Usually we just post about specific events, trips, projects or activities that we are involved with, but Jessica had a great idea to post the occurrences of a random grouping of days so that we could give you a snapshot of what our lives usually consist of here.  Every week, Monday-Friday, really isn’t all that much different than if we were still living in the States with the exception of the people we are working with and the languages being spoken around us.  Jamie spends his days in a classroom surrounded by 16 kids, and Jessica spends each day sitting at a desk in an office.  But on the weekends things are usually a bit more varied, so what is to follow is the happenings of any given weekend, not necessarily every weekend, just any given weekend.

We started last weekend with the Rosslyn Academy end of the year banquet at Muthaiga Country Club on Friday night.  It was an extremely nice evening where everyone put on their very best attire to go to a large ball room and eat food that we normally wouldn’t be able to afford, at least not in good conscience.  So we enjoyed the guilt free eating and time with our very good friends and colleagues.  It was also a time to say goodbye to staff that are leaving Rosslyn this year.  This caused us to realize that our time here, regardless of how long it may be, is going to pass before we realize it, so we must take advantage of every opportunity.   We finished the night with a late night walk around the Rosslyn campus with friends, and since this made us all feel like college students all over again, we popped some popcorn and stayed up late sharing stories from those days.

Saturday morning we got up early….well not too early, around 8, but hey it’s Saturday!!….and completed our monthly food run to Ruai School.  We made a great contact at a duka (shop) downtown where the owner, Katherine, will give us a great deal on our monthly purchase of maize and beans.  Then we went on to Ruai.   As always this was a great experience.  We love visiting with the Mboya’s and blessing their school and food program.  Plus, they always treat us to a wonderful Kenyan lunch!

When we returned Saturday afternoon we attended the 5^th birthday party of our very good friend Gabe Greenwich, whose parents live and work at Rosslyn and have become great friends to us.  It is a blessing being a part of the Rosslyn Community and being able to be a part of so many people lives and watch their children grow every day.  It is still difficult being away from our family and our own niece and nephew (we miss you Rayf and Emery!), but it does help to have children so close all the time.  Saturday night we had plans to go to Tamambo, a tapas bar, to watch the Fulham /Everton Premier League match but the match was not aired….grrr!  So instead we met some friends for dinner at Village Market.

Sunday we were invited to Margaret’s (our house helper) church where her Dad is the Pastor, along with our neighbors, the Nippers.  We quickly found out that I (Jamie) and Dan would be expected to teach and preach.  We were not sure what the distinction between the two was and what the expectations would be.  Neither one of us feels that preaching is our strongest gift so we just prayed, trusted in the Lord, and shared what the Lord had laid on our hearts.  We were both amazed at the faithfulness of God because both of our messages were very tightly correlated and dealt with the same issues (and by the way he was the “teacher” because he went first, I was the “preacher” because I went second…who knew?).  We really enjoyed the service at Abundant Life Worship Center Runda Church which is located in a slum in Runda about 1 kilometer from where we live.  The congregation made us feel very welcome and we enjoyed their passionate worship.  We have been invited back to speak again in July, and the girls (Jess and Keturah) have even been asked to prepare something for the women of the church (Jess wants your prayers for that one!).  It was also great to see a part of Margaret’s life that we hadn’t known before.  That night Jamie went to watch the Liverpool/Tottenham match but THEY WERE ONLY SHOWING CRICKET (Who watches cricket?!?!), while Jess worked on Grad School.  Then we finished our evening with a prayer group we have started with our neighbors.  Then we skyped with our families (Sunday nights always) and went to bed to prepare for another week of work.

So, that is a snapshot or any given weekend.  Sorry it got so long (for the 3 of you that are still reading that is) but I have always been a bit of a rambler, even when typing, so there you go.