelling gatherings, fellowships, meals and packing and finalising many many details of many many projects! Please pray for God's grace and wisdom in the coming weeks. We are also hosting four ladies from Malaysia who will be arriving this Sunday!

To blog or not to blog is the question....

2009-05-05T21:19:00.010+03:00

I was wondering if I should keep this blog when we relocate to Malaysia??? I know that our friends in Malaysia and elsewhere are interested about our lives in Kenya but Malaysia??? I am not sure... I am thinking about it... write me a comment if you think I should keep it up!!

Some random pics....

This is Max longing for his daddy. He did this the entire time that Tony was in Malaysia..
poor baby! He loves Tony!

Awwww......(the girls' favorite expression!)

Kat took some pictures around campus....pretty eh?

This huge pine tree is on our front yard.

This is one of Vickie's teachers. The middle school was raising funds for some social projects and he challenged them if they raised a certain amount he would shaved off his beard and if they raised even more money, he would shave his hair as well! Brave man and they did raised the funds!! Too bad I didn't get the 'after' picture!

Vickie is on the far left, as a stage hand during one of their drama production. She is sweeping the floor between sets with a mop!!They couldn't find a broom~ it was an unexpected mess -(

There were herds and herds of cows around our property due to the drought...often they cause traffic jams! and the roads are littered with cow poop...africa is so......organic...i love it!

Our patient is healing and resting and getting very spoilt! She was waited on hands and foot!

See that cheeky smile? She's milking it...

Roger and Shireen Wests...our very special and close friends since we came to Kenya. They have been here either as long as we have been or longer. They have an incredible ministry all over Kenya, Congo, Sudan, and Europe. They are both evangelists and are anointed of the Lord. We were so happy that we were able to throw a suprise birthday celebration for Shireen. We love this family!

Some old news...Valentine's Fellowship

2009-05-05T21:06:00.005+03:00

This year Valentine's Ladies fellowship was jamming with ladies - all 52 of them. I know it's probably unusual to have an all-ladies fellowship but any season is a reason to partay!! I thought it was a good time to encourage friendship and fellowship for the students - a break from the more serious work of studying, research paper, work, mothering, etc.

Game time - it was fun to watch ladies from 18 years old to 64 years old enjoying some ice breaking games together

Yummy oat bars and candy from Elizabeth

I brought the rest of the food...crisps, choozy - the yellow looking curls (it's a kind of corn chips that you can find only here - that's what I think anyways -- it melts in your mouth -literally!), ham and cheese sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, cookies and...

cakes, of course!! Maureen helped with the decoration...pretty, eh?

Girls wanna have fun!! When I was planing this meeting, I knew that it was going to be the last time I will be planning for this fellowship. I was thrilled when 52 ladies registered and came and that the meeting went so well. There were lots of laughter, fun and fellowship. I will miss these ladies!

Alive and Well....and BIG NEWS!

2009-05-05T20:07:00.003+03:00

Yup, it's been over two months since I blogged...sorry! Just after my last entry, things started to get a little crazier than usual, if that is possible at all!! We were asked by the General Superintendent of the Kenya Assemblies of God to step in as senior pastors in a local church where the pastor had to be put on immediate suspension due to some serious problems. We were a little hesistant as we already had more than enough on our plates, but yet, it was a need. So we stepped in. At the same time, Tony was getting ready for a ten day trip to Malaysia to preach in a Missions Emphasis for a church and also very many other meetings and fellowships. So he was very busy preparing for all the services in the midst of all. And Kathryn was in a cast for 5 weeks, etc.... So, that gives you a clue what has been going on.

On top of it all, we have been praying for many months concerning a special ministry invitation back in Malaysia and felt that the Lord is leading us to this new assignment. We have accepted to be the senior pastor in a great church in Malaysia. I will post more details in the coming days. We are only starting this make this news public recently as we needed the privacy to help the ministries we are involved with to prepare for the transition. We leave May 31st...yikes!

So we've been busy preparing for our relocation after 17 years in Africa. We arrived in Kenya in October 1992!! Our girls were born and raised here....so you can imagine how huge this transition is for all of us.

I will be able to post more soon...stay tuned!

The Secret Life of Me!

2009-04-11T18:52:00.002+03:00

Don't get too excited.... I don't have a secret life...sorry to disappoint you! That's the title of Kathryn's blog. She decided to join Vickie and me and started her own blog. I am looking forward to reading all her "secrets" - the dream of every mother!

Her blog address is at my sidebar or you can go to http://secretlifeofanmk.blogspot.com/

I will be back posting soon...

Family Pictures

2009-02-20T07:53:00.007+03:00

My other footballer....who is not injured! Vickie is having an amazing season, her team has only lost one game! YAY!

Pre-injury : Kathryn warming up with her team before the game.

Tony at Brookhouse school during one of the girls football tournament. The school looks like an ancient castle.

Kat in action

First injury of the season....Giant blisters..........ouch!!!!!!!!! I had to dress the blisters...ewwwww....

Valentine's day!! Tony and his girls at a favorite Japanese restaurant.

We thought we would get a family picture since we got all dressed up for Valentine's dinner with Tony.

My goofy family fooling around while I was adjusting the tripod...this is what I LOVE about our family - we laugh LOUD and OFTEN and always goofing around....life is serious enough...can't have too much fun, can we????

Vickie made a big girl decision to give up her stuffed animals. We will be donating them to different orphanages...here is her "memory" picture of all her little and not so little friends. Don't worry she still have quite a few yet! Can you spot the real animal in the picture??

One of the reasons I enjoy sharing pictures of my family is because I think often times missionary families are perceived a little differently...and as you can tell from my blog and photos that we are just an ordinary family (although goofy!) who loves Jesus and LOVES serving Him in Africa! Our ministry here is challenging and the pressures we face is often brutal and overwhelming BUT our little family is our foundation, our safe place and our cocoon where laughter is our medicine and unconditional love, our safety net. We are truly blessed!

All in One...almost!

2009-02-19T12:04:00.006+03:00

I am going to try to make up for my lack of posting with this one! We have been joyously busy since the last time I posted. Like most of you, our lives are busy and full. Here are some of the activities that we have been busy with...

Harris and Francis Gichui were our students in Harvesters' Institue of Ministries in 1993. They have been in very active ministry as church elders, ministry leaders and most recently, the Lord laid it on their hearts to plant a church. If I am not wrong, I think they are grandparents to 14 and yet bold and courageous enough to pioneer a new church! Tony went to the opening ceremony. If you click on the first picture, you can see how beautiful the cakes were! What a joy it was to us to celebrate with them and to encourage them. Two weeks ago, Tony had Harris come to minister in our chapel service here at the University to encourage our young people in their ministries.
The International Christian Ministry classes started in Beni, Congo with Bethuel with 16 students. They have just started their 12 month course. These young people will be able to go into the rain forests and villages in Congo, equipped for the ministry. Pray for them and Bethuel as he leads them. Bethuel also has the additional challenge to translate the English manuals into French in order to teach them.

Tony preaching in one of the three Chinese churches in Nairobi. Vickie commented that she has never seen so many Chinese people together in one service!! Most of the congregation are from Mainland China. It was a treat for me to hear Tony's message translated to Mandarin.

After the service, we went to a roof top Chinese restaurant for our "Reunion Dinner". We have not celebrated Chinese New Year since 1992 and this is a first for Vickie!!!!!!!! Kathryn was with her high school at CFS.
YUM!!!! It amazes how the cook can make these absolutely authentic Chinese dishes here in Nairobi...:-)) We ate and we ate and we ate and we ate.....

The umbrellas decorations doubles as shade since we are on the roof!

Playing a Cantonese game. Can you see Vickie standing sheepishly behind me? She was too shy as she couldn't speak a word of Cantonese and had no idea what was going on!!

The worship team

Congregation greeting each other.

Kathryn at church. She injured her knee last Wednesday during a football/soccer game. She tore a ligament, bruised and chipped a bone. The doctor aspirated 11 syringes of blood (60cc) from her knee She will be in a cast for 5 weeks. Our kids are so trained to flash a smile whenever the camera clicks, even with a broken knee!

Tony signed her cast by listing famous footballers who got injured this season.. including Kathryn, of course!
We also had 3 pastors with Malaysia visiting with us last week. They had come for a special conference. Two of them shared in the River of God church. They also brought us food from Malaysia. It was so much fun having them in our house for a meal- I served them sandwiches, of course! They really like our coldmeat here - yay!

HIGH SCHOOL CFS - Kathryn

2009-01-31T16:56:00.011+03:00

Kathyrn, our oldest went for her CFS trip (Cultural Field Service). Their whole high school were divided into groups of 15 students each and went to different places to do community projects. Kathryn's group went to a village about three hours away from Nairobi. Their project was to help clean a church and various projects for the community. She is my "guest blogger". My apologies for my long absence...it's been challenging lately on many fronts...will try to do better at blogging soon! Anyways, enjoy Kathryn's comments on her trip!

This is me and my friend Chris surrounded by all the kids who live in the town.

This is this star we made during the little free time we had.

This was the local market place. It sold everything from chillies to goats!!

This is the gorgeous view from this valley! We hiked up and it was just soo pretty!!

This is me and this little girl who is such a sweetheart! This is us in front of the church we cleaned.

There were soo many kids! This is me and Sapna on our little walk throughout the town so to speak.

This is the goat's killer. My friend Mark. When he cut the goat's throat the blood came flying everywhere.. The next picture is pretty gruesome so be warned!

In Kenya, goat is a very popular meat... so in honor of our stay we killed one!

This was our room. It was really small and we fit 5 people in here. We have no running water or electricity the whole time....it was fun!

These are 3 of my friends out on this huge cliff like thing.

This is me on the middle of this huge mountain Cliff!

We had one stop and that was to see this pretty huge Jesus and Mary sculpture.

This is me and my friend Sapna. We had so much fun on during this trip.

Gettin Ready for Christmas!

2008-12-25T06:29:00.009+03:00

BLESSED CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

A few pictures to get you updated on what's been happening at the Phangs while Tony was gone!
Goofing around with Max!

Decorating cookies...an annual tradition...

A very proud cookie decorator!

Kathryn's blue man and snow man!

Emm....should i decorate the cookies or eat them???

Vickie's "retro" bell!

Can you guess which ones are mine?

Guess who got to clean up the mess after??

Gifts for Kathryn's Sunday School class..

Each gift pack has a lollipop, candy and a squishy yoyo ball that lights up! Only from Malaysia!
We made over 30 packets.

Not counting the gifts for the orphans (hundreds! ), I wrapped over 200 + gifts for students, pastors and family, workers at the orpahange, friends, etc. My hands must be tired after that...that's why the photo is blur....shaky hands??

Max wanting to play but we were too busy...see his pleading eyes? He is SO cute! I think he is saying "I miss my daddy"

Once again, Wishing everyone a MOST wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Some older updates...

2008-12-25T02:41:00.000+03:00

Vickie in one of her final games....

She's an aggressive player!

Kathryn and friend pretending to watch Vickie playing...maybe some cute boys around???!

can you see Max?

One happy snoozing family..

Kathryn demonstrating to our friends how to use the steam roller that Happy Factory sent for our orphanage. This "tractor toy" helps with the kids mobility, especially those with special needs. These machines came to us from Utah via Fedex!!

Lucy, our orphanage director (on the far right) brought her visitors from America to visit with us. They came to help widows with self generating income projects.

Computer Problems.....

2008-12-17T22:00:00.001+03:00

I am having major problems with our computers and am completely frustrated!!! Hoping that some IT staff are still around before everything closes for more than about two weeks!

HIM Alumni Meeting and Misc..

2008-12-05T10:32:00.011+03:00

I have been kinda under the weather for a while...a head cold that I can't seem to recover from ... coughing, sneezing, no energy, etc...and it seems to me that our internet server must also been having a cold of sort...it has not been working right very much lately. However, today, things seems to be getting better for me and the server :-)) I am trying to post about several different events today...

This August during the AOG General Council here in Kenya, several HIM (Harvesters' Inst of MInistries - the laymen bible school we pioneered in 1993) alumni came to us and shared about how the Lord is blessing them in their ministry and suggested to us that we need to have an alumni meeting soon. They organised it but we hosted it on campus. They were able to contact about 20 of them...we haven't seen some of them for over ten years now! Some of them are pastoring, one of them, Harris and his wife, Florence in their 60s, (on the right of Tony with the African outfit) is just now starting a brand new church! Alex, started a church and planted two more and have a small school running about 48 students for underprivilege kids, Kanye, shared with us how the Lord healed him of diabetes and blindness. It was a tremendous time of thanksgiving and praise that afternoon.

We had a time of singing and they sang "This is the day"....they changed the wording a little and sang "these are the teachers" and pointed to Tony and myself. We feel so humbled to be called teachers by these tremendous men and women of God.

Joel, was a young man when he came to our school. He is now married with kids and is a deacon at the church where our General Superintendent is the pastor.

The shorter, stockier gentleman on Tony's right, is Fred. I have written about him before. He is now the Business Adminstrator at East Africa School of Theology and has started a church as well. Tony shared a short devotion and I prepared a short game and gifts for everyone. Later, we arranged for lunch for all of them at the dining hall on campus. It was one of the best afternoon we've ever had!

Vickie played with her Middle School Symphonic Band yesterday during the Christmas concert at school. They did an awesome job.

Before the concert, she had a soccer game. Her team won 2-0. Go, Vickie!

This is a most amazing picture. I was walking home from a neighbour's house and saw this in the sky. A smiley face!!!! Apparently, it was Venus and Jupiter (or some planet :-)) accompanying a crescent moon. It really was pretty amazing. Did anyone elsewhere see this??

Kat bumming around and eating on a saturday morning...

Vic torturing Max...

Vic with Anastasia, one of her best friend. This was taken during the Cultural Richness Day that the school celebrated. Anastasia performed a traditional Ukrainian dance with her brother. It was pretty incredible.

Kat in a Norwegian outfit and with all her best friends...

There was even someone playing the bagpipe. Rosslyn has students from so many nationalities. We are grateful that the kids has the exposure to the diversity of nationalities, languages, culture and religions.

Kat did a project on Norway. She chosed Norway as her best friend, Erin is Norwegian and is actually there now...Kat misses her...

Vickie did her project on Korea. When I asked her why Korea, she told me she was assigned to it :-))

My two favorite Rosslyn students

Isn't she cute? Don't you think she look Norwegian?

Soap making

2008-11-17T14:15:00.005+03:00

In one of our Ladies Fellowship, two of students showed the rest of us how to make liquid soap. They bought a Soap Making Kit for 700 Ksh (about US10) and it made over 20 litres of liquid soap. We are paying about USD2 for 500ml at the store. We thought teaching the ladies a skill like that can help supplement their income. Some of these ladies are also ministers and pastors as well and they can teach the widows or members of their congregation how to make this liquid soap and help them sell it to generate a small income.

Noella and Dorcas explaining the process and the ingredients.

The ingredients

Rose, one of our students, writing down diligently the process and ingredients.

Mixing the ingredients...it's actually harder than it looks...takes quite a bit of elbow grease to get the chemicals well mixed.

We sent everyone home with a baggie of liquid soap

I bet you never thought a baggie liquid soap can make the ladies smile so big!!

Finally...

2008-11-17T11:33:00.008+03:00

I have been trying for days and maybe weeks to post some pictures but our internet connections has been so sporadic, I can hardly get any pictures uploaded. I decided to upload two photos at a time, and post more often instead of one long post.
This Masai ladies are part of the WOW (Widows and Orphans of the World) conference. You will see Lucy at the far right (the only lady not wearing Masai clothing i.e the red ones). She is also the director of our orphanage.
We met these ladies after I spoke. They have just arrived! They had walked close to 40 miles to get to the conference. They also presented me with a beautiful necklace. I will try to take a close up of that necklace sometime.
DEAD snake...yikes! We don't like snakes. This little fellow was in our backyard. One of the campus gardener saw it and promptly killed it. We are very grateful.
VERY dead snake....

Electricity and Internet problems

2008-11-05T05:45:00.002+03:00

Hey guys...sorry about the lack of posting lately and it isn't because of my lack of trying either! We have been having so many problems with our internet. The constant interruption on our power supply has affected our server and it's not working like it should. The server serves the whole campus, so this is quite a big problem for everyone, especially the students. I am glad it's working today, at least for now...:-))

Our electricity has been going off up to ten days a day since last weekend. Each time it goes off, we have no idea when it will return. Sometimes a couple of minutes, sometimes a few hours! This is driving everyone crazy..

I have tried to upload photos so many times but the power would go out on me, I am ready to give up BUT I received a sweet comment from Juniper and I was encouraged to try again. Will try later today....

Meanwhile, if you have been following international news, the situation in Goma is serious. We received news that the rebels have closed the borders and the people in Goma has no food. Please pray with us, many believers are affected.

On a happier note, I just received news that my pygmy baby, named after me, is getting big! Please read my posts labelled "Congo" to see my pretty baby. She is now 6 months old. I am hoping for a photo soon!

More pics...

2008-10-30T10:06:00.001+03:00

I had a wonderful time speaking at the WOW (Widows and Orphans of the World) conference last week. Before I go to that, let me finish with the pics of Mt Kenya....

These are Rock Hyraxes and they are supposedly distant relatives of the elephants!! I think, if they are truly related to the elephants, it must be quite a distant away :-))

Can you see the peak of the mountain between the clouds? Mt Kenya!

Bush pig...Vickie loves ALL animals...

Vickie named this baby buffalo, Babu!

Hybrid of zebra and horse, Kathryn calls them Zorse~

I think they look mostly like horses except for the stripes

Speedy, the turtle, giving free rides!!! We were told that he can carry up to 300lbs.

Our favorite monkeys...all three of them :-))

There is a brick wall with the names of the donors to the orphanage...this is not our Kathryn's brick but she thought it was cool to take a pic of it anyways!

I love the expression of Kathryn's face in this picture. She suddenly look like her two year old self from so long ago...sweet and oh so adorable!!!

Mt Kenya

2008-10-24T20:23:00.000+03:00

Here we are finally at Mt Kenya, at the animal orphanage.

Vickie feeding the crown crane

This is a Bongo, it is an endangered animal. This orphanage was started as an effort to protect this unusual animal. The stripes on their bodies makes them very special and vulnerable as you can imagine how beautiful that piece of "rug" would be...

Feeding the ostrich, Patricia...she pecks hard!

Porcupine. ..we were told this kind does not shoot their needles...phew..

This tortoise is at least 100 years old and can live up to 300 years old. His name is Speedy - appropriate, don't you think?

At the entrance of the orphanage...sorry my pictures are not in any particular order!!

Some kind of wild cat, with special looking ears..

me and my roomate!

this monkey is still a baby, I think he is 6 months old..

We didn't realise that Mt Kenya is at 7000 ft above see level. It got cold when we were there.

A quaint little chapel.

me and my pastor :-))

father and daughter, look at the way they stood...same???

the "giant" maze - not really, you really can't get lost, you just walk in circles and eventually will come out ! I will try to post more photos...the girls took tons!

Preaching...

2008-10-22T05:58:00.006+03:00

Tony was invited to preach at one of our HIM (Harvesters Inst. of Min - the layman Bible school we pioneered) alumni, Stephen Wanyoike's church. It was almost an hour away but it was so worth it for us to see how he his church has grown and out of this "little" church, he started another 27 churches! He is in his 70s!

Still expanding and building

the congregation

this is how dry the area has been, we have not had good rains for a long time...years, I think

my favorite Pastor with Stephen and his wife.

Early this month, Tony also preached at Nairobi Pentecostal Church, Parklands. He speaks regularly in this church. This is a strong, dynamic and vibrant church. We always enjoy their services, especially when my favorite preacher is preaching :-))

My goofballs! On our way to Mt Kenya!

We took a wrong turn on our way there and had to get gas AND directions!!

We saw this hotel sign on our way there - it even has the signature green!!

Our destination!

This time of the year, October/November, the city of Nairobi or Kenya in general, experience a burst of beautiful purple/lavender with the blooming of the jacaranda trees. It is a most beautiful sight. The flowers will fall to the ground, effectively and instantly creating a lush purple carpet on the roads. I need to get some good pictures of that.

I found this picture of a cake of the Malaysian flag that Kathryn took at the banquet celebrating our independance day. I thought I share this as some of you might not know what the Malaysian flag looks like :-)

Once again, Max on duty - our ferocious guard dog keeping us safe when daddy is away!

He is SO adorable, don't you think?

This is the camera woman responsible for all the pictures in this posting....I got them all from her camera! She loves photography and is extremely creative and enjoys letter art, sketching, designing rooms/houses, craftings, etc. She DID NOT get that from me!

Camerawoman with friends! I have a hard time finding pictures of kathryn because she is always behind the camera. She has tons of pictures of her friends but none with her in it. When I saw this, I felt like I had to post it!!

Vickie in Elsamere and Crescent Island (CFS)

2008-10-17T18:49:00.008+03:00

While we face many challenges here in the missions field, we also reap many blessings. One of the biggest blessing to us is the great school that the girls attend : Rosslyn Academy. It started many years ago as a missionary school to cater for the needs of the missionaries' kids. The school has since grown and it is now one of the best schools here in Nairobi. We are very grateful for the quality education that our girls are getting.

One of the highlight of the school year is CFS (Cultural Field Studies). The kids get to camp out someplace in the country to learn more about the country they live in. This year, the 7th graders went to Elsamere Park and Crescent Island. You can tell from the photos that they had a great time!

They visited a local school and played soccer with the kids. Sports is such great way for kids to get together!

These are dung critters..having a feast, I suppose....eewwwww...

Miss Gac, she's a great teacher and Vickie loves her! She taught Kathryn too.

Hippos..they are one of my favorite animals...they always look so comical...too bad, I wasn't
there :-))

More Hippos ...on the way to Crescent Island

Vickie told me that she got to be real close to the giraffes...it was an awesome experience for her. She says she was about ten feet away from them...

My baby...so grown up...

They also saw some dead (very dead) animals...

Graceful giraffe.

Camp fire at night

With bestfriend from Ukraine, Anastasia

Best friend from America, Claire

Dead animal....:-( and half eaten :-((

A phyton hole....excuse me, where is the Phyton?????

Needless to say she had a great time. Vickie is real animal lover so it was especially fun for her. She return from this trip and packed for another one at Mt Kenya with us, more pictures soon....

4 GB Flashdrive....

2008-10-09T10:33:00.006+03:00

The visiting Canadian team had written to ask what would be an appropriate gift to bring for the students on campus...one of the feedback we received from the students is a flashdrive. I know that these are relatively inexpensive back home but it certainly is not here in Kenya. Most of our students do not have their own computers and have to use CDs or DVDs to save their work. We sent out an email to the team but didn't know if they could bring it or not. They DID!!!

We package the disks like lollipops and at the end of the fellowship, I announced that the team brought us some special Canadian candy which was non-fat, non-calorie and must not be shared by their kids. Below is a picture of the ladies holding up their "candy"....

When we had them opened it, you can hear so many gasps! The girls spontaneously went and hugged the team members...they were overjoyed!

The lady in the middle with glasses is Gillian, she is a pastor's wife and shared so openly with us concerning her journey in ministry. She encouraged us to walk with the Lord. She read us a beautiful love story which was an analogy of Christ's relationship with us.
I had the students to pray for the team for their visit here as well as their safe journey home.

Time of fellowship...

Game time!! Passing the balloon...

furiously writing down as many attributes of God as possible to win a prize!

Worship and praise. Here you can see Gillian better (in the green top). Maureen Potter, on her right, is the host for the team and one of my favorite neighbor and a great friend.

One of the games the ladies played was to cut a piece of string (any desired length - so some were really short and others took a long one!). Then they are supposed to wrap/twirl the string around their finger as they tell us about themselves until they string is done...it was fun getting to know these gals...from Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo....

Later that evening, we had the team over for dessert. I wish I had taken pictures, but was busy getting things together and serving everyone. Kathryn made funnel cake and I set out an "ice-cream bar" - it was fun to visit with them. We also gave them little gifts as thanks for ministering to the students.

Vehicle and Ladies Fellowship

2008-10-08T09:40:00.009+03:00

We have recently been very burdened concerning a vehicle for the orphanage. The truck that Lucy is using has served the home well....but is now almost ready to give up its ghost! The cost for the major repairs for this vehicle could actually help us get another one, although it would be a used car. We are trusting the Lord to bring the "new" vehicle soon

Tony and Lucy with the well used vehicle...

to transport the food for the orphanage

The truck is constantly overheating, leaking oil, breaking down, etc....

Last night, as in every Tuesday night, the ladies who live in the girls dorm meet for a time of fellowship and prayer. I was the scheduled speaker for last evening; however, there was a visiting team from Cananda, and the ladies helped us with that meeting instead. It was a fun time of games, devotion and fellowship. I am so glad the "girls" get a break from their studies and were able to just hang out for a bit...

This is Tumaini (meaning "hope" in kiswahili). Tumaini is from Tanzania, a second year student and is the Dorm Monitor.

Clemence from Rwanda, also a pastor's kid.

Worship and prayer in the girls' lounge

One of the games the team prepared was to show the girls a tray of assorted items and have them memorised them and write them down from memory. Here, Debbie, with the tray and almost 20 items (or more!)...

Furiously writing down the items. Judy, the girl with the wrap, managed to write down 20 items!!! Me - ZERO!! I was busy taking pictures and trying to distract them....

Pauline sharing a short devotion on Lydia, encouraging us to be women of reputation and to live for the Lord. The time ended with prayer for one another. The team also brought toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss to give away. Pauline is also a dental hygienist and even had a show and tell time and showed the girls how to use dental floss. Many haven't even seen dental floss before, much less to know how to use it. It was a good evening, in every way.

Update..

2008-10-04T12:50:00.007+03:00

I must apologise for the lack of posting lately. it wasn't so much that I didn't have time but I was just so distracted by many different things that needed my attention. Before I forget, I want to thank those of you who have written to let me know that you are praying for my mini retreat. However, I didn't get to go, several meetings came up the last minute and I ended being in three meetings on the day that I was supposed to be away! We do have a couple more holidays coming up, so I have not given up planning for yet another one....

Here are some of the pictures I had mentioned of the official dedication of the new church sanctuary of River of God church.

Dancing and jubililation during the worship service. No one dances as well as our african brothers and sisters - they have such a natural rhythm in their bodies, I am so jealous!

The children church gave a great presentation of songs,
This was a proud moment for us when Pas Khaylo invited Tony to the pulpit to give a few words of encouragement as the founding pastor. We are so proud of Pas Khyalo and the ministry team he is leading. The church continues to grow and flourish...God is so good!Kathryn with one of her many babies. This cute boy is Aiden.
This is Rev Peter Njiri, he is the General Superintendent of the Kenya Assemblies of God. He preached and encouraged the church to grow and be missions minded. He also congratulated River of GOd church as the 5th biggest tither in Kenya, where there are almost 3000 churches.I found this picture of Vickie with her best friend, Anastasia from Ukraine. They look so cute together!
This is my great accomplishment! Chinese Roast Pork!!! I am not a good cook and don't really enjoy cooking. One of the challenges I face living in Africa is that I have to cook every meal since eating out is very expensive here- unlike in Malaysia:-)) I also have to bake as the baked goods here are not always tasty and the nice ones are pricey. Anyways, when I was home this time, my sister Sally, cooked us this delicious Roast Pork. She emailed the recipe to me recently and I tried it. It turned out pretty good except that the skin is not quite as crispy- need to tweak that next time....

On a more serious update, the situation at the orphanage has settled quite a bit. The perpertrator is now arrested and the child is receiving the help she needs - treatments and therapy. The child has continue to improve, her infections are under controlled through strong meds and she is less confused and much more calmer. We are all still processing what had happened and is still working on increasing security measures, etc. Thank you for all your prayers for us - we defintely felt the impact of your prayers carrying us.

Time away

2008-09-28T20:12:00.002+03:00

I am planning to be away for a time of prayer at a place not too far from home by myself this Tuesday, since Wednesday is a public holiday here. Tony often go away somewhere for a night or two just to spend additional time to seek the Lord, away from our busy lives and home! I don't do it as often as he does, but lately I have been feeling such a drawing to do that. So many things are happening..in me, around me, through me, etc I really need time away just to be alone, to have time in the Word, in worship and with the Lord.

If you think of me, pray with me that this time will be refreshing and renewing for me.

Difficult time

2008-09-19T14:45:00.003+03:00

We are still processing the case of the little girl. My heart continues to be heavy over the situation, I am doing what I can to help. Please pray for all of us who are involved.

Last Sunday was a very special day for us. The church we founded, ROG, officially dedicated the new sanctuary. The KAG General Superintendent (GS) was with us. He preached and then officiated the dedication. After the service, we went out for lunch with him together with the Pastor and the church board. He continues to encourage us to work hard for the Lord. It was such a time of encouragement for us all. The GS is such a visionary leader and his leadership has greatly inspired and impacted our lives and even shape some of our leadership style and principles. One of the many things we learn from him is to invest in people, not buildings. Both personally and also the church he is pastoring has planted over 38 churches and supported many Bible school students. He also shared with us that the KAG has been feeding over 75000 people the last six months after the post election violence. These are KAG members. Right now, the KAG (of which we are part of) is feeding 690 pastors and their families. We now have over 3,000 churches. We feel so bless to be part of such a dynamic organisation.

I will try to share some photos over the next few days as the girls took their cameras with them (with my pics!). They away at sleepovers tonight. Tony and I are looking forward to a quiet evening together....

Urgent Prayer Request

2008-09-17T19:47:00.002+03:00

Lucy, our orphanage director came today very distraught and in all the years I have known her, I have never seen her so shaken. She found out today that one of our girls was being raped repeatedly by a neighbor. She was threatened and had kept it secret all these time. This abuse started since last year. The child whom was being abused is one whom we rescued since she was very little. Lucy is especially close to this little girl, you can imagine how devastated she is.

Lucy has made reports to the Children Welfare department and the Police. Things will be potentially "messy" and difficult with the involvement of these departments. Lucy will be very busy with lots of meetings and interviews and paperwork, this will be in addition to the heavy responsibilities she already bear for the orphanage.

Tony and I spent time praying with her and encouraging her. Please pray for her and the little girl.

Orphanage

2008-09-15T14:19:00.004+03:00

We took our friend to visit our orphanage. It was exciting for us to see the new dormitory.

These are our nursery and elementary classrooms.
These kids are in the under 5.
Wambau (with the blue sweater) is one of our newest orphans. She is TOO cute. Tony wanted to take her home. She ran to me when I called to her!
They were giving thanks for the cookies we brought them...

We got new exercise books (notebooks) with our school name printed.
Rice to be cleaned for lunch for over 200 kids. We have to clean the rice because they are often tiny stones and sometimes bugs in them....
Dirty little feet but oh so precious!
11 tray of eggs were collected from our chickens that day and I took all of it so that I can sell it to friends on campus. They were all gone the following day - with orders for more....that's over 300 eggs, people!!
The new dormitory...
Kitchen...we also took some pictures of the rooms but it was too dark and the pictures didn't turn out well...

A neighbor buying our water. We sell one barrel of water for 20 Ksh (RM1.00 or US0.30cents) - it's very inexpensive and really helps the community. There is not city water in that part of Ruai. The poor donkey....

New wall

2008-09-15T08:04:00.002+03:00

We use to have a wooden fence with tons of bougainvillea at the back of our house. For security reasons, the wooden fence was replaced recently by this nice stone wall.
Instead of bougainvilleas (with their thorns!) deterring anyone from climbing over then fence, we now have these razor wires at the top of the wall. These are pretty vicious! These are very common on most walls in Kenya.

These babies are all gone~jellie covered chocolate....they were yummy.
On the other hand, why would we need a new wall or razor wires when we have Max - always hard at work protecting us????

Urgent Prayer Requestf : Zimbabwe

2008-09-13T08:58:00.002+03:00

We've been getting updates from a student from Zim. Here is an excerpt of his emails.

9th September :

Just to remind you to keep me and my family in your prayers. Zimbawe is becoming tough to live in each day

many basic goods are becoming hard to come across and prices are changing daily.

Here in Zimababwe the maximum withdrawal from the bank that is allowed daily is Zim $500 which is now equal to less than 50 us cents.

Just pray that God will come through for this nation we are facing serious stavation if nothing happens soon.

12 September :

What a relief it was for us
When we woke up today it was a joy to hear that the talks had come to an agreement as we wait for Monday we are hopeful that it is something that will help our beloved people

Imagine the daily withdrawal limit from the was now an equivalent of four us cents. Waht i got as a salary last month is today's price of 300g brisket grade beef

Life has become so hard for us here in Zim but we keep trusting God

It is against this background that we are saying something is better than nothing we hope the leaders are now having the people at heart. We await to hear the nature of the agreement and its impact on our economy if they had not taken off twelve zeros the us dollar will be worth 2 000 000 000 0000 000 yesterday

Continue to pray for us

Please pray Zimbabwe and God's people in that nation.

Malaysian Visitor...

2008-09-09T18:17:00.006+03:00

We have a Malaysian visitor with us since last Saturday and it's been fun for us to take her around. She is a member of one of our supporting churches. We don't often have visitors from Malaysia so it's a treat for us to show her Africa! She brought us some very yummy gifts from Harrods...teas and chocolates

Kathryn is the tea drinker in our family and she thinks that Kenyan tea is the best, so she very excited to see that the tea from Harrods is blended with Kenyan tea. We are enjoying the tea.

We've never had chocolate covered fruit jellies - they are yummy. As of the time of this writing, it is all eaten :-)
Cream filled chocolate....we still have some of this left...
I thought I post a picture of our grill gate that we locked ourselves out of last Sunday. Can you see how tiny it really is and that my 12 year old Vickie was able to slide through that last year...
This is my tiny Vickie, cooking breakfast for the family on Saturday....
Yup, they are our slaves....
And she's making bacon - I think she ended up eating most of them!

My pretty girl...the girls getting ready for school. They are growing up so very quickly, I thought I take as many pictures of them as I can.
Another pretty girl...

Ok, I have a good ziploc story. As we are not able to get a lot of our food/ingredients here in Nairobi, we bring back lots of them - curry powder, spices, mixes, dried food, etc. I usually would bag them in ziploc bags and keep them in my chest freezer. One time, Lucy (our street children director) had an order for 35 chickens (we sell chicken and eggs from the orphanage to help supplement the home's income) but the person did not turn up for the chickens. At that time, we did not have a freezer at the orphanage so she brought the chickens to me. I rearranged my freezer and managed to slot in the 35 freshly slaughtered chickens in my freezer. The person who ordered them came the following day to pick them up. However, days later, whenever I opened my freezer, it would stink so badly and I couldn't figure out why. I finally decided to emptied out the freezer and guess what??? there was probably a 3 inch thick of "blood ice" at the bottom of the freezer. I didn't realised that blood was seeping out of the sack of chickens and has now dripped over all my "assets" and have accumulated on the floor of the freezer. Yikes!

It was not a fun job cleaning it out, I can tell you that! Anyways, as a result of that, I threw away all the ziploc bags as they were stained and was smelling so bad. It was a good thing that the items themselves were protected from the blood! I was very grateful for that. Now, ziploc bags are not available here, so I started looking at every garage sale for them. I was so pitiful.

The end of the story is that a missionary friend ( a very special one!) shared some of hers with me and another friend brought me some. It's probably difficult for some of you to imagine this but I was so excited and so happy when I saw this on my counter one day...
40!!! 40 ziploc bags!!! I am in heaven....!!! almost......I know, I am pitiful....
The University usually give a welcome pack to the first year residential students. I was asked to help out in these at the very last minute. Tony and I did the shopping and when we got back, Vickie volunteered to help us. She loves organizing and putting things in order.
In every bag, there is laundry detergent, clothe pegs, soap, laundry soap, a pen, a pencil and lastly and most importantly, a cadbury candy bar!
The finished product...fifty bags

Oops, we forgot the toothpaste!!! but they did get into the bags....
Max didn't want to be left out and was underfoot the whole time we were doing this...do you think they look alike? They were both born on the same date, July 31st...
twins??? As you can see, Max recovered very well from his surgery. He was so happy to be home....and so were we!

Counsellng and Ministry (edited)

2008-09-03T10:40:00.004+03:00

Since we got back to Nairobi, we are slowly getting back to the routine of school, church, university, ministry and life in general. Tony is scheduling the different invitations he has received since our return and will be busy preaching again. He is also working on the chapel services on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Staff Lunch Hour fellowships on Fridays. He is also mentoring several pastors. As for me, I have resumed some of my counselling cases and taken on a few new ones and working on the Ladies Fellowship and the Couples Fellowship on campus. I am also helping out with a local church in their administration to help firm somethings up. It's a growing church and I think if we tighten the nuts and bolts, the church will really take off. I am excited to be part of that but that will also involve many hours of some tedious work.

Ok..I titled today post as "counselling" because I want to shed some light on what I do as a counsellor. There are so many misconceptions that comes with the term "counselling" - some see it as a chit chat session or worse, a gossip session; others see it as a stigma - "only basket cases need counselling" and yet others think that it's a female thing! :-) We often see on tv, the client on the infamous couch mumbling to a therapist and qualifies that as counselling. Here in Africa, there is still quite a bit of stigma attached to counsellng. I remembered when we were pastoring, couples who were seeking counsel requests that I meet with them outside the church office. They do not want to be seen or "everyone" will think that they are getting a divorce or someone is unfaithful, etc. Anyways, I wanted to shed some light on how I do my counselling and maybe demystify the process for some!

When a client (could be a pastor, student, child, staff, etc) first see me, we explore in the first session what the situation is and determine what the goal is of our time together. We do more background/history taking stuff in the first session. We would then decide on the goal(s) - the client has to come up with this while I help him/her explore. Most of us have a hard time knowing what we really want...it's true! The goal(s) could be better communication in marriage, or to fight less, or learning to live with HIV in a positive way, coping after a divorce, forgivenss after betrayal, etc. I usually suggest that we meet once a week for an hour for 4-6 weeks and sometimes 8 weeks. We work progressively towards the goal(s) we have set for our sessions.

As you can tell there is nothing "chatty" or "gossipy" about these sessions. Often the sessions are very intense - you can imagine it's not easy to confront our own struggles and pain, etc. It takes a lot of work between the client and me to help them work out their situations. Between clients, I find myself learning and researching (on the internet mostly) on specifics challenges, etc and sometimes I refer to books that I have collected over the years. I pray for my clients often and they are usually not far from my thoughts. I take my ministry seriously, I really do.

I started counselling when we started ROG in 1999. Since then, I have seen how people can be helped through our time spent together. However, for the counselling sessions to be beneficial and effective, I have to work hard but not as hard as my clients :-) They are the ones who are working out their issues and I do what I can to help them succeed. Change is very difficult and I respect the hardwork my clients put in to get their life, marriage, or relationships in order.

It also takes a lot out of me to listen (the main role of the counsellor!) - I am listening to what is said, what is not being said, the body language and also discernment in my spirit. It is very demanding! Just think about doing that several hours everyday!?!

I don't think counselling is my most natural gifting but I kinda got thrown into the deep end when we started the church almost ten years ago. However through many years of learning, reseaching, actual counselling, many mistakes, consultation with other counsellors and learning from them, help from the Holy Spirit and a deep desire to help people, I have learn quite a lot from counselling.

So, what do you think of counsellng? I must add that it is also hugely rewarding when you see transformed lives....so, counselling...any volunteers??? Care to share your thoughts?

Malaysian National Day

2008-09-02T11:35:00.009+03:00

This past Sunday was the Malaysia National Day (Independence Day). We got up early to attend the flag raising ceremony. We sang the National Anthem together. It felt good to be able to sing our national anthem with other fellow Malaysians.

My three favorite people in the world goofing off.
Our Ambassador giving a speech, encouraging us to uphold the good name and reputation that Malaysia has in Kenya and to be an example of unity since we are a multicultural, multiracial, multilingual, multireligions, etc. It was a good speech.
The kids were given cool Malaysian visors..
Nasi lemak for breakfast!! Nasi lemak is a Malaysian breakfast food consisting of coconut rice (yes, rice for breakfast, people!), sambal (a spicy salsa like condiment that is very yummy); hard boiled eggs and cucumber. There were also fried noodles and special Malaysian desserts. There were about 50 of us and we enjoyed getting to know more Malaysians. I especially enjoyed getting to know two ladies working for Petronas but are based in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. They came to Nairobi just to celebrate the National Day!

Vickie had fun taking pictures of the photographers!
After the flag rising ceremony we went to church. Kathryn taught her little class again and since she had her camera with her, Vickie took some pictures of the class. Cute kids!
These three little angels are our SUPERHEROES!!! In the rush of leaving early in the morning, I accidentally locked us out of the house. However, our grill gate has big enough gaps for a small child to go through. Vickie was able to do that up to last year, of course, she is super skinny and super flexible! We "borrowed" the Exley's kids from church and took them home with us. Melia (the youngest, in the middle) would have been able to slide through easily but she was too afraid. Kennedy, the oldest on the left, tried to talk her into it unsuccessfully..but Karson, our HERO was willing to try. He didn't managed the first time but succeeded on his second attempt!! We got into the house, finally!!! Thank God for good friends who are willing to loan us their children and for kids who are willing to do crazy things!! I have to take a picture of the grill door so you can see what a challenge Karson had. I find it hard to believe that Vickie could do it up to last year!!
After all that drama, we took a little rest and went to the evening Banquet to celebrate our National Day with others, about 300 others. The Prime Minister of Kenya also came for the event. Once again, yummy food....and I did not have to cook all day :-)
Let me close this posting with a picture of our poor Max. He has to go for surgery to correct an "intimate" genetic problem (ya, I will spare you the details!). We will be taking him to the vet tomorrow...and here he is without a clue :-( We get to pick him up this Saturday. We hope he will recover quickly!

New project.

2008-08-26T12:56:00.006+03:00

Our orphanage has a friend from the States who just started a ministry helping the widows here in Kenya. Lucy, our orphanage director is helping with the efforts. I was asked to help them arrange for shipping. These goods will be sold in the States and the money will be used to help the widows who made them. I think it's a great idea! This is a headband made with masai beads.
Carvings, the two giraffes are carved from a single piece of wood. Pretty cool, eh. Another hair clip.
Bracelets and purses. I will try to arrange for the shipping sometime tomorrow so that our friend in the States can have them soon to sell.

I wanted to show off these big and beautiful roses. A very talented friend of mine made these and gave them to me. They are paper roses!! Can you believe it?

Since our time in Malaysia, I am trying to lose some weight - actually, I am always trying to lose weight :-) Anyways, I pray this prayer everyday over my skinny friends :-) - it's on my kitchen wall, so I never forget!

It's a while since I posted pictures of Max. We are so excited to have him back with us. He lost some weight while we were gone but is making up for it now! We are giving him breakfast and dinner and he eats so much! Before we left in June, he was only eating one meal a day. He quickly gained back his weight back the last two weeks...He is really good and remembered his little routine, and did not have a single accident! He is also very clingy and would sit/lay very close to all of us whenever we are around. We sure missed him during the summer....

Kenya AOG Council

2008-08-24T21:54:00.007+03:00

Last week was the General Council of the Assemblies of God in Kenya (KAG). Both of us hold work permits with the KAG and we have a wonderful relationship with the General Superintendent, Rev Peter Njiri and his team of leaders. The KAG has over 3000 churches and in the post election violence, we lost over 300 churches - they were either burnt or destroyed. However, through the sacrificial and generous giving of many , the KAG was able to reach out to 692 pastors and 178,172 individuals who were affected by the violence. He reported that over 600 of these churches have now resumed their regular services - Praise the Lord! We still need to help another 100 pastors and churches to get back on their feet. Pastors praying for the unreached people groups in Kenya and the internally displaced people.
These precious pastors responding to the altar after the daily devotions. God is the rewarder of those who seek Him!
This is a "matatu" or a mini bus which is a means of public transportation. Tony saw this particular matatu filled to the door with cabbages!!!
This is Stephen Wanyoike. He is an amazing man of God. He was one of our first students in the layman Bible School we pioneered in 1993. He was in his sixties then. Now, Stephen not only pastors a church of his own, but also planted another 27 churches!!!!
The lady is Ruth and the young man is Alex. Ruth is also a pastor and Alex is married with children and is also pastoring a church. It was so good to meet these HIM (Harvesters Inst of Mins) graduates and see them flourishing in the ministry - actively serving the Lord and making a difference in Kenya. What a harvest!!! They also shared with us about other students who have started and planted churches, they even told us of one HIM graduate who planted a church in England. It is such a blessing to us to hear all these great testimonies - it really encourages us to continue to pour ourselves into the people/pastors whom God will send our way. We just never now how our investment in these wonderful people (and sometimes, interesting people!)will pay out in the bigger picture of God's kingdom!!
This is an interesting sign painted on the back of another matatu that we often see in our area. And right under this very profound sign about women is this statement....
100% Pure Pain?????
I had a really proud moment at church today. This little boy, Isaac, played the drums during our worship service! He was one of my "missionettes".... ok, let me explain...when we were pastoring, I wanted to start Missionettes and Royal Rangers in the church. However, I couldn't find anyone interested in doing the Royal Rangers program. Well, that didn't stop me from launching the Missionettes program. When the little girls came to our meetings on Saturday afternoons, some of their brothers followed....soon, I had as many boys as I did girls in my missionettes meeting!!! I eventually changed it to "Bible Club". Tony made me!! He didn't want these little boys to be called missionettes!!!
Most of the kids on the front row are Kathryn's kids. They led worship in church today with the help of one adult. They did a great job!
This little boy is one of Kathryn's students. He quoted a bunch of scriptures from memory and did so well. He also won a prize for something during the VBS that the church was running this week. Kathryn told me that he is a really good boy and takes good care of his younger siblings. She noticed that he always bring a King James bible with him. She wanted to buy him a easier version bible that he can actually understand. That is also a proud moment for muah!! I love that our kids are involve in ministry and is sensitive to the needs of the people they minister to. Today we help a friend with some medical bills and each of the girls contributed a significant amount of their savings towards that offering. I am really grateful that despite the many mistakes Tony and I made as parents, our kids are turning out pretty awesome!!! We are bless...

Back to Routine

2008-08-21T21:28:00.004+03:00

We've been home almost two weeks now and I just realised that I have not blogged for a whole week! It's not because I am that busy, but just very many little things that needed my attention and I am too distracted to actually sit down and blog and upload pictures :-)

I will be sharing some photos in the next few days....but a few updates on what we've been doing. Since our return, we've met with Bethuel (a Congolese pastor who graduated this July) and Noella and discussed the strategy/plans to plant a church in Beni and to build a school for the pygmies. I also met with some of the students - one who lost her mother just before her final exams in July. She missed the finals and is only sitting for them now. A lot happened while we were gone - quite a few students whom we really connected with graduated and we miss them! We hope to have their news from their friends when the new term bgins next week. We know that many are serving now in churches either here in Kenya or in their home countries, while some are pursuing their Masters degree in other universities.

This week is the General Council of the Kenya Assemblies of God. Tony went for the meetings but I stayed home to get caught up with paperwork and to prepare for the new school year. Tony was really excited when he came home from the meeting today. He met some of the students of Harvesters' Institute of Ministries (HIM, the layman Bible school we pioneered way back in 1993 and is currently an extension program at the AOG regional seminary here). We learn that many of the graduates of HIM have gone out and planted many churches. Stephen (in his seventies!) has planted 25 churches, another student 17 churches, and many others. It is such a joy for us to hear that. We are so grateful to the Lord and so encouraged to hear of these fruit! I am only too aware of so many wonderful missionaries who have worked just as hard or harder but never got to see the result of their labor. We count ourselves bless that the Lord would let us see that our work has bore much fruit - Praise be to Him! Many of these pastors have invited Tony to speak at their churches....it will be very exciting for us to visit these churches. We want to once again thank our supporting friends and churches - you share in this harvest too!!

Tomorrow we will be going to the Staff/Faculty Day for the University. Tony will be conducting communion.

As I write this, I feel so humbled and privilege that we get to do what we do. I must admit that there are always some bad days but mostly, I feel bless that I have a part in the Kingdom of God - teaching, preaching, encouraging the people of God in His service. The time is short, there is much to do! Please continue to pray for us - we want to be able to accomplish all that our Lord has planned for us to do this year. We need Him!

On the family front, the girls had a great start to the new school year. Vickie won two basketball games already and made 4 baskets. We missed both her games - it was a sad day for me :-( Kathryn is enjoying high school - I cannot even believe I just typed that - "high school" !!! Where is my little girl??? She started teaching Sunday School last week, the Superintendent called her and told her that she needed to her to teach last Sunday as they don't have enough teachers. She did a great job as usual and misses some of kids who had graduated to the 7-9 year old class when she was gone. I am still getting use to having cook everyday - sometimes twice a day; and packing lunches -urgh......! When we were home in Malaysia - I did not cook a single meal...sigh.....

Please check back for pics...ok?

Updates and Miscellanous Photos

2008-08-14T08:23:00.010+03:00

We arrived in Nairobi on Sunday 10th late afternoon. We were so tired but glad to be home. All
our suitcases came in quickly and everything were intact! Praise God! When we got home, Tony found our car battery to be totally flat, it was a good thing a mechanic was on the compound fixing one of our neighbor's car. The mechanic had to remove the battery from our neighbor's car and put it into our car to get it started and then replace our old battery back into our car to get it charged...after about an hour, the car was fine. I was so hyper by then, I started unpacking and believe it or not, I unpacked all SEVEN suitcases that evening!!!! Today, I am still sorting things out and finally got all the cables sorted out...so here's some pictures to share and they may not be in any particular order! sorry....

This is a picture of our "second home" - Mid Valley Mega Mall! We were there at least three times a week - no, not always shopping but it's a central place for us to meet with friends and family and of course, shopping in between meetings!! The giant candle sticks were part of a Home Expo that was there during our last visit to this mall.

We met with Tony's mom and sister for a last meal before we fly out. While we were visiting (mostly in Cantonese and Hakka - chinese dialects that we speak), Vickie entertained herself with designs made with silly putty!!!
A final picture with Ronald....
This group of kids are from Korea. They were presenting a song during the Community Baptist Church (CBC) 34th Anniversary where Tony preached. The leader of the group shared how this ministry is discipling young children for evangelism and missions! Awesome!!
The congregation of CBC, there were over 1000 of them that morning.
A brother from Myammar giving a song special. The church collected an offering that morning to build a school for the children of Myammar who were displaced as a result of the typhoon that devastated their homes. Later at lunch with Pas Richard and his wife, Pat, they received a call from their church that the offering was above and beyond what they needed for the project! Ps Richard has a real heart for missions and his church is very involved in missions. This is the first time we got to know them and really appreciate their ministry.
The gentleman on the left of Tony is Pas Richard.

Waiting at Dubai airport.....
I found these adorable pictures of Tony playing nanny to Anna. So cuddly and cosy....
Aww......

Steamboat!! For those of you who don't know what this is....we have a hotpot in a middle of a table and then we keep dumping yummy stuff into the soup and when it's cooked, we scoop up what we want and then we add more food to the pot for round two! It's a super fun way to eat and visit. At the end of the meal, the soup is so very delicious. Can you spot the kung fu panda fishball in the steamboat? Vickie is a HUGE Kung Fu Panda fan...
Giant lamps at Megamall....
Final pics of the Wong family at the McDonalds at the KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport). Edison (my brother in law) and my sister, Shiryne, is such a blessing to us - letting us stay at their house, feeding us, taking care of the girls when we have to be out, etc. In fact, we are so grateful for our families....they help and support us in so many ways. On the night where we have to drive to the airport late at night, my other sister, Sally, stayed with Anna and didn't get home till after midnight or close to midnight. My oldest sister did so much shopping for us.....we are so blessed...
Looks like Cookie Monster is excited to make his first trip to Nairobi with us :-)
Sleeping on the airport floor in Dubai at 4 am!!
Pretending to be sleeping .....
We say goodbye to the beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur...the twin towers of Petronas
A giant faucet ...
The Kuala Lumpur tower where you can see the whole city in the revolving restaurant at the top...we will have to do that next trip..

1,000,000 Pounds

2008-08-06T03:17:00.003+03:00

I received this email in my inbox today with the subject title "Happy Lucky Winner" from UK Lottery Claims Office:

--Congratulations you are a winner of 1,000,000 Pounds (One million pounds Sterling's Only). to claim your prize reply this email sending us your details.

Yeah, right!! Although it would have been wonderful IF it was true. Of course, it isn't! Or is it???? End of our fundraising trail for the rest of our lives??????? Not so fast, I don't think..........

Crazy last days....

2008-08-04T06:17:00.002+03:00

I cannot imagine that two months had so quickly passed by! Tony told me in the car today that we ministered in over 30 services in our 8 weeks of stay....that's a lot of services!!! He has two more services to go this week before he's done and leave for the airport on Saturday.

We have enjoyed every single service and have continually been overwhelmed by the responses of the congregations. Hearts are open and hungry and ready to receive God's word. I have more pics to post but I won't attempt that today. Most of our things are packed, so I won't even try to look for cables, etc, teehee!

Let me recap what we did these two months :

1. Ministered in over 30 services.
2. Enjoyed the best durians, not once but twice- once in Ipoh and once courtesy of Tony's Aunt.
3. Ate authentic Ipoh Chicken Rice in Ipoh; Tony's favorite :-)
4. Vacation in one of our favorite place - Penang and stayed in a hotel right on Gurney Drive - courtesy and generosity of a fellow blogger's dad!
5. Ride almost all the rides in Genting Theme Park and spent three days there.
6. Went to Sunway Lagoon to the wet and dry theme park and got sun burnt.
7. Tony's surgery went smoothly and is healing well.
8. Renewed all our passports. YAY!
9. Celebrated the girls' birthdays numerous times (!) with family and friends.
10. Met up with "old" friends
11. Went to Petaling Street ( or the famous "Chinatown") and bought lots of fun stuff
12. Enjoyed God's provision for our transportation - two great, dependable and trustworthy cars from very generous and wonderful friends.
13. Enjoyed superior sharkfin soup (!)
14. Kat got her dream laptop and Vickie got her dream camera - again thanks to the generosity of friends and family!
15. Tony's mom went to church with us most Sundays.
16. Got connected with more pastors and friends.
17. I got a new phone as a gift from an old friend.
18. Numerous meetings connecting ministries here to ministries in Africa
19. Got to spend lots of time with my youngest niece Annabelle, since we live with her!
20. Counselled several individuals who were lost, confused and disillusioned by different struggles.
22. Shop
23. Ate
24. Starbucks.....

WOW!!! I was a little overwhelmed listing the things down! All I can say is that we are completely overwhelmed by faithfulness and goodness of God and His people to us.

I can't say we "rested" , actually we are supposedly "on furlough". In a dictionary, furlough means "official leave from duty, especially military duty". I don't think our time in Malaysia can be called that! But it is still good.

We might have a little breather when we return to Nairobi since the University does not begin till end of the month. The girls however, will have to get back to school the morning after we fly in~ that's how we live life - fast and furious!

Do please continue to pray for us - that God will prepare us, anoint us and empower us for His work in the great continent of Africa!

Edit....

2008-07-25T03:58:00.005+03:00

I thought I was just loading these photos but didn't realise that the pics were actually posted on my blog already..... until now....Since the pics are already posted, I might as well finished the posting :-) We worked hard over the weekend with the four services but we also played hard!! A friend bought us rooms for two days at Genting - a themepark resort in the highlands. The weather is similar to that of Nairobi! It was wonderful. The hotel had this advertisment of the illusive White Lion and White Tiger in a magic show.
The girls had so much fun with all the crazy rides. I think we made full use of our "UNLIMITED" rides tickets we paid for, LOL!
The flying Coaster, apparently the only one in Asia. The girls went on it so many times. It goes all the way up and then spin all around....

Just before we headed out to Genting, we celebrated Kathryn's 14th birthday...

This is a picture that Vickie took of Anna with her new camera that also does these pretty scrapbooking backgrounds in the pictures. Cute, eh?

Yummy Mozarella cheese sticks.

This is the bumper boat ride...more difficult than you would think but superbly FUN! It was a long wait to the ride but it was worth it!
Feeding the fishes..

This game in the arcade was a lot of fun. It is a basketball game and you get rewarded for the number of baskets you make. Tony and the girls scored over 100 baskets! It was all very intense and fun!

We are so thankful to the Lord for providing these "pockets" of rest in the midst of our ministry time here in Malaysia. We only have a couple of weeks to go before we return to the missions field of Africa. There will be many last minute meetings. errands, shopping to do. Kathryn will begin high school this year, Vickie will be in her second year of Middle School. Times sure flew by!!

Right at home in Malaysia

2008-07-25T03:04:00.004+03:00

These are some pictures from our Young Adult Service at GTPJ. There were probably almost 100 Africans in that service - most of them from Botswana and about ten of them from Kenya! It was so great to see so many of them. Here, they are presenting a special African song. We felt we were transported back to Kenya. We miss the sounds of Africa!
During the service, I took some time to describe Africa to the congregation. I also talked about Kenyan food.....Royco, nyama choma (grill meat), etc..The Kenyans came to us after the service and told us how they miss their food. We told them we will bring ugali (a maizemeal that is astaple to the Kenyans, just like rice/noodles are to us), Royco ( a seasoning mix which I have posted before in one of my previous post), the next time we return. They also shared with us some of their challenges living in Malaysia. It was good to fellowship with them! These were the young people answering the altar at the end of the service. If you click on the picture, you will get be able to see Tony praying for the people. Once again, the Lord humbles us as we see the people respond to His Word. After this service, we preached two more services on Sunday at the same church.
This is a picture from Glory Assembly, we are at our fourth service this weekend. We had a great service and Tony's mom was with us once again. After the service, we again were treated to a great Chinese dinner!
Another picture of my cute niece, reading the manual of a hair dryer!!

We certainly been working hard in our services and praying for the Body of Christ. In the midst of our preaching and ministry time, the Lord has also been sending some Christians along our path, some are struggling with personal issues. some are stumbling through some leadership challenges, some are working through their disappointments and hurts. We are praying and meeting with these individuals to encourage them and to help them. This really reminded me that people are the same everywhere. THe hurts/pains of the people in Malaysia may not be as visible as the ones we are constantly exposed to in Kenya or DRCongo but they are still hurting. We all need Jesus and His healing power - in our broken bodies or broken hearts, crushed bones or crushed spirit, in the darkness of our disappointment and betrayal, or in the darkness of the bush.

I have always felt that my place of ministry is in Africa, but in this trip, the Lord clearly showed me that I am to be His minister anywhere I am. His gospel power works not only among the poor but it also works amongst the affluent as well. Sometimes I struggle with what I would call a reversed prejudice - I have often felt that Malaysia has no need for "extra" ministers (since they are so many) and the people doesn't have as "many needs". I have to admit that I was wrong on both counts! The Lord has really been placing people in my hearts - just as I love and care for our congregation and pastors in Africa, He has started to cause me to feel the same way for the people here whom He has sent our way here. We only have a couple more weeks here so pray for us that the Lord will use us to bring healing to as many as possible.

Good things...

2008-07-20T01:17:00.003+03:00

Sorry for the lack of posting and pics....we have been keeping busy - good busy! Last Sunday, Tony and I preached in two different churches. The girls and Tony's mom went with Tony and I went alone to a new church I haven't been before but the pastors are our friends. Both our services went well. Tony preached at Tabernacle of David, the church I grew up in. Pastor Swan took an offering for our family and specifically told Tony that half goes to the girls for their shopping! The girls were so excited!!! They were supposed to pick me up from a mall but instead of just picking me up, we went shopping. Vickie blew almost her whole share on her dream digital camera - a really nice slim lime green (her favorite color of the moment!) one. Kathryn told us that she will put part of her money, almost half of it, towards the laptop that we need to buy to replace the one that had died on us earlier (our poor Compaq) so that she can have the laptop!! What do you think?? Good offer??? Maybe.....these girls are outsmarting us daily :-)

Tony continues to heal well, we got his wound dressed on Friday, everything looks good and he lost his "hump". Just a thin gauze with waterproof bandaid - although a giant one at that!

This week was filled with meals catching up with friends - we had our share of mooncake (can't describe it except that it is a sweet pastry but you can google it:-).. shark fin's soup (yikes!! google this as well if you don't know what this is!), and all the yummy stuff.

Yesterday I preached in a Young Adult Service at Glad Tidings, PJ and we cannot believe that they were so many Africans in the congregation. I will post pictures later. Most of them are from Botswana, but they were also a few from Kenya. Their presence made us feel so at home in that church!! We will be preaching three services today. It is going to be a pretty full day!! Pray for us!

I will post some pics before we leave for a two day vacation to Genting - a theme park resort on a highlands here. The girls are SO looking forward to this - cool weather and crazy rides!! We will be celebrating Kathryn's birthday (21 July) there.

Surgery

2008-07-17T02:02:00.002+03:00

We woke up early Monday morning at 6 am to drive to Putrajaya Hospital for Tony's surgery. He needed a lump removed from his back- it is a benign growth but was getting bigger and the doctor thought best to remove it while we are here in Malaysia. The surgery took about one hour, he chose not to go under, so they did it with local anesthetic. The surgery went well and we were home by midday. However, his gauze was soaked in blood by the evening, so we called the doctor and he told us to have the dressing re-done. We were up again the next morning (the hospital is about a one hour drive), the doctor cleaned his wound again and redressed the wound but this time with a lot more gauze, so Tony has a hump now on his back....like a camel...well, not really! I would have to convince him to let me take a picture so you all can see!

All is well with him, we have to return Friday to the doctor, and I think that would be the final visit. The Lord is good and faithful to put all these together for us, meeting the nice doctor in one of the services we preached in, having it all arranged so quickly despite the fact that it is a public Hospital and the quene for Tony's procedure would be long one, as a minor surgery, and since it is a public hospital it only cost us a GRAND TOTAL of RM23 or USD 7.00 only!! Isn't health care in Malaysia wonderful!! The doctor told us that just the medication he prescribed to Tony is already a lot more than that!

God is good!

Special Durian Post

2008-07-12T15:17:00.016+03:00

This is the promised post on the "King of Fruit - the mighty Durian"! Many of you may not have heard about this fruit before. It's reputation is "smells like hell but tastes like heaven". Most Malaysians will disagree to that and will say instead "smells like heaven AND tastes like heaven". It is also sometimes called the 'forbidden' fruit because hotels in Malaysia will often post notices in their lobby and lifts that durians are not allowed on their property. The smell of durian is very very strong. We had one durian in our car for about 10 minutes when we were in Ipoh and it took us a whole day to air out the smell! We had to do that because our girls find the smell nauseating :-)

Durian has a really tough outer shell with hard and sharp thorns. The thorns can actually puncture your skin if you are not careful. Because of this hard and thorny shell, openning a durian is a skill in itself!

If want you to read more about Durian, I am sure you can google it but nothing you read will do justice to its heavenly smell and taste - you really have to smell it and eat it to believe it!

See how sharp and thorny the shell is. The edible part of the fruit is the yellow meaty flesh. Major YUM!!! Tony enjoying the "fruit of his labor" since he had to work really hard to open it.
This is a picture I found from 2006 when Kathryn took up the challenge to eat one seed of durian for the reward price of RM50 (about USD$15). It was like the tv series, Fear Factor. She cried throughout the process but still managed to finish the fruit and got the money:-) This year, neither girls were even tempted by the same offer we gave them!

This is the famous salt baked chicken of Ipoh. The chicken is wrapped in greaseproof paper, and then baked in salt. This is just one of the many super delicious food we were able to enjoy in Ipoh - thanks to the wonderful hospitality of the pastors and their members!

Kathryn using chopsticks at a dim sum restuarant. She seems pretty good at it too, doesn't she? The lady on her left is Pas Christie from Emmanuel Assembly.

This is a random picture I found. This is what the girls do when we visit with friends over lunch/dinner at a nearby mall. They park themselves in Borders (a really nice bookstore) and read and read and read and......they love it!
More pictures from our food fest at Shogun - raw salmon rolls...
a close up of one of the silver people the girls posed with
this is the adult pool at our hotel. It is on the 7th floor, overlooking Gurney drive. You can click on any of the photos to have a better look.
We found a 70% off sale in Penang at one of the girls favorite clothing store - as you can tell, she's only "mildly" excited, LOL!

An Update...warning...picture heavy!

2008-07-10T17:45:00.010+03:00

We left for Ipoh last Saturday to minister in three services in two churches. We had a great time with Pastor Joyce and Pastor Christie. Pas Christie and I were in the same year at Bible College of Malaysia. Both these churches are Cantonese speaking. Ipoh is basically a Cantonese speaking city. It was so neat to hear our messages translated in Cantonese and really refreshed our minds on many cantonese words/terms we have forgotten living in Africa!!!

But first, a picture of our two wonderful girls. They are such troopers. Both of them ministered with us. The first night, they played a duet for First Assembly. On Sunday morning, Vickie went with me to Emmanuel and played a solo flute piece (her first!) and then after the service, the Youth minister took her aside to speak to the youth group of the church. This is also Vickie's first. She usually prefers being in the background and let her big sister do all the talking. She answered questions and shared with the youth her life in Kenya. Kathryn went with Tony to do the pictures and possibly help out at the altar. On Saturday night, she noticed that the musician was weeping as she played the piano during the altar time and Kathryn being very sensitive, wanted to take over the piano so that the lady could be prayed for at the altar. She did not end up doing it because she was afraid the lady could not understand her and would cause an interruption on the flow at the altar. We are so grateful that our kids are so willing and so good!! They are only 11 and 13 but they sometimes are so mature, we think they are older! We are so bless! The lady in the peach shirt and brown skirt praying for the people is Pastor Joyce.The girls and their "act" : Shine Jesus Shine...We continue to be bless and overwhelm by the responses of each of the services we ministered in. We feel that the people's hearts are completely open and ready to receive His Word.These posters were in the church notice board. Talking of posters, the girls will be doing one for another church. They will probably do it next week as we will be resting at home most of the time as Tony recovers from his minor surgery this coming Monday. Pray for him!

After our ministry time, we headed north to the beautiful island of Penang! A friend booked us into Gurney Hotel, along Gurney Drive! It's a great hotel with lots of eating places along the road! Kathryn taking archery lessons at the hotel sport centre. She shot that arrow into the bull's eye!
Daddy is also trying!

The girls trying out hats at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur...goofy girls! Along Gurney drive at night, it was a 15 minute walk to Gurney Plaza, a shopping complex. Vickie and I took the cab, while Tony and Kathryn walked back to the hotel.

Tony and his girls at the beautiful pools/recreation center of the hotel. We had so much fun playing and swimming in the pool. Tony and I beat the girls at one game of foosball. We also played ping pong. It was ALL fun!!
Vickie goofing off in the car with the coffee bean napkin. Just so you know, the hotel is sandwiched between Starbucks and Coffee Bean....it's the perfect hotel for ME!
Vickie loves her cookie monster t-shirtDo you think they have the same eyes?

This is actually in Ipoh, sorry that I am not doing this quite in sequence!! The pastors took us to the first dim-sum (chinese dumplings) restaurant in Ipoh,
They have all kinds of dim sum. By the way, our time in Ipoh aslo turned out to be a food fest for us! Ipoh has such good food. Tony was completely estatic when he got to eat the famous Ipoh

Chicken Rice. Their bean sprouts were fat and juicy and crunchy - even Kathryn, a non-sprout eater loved it! We also enjoyed the best durian we had. For those of you who do not know what durian is, don't worry, I will do a separate posting of it later, with pics.

My brother in law took us out for a special buffet dinner before we left for Ipoh, at the Shogun Japanese restaurant. This is Tony's plate - full or raw food!There were even escargot, or snails, if you ask me. And yes, Tony ate one of that too! Sometimes I wonder about the man I married....who is he????? The girls and I were not that adventurous, we pretty much stick to the cooked stuff!

Raw squid....

Caviar...in a maki roll
While at the mall, the day we drove to Ipoh, we saw these "silver" people advertising some phone deals. These are live people! We couldn't help ourselves but acted "touristy" and took pictures with them!

Kat found this in a little shop, a bear (I think!) of her favorite footballer.
Vickie realises her life long dream to play with a glow stick!! She bought a bunch of them!This is our last evening in Penang. We went to a seaside restaurant, Eden, and they had a cultural show on. The girls took pics with the troop.....again, very touristy!! We had so much fun. We drive back today to Kuala Lumpur for three services this weekend. I will be doing a Youth Service on Saturday, Tony and I will be speaking in two different churches on Sunday and Tony goes for his minor surgery on Monday.....

It was so good that we get to sneak in this vacation between all the action. We really had a blast, even though Vickie didn't feel well the first couple of days. We laughed, played, shopped, swam, prayed, had movies marathon (from the DVDs we bought from Batu Feringhi ) and ATE and ATE and ATE!!! While we were on holiday, we got another call for another weekday service. God is so SO good to us!

Pictures...

2008-07-03T02:17:00.008+03:00

Sorry guys, not too many pictures to share.....I think Kathryn's memory card for her camera must be corrupted - some of her pictures were not usable. My camera works fine...if only I remember to bring it with me AND if I did remember to bring it with me that I would actually REMEMBER to use it...LOL! Anyway, here's a few pics to share This is Pas Peter Khoo - he looks like a Westerner but he is all Malaysian! I have known him since we were 13 years old and that was a LOOOOOOONG time ago :-) His church is one of our supporting churches since 2006. Both he and his wife are great encouragement and blessing to us. We always enjoy being with them.
Tony giving the altar call - he looks kinda blurr in the picture but it really is him., I promise! We continue to be encourage by the responses of the people at every service we had preached in. About half his church came for the altar. We trust God to continue His work in the lives of His people.
We have the real Starbucks in Malaysia but this is the local version! A little kiosk by the road side and it cost a fraction of what it would have cost us to have coffee at the "real" Starbucks. But they have the good coffee and tea!

I thought I post this cute picture of Vickie and Anna. Vickie is known as "cookie monster" in our family because she is a MAJOR cookie eater. Her first word was not "mama" or "papa" but "cookie" - we have video to prove it! She was very excited when she found this t-shirt at a flea market....Anna loves her shirt too!

This weekend we will be travelling to Ipoh for the Missions Sunday for two churches - both has been supporting our ministry. We are praying the Lord will challenge the hearts of the people for missions. Please pray for us. We have 3 services altogether. Tony wll preach on the Saturday special service and he and I will preach in a different church each on Sunday, and the girls will be giving an instrumental special of "Shine Jesus Shine" - please pray for all of us! I promise I will try to do better with pictures this time!

After our time of ministry, we will be heading to Penang - a wonderful resort island - a vacation place like Mombasa/Florida - depending on your frame of reference :-) for our much looked forward to vacation! We have not had a vacation the last two years! I cannot tell you how excited we all are! A friend managed to arrange for our rooms and yesterday a wonderful family even gave us a love offering for our gas and "spending" money - God is SO SO GOOD!!!!!!

This afternoon Tony will be preaching at a Full Gospel Businessman chapter in Damansara Jaya, but he will drop us off at a nearby mall to meet with a friend....again, I will try to do better with pics!

New Covenant Assembly

2008-06-29T16:21:00.006+03:00

Thanks for praying for our service. We had a great service. Kathryn took some pics of our service but I have not loaded those pics yet. Vickie also took some pics (for her blog - of course!) and I am actually loading pics from her file which she uploaded. She is more conscientious about her blog than I am! I must say I enjoy blogging a lot more in Malaysia because the internet speed is so much better here - it takes me a fraction of the time to blog here than in Kenya.....oh well.... This is the children church at New Covenant Assembly. I will post pictures of our service tomorrow.

Vickie joined the Children Church and took those pictures. Kathryn was with us in the main service to take pictures and also to help Grandma. It was the first time for Tony's mom to be in church and Kathryn sat with her in the back - the music was too loud for her in the front row :-) We had a wonderful service with Pas Peter. Tony's mom told us after the service that she wants to go to all our other services as well. PTL!!! Pas Peter and his wife, Shirlyn, took us out for lunch after that - curry fish, steam fish, barbeque chicken, "belachan" (chilly with shrimp paste - the best flavoring ever!) vegetables, etc. It was very good! After the meal, we went for "teh tarik" - or for my non-Malaysian friends - coffee and tea. I have picture which I may post tomorrow - it's the Malaysian version of Starbucks!

My pretty girls......
Now you know what missionaries do during furlough.....figuring out the rubic cube - this is serious work, people!!
MEGA MAC, apparently in honor EURO football games- FOUR, yup, that's not a typo - FOUR hamburger patties in the big MAC! Tony ate it in honor of all our missionary friends in Kenya :-)
Bonding with Annabelle. She's in love with her Uncle Tony....she really does - she runs to him all the time and wants to be pick up by him.
The girls were so good in eating all the Malaysian food with us which they mildly enjoy - so we rewarded them with a meal at an Italian restaurant. Read more about it in Vickie's blog at here .

A clean bill of Health!

2008-06-27T17:46:00.002+03:00

We have been busy with different appointments.....the girls got their vaccination, Tony and I had a general checkup - cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure and several other health issues checked. We are basically healthy. Tony needs to have a minor surgical procedure (on his back) which we still have to work on - finding the surgeon,etc. We also went to the dentist today and the girls and I have NO cavities!!!!! The dentist did some cleaning for us but Tony did have to have a filling done. All in all, the Phangs are in pretty good health - Praise the Lord!! We are also so grateful to our doctor and dentist for giving us their services so lovingly and generously- we are so bless!

Another friend (we kinda met on this blog:-) got us rooms in a hotel in Penang, a holiday island- kind of! Woohoo!!!! We will get to have a vacation after our ministry time in Ipoh - we are so looking forward to that.

Last evening, we took Tony's mom and sister out for a meal and visited with them. Tony's Mom is coming to church with us this Sunday - please pray that the Lord will work in her heart! This is the first time she is stepping into a church. A friend whom we know from Nairobi who is now living in Kuala Lumpur contacted us today and is also going to church with us. We are so looking forward to ministry this Sunday - please pray for Tony and especially his mom.

Long Post!

2008-06-22T15:33:00.008+03:00

Sorry for going MIA for a week! I think it's the longest gap I had since I started blogging. And I can't even use the excuse that the power went out on me or that the internet is not working :-) Our days have been blessed full with all kinds of activities and not having an office of my own where all my cables are easily accesible is probably the most reasonable excuse for my lack of posting! Anyway, I will try to make up for it with this extra long post! These are pictures from my ministry time at the Bible College of Malaysia chapel service. Tony and I graduated from this college way back then (don't ask me when...) It was good to be back and be able to share our missionary vision with the students. My interpreter is a Chinese student from mainland China! It was really neat to hear my sermon translated into mandarin.

Tony preaching at GT, Klang during their Sunday Service. Once again, the Lord moved powerfully drawing people to His presence during the altar call. We prayed for the people. Kathryn took the pictures while Vickie went to the Youth Service. After the service, the Pastor and his leaders took us out for lunch at a Chinese restaurant....YUM! Talking about food.....

can you taste these wonderful donuts!!! There is a new donut chain here call Big Apple Donuts and they have all these varieties. The shop usually have a long, long line of customers. We managed to get these donuts at a not so busy time. They were SO SO good! We took the girls to KLCC (Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre), also more famously known as the Petronas Twin Towers. There is a Science center in the mall. Tony took the girls to the science center while yours truly......(guess what....) shop...and shop and shop!
Vickie putting her hand inside a "hurricane" thingy to feel the temperature of a hurricane.
Here, Vickie lighted up a light tube She's electricfying!
with a "friendly" dinosaur who moves....
The girls went into a mock up oil refinery and saw how the worker/miners live. This is the bunks. The girls were freaked out by the mannequin on the top bunk! They thought it was a real person.

with Annabelle, their cute cousin. We are so glad to be able to spend time with family.

The girls went for their shots. Vickie had to have 3 separate shots and Kathryn, two. We are so glad to get that over with and they didn't get a fever with their shots either. Praise the Lord!

This was in the centre of the mall where there was an exhibition on the Olympics in Beijing. We continue to be amazed how busy the malls are in Kuala Lumpur. We thought we are the only ones on vacation!! Despite the increased gas and food prices, the malls and restaurant seemed to be continually packed with people!

Tomorrow Tony and I will be at the doctors to sort out a few medical issues, we planned to get our passports renew this week. Next week,we are getting ready for a trip up north to Ipoh for Missions Sunday for two churches. I will post our ministry schedule so you can pray for us!

Happy Father's Day!

2008-06-15T04:39:00.003+03:00

Happy Father's Day to all of you out there! The girls greeted their daddy with cards this morning. I will post pictures of the cute cards sometime today, I think! Last evening, we ministered at the blind fellowship near the YMCA. There were about 30 people, and they played the piano, drums, tambourines and the worship service was fantastic! There was such a real presence of God. I ministered and after the Word, Tony and I prayed for them individually. We so enjoyed ourselves - it was a great service. The Lord spoke to me during the worship service. He touched me during the very start of the service when they started singing and I had tears streaming down my face. Then I felt the Lord say to me that the tears are an expression of His compassion upon the needy and that to minister to them, I must continually remain broken before Him. After the service, the group gave us a tremendously generous offering that we never expected. This morning we received an email from a student pastor in Kenya with an urgent financial need.....the Lord continues to proof Himself faithful in miraculous ways!

I am staying home this morning with Kat. Tony and Vickie left for church a while ago. Kathryn has been struggling with allergies since we got here about two weeks ago. It has recently developed into a nasty cough/cold and she's miserable. She told me yesterday that she wants to go "home" (Kenya!). Poor girl! I think she looks better today and hopefully she will be well enough soon to keep up with our crazy schedule.

Do please pray for her when the Lord brings her to mind.

These last two weeks, we have been so overwhelmed by the kindness and the generosity of so many people. Our own family members continue to bless us in so many ways. Friends came forward to loan us their cars. We had one for 10 days and another one was made available to us before we had to return the first one! Both cars are very nice ones too! A friend took us book shopping and paid for the Sunday School DVD that Kathryn bought for her little SS class in Nairobi. Friends invited us out for meals. We are so humbled by the kindness of so many! This has really bless and encourage us...Thank you so much, all of you!

Glad Tidings Klang

2008-06-10T16:40:00.005+03:00

We drove to Klang, about 40 minutes from Kuala Lumpur to Glad Tidings, one of our supporting churches for their Youth Concurent Service. They have over 100 young and energetic people worshipping the Lord - we were so excited to be invited to minister to such a dynamic group of young people.

The very energetic worship team. They did an excellent job in the worship service.
Tony preached on birthing God's divine destiny and the congregation responded to the Word. Many came for the altar to be prayed for and some stayed after the service to talk to us.
Tony and his mom at a restaurant.Our very cute niece, Anna, with RM 1.00! She was fussing in a car ride so we gave her RM1 (or about 0.30 cents in USD) to pacify her...judging from her expression, I don't think it worked :-)

The girls with the Silver Surfer, a character from a sci-fic movie at a mall.This is the KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant) that Tony worked in when he was a teenager!!! He showed the girls the back restaurant - it's still there!!!MacDonald's heaven!!!!!!!!

Family and Friends

2008-06-07T04:52:00.004+03:00

Vickie met up with one her favorite dogs at my sister's grooming shop, Groomingdales. We went shopping there for Max. This is Yuki.
With my sister, Anne.

We visited Tabernacle of David and the girls are here with Kim and Christine. Christine used to be one ot the youth member when I was working in TOD. She is now the graphic director and is ever so sweet! Kim and I were colleagues for many years. She's the Youth Pastor at the church. They bought us nasilemak for lunch - YUM!

Graduation, Dubai and Malaysia!!

2008-06-04T15:24:00.006+03:00

Kathryn is getting ready to get her 8th grade diploma. She will be a high schooler next year....where is the little girl I know?????? She made it!!!
Goofing off with her best friend, Eirin who is leaving for Norway and will not be back :-(
Astrid and her mom. They forgot their camera so we offered to take their picture for them. Kathryn and Astrid has been classmates since Kindergarten!
At Java House, at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, getting ready to board the flight to Dubai! Guess where and what my family is up to????? My three goof balls....The Golden Arches of MacDonalds of course, in Dubai airport at 12 am!!!!

Home at last with family! My family organised a welcome dinner for us at a Chinese restaurant. YUMMO!This is totally "weird". Tony and the girls went shopping together at a mall called Mega Mall - the name is self-explanatory! They found this fish spa. It seems that you dunk your feet into this little pool and tens/hundreds of little fishes (imported from South Africa, nonetheless!) will start chewing on your feet and eating all the bacteria and dry skin and promote circulation and good health! The girls wanted to try it .... Eewwwww....if you ask me.....!Kat look pretty dazed huh??? I think she is overwhelmed by the many choices confronting her at.............guess where???

On the more serious note, after these few days of fun and relaxing, Tony and I are getting ready to work on ministry dates and services and praying and seeking the Lord for our time with the Body of Christ here. We trust the Lord to give us a word for His church here.

We also heard from our friends back in Nairobi campus that they are having a water crisis and will continue to be without water till Thursday - for my friends in Nairobi reading this, pole sana!! We will be praying for you guys - maybe :-)

Mathematician!

2008-05-28T09:39:00.002+03:00

We were at the Middle School award ceremony and so proud when Kathryn won the Excellence in Mathematics award....go girl!!!
So, we are getting our suitcases out and getting ready to pack. Max was pretty confused with all the activities...many students and friends coming in and out of the house and all these suitcases lying around. He eventually jumped into one of them. I think he wants to visit Malaysia!!
We will miss him so much! Tomorrow we will be taking him to the family who gave him to us. He will be reunited with his doggie family as well. The same family has Max's dad, mom and brother. So, I guess you can say, we will have our family reunion in Malaysia and Max has his here in Nairobi!!

There is still a great deal of activity in our days....sometimes a little overwhelming but in the midst of it, we are so grateful to the Lord for ALL His provision. We have housing and will even have a car the first 10 days we are home!!!

As we gave thanks for this first car in our family devotions, the girls reminded us that in our last trip home in 2006, we borrowed so many different cars (as and when they are available to us from some very kind and generous friends!) that we often forgot what car we are driving! We will be in the parking lot looking for a red Proton Saga when we actually was driving a white car or black, or green...a Charade, a honda, another proton, etc!!! We continue to trust God for all "the other cars" as He provides :-)

We also just heard that Tony's mom had a minor surgery recently. Please continue to pray for her. We are looking forward to meeting with family again! Just two more days.....

99.99 and 4 more days to go!!

2008-05-25T21:52:00.003+03:00

99.99 (or about USD1.60 per liter) was what we saw on the price label for unleaded petrol at a gas station today. The only reason that petrol prices has not gone up to triple digit yet is because the digital thingy that shows the price does not have triple digit....at least not yet....Well, all I can say is that I can't wait to go back to Malaysia to enjoy a couple months of lower petrol prices since petrol is subsidised in the wonderful country of Malaysia!!!

We leave next Friday, so we have a few more days to finish up here and to pack. I have started by doing some shopping. We love Royco!!! I remember when Vickie was younger (4 or5 years old) she refused to eat in Malaysia...she needed her cabbage with Royco...so here we are with a BIG tub of it. It's a tomato-ey seasoning for meat/vegetable and is absolutely delish!
Coffee - of course!!! for me and family and friends! Kenya has the BESTEST coffee in the world!
More coffee!!!!
This is a small pile of gifts that we are bringing home - we can't show you what it is as we want to surprise the reciepients!
A friend left me with a couple of large vacuum seal storage bag to help me with packing. I have never used them before but was told that they will help with packing as they can make some items really compact. I am excited in trying them out!

This coming week will be especially busy as we wind up here - people to see, loose ends to tie up, Kathryn is graduating from middle school, and although she doesn't know it yet, Kathryn is getting an academic award in the Middle school award ceremony tomorrow for Math - we are so proud! Math is actually the one subject that she struggles the most with and she doesn't even think she is good at it; and we have always encouraged her that although Math does not come as easily to her as some of her other subjects, she simply have to work harder at it. AND she did! and this award will be really special to her - to know that hard work really pays!

Tonite, some ladies on campus gave me a surprise birthday celebration....it seems like my birthday this year just went on and on! My real birthday was on Monday, and as it was a weekday, my family decided to celebrate it early and took me out to lunch on Sunday afternoon and Kathryn baked me my birthday cake! It was so YUMMY - sorry forgot to take picture! Vickie designated herself to be my slave for a WHOLE week and all I had to do was to ring a little bell and she was at my service - changing a DVD, bringing me a glass of water, turning on/off the TV, bringing me my sweater, etc - I made full use of her gift :-) She decided that this was the last time she will give a present like that!!! Tony gave me flowers, chocolate and money to shop when we get to Malaysia - a man after my own heart!! and tonight the ladies told me that they wanted to pray with me before I leave for Malaysia but when I got to the apartment, it ended up being a surprise birthday party! How sweet! and it was a really fun evening. Some friends and church members gave me mani/pedi gift certificates, a beautiful tunic top, jewellery, books, a beautiful black wrap with maroon band, and CHOCOLATES - lots of chocolates!!! I have to admit though the BEST present was when the church announced last Sunday that they are going to sponsor a missionary to the pgymies!!

There are very many little details we have to work on before we actually get on the plane next Friday, so if you think of us, please lift us in your prayers. We will also have some wonderful ministry opportunities while we are home, we appreciate your prayers for that as well.

As I am writing this prayer requests, I was thinking about the many of you who read my blog. This seems like pretty one way kind of communication. My email is listed on the top right hand side of this page.....if you have a prayer request/questions, please feel free to write me! I'd be happy to pray for you and to encourage you as well. I also love reading your comments. I will reply when I can if I have your email.

So, I hope to hear from you guys! Good night!

Man U

2008-05-22T12:10:00.002+03:00

For those who know my husband, especially ROG members, you know he is a die hard ManU fan/fanatic ( and that is putting it mildly!). Last night there was a big game between ManU and some blue team (I am pretty much clueless...). He allowed the girls to stay up for the game - their normal bedtime is between 8.30 to 9.00 pm and the game started at 10pm and went all the way to 1 am! Vickie managed to watch the first goal by ManU and then went to bed at 11, I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn't. Tony was too nervous to watch the game, so he was in his "prayer room" pretending to read and would take a peek once in a while, Kathryn was also giving him updates every 10 minutes or so, besides, there was a crowd cheering near our house and I could hear them from my bedroom. I gave up and joined Kathryn at about 12.30am and managed to see the penalty shootout.

I was really glad Man U won simply because I am now living with three very HAPPY people :-) but I must say that my heart went out to the blue team (not sure if it's Chelsea or Liverpool or Arsenal....or whatever!). Their captain was inconsolable and something about a grown man crying so hard and at the same time trying to be brave - made me feel so sorry for their team. I asked my family if they felt bad for him, their answer was, "it's ok, he'll get over it!" Sigh....so much for compassion......

Anyways, my deepest sympathy to the the blue team and congrats to the Reds!

Mission Accomplished!

2008-05-19T20:58:00.002+03:00

One of the item of my "to-do" list before I return to Malaysia is to make sure that we send at least one missionary to the pgymies. Well, mission is accomplished! River of God (ROG) church has agreed to FULLY sponsor one missionary to live with the pgymies for 6 months!!!! We couldn't be more excited or more proud! We feel like proud parents when they annouced that at church last Sunday. ROG has continued their emphasis on missions....I remember when we first started the church and did not have any money at all, we still gave to missions and now they have continued this missions emphasis. In addition to this missionary, they also sent one short term missionary to Hola, near Coast to a special group of people who have limited access to the gospel.
The gentleman in the black jacket is the missionary whom we are sending to be a Christian witness to the precious pygmy people of DRC.

Prettiest Malaysian Gals in Nairobi

2008-05-18T20:40:00.003+03:00

Yup, I am not bragging or anything but don't you think they look so VERY cute!!! They took these pictures when I was in DRC. I happened to see the pics when I was going through and sorting my pictures....I couldn't resist posting them - especially since it's been two years that our family in Malaysia hasn't seen them! They probably kill me if they know I posted their pictures but they don't ever read my blog, so I think I am very safe!!

Orphanage

2008-05-14T14:48:00.007+03:00

Today we went to the orphanage.
Praise the Lord for this new building. A supporter of the orphanage has raised some funds to build new dormitories for our orphans, especially the older ones. It would be more like a family home.

Our beautiful and wonderful children. I tried posting a video of them singing but it is not being loaded succesfully...

Our lab "strong room" made of thin pieces of plywood! We had to keep our chemical supplies for our chemistry and biology classes under lock and key not only to prevent thefts but also we recently had an incident where one of the orphans tried to commit suicide - he would have been successful if he had access to those chemicals....The good news is that this young man received help and is now stable....nonetheless, we are keeping everything under lock and key!
Our brand new chicken coop! This is our newer and more spacious chicken coup that Eva, a friend of ours has helped sponsored. We are trusting the Lord that this project will generate significant income for us. We are right now in a pretty tight spot, even for us personally...food prices has increased over 40%. Our orphanage is really challenged. Please pray with us that this project will be successful.
Our science lab.
Our chickens (soon to be broilers - YUM!) These chicks are only 2 days old!
These are our anointed layers! We are harvesting over 100 eggs perday. I help sell the eggs and chickens to our friends.
Tony and his chick!
This is Lucy, the director of the orphanage, with the brand new freezer we bought recently. It will be used to freeze our broilers when they are "ripe" - about 6 weeks old and about 1.5 kg.
These are sisal plants/leaves/root that we use for firewood. They are free and all around Ruai, where our orphanage is and they burn for very long. We also use firewood, kerosene and charcoal but they are a lot more expensive. One of the kids chore is to gather these sisal plants for fuel.

GOOD NEWS!!! My most wonderful neighbour helped me pry the broken piece from Mr Gateway - it took a lot of patience!!! she worked at it with a needle for over 30 mins - I would have given up after the first 30 seconds! I managed to get the pin crudely replaced and we can still use the Gateway - yay!! God is good!

Thanks Ray for your helpful comments. I will let Tony know you wrote.

R.I.P (maybe...)

2008-05-13T08:04:00.004+03:00

These are our faithful "slaves" which (who?? ) had served us well....Mr Compaq (2006-2008 Jan) and Mr Gateway (2004-2008 May 13 i.e today).
Mr Compaq gave up its ghost early in the year. It started overheating and eventually just died. We tried to fix it here but was told that it cannot be helped. Apparently I need a new motherboard. We are bringing it home to Malaysia with us to see if it (or he) can be resurrected. We have quite a few pictures inside that we would like to salvage.
Mr. Gateway is severely injured - I found out this morning :-(

I tried to take a macro pic but I don't think it turned out very well. Our powerjack is kinda warped and we've tried to be careful with it. This morning I found out that whoever used it last yesterday must have unknowingly broke it. Half of the power jack is inside the computer. This computer has minimal battery power, something like 15 minutes or less. I must find someway to unplug the broken part from the computer. Questions for anyone reading this post :

1. How much does a Compaq motherboard costs? The technician here said he tried to replace several parts but it still overheats and will not turn on. He thinks that a new motherboard will fix it. Is that true?
2. Any ideas /suggestions from anyone who has any experience removing a broken jack from a computer? Is this a unique problem or a common one? What are the chances of survival?
3. Can I use another computer power cable for Mr Gateway or do I have to use a new Gateway power cable?

As you can probably tell, I am distressed. Right now I am using a desktop in my office. With the four of us using the computers - the girls often need the computer for homework/assignments and Tony and I work on messages, work, email, blog, etc we need the computers.

Any ideas or suggestions or condolences is greatly appreciated! HELLLLLLLLLLP!

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T17:15:00.003+03:00

Today I preached at the Mother's Day service at River of God Church, the church we founded. When we were pastors, we started this tradition in giving every mother a gift on Mother's Day and one for the fathers on Father's Day. I am glad that they kept the tradition! This year they gave every mother a beautiful necklace. We can even take our time to choose the one we like. This is the one I picked. Isn't it pretty?

Kathryn made me an origami box (she loves doing origami and would watch YOUTUBE videos for hours learning how to create stuff - she sure didn't get that from me). She also wrote me a most touching note and gave me a rose bud that she had dried. Tony gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers , so Kathryn wrote in a little note that although Daddy's flowers are prettier, hers will last longer :-) Our family is not competitive at all, at all, really.....tee-hee!
Vickie made me this beautiful card. Every letter has hearts all over. Can you see how much she loves me???

In her card, she says if I need ANYTHING, just let her know!!!! How very sweet. Our girls are so great. They give me all the love I need....they are such a blessing to me and Tony.
This is the pretty bouquet of flowers Tony gave me.

He also gave me chocolates - expensive ones :-)
Ok, I cut a deal with my family. The tray came with two identical sides....so I offered that the three of them can share the right side of the tray and the left side belongs to mua!! I am savoring each piece and they are down to one. They will have to kill each other for the last one and I am not getting involved....

To all my "mother" friends out there, especially my own sisters, know that you are doing a great job. There is no more nobler task than to be a mother. I celebrate you today! I especially miss my mom today- she was a WONDERFUL mom and grandmother - the best, actually!

Getting Ready for yet another trip!

2008-05-09T11:47:00.003+03:00

Before I forget, I wanted the friends who have left comments on this blog to know that I read your comments as they are automatically sent to my email address. I tried replying to the address in the emails but it doens't get to you - it just redirects me to this blog again. Anyways, I want you to know that I appreciate the comments- tells me someone is reading what I am writing - I wonder sometimes!!

Ok, two evenings ago I had another invite to join an evangelist to Goma, also in DRC. They are doing a crusade there- I cannot tell you how much I want to join them but I can't - not this time anyways. We are in the midst of preparing to return to Malaysia for two months to reconnect with churches and friends who supports our work here and also to give our report. We are also trusting God to connect with more people and churches who are interested in our work here. We need to raise so much more to empower and release more laborers to a ripen harvest in AFrica.

I am so overwhelm with so much to do over the next three weeks before we return home. Please pray with us on the following:

1. Our weekend preaching in different churches and the girls teaching ministry in the Sunday School of 4 and 5 years old.
2. Planning and handing over the Chapel Services, Ladies Ministry and Couples Fellowship for the next three months while we are gone. This means lots of planning meetings with committees...:-(
3. Planning services in Malaysia for the churches who have invited us. We will be ministering in one Missions Conference in Ipoh. We are trusting God to give us a Word for the Body of Christ in Malaysia.
4. Finishing up our chicken project at our orphange. A church donated money to us to build more chicken coops so that this can be a substantial income generating project. We have bought the freezer, building the chicken coops now, and then buying more chicks- layers and broilers, and chicken feed. I need to complete this project and close the accounts and take pictures for the donating church before I return to Malaysia.
5.Look for two raincoats for our Congolese missionary. When I was there, the "poor" missionary was on the motorbike under heavy downpour while I was in the truck. I felt so bad. I promised him I will look for raincoats for him and his worker. I am also looking for "goggles" kinda thing to protect his eyes, so he can see while he is riding! I want to send it to him before I leave for Malaysia.
6.Tony and I feel we must send money to release at least one of the Congolese missionary to the pygmies. We are working on that right now....

Our days are very full and busy with many activities....there are simply too few hours in our days. Please pray for us.

We are looking forward to meeting up with so many friends and family members. Pray also for salvation for our unsaved family members.

Final Post on Congo

2008-05-05T18:21:00.005+03:00

It's my last day in Butembo. This is the airport and the runway is a dirt road....
I took aerial pictures of the city. The big dirt road you see is the "Highway" - it's difficult to imagine that I was driven on those roads over the last one week. I don't think I will miss it though.

Once again, our plane needed refueling in Beni. I was glad that I had at least one last look at the city where I had the opportunity to minister to the pastors and their wives and visited the pygmies. This is where "my" pgymy baby lives!

I was flying "first class" - right behind the cockpit :-) Cool, eh...
This emergency exit sign on the plane really tickled me....at least, I was spared from the safety demonstration we all had to endure whenever we get on a plane. On this special plane, we just have to push the window out - self explanatory - how great is that???

I wanted to end my Congo posts with these two pictures of me in this tiny pygmy house sharing the sorrow and pain of a grieving pygmy mother who just lost her newborn baby. In my years as a missionary in Africa, I have shared the pain of losing a child with many mothers and I learn that whether we are Malaysian, Kenyan, Congolese or Pygmy - under that skin is the same heart, feelings and emotions. We all hurt the same way. This little pygmy lady whom we may consider primitive as forest people did not hurt any less when her newborn baby died - in the same way, we all need Jesus as our personal Savior, who died for our sins and gave us abundant life. It was such a privilege for me to share God's love with her and to be able to pray with her. Later, she felt good enough to leave her house and joined us when I preached to the camp. I trust God to comfort her and continue to reveal Himself to her. We must pray for a strategy and resources to reach these many unreached people groups yet in Africa. We must preach it so they can hear it!