Our crazy boys!

This is the most recent picture I have of Matthew. Clearly, I need to take more pics! He's all silliness though.




Caleb really like chocolate, or, as he calls it, "chockik". I couldn't resist getting a picture of him- sorry it's gross!

Term over and holiday plans...

Yesterday was the last day of teaching until January, so we are relieved to have that finished with as we begin our holiday season. Josh's guitar class and my English class are going well, and we enjoy the interaction with the students. They are a joy to spend time with.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and I hear rumors that you can get turkey here, although I haven't seen any! I think we'll be celebrating with some other missionaries, and I'm planning on having some special items brought out, like cranberry sauce, french-fried onions, and canned pumpkin to make pumpkin pie!

We'll be gone to South Africa for most of December visiting my family. My parents, Bob and Susan Evans, live in Johannesburg now, so we'll spend a few weeks with them. My sister, Mary, will also be visiting on her Christmas break, so I'm excited to see her again!! It's hard being spread out all over the world!

Josh and I will be celebrating our 6th anniversary this Christmas, so we are hoping to get away for a weekend while we have some eager grandparents willing to watch the boys!

Will update with pics as these exciting things happen!!!

El Nino

Kenya has been in a drought for a while now, so we've all been praying for rain. Well, we got it, at least for a few weeks! Here is a picture of the flooded roads, and another picture of our sandbagging efforts to protect the slope of the Lighthouse compound. It has been dry again for the last couple of weeks, so we're praying the rain comes back, just not so heavy as before!

Baby, Baby

Just a quick announcement....
Baby #3 will be making his or her way into our household sometime mid-May 2010! What a surprise to us! We will deliver here in Mombasa, as we did that with Caleb, and it went just fine. At only 8 weeks, I'm feeling first trimester blahs, feeling very tired, and somewhat queasy. However, I'm not nearly as sick as I was with my first two pregnancies, so we are praying this is how it will be! (And who knows? Maybe we're having a girl! Miracles can happen.) Updates to follow.

New Church in Kilifi, Kenya

Last week, a team of guys from Grace Community Church in Tyler, TX came to Lighthouse to help build a church for one of our pastors here in Kenya. 3 guys came to help Josh build the church, and the other two held a pastor's conference for all of Lighthouse pastors and Bible students. It was a great week. The men were all tired at the end of the week, but the church got built and it was so great to have friends from home. Thanks to Joel Estes, Justin Hooper, Mark Miller, Jeff Johnson and Tom Nesbitt! Here are some pics from the church building project.

Long time, no posts

I guess we got busy living, and forgot to update the world on what we are up to. Will try to keep this brief, but let you know what we have been doing since the last post...

Our container did arrive, after waiting anxiously for it. We were able to get it with relatively no problems, and were not hassled about any of the items inside. The biggest thing they were concerned with was the 20 boxes of old books, since all that stuff was supposed to be "personal"! Josh just said his wife really liked to read!

Josh quickly got the computer room set up, and it works great with 12 computers with flat screen monitors. The library is still a work in progress since we are waiting to get some more shelves built to house the large number of books we had donated. However, many of the books are already being put to good use. Thanks so much for all the donations!!!!

We are into the 2nd term (out of 3) of our school year with the Bible students. We have 8 students in the senior class, and they are a joy to teach. Josh is continuing with his guitar class, and I am teaching English, using a great new curriculum that I found!!

That's probably enough for one post- just wanted you to know what we have been up to. Love everybody and miss you!

Birthdays and the Beach

It's been a time of celebration around our house as Caleb turned 1 last month and Matthew turned 3 yesterday!! My boys are getting so big! My parents, Bob and Susan Evans came to Mombasa for a week to spend time with us before they moved down to South Africa. We had an awesome CARS birthday party for Matthew with all his buddies. We had plans for a party at the park, but that idea got rained out and we turned our house into party central- 10 kids under the age of 6- that's a lot of energy!

We spent a weekend at a beach cottage with my parents, just enjoying being together. The tide was out every morning, so we took early morning walks, and Josh explored the reef. We ate fresh fish everyday, and Matthew even went "fishing" in the fish pond with his net. We fought off the monkeys, wishing dear Aunt Weezy was here to defend us. All in all, a good time.

Fun at Home

We've been pretty busy lately, but in a good way. We've been enjoying our friends here in Mombasa, and we are so thankful that we have friends. Much of our first 2 years here in Mombasa we were on our own, and we learned that "no man is an island." Praise God for friends.

Riots in town

On Friday, I was going to embark on my first real drive into "town"- a much noisier, crowded, busy place than the part of Mombasa I usually drive in. I was going to take our friends, the Browns, to a fast food place with a play area for our kids.

We got turned back by all the commercial vehicles, and had to deviate into other parts of town, some roads resembling alleys more than actual streets. Thankfully, Justin had a better sense of direction than I, and we headed home after we received a call from Josh, saying to come home because there was fighting in town.

Apparently the police were trying to get rid of the hawkers, who decided to fight back, and cars were being burned. You could see the smoke from our house. Thankfully, God paved the way, and we got home without a problem.

Goat Slaughtering in English Class

Some teachers have to put up with distracting, unruly students. I have to put up with animals being slaughtered outside my classroom window.

Right behind our classrooms is an apartment complex, with a parking garage on the bottom floor. Apparently, since nobody has a car, it's an excellent space to wash clothes, and prepare food..... from scratch.... Today during class, we had to talk over the bleating of a goat, who was slaughtered, strung up, skinned and gutted- all while we talked about God's plan for our life.

Perhaps the plan for the goat's life was lunch.

Back in the Driver's Seat

So today I drove in Kenya for the first time since we have arrived back. I only had two rules to remember- 1) Stay left, and 2) Use the horn. And don't get hit... or hit anybody.,.. OK, so maybe more than two rules.

I forgot how much I need to use all my mirrors to drive here, and almost rear-ended a casket hanging out the back of a sedan. Except for dishonoring the dead, there might have been worse things I could have almost run into....

All said and done, I got back home safely with my groceries, and didn't have any incidents. I pray harder living in Kenya, that's for sure.

At home in Kenya

We have arrived! After 2 eight-hour flights, with only a very short layover in London, we arrived in Nairobi, with luggage and sanity intact. We had a good 3 days with my parents, and celebrated Caleb's first birthday (a little early). We got to Mombasa on Monday, and hit the ground running! We are still unpacking our 12 bags (they allowed us TOO much luggage) and trying to get our house back in order.

Lighthouse Bible School started yesterday, and I had my first class of English today- I loved it! I have 9 students, and am excited to see what this year brings.

The kids are loving being back- since in Mombasa, they have shared a room and both slept all the way through the night!! Caleb is busy exploring our house, and we have realized we have to find a way to block our stairs- he's earning himself the nickname "Bruiser!"

Until next time, content and almost over jet-lag, Maggie

Packing!

We are busy packing. This is what our house looks like right now. We have been collecting books to take back to the Bible Institute library, and computers for the computer lab.

We also take back things like taco seasoning, diapers, chocolate chips, battery-operated fans, and children's tylenol, just to name a few of the things that we love from here, and just can't get over in Kenya. Or if we can get it, it's just not the same!

A new blog for the Ghrist's

Dear friends,

The only reason I'm blogging is to share what's going on in our lives with those who are interested. Josh and I head back to Kenya in 3 weeks, after a wonderful 6-month stay in Tyler, TX. We know how easy it is to be disconnected with us when we are so far away, and want to share bits of our lives with you, if you want to stay updated on our lives. We had been blogging in a xanga account, but it wasn't user-friendly, so we've switched. We hope to get up stories every week, and lots of pictures....