"And it feels like his new life can start and it feels like heaven" Noah and the Whale

This week we announced some very exciting news at church which is why we feel like a new life can start...

We are moving to Mombassa in January!  As you can imagine this has not been an overnight decision but one where the story began a very long time ago. 

You have seen a glimpse of our time at Tumaini on this blog but more can be seen on www.educationforlife.net  Ever since Lynda was young and John was a little bit older we have wanted to go and serve in Africa.  Lynda went to Uganda at the age of 17 and John went to Nigeria in 2004.  We both have a passion for helping those who have not been as fortunate as us and both feel drawn to serve God on that Continent.  We reached a point of wanting to explore this further but not really being able to make any decisions until we knew how African life would suit the boys.  We were blown away when an amazing couple said they would pay for our trip so we could explore this decision further.  Before our trip  we prayed that God would reveal to us whether we should move out to Kenya for a longer period of time.  Amazingly He couldn’t have made it any clearer!  Mikey and David coped so well and actually it was them that settled first, crossing any cultural barriers with a football!  They made so many friends and loved their experience there.  These are some words written by a member of staff at Tumaini

“DearMikeDavid,
I just feel I have to say this words to you, you may not have realised that you have been a big blessing in Tumaini, I would like to say a big thank you for being disciplined to the elder people and young one's, you have just been lovely and you left a good record behind,Mike everyone around admires your intelligence, keep on blessing the world with your good behaviour, am sure God had a purpose for you coming here, it wasn't just a trip. My God Bless you in all you do and your future plans”

We don’t share those words to show off our boys (although we were very proud of them) but to give you some idea of quite how well the boys did settle in!  When we were there we saw so many things that confirmed that this was indeed part of God’s plan for us, and coming back and talking to people has helped us to come to the realisation that we are being drawn back to Tumaini.  Our decision to go to Kenya for 18months from January has been made!  We are so thankful that John’s boss has agreed to keep his job open for him.

Needless to say we are very excited about this opportunity and we are making plans to go rapidly (Lynda has gone a bit list crazy!).  We hope to go early January and the plan is that Lynda will work in the office.  This will support the founder missionaries Glyn and Jane so they can be released to do the many other things that they are called to.  John will be doing some staff training in the school, teaching Mikey and David and be greatly involved with the leadership of the church.

We hope you our loyal blog readers will share in our dream of working and living in Africa.  We hope our news encourages you as you read how God has been at work. Amazingly even though Education for Life is a relatively small charity we have links with the trustees – one couple being in our church at St Luke’s and another couple were like our surrogate parents at St Thomas’s when we were students in Lancaster.  It is incredible to think how God has been at work over all those years even when we didn’t know!

If you would like to receive a regular prayer update email please let us know as this would be greatly appreciated and valued above all things!  As we will be working for a charity we will receive no salary and so will be raising our own financial support.  We have complete faith that God will provide as we have been so blessed to see how He has provided for us in the past.  Of course if you would like to help us financially as well then that would be awesome.

When we were in Tumaini in the summer it felt like so many dreams were becoming a reality and now even more so!  I was reminded at church on Sunday how many years ago some friends prayed about my dreams of going to Africa.  At the time it seemed a total impossiblity as I was suffering badly with fybromyalgia and had very little children.... so how amazing is it that now it is actually going to happen and we are all thrilled!  As the reality kicks in the challenges do feel hard at times and the boys will be very sad to leave their friends in Nottingham.  However in moments of fear and doubt we remember all that we will be going to and all our friends at Tumaini and the excitement soon takes over again!

mikey

This is me my friend Emmanuel the one in a yellow yellow t-shirt,Peter the one with grey pants ,Mweyma the one in the bottom right corner ,Mikey in the top right and David my brother.All trying to berry me.

 This picture is of me and Mikey splashing around having great fun.

This is a picture of Emmanuel looking at the camera thinking what on earth is this thing  its going to kill me.       

I had a great time at the beach in Africa.

Home Safely

Thank you for all your prayers, we are home safely.  It was a very long day of travelling yesterday and we feel quite a huge culture shock adjusting back.  There were some very tearful goodbyes and although our bodies are back now in England we feel like we have left everything else at Tumaini!  Our suitcases were much lighter coming home but are hearts full of so many special memories and our lives so much richer for all that we have experienced.   We received an incredible welcome home which has meant a lot to us and we look forward to sharing some of our experiences with you.  We will blog some photos and details soon but just wanted to assure you all of our safe return.  Thank you, we know we have been surrounded in prayer ant that has meant a lot. xo

Mombassa

We are having such an amazing time in this beautiful place, the people are so friendly and have made us feel very at home.  The boys are enjoying more freedom within the compound than they have ever had at home and have spent many hours laughing and playing with their new African friends.  We are eating at the kids home every night and then playing hilarious games - a lot of laughter!  John has been fixing lots of chairs - sounds simple but has been quite a big job.  I have enjoyed time with the boys and getting to know lots of interesting people here.  The children are gorgeous and we enjoyed time in the school last week.  Church was great, felt like heaven listening to the choir singing and dancing with such profound joy.  We are all struck by how little people have materially and this is quite hard to take in at times however the people are rich in so many other ways... the beach is beautiful so the boys have done a lot of swimming.  We have spent hours with many kids on the beach, no toys, no beach bags or towels but a huge amount of fun!  Internet is not easy to access so today we have made our way on 2 tuk tuks and a ferry to get to a cafe!  We will post some photos when we get back as it is too slow to upload here.  Thank you for all your prayers, we are enjoying good health and feel very safe.  Big hugs to all at home xo xo

Poland

We were very excited to be part of a team from St Luke's who went to Poland in May 2011.  We loved the people there who were so friendly, hospitable and welcoming.  We enjoyed a varied programme and were kept busy!!  The kids had a fab time especially as they got on so well with the other kids who were with us.  We stayed in Szczecin in a Lutheran church hostel.  We visited a number of churches were we led worship and did some singing Von Trap style with actions included!  John preached and I gave a testimony, a real blessing to be part of  Polish services where we clearly saw how God crosses any language barriers.  We also represented the UK in an olympic games day at a special school.  We led games and singing, David did a very unique dance performance in front of the whole school!  John swam in the Baltic sea which clearly lived up to its name.  We shared much laughter with the group and will treasure the memories we made.