Pandemic Moving

August came and went, and much has changed in our lives.  For anyone that hasn't heard, we are officially living in Nairobi, Kenya.  We were so surprised by how quickly everything came together.  We thought we were ready but when it came time to finalize the house in Fort Dauphin to move, we found ourselves struggling with finding enough time to get it all done.  These past few months have caused much stress in our lives but as we are on the other side, we just see God's gracious hand at work.


First of all, it is so hard to think that we are not living in Madagascar.  We truly love the red island and a part of our hearts will always be there.  Leaving Madagascar was hard physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  We can't tell you how difficult it is to move regardless of what is happening but doing this during a pandemic made it much harder.  We don't feel as if we adequately said goodbye to our Malagasy family and that bothers us.  Having lived in Africa for many years now, we know that saying farewell well is important and we weren't given the opportunity.  Our departure from Fort Dauphin was so bitter-sweet.  We have enjoyed every moment the Lord allowed us to live in our home there.  Having to part ways with dear friends and co-laborers was difficult.  We also ended up having to leave our beloved dog behind but thankful he has a new family and seems to be adjusting very well (a big praise!!).  


Due to Covid we ended up having to pack up our entire house ourselves and have everything in order for crating that will hopefully depart here soon.  Thus, we spent many late nights tearing down items, wrapping and protecting and finalizing boxes.  We also had the help of awesome friends to help us get everything in order.  We probably finished the last box two hours before departure.  We felt so many different emotions but didn't have the words or energy to really let them pour out until we hit the airport.


We had to fly from Fort Dauphin to Antananarivo using MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship).  Thankfully MAF was able to get permission and we finalized our paperwork in Fort Dauphin. It went very smooth.  The MAF plane is smaller so as we departed Fort Dauphin, we flew the coastline to see if we could see any whales.  This was such a blessing because it took our minds off the pain of leaving and allowed us to gather some wonderful views of Fort Dauphin.  Though we had tears in our eyes we loved seeing our home city looking so radiant and beautiful.  It was a blessing.


Getting to Kenya truly required many little miracles to fall into place and we had a limited timeline to get everything in order.  God really poured out his mercy on us and allowed us to see many little miracles take place along the way and everything worked out just perfect.  It went so well that we were blessed to be able to spend time with a couple of families we love in Antananarivo before we departed, and they were able to see us off at the airport as well.  With the travel restrictions we ended having to fly from Madagascar to Paris and then from Paris back to Kenya.  Yes, we flew over Kenya to sleep on the airport floor in Paris and then come back the way we went.  Life stories!  All the flights were smooth, and we had no issues during our travels.


We are now a little over two weeks in of living in Kenya and we are glad to be in our new home.  Thankfully, our company was able to set up temporary furniture into the house we are living in long-term, so we are home but without all our belongings.  We were so blessed to have over a week’s worth of food in the house and felt a very warm welcome from everyone even with social distancing and quarantine time.  We have ventured out the past two days to Baylee's and River's schools to pick up a few needed items.  They have started school and we are hard at work continuing on as First Term Trainers in the role we began in March.   

So, we are in a new season of life but committed to seeing the Lord do great things.  May we see Him be glorified in our lives as we seek to make much of Him.  

Praises:

  • We had safe travels to Kenya
  • We are settling in well
  • All our kids have started school and seem to be doing well
  • Our teammates had a successful bush trip and saw the Lord do great things.

Prayer Request:

  • Pray for a new school year for all our kiddos
  • Pray for us to continue to settle into life in Kenya 
  • Pray for us to learn Kenya culture well and a new language (Swahili)
  • Pray for us to have many opportunities to make much of Christ
Belongings waiting to be crated

First Night in our new home.  Made it after midnight and over 24 hours of travel


       Last Picture in front of the Home in FD

Touch up time


Beautiful Fort Dauphin


Airport Sleeping


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