Phil 3: 13-14 "forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus".

Lulu and Gift

 Gift and Lulu have now had surgery and they are actually up and walking around after six weeks in their wheel chairs. It was so rewarding to see that even after six weeks, the other children never grew tired of pushing the chairs and helping the mothers lift the children. Please pray that we can get proper braces for them so their walking will improve quickly. The first request of both children was to slide down the new slide on the preschool playground and that was quickly accomplished within nearly minutes of their arrival back at the Village after the cast removal.

New Preschool playground

The "band" for the wedding

 The next Village event held recently was the wedding of two of our National employees. Emmanuel is the Assistant Village Administrator and Anita is the kitchen supervisor. They are a very lovely couple and seem so well suited for each other. We were invited to the "send off" and the wedding and it was indeed a wonderful occasion with lots of cultural learning for all of us. The "send off" is given by the bride's family as they "send the bride" to the groom and his family. It is much like a big wedding reception and the bridal party is dressed in formal attire and it is beautiful. The lovely cakes are not to eat but to give to honored guests. Our Rafiki Village received a cake.

Chagga Cake

Standard five singing

 The real cake for the send off is a "chagga Cake". It is a roasted goat ....completely in tact... with grass in the mouth. And very tasty. Our Standard four children (8) were invited to the send off and Standard five children (7) were invited to the wedding. Standard five sang two songs at the reception.

Anita and Emmanuel

 We continue to be blessed by the beauty of our surroundings. Kent takes great joy in growing beautiful plants and trees. With the never ending growing season here, we are learning a lot about how and what to grow. The beauty of the mountain is something we also never tire of seeing. It seems every day it changes in appearance due to clouds, snow, sun and moonlight. God's majesty is all around us.

New snow on Mount Kilimanjaro

Zinnias right out our porch

Superb Starling

 had no idea this plant bloomed!

Passion Fruit

Recently as a follow-up to the last blog entry on what we have learned over this past year, I came across  a marginal note inserted in my bible several years ago. It was on maintaining a devoted attitude as we do the Lord’s work. We still hope and pray that some of you will catch the vision of how valuable you can be even in retirement in a place like this. Here are seven principles based on Phil 3 which can be very helpful in stoking our devotion to Christ regardless of what we are doing:
1. Abandon delusions about spiritual perfection in this life
2. Press on to realize our full potential in Christ
3. Forget (do not dwell on) past failures or victories
4. Anticipate what lies ahead in our spiritual journey
5. Strain (invest energy) toward the final prize
6. Be constantly open to divine correction
7. Guard against regression in our spiritual progress.

One of our friends sent back with us several copies of the Jesus film including Swahili and English versions. Last week end we showed the Swahili version and many could not believe they were going to see a Swahili film. Anyone interested would get a tremendous blessing in learning how the film was visioned, financed and made over 30 years ago. Billions of people have seen the film. We are planning to show the English version in about six months in hopes that God will use it coupled with our Bible studies for the children and staff in introducing them to a personal relationship with Christ.