Bees, Thieves, & Walking in Heaven

It was Outreach Day, a day that comes once each school term, usually at the beginning of the term while the students are fresh from a break. Outreach Day is a day when students volunteer to go out into the community and serve. Whether it be playing with orphans, visiting the sick in the hospital, or delivering firewood to the widows, the focus is on the community around us.

Our sixth grade boys ~ along with all the other sixth graders ~ were put into a group that originally had planned on helping to build a mud house. Plans changed quite abruptly and they ended up planting trees for fellow missionaries who live about 30 minutes away. They left early in the morning and all the students worked hard until lunch time.

One of our guys, well into his potato chips and sandwich, almost ready for the cherished candy bar, heard the buzz of a swarm of bees and jumped from his perch high up in a tree. He narrowly escaped the attack but many other staff and students were not as fortunate. Some stood rock still, having been told that if they didn’t move, they wouldn’t get stung. The bees must not have been informed of that for they voraciously attacked anything moving or still. One staff member who wears glasses had bees stuck between his eyes and glasses, impairing his vision as he was trying to help a student escape the invasion.

Many students pulled out (and lovingly helped others pull out) as many as 25-30 stingers per child ~ from hair, faces, necks, arms, and hands. We praised God that out of the four students who were not stung even once, two of them had severe allergies to bee stings and were providentially protected from a potentially life-threatening situation. As one sixth grade girl so amazingly summed up the day: “Thank you, Lord, that we could suffer a small part of what missionaries around the world suffer daily.”

With the school term getting off to an interesting start, we prayed intensely for God’s protection ~ especially for four (out of eight) of our guys who were new to Rift Valley Academy and boarding school life. Our dorm motto is to provide a safe and loving atmosphere for students to grow in their walk with Christ as they receive a quality education. We start off each term emphasizing how important it is for our guys to communicate with us ~ and that they break the code of silence when it comes to any form of bullying; if we don’t know what’s going on, we cannot protect them. It became apparent one Saturday morning that there was a student in our dorm who had not been adhering to the RVA rules of conduct. One of our guys was brave enough to break the code of silence. Upon investigating, it became evident that a student who we had been mentoring had been forceful with others ~ to the point where administration felt that he needed to be removed from the dorm and was suspended indefinitely. As one can imagine, this drastically changed the dynamics in our dorm. One boy has prayed in our devotions at night: “Thank you that we can live in a safe dorm now.” Amen.

As our heads were still spinning from the events of the first few weeks of the school term, we were stunned to learn that one of our staff members who was on home assignment with his family until December had passed out at home with cerebral bleeding from an aneurysm. As many around the world relentlessly petitioned our Lord to spare his life, our dear friend immediately went into a coma and never recovered ~ on this earth. A dedicated nurse in our Student Health Services, this 51 year old godly man loved everyone and counted it a privilege to serve anyone he could ~ staff and students alike. We have every confidence that he is walking in heaven ~ quite possibly looking for someone to serve! There is comfort in knowing that, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” II Corinthians 5:8. We grieve, and will continue to do so, BUT we do not grieve as those who have no hope. Please pray for his wife and eight children along with the staff and students at RVA who desperately miss the gentleness of this precious man.

No half term would be complete without a great hike to the hot springs with lots of boys (and a few girls) who were ready for an adventure. We set out on a Saturday morning with food, water, and gear in our backpacks. After making a trek through a steep tunnel, walking along the railroad tracks for some time, and then heading down a precipitous cliff, we arrived at the hot springs ~ only to discover that someone had tapped into them and completely disrupted nature by building a concrete covering over them. Not to be discouraged by our less than inspirational find, we decided to head into a deep tunnel/cave at the mouth of the “hot springs.” Several of the kids set their backpacks down as we set off into the cave. Upon returning no more than ten minutes later, they found that their backpacks had disappeared. It seems that during our brief journey through the tunnel, someone had been watching us and seized the opportunity to steal the kids’ bags. There was an immediate spirit of sadness (one boy had a brand new camera in his bag!), retaliation and a “let’s find the people who took our bags” attitude amongst the boys ~ until we paused to pray and thank the Lord that we were safe; that we would not return evil for evil. We are unsure if the thieves had weapons but it quickly became clear that life is so much more important than those “things” that we possess.

On a lighter note, we all just enjoyed a long weekend mid-term break and are refreshed and ready for a new half term. KFC (you got it: Kentucky Fried Chicken) just came to Kenya so we were able to enjoy some “American” grub! After 14 months, it tasted pretty good!

We thank the Lord for the growth that He has brought about in all of our lives through the heavy circumstances of the last six weeks! Please pray for us as a dorm and for the staff and students here at RVA. We cannot thank you all enough for the prayer warriors that you are and for your part in supporting us here in Kenya!

Still Standing,

Travis & Patti
Kylea, Joshua, Tia & Levi

We would like to share a link to some pictures that we took during our summer break and the first part of this term.

Click here for the pictures.