Our long journey is nearing completion. On February 20th, Lord willing, we will embark on a loooong drive to Mombasa Kenya where we will live and work for the foreseeable future. It will be nice to have house to call home, to grow some roots in a community, and to care about the paint color in any particular room! It has been well over a year since any of those were true and over 2.5 years since we pulled out of Sumter driving the UHAUL.
We are grateful for the support and prayers that have been lifted on our behalf since the inception of our adventure. Our language is going well, we are gaining confidence and starting to hear the spoken language better. We have realized, and conceded, that language is something that keeps growing. Our idea of "fluent" is still a long way off and it will take several years of speaking the language and making mistakes to get to that point.
Rainey is doing well, though she has times, like me, when she misses "home" and our family and friends there. She is, however, investing heavily in the students around her and has had roughly 15 students in our house every Friday night for the last 4 weeks to fellowship, play games, eat, and study the bible. She plays her guitar and leads music every week and she even taught the lesson one week herself. It is not easy to live as a teenager cross culturally but she is making the best of it and Sarah and I are proud of her efforts.
Asa is diligent with his schoolwork and his after school clubs. A couple of days a week he stays after school for football club (soccer) and he is getting better and better. He also stays one afternoon a week to learn new boardgames. I am happy to see him having fun after school, when I was kid if I was at school after 2:00 it was because I was writing the Gettysburg address on the chalkboard 100 times.
Nehemiah and Benny continue to light this place up. As Benny grows he is able to do more and more and he and NLD are growing closer. It is a joy to watch them play and explore together. Now the potential of damage from inadequate supervision has not doubled but rather grown exponentially. One of their favorite activities is to go to town, where I sneak them a chocolate bar before Sarah can find out, and on our return they climb on top of our truck and sit on the the luggage rack on our dirt road and driveway. You should see the looks on some of the nationals' faces.
The circle of life continues here too - Rainbow just hatched another chick and Sa (aka Dr. Doolittle) actually saw him come out of the shell. Our turtles have escaped, we've had to return a cat (not Rainey's) and also had a brief episode with a goat - but those are all stories for another update. Right now we are focusing on being lean for our 13 hour drive to Mombasa with a vehicle and trailer that would embarrass Granny Clampett.
Don't send anymore mail to our Iringa address, we will not get it before we leave - and if by chance you have sent anything, please email and let us know so we can search the post office for it before we leave.
Emails will stay the same, but our phone numbers will change so we will update those when we cross the border. We will also post a new address for Mombasa should you feel the need to drop a bag of sour patch kids in an envelope made out specifically to me....just saying.
Our next update will be complete with pictures of our new home, city, and community. Keep praying for our family's health and safety, our journey to Mombasa, and our work ahead with the NGO doing business and community development - that we would find areas where we can help and make a positive difference in lives. Until Mombasa.........
From Africa,
The Dinkins
"I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward" - David Livingstone
We are grateful for the support and prayers that have been lifted on our behalf since the inception of our adventure. Our language is going well, we are gaining confidence and starting to hear the spoken language better. We have realized, and conceded, that language is something that keeps growing. Our idea of "fluent" is still a long way off and it will take several years of speaking the language and making mistakes to get to that point.
 |
| Rainey rocking it out for "Headlight" in our house on Friday nights |
Asa is diligent with his schoolwork and his after school clubs. A couple of days a week he stays after school for football club (soccer) and he is getting better and better. He also stays one afternoon a week to learn new boardgames. I am happy to see him having fun after school, when I was kid if I was at school after 2:00 it was because I was writing the Gettysburg address on the chalkboard 100 times.
Nehemiah and Benny continue to light this place up. As Benny grows he is able to do more and more and he and NLD are growing closer. It is a joy to watch them play and explore together. Now the potential of damage from inadequate supervision has not doubled but rather grown exponentially. One of their favorite activities is to go to town, where I sneak them a chocolate bar before Sarah can find out, and on our return they climb on top of our truck and sit on the the luggage rack on our dirt road and driveway. You should see the looks on some of the nationals' faces.
 |
| Asa, Nehemiah, and Benny sorting out their candy from FBC! |
Don't send anymore mail to our Iringa address, we will not get it before we leave - and if by chance you have sent anything, please email and let us know so we can search the post office for it before we leave.
 |
| Our good friend Mama Elizabeth and her two children |
Our next update will be complete with pictures of our new home, city, and community. Keep praying for our family's health and safety, our journey to Mombasa, and our work ahead with the NGO doing business and community development - that we would find areas where we can help and make a positive difference in lives. Until Mombasa.........
From Africa,
The Dinkins
"I am prepared to go anywhere, provided it be forward" - David Livingstone
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| 8 boys w/o families come over every Tuesday |
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