We SURVIVED Survival Camp!!

Yesterday, 25 January, we arrived home from the Rafiki headquarters outside the small Florida town of Eustis located near Mount Dora in Lake County. The campus of Rafiki is fairly large, relatively new, and appears suddenly off county road #44. We were there with 10 others, not counting two children of a couple from Michigan. Our ages ran from about 25 up to 74. On the final day we all received our assignments after four previous days of living together, attending orientations, doing some work projects and cooking together. We were divided into 3 teams which rotated through cooking two meals per day from scratch, preparing dining setup and the all important kitchen cleanup. This occurred in a special training building which had a commercial kitchen and dining facility. At each meal we had a varying number of staff guests. It was very well organized which is characteristic of the whole Rafiki organization. The day began at about 8 AM and ended, by the time cleanup was done, at 7 PM. We started with a limited Bible study based on preassigned questions from 2 Cor. 8 and 9. This was followed with prayer which included all the staff and the 12 of us, making about 35 people including the present director. Most of you know Rafiki as an organization which cares for over 850 orphans in 10 sub-Saharan countries and provides them with a comprehensive education grade 1-12 in preparation for entry into universities. Rafiki is about to undergo an order of magnitude expansion with a classical education curriculum to be offered free to public and private schools which will significantly upgrade the quality of education for African students. This will mean adding to the complement of missionaries those who can train large numbers of African teachers and headmasters to offer the program. The curriculum is impressive and Peggy has already been contributing by writing a biology course. There is also a widows program which helps train African widows to provide for their children through the manufacture and sale of craft items (including clothing items) for sale through the internet and in direct outlet stores here in the US.  The goal of Rafiki is to help Africans firstly to know God and the education program is carefully structured to accomplish this goal. The second goal is to provide them with means to raise their standard of living which will also soon include apprentice programs in commercial trades. Our colleagues were assigned varying roles in this vast enterprise from teachers to headmasters, from plant managers to financial accountants and from child care to kitchen supervision. Part of the orientation was aimed at the necessity to daily walk with our Lord as His bondservants in our various roles. I personally benefitted greatly from the training through a verse which was discussed frequently for us who are now raising support and trusting the Lord to meet all our needs. It is 2 Cor 9:8 which I had studied before but never incorporated into my own spiritual baggage. God will through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ make all grace abound to us so that always having all sufficiency in everything we may have an abundance for every good deed. We are being called to experience this more deeply than ever before as we are being sent out as His bondservants to Africa. And for myself I can sincerely say, it is the least that I can do considering all God has done for me.  We arrived back in Bismarck late Saturday afternoon and I must say it was to a pleasant 25 degrees. The direct Allegiant flight from the Sanford/Orlando airport to Bismarck is amazing. It is a 4 hour flight with a new 320 airbus plane. There didn’t appear to be much additional snow from the week previous. Well that all changed when Sunday morning came. We awakened to heavy snow and 25 MPH winds. We headed to church around 8:30 AM and noticed how there were no lines visible on the pavement and the blowing snow was quite profound. When we arrived, the services had been cancelled so we returned to our warm home by the gas fireplace. It was a great afternoon to unwind from the previous week and to begin reading some of the recommended books we received at our training. I, Peggy, decided to begin with a fascinating book The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley. It is a personal journey into how the world’s poorest people are educating themselves. It also shows the high respect the Africans give to education. I already see there is much to be learned from this book. Kent is starting on The Poverty of the Nations by Wayne Grudem.  We are still definitely processing all that we were exposed to during the training. I am grateful for a greater understanding of the organization and the vision for the future in Africa. We love our assignment of Moshi, Tanzania and are anxious to go there is less than two weeks for the annual physicals for the resident children. We are hoping our February trip will be helpful also, in accessing the needed items for living there begin the first of November 2014. I am sure it will difficult to leave when the ten days are up but at least we have the promise of returning soon for real service to the Village. I must admit that I am also looking forward to another; however brief, respite from the bitter cold and wearing of boots and ice cleats. We do have a few prayer requests for our upcoming trip. 1. Please pray that we are spiritually as well as physically prepared for our Feb. trip 2. Please pray that we will ALL be a blessing and not a burden to the Village 3. Please pray that all 12 suitcases with children’s things will arrive without the hassle of duty to be paid. 4. Pray that we can get all the children’s physicals done in the allotted time. 5. Please pray that Kent and I can see true needs that are to be included when we move there in November and discern the things we can and should live without.

Welcome to Kiliview as an amazing journey unfolds.

It is finally the year of the BIG MOVE! Yes 2014 brings many changes for us. We are Kent and Peggy Martin and in late October of 2014 Kent will retire from his Infectious Disease Physician and administrative career with Sanford Health Systems in Bismarck North Dakota and we will embark on an amazing new career in serving Christ with Rafiki Foundation in Moshi Tanzania. We can hardly believe that God is granting us this wonderful privilege. We will be living at the Rafiki Village about 10 miles outside of Moshi and the picture really is of our new front yard. Kent will be serving part time with the education and training of medical students at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center. He is also able to encourage the students in following Christ. He will also provide medical care and guidance at the Rafiki Village as well as other services. Peggy will be working with the children in various capacities at the Rafiki Village which is home to more than sixty resident children and school for an additional forty day students. We are currently raising financial and prayer support as we anticipate our relocation. For more information on this visit www.rafikifoundation.org.

We are hoping this blog will be a place for interested friends and family to see what we are doing as we prepare and as we begin to serve in our new "career". You may think, the Martins are too old to begin a new career! No, God has blessed us with good health and there has never been a better time in our lives to step out into this venture. God will also show us when He wants us to return to the States and settle down here.

Our next big step happens during January 20-24, 2014 when we head down to Florida for a week of "Survival Camp". We will be training with Rafiki Foundation for our life in Africa. Even though we have both lived in Africa before, we know that there is a lot for us to learn about serving with Rafiki for the future. We will also be with our good friends, Larry and Cindy Renner, who are also preparing for a "retirement career" in Africa also, as well as eight other people preparing for service with Rafiki. We are looking forward to the experience.

Most of us, who hope to be bond-servants of Christ serving outside the US, have to face the gauntlet of raising support among friends, relatives and acquaintances. Then in these uncertain times we at least occasionally have to fight off assaults of doubt about what could happen not only there, but here in our absence as we are living in times which surely call into question how long God will be patient with what is going in on in our own country. Both of us have been through this once before during our previous terms in Africa. Two things come to mind. The first one is the willingness of our Lord Jesus Christ to humble Himself unto death out of delight to do the Father’s will. With age comes the gradual realization that many things are not nearly as important as we thought they were-this becomes very real when we start having to get rid of possessions sometimes held very dear. Secondly, we think of what we are taught in Hebrews about receiving (among all the partings) a kingdom which cannot be shaken (Heb 12:28) and the sacrifices which God calls us to endure. Heaven’s view is that any sacrifice is worth this prize as we seek to follow our Savior in this path to glory. We are then called to receive grace by which we may offer to God an acceptable sacrifice of reverence and awe. We learned from our earlier service in Africa that all the grace which we may need is there at the appropriate time. As someone has said “all the rivers of Thy grace I claim, over every promise write my name”. It is our hope that all of you who have pledged to support and/or pray for us will always ask the Lord to show us how to serve Him in holy reverence and the awe of who He is. It is only then, that we will be able to be faithful stewards of what He has given us through you.

We have about ten months to go before the departure and every day we think of the things we really do not need and how we can simplify our lives. We walk through the house which has been completely redone over the years, and look outside at the fruit of our labors in landscaping and decorating. It is now time to invest equal, if not greater diligence in others for Christ’s sake. And what an opportunity lies ahead. We are very drawn, and joyfully so, to see Christ formed in the lives of orphans, medical students and those we meet along the path. The joy of saying yes to this calling is hard to describe but Paul mentions it in Philippians 1:26. The word in the original text is kauchema, which means joy but a special kind of joy--the joy that makes you exult, like jumping up in the air and clapping your hands!

We thank God for each one of you and what has been contributed so far in preparing for our departure. Some farmers have even volunteered to raise cattle or crops for us and after sale on the market to contribute the proceeds. The program is called STEER Inc.(www.steerinc.com) and is very active here in the upper Midwest. There are even some of our brethren who are retired and living in long term care who have decided to contribute to the work. We are so grateful for your confidence in us by participating in our work.

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