Summer Recap (Part One): European Adventures

Apparently it's August already.  I am still waiting for a summer break that doesn't fly by, but that seems to be the way with Summer.  She's a breezy lady who waits around for no man, woman, or child.  The start of the next school year is only weeks away, despite how unprepared I feel for it, and I am frantically trying to decide which items on my "summer projects list" should be prioritized because most of them will fall to the wayside yet again.

One of the priorities has been organizing and editing my photos.  Sometimes it feels like a never-ending project, but it's highly important to me because it's how I best remember things.  Put a photo in front of me and I can recall a memory.  No photo?  Good luck getting me to remember any of it.

I'm pleased to say that I am officially caught up on all my photos from the summer!  Which is no small feat considering how many photos there were to weed through.  This summer has been FULL, starting with this...

Where on earth did I go to see a stunningly beautiful castle on the sea, you ask?  Why, I went to Scotland!  It's true.  This was my 40th birthday present from Eli!  To say that I was shocked would be an understatement.  He had arranged a whirlwind trip to Scotland for me and my dear friend Lauren.  I was both insanely excited and insanely hesitant at the idea.  Here's why: me going to Scotland meant Eli would be traveling internationally with our kids - alone - for the first time and I really wasn't sure that was a good idea.  (Keep reading below for context).  After my initial shock and awe, I literally said to Eli, "I'm not sure this is a good idea!"  He was totally confident he could travel alone with the boys and have no problems, and I could only remember the chaos of traveling back from Thailand with both of us tag-teaming the management of children with bloody noses and fevers and vomiting.  Traveling internationally with children is really a two-parent gig!  But Eli was undeterred.  This was happening and he somehow had complete faith that all would work out well in the end.

For the record, Eli was right!

Here's how it happened.  My dear friend Lauren (a fellow missionary here in Chogoria) has a birthday just a few days apart from mine, and their family was returning to the States at the exact time that our birthdays were coming around.  So she had to fly in that direction anyway.  Our own family was headed to a leadership conference in Albania right after my birthday, so we were headed to Europe anyway.  As it turns out, there is no easy way to get from Kenya to Albania, so one of our flight options was to go through London.  Guess what's just a quick hop and a skip away from London?  Edinburgh!  So the dads (God bless them!!!) sent the moms to Scotland for a whirlwind birthday extravaganza, then we met up with the dads and kids back in London where our families went our separate ways to continue with our summer plans.

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Lauren and I rented a car and had a fabulous time exploring Scotland's beauty.  (Also, it was my first time driving a rental and I did pretty darn good.  It helps that we drive on the left side of the road in Kenya, so I was well prepared to drive in the UK.)  We visited Dunnotar Castle along the North Sea, explored some of Cairngorms National Park, and walked through the Scottish National Gallery and Edinburgh Castle.

Another highlight was meeting up with Alison, the last Scottish missionary in Chogoria.  Alison grew up as an MK in Chogoria, then became a doctor and moved back as an adult to live and serve there.  She is a treasure.  We've had the privilege of meeting her in Chogoria when she's come back to visit, but meeting up with her in Scotland was a special treat.  She is passionate about Chogoria's history and we talked for hours about this mission hospital we call home.  Icing on the cake!

The reunion with my boys in London was so sweet.  These precious sons literally ran through the airport when they saw me, all hugs and squeals and happiness.  Absence really does make the heart grow fonder!  Together we got on the next plane for Albania and began the next adventure.

We had been invited to attend a leadership conference with our mission organization.  The week was spent with other leaders from around the world, encouraging one another and worshipping together and praying for each other.  Hearing stories of how God is on the move all around the world was incredibly humbling and inspiring.  It's so easy to feel boxed in, to have a myopic vision, because sometimes all you can see is what's right in front of you.  So gathering together with fellow believers involved in ministries from other countries and continents served to broaden our perspective and refresh our enthusiasm for the bigger picture of God's Kingdom being built in all corners of the world.  God is on the move in so many ways!

The boys were just along for the ride, but they had a great time in the kids program while we sat in sessions.  We also had the privilege of hiking in the Albanian countryside, walking around Apollonia (where Augustus Caesar was educated), and running along the shore of the Adriatic Sea.

Did I mention there's no easy way to get from Albania to Kenya?  For the return journey, we opted for more flights but less distance overall, which put us going through Rome.  And as long as we had to go through Rome...

We signed up for a fabulous tour of the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica - seriously, our tour guide was amazing.  Our boys were also amazing.  One never knows, but hopes with all her might, that the kids are of an age to be ready to do things like a 4-hour art and architecture tour.  And they were!  Even the Bubba hung in there with us.  We were so proud.  It was so incredible to not only see some of the most famous art in the world, but to make connections between what we've learned in their history/art classes this year and the actual places the art was created.  To see the boys get excited about recognizing parts of the Sistine Chapel and wanna make sure I saw it too, and to need to go back and see La Pieta for a second time before leaving... it makes a homeschool mama's heart full indeed!

And really, is there any better place to go on a field trip of Western civilization than Rome???  We'd been reading The Bronze Bow together and discussing the impact the Roman empire had on entire cultures and civilizations, and specifically on Judaism.  While walking around the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, we discussed the mindset and worldview of Roman authorities at the time.  Did you know that the Arch of Titus, which still stands intact in the Forum, was built and subsequently dedicated by the Senate as a monument to the defeat of Judea in AD 70?  Or that the building of the Colosseum was financed with the spoils of that same conquest of the Jews?  It was sobering, to say the least.  We talked about these parts of history and wrestled with the magnificent and ingenious architecture pitted against the backdrop of pride and greed and evil.  Similar discussions were held while touring St. Peter's Basilica.  What a magnificent structure!  And yet...indulgences, anyone?

Oh, to stand where Charlemagne himself stood, where Michelangelo and Raphael forever left their imprint on art history, where Martin Luther began seriously questioning the Church and gained momentum that eventually led to the Reformation...  Ahh!  So much history and so much fodder for meaningful discussion!

Suffice it to say, we loved our time in Rome!

One evening we crossed the Tiber River, into which Romulus and Remus were put in a basket and left to die until a she-wolf came to their rescue.  Our boys love this creative legend about the founding of Rome.

After we crossed the river, we stumbled upon a riverside open-air restaurant with a perfect view of Castel Sant'Angelo, built in the 100s by Hadrian.  I tell ya, those Romans really knew how to build buildings that would last.  The evening weather and ambiance couldn't have been more perfect, lending itself to the perfect opportunity to tackle one of our most important goals while in Rome: devouring a lot of pizza!

We then walked to Piazza Navona to admire the fountains and get gelato (another important goal while in Rome!)

We tackled the Roman Forum and Colosseum in one hot afternoon, gaining an understanding of why the wealthy and elite would abandon the city every summer in exchange for their villas in the cooler countryside.  The boys almost melted in the heat, but not quite.  The promise of more gelato kept them going...and maybe kept the mama going too...

Asa had declared early on that he really wanted a gladiator helmet from Rome.  Let's be honest, despite the savagery and brutality of the real gladiator fights, the fact remains that weapons and armor were involved which is all it takes to inspire a fascination in this boy.  Boys are boys, right?  And ours have always loved pretending to battle.  We have a decent armory of plastic weapons at our house, but alas, no warrior helmets of any kind.  (We have superhero masks in spades, but that's not quite the same.)  All that to say, Asa Bubba had his heart set on getting a gladiator helmet and he specifically wanted to wear it as we walked around the Colosseum.

He found a helmet he loved as soon as we exited the metro station at the Colosseum.  But we opted to to come back for it later while we found lunch and walked through the Forum and Palatine Hill.  Eli and I both knew who was actually gonna end up lugging that thing around all afternoon if we bought it then and there, and we were not interested in that.  True to our word, we went back to buy the helmet later, but they were all sold out.  Asa was devastated.  We promised we'd find another shop afterwards because surely there would be other places nearby with gladiator helmets.  He reluctantly agreed to our plan, remaining downcast with the knowledge that he wouldn't have his helmet as we went inside the Colosseum.  He did perk up as we explored the massive ancient icon, and then, by God's grace, at the very end was a gift shop with a gladiator helmet!  It was a smaller, cheaper version of the one he'd found earlier, but he was oh so happy with it.  Never mind that it barely fits his head.  It was the realization of Asa's Roman Dream!

And he wore that helmet the rest of the evening as we walked around the city.  His joy was contagious and that silly gladiator helmet quickly became a cherished memory of the whole trip!

The only thing that went awry during our Roman Holiday was that we arrived at the Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli literally as they were closing the doors.  Unbeknownst to me, the website where I had looked up the visiting hours had listed the wrong closing time.  We walked up the steps only to be harassed by an unkind security guard who refused to let us enter for even 5 minutes to see the Moses statue by Michelangelo.  We had studied this impeccable sculpture and I desperately wanted to see it in person.  Not only is it a true masterpiece, but it's also a lesson in the careful administration of Bible translation!

Why, you might ask?  Because Michelangelo sculpted Moses with horns on his head.  Why on earth would he do that?  Because of a mistranslation of Exodus 34:29 in the Latin Vulgate.  That's the passage when Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai and "his face was radiant."  As my Study Bible notes, "The Hebrew for 'was radiant' is related to the Hebrew noun for 'horn.'  The meaning of the phrase was therefore misunderstood by the Vulgate (the Latin translation), and thus European medieval art often showed horns sprouting from Moses' head."  Isn't that so incredibly fascinating???  It's also led to great conversations with our kids about the importance of accurate Bible translation, but also how hard it can be because of nuances in culture and language that don't translate well, etc.  We have friends who work in Bible translation and we highly admire the rigorous work they do!

So I desperately wanted to see that statue, but we were blatantly denied.  The super grumpy security guard left us no recourse.  We sat on the church steps and I wept.  My heart was so disappointed, knowing we were literally steps away from an artistic marvel and couldn't even lay eyes on it.  Two mercies helped me dry my tears: finding our annual Christmas tree ornament at the souvenir stand just across the plaza from the church, and my husband promising to find the nearest gelato to soothe my soul.  He's a good man, that Eli Horn.

The boys, God bless them, encouraged me by saying that we could come back to the church on our next trip to Rome.  Oh, how I love youthful naivete!  Although, if my sons ever wanted to bring their mama back to Rome someday...and pay for it themselves...I wouldn't begrudge them that!

Caleb's Birthday

Last week Caleb turned 11!

This boy wanted a Big Foot birthday this year.  He's continually fascinated by imaginary creatures (think Loch Ness, Godzilla, King Kong, and Greek mythological creatures like Cerberus, Minotaur, and Scylla).  So it felt right that Caleb wanted a Big Foot birthday.

We started the celebrations the night before with a pancake supper - Sasquatch pancakes, that is!  Let me tell you, trying to make pancakes in the shape of a Sasquatch is not a natural talent of mine.  There were several iterations, but thankfully our kids had marvelously low expectations and marvelously high enjoyment of whatever I flipped out of the pan.  Caleb was delighted!

We began the morning of his birthday with a present (as all birthdays should begin, in my humble opinion).  His first present was a book.  Caleb is a huge bookworm.  He reads constantly, and when he's not reading he's usually writing or telling his own stories.  So the easiest thing to get him these days is books!

I always have the birthday boy help to make the cake.  My rule is: you help bake the cake and then I'll decorate it for you!  They like helping with the cake anyway.  Who doesn't like seeing their own birthday cake come together and then licking the batter off the spoon when it's done???

While the cake baked, Caleb opened another present: more books!  Our collection of African wildlife books continues to grow.  Caleb is a fount of knowledge when it comes to wildlife in general, and a guru of African wildlife in particular.  He's basically a walking encyclopedia.  And his knowledge keeps growing.  For instance, he started reading the Primates book right away and learned about a colobus monkey in West Africa that differs from the kinds we have here in East Africa.  He's floored to keep learning about wildlife!

We still homeschooled in the morning, but finished earlier than usual because Mama had to focus on decorating the cake.  I was praying I wouldn't completely mess up the Big Foot.  Thankfully Big Foot's shape can be a bit amorphous and still be identified as Big Foot (see pancake pictures above).  By God's grace the cake turned out well!  

I always put the birthday boy's name on the cake somewhere, as well as their age.  This time I hid the "11" a bit because I wasn't sure how else to obviously incorporate it.  The two pine trees represent the number 11.  I totally forgot about needing to put candles on later, and so I didn't have a plan for incorporating candles into the scene, but Caleb didn't care and was happy to put candles on the cake wherever he wanted to when the time came.

He really loved the cake, and I really loved that he loved it.

He chose pizza for his birthday supper, so I got the dough rising as soon as I finished the cake, and we devoured the pizza right before some friends came over to eat the cake with us.

Caleb was adamant that he did not want a birthday party.  He was just as adamant that he didn't want anyone to sing for him (not even us).  But he did want to share his cake, so we invited the expats over with clear instructions that no one could sing Happy Birthday, and it was a lovely low-key evening with some very good cake!

I convinced him to open one present while his friends were over, and he was floored to get this book from us: Mountain Dragons: In Search of Chameleons in the Highlands of Kenya.  I learned about this book from another homeschooling missionary mama who loves chameleons, and I knew we needed it in our library.  Gorgeous photos accompany the text and we've already learned some interesting new facts.  The most fascinating is that apparently there are subspecies of the Jackson's chameleon!  Jackson's are the most common species of chameleon in our area, and the males have horns while the females do not, but apparently the females of another subspecies can sometimes have horns too!  We had no idea.  So now we're wondering if we've ever encountered a female with horns...  Who knows?

Books, books, and more books!  Between us and the grandparents, Caleb was extremely spoiled with the number of new books he received this year.  And I love it!  Of all the things we could be collecting in this house, books are the most important.  I regularly remind the boys that reading is incredibly valuable because reading increases our knowledge and wisdom, and hopefully, more than anything, increased knowledge and wisdom will lead to an increased love for God.

So bring on the books!

A couple days after his birthday we had a Mom/Dad/Caleb movie night.  We set up a movie for the other boys in another room, then the three of us snuggled up in our room to watch Mighty Joe Young.  None of us had seen it before but it looked like the perfect Caleb movie because it's about a giant gorilla and wildlife conservation.  To say that Caleb loved the movie would be an understatement.  He was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement!  It will undoubtedly be in the regular movie lineup from now on.  Eli and I liked it too - plenty of action and an interesting plot overall - but a particular perk is that in the beginning of the movie, which takes place in Africa, a lot of Swahili is spoken!  It was so fun to recognize some of what the characters were saying in Swahili.

Caleb is an incredibly imaginative kid.  He lives in his head much of the time and it can be hard for him to focus on what's right in front of him, but his creativity is inspiring and we love how much reading and creating his own stories informs how he thinks about the world.  Caleb makes connections between stories and real life and he asks good and thought-provoking questions because of it.

His heart is so kind, and his affectionate nature encourages our hearts daily.  Caleb still loves to snuggle with us, and he'll still hold my hand when we're walking somewhere.  We greatly appreciate his gentle side.

And of course he's still insanely passionate about wildlife and all of God's creation.  That is the first thing everyone associates with Caleb: wildlife!  We are so proud of his love and respect for animals and we have learned a lot about how to care for creation because of this precious son of ours.

More important than anything, Caleb loves the Lord.  He listens eagerly when we do Bible lessons at home and he remembers what he learns.  He enjoys listening to worship music, and he likes rereading our devotional books and citing them in random conversations.  We are so proud of this kid and we continually pray that Caleb will follow the Lord wholeheartedly and that he'll have a different spirit about him (as his namesake did) - a spirit of devotion and faithfulness to walk in the ways of the Lord.

Happy Birthday, Caleb!  We love you!

Retreat at the Coast

Every year our WGM Kenya field has a retreat.  It's a wonderful time of fun, fellowship, worship, and renewing our hearts and minds.

I have been in charge of planning Retreat for the past three years.  It's a lot of work to plan a multiple-day event for a hundred people or so, but it's also a task that suits my personality and skillsets well.  I'm good at pulling all the details together and I'm good at emceeing and I'm good at making things fun.  Event-planning is something that uses a variety of my skills - the super organized part of me, the strong communicator side of me, and the camp counselor and youth worker side of me.  In another life I might have had a future in event-planning.

But I do not have another life and this is definitely not something I have the margin for most of the time.  I actually don't really have the margin for it even now, which is why there were so many late nights working on it because there was no other time to fit it in except to sacrifice sleep in order to do it.  But alas, all the hard work and lost sleep paid off because Retreat was fabulous this year and everyone had a great time.

We stayed at a place along the Kenyan coast, with amazing views of the Indian Ocean.  It is hot and humid, however, so everyone just sweats their way around the resort and gets in the water or A/C whenever possible.  But if you can handle the heat and humidity, the scenery can't be beat.

I don't have as many photos as usual because I was too busy running around.  I actually never even made it to the beach the entire time, literally.  But we did spend time at the family pool where our boys happily practiced their swimming skills.  Asa is a good and confident swimmer by now, Kai is almost to the point where he can be trusted alone, and Caleb has room to grow but is well on his way.  It's taken so long for these boys to learn to swim because they simply haven't had much opportunity to practice swimming.  We don't have easy access to a pool in rural Kenya, so they only get to swim once or twice a year and it's belabored the project of learning how to swim.  But the light is at the end of the tunnel and they are finally almost there!

I ended up in charge of the Fun Night on the first day.  Finding activities for a large group of adults and kids alike is no easy feat, but it turned out well and memories were made!

The speaker and worship team who led our sessions were amazing.  Dr. Matthew Sleeth is a physician-turned-author-and-speaker who happens to be the father of one of our colleagues, and it was great to have him join us and meet the whole WGM Kenya family that his kids and grandkids are a part of, as well as to learn from his wisdom and insight.  He spoke a lot about Sabbath, sharing stories and pointing us back to Scripture, and it was a meaningful time.

The worship team came from a church in Nairobi and they blessed us beyond belief!  They did a lot of familiar songs and somehow they were particularly meaningful and impactful.  Many people commented on how much they appreciated the worship.  It was mostly in English, with a few Swahili songs thrown in, and it was just wonderful.  Also, I never knew I could enjoy singing "This Little Light of Mine" so much!  That must be a sign of a truly talented worship team!

This year we celebrated a colleague, Robyn, who is retiring after living and serving in Kenya for 42 years.  Yes, 42 years!  It's incredibly rare to hear of people staying on the mission field for that long anymore, and we were humbled and inspired to hear many of her stories over the years as she shared reflections during her retirement party.  It was also fascinating to think about how much Kenya has changed in the past 42 years - what the infrastructure was like then compared to now.  We certainly arrived at a different place than Robyn did four decades ago.  We showed up with the ability to call our family in an instant, and even video chat with them.  Robyn had to travel hours and pay an arm and a leg for a 3-minute phone call to say hello to her family on her birthday.  There were many other examples, but the sacrifices she has made over the years was indeed humbling and inspiring, and we were so grateful to celebrate with her as she prepares to leave her adopted home and return to America and transition to the next chapter of her life.

This picture shows Robyn receiving one of her retirement gifts - her original work permit that was granted in 1982!

Another celebratory night was the graduation banquet for our high school graduates who are preparing to leave Kenya and return to the States for university.  There were two graduates this year, both of whom have grown up in Kenya since they were 2 and 3 years old.  Kenya is home, and they're about to embark on a major life transition.  Retuning to their passport country is always a major transition for TCKs, but it also represents a huge accomplishment of growing up cross-culturally and becoming wise and mature young men and women with a broader understanding of the world and God's kingdom at work within it.  These kids have carefully cultivated worldviews, which our world needs more of, and they have incredible potential for positive and meaningful impact in the corner of the world God leads them to.  I have a special place in my heart for missionary kids, having learned intimately what unique challenges they face, as well as unique blessings they experience and bestow.  Celebrating them and their lives - past, present, and future - is something we take seriously and is one of the most cherished times of Retreat every year.

This year Eli had the honor of being asked to speak over and pray for one of the graduates, Isaac, who has been a friend to our family ever since we moved to Kenya.  His parents were our on-field mentors during our first year on the mission field, and the three boys in that family have been role models to our own three boys and have displayed an intentionality with our kids that has been an ongoing gift to us.  What a joy to be able to bless Isaac in return and pray for him as he looks toward leaving Kenya and going on to university in the States!

Eli's prayer moved me (and others!) to tears.  I'll share a part of it here, because I want to remember the words that express Eli's heart over these missionary kids.

"I pray for his future to be bright, and not bright in the ways of the world but bright in the ways of You and Your kingdom, which will shine anywhere.  And I know that we stand together when we pray these things for Isaac.  When he is struggling, may he be reminded of the community that is behind him.  We're not always going to be in touch with him, and that's okay, because You always will be.  I pray that he would feel that, and when he doesn't feel that, I pray that he would know that, and when he doesn't know that, I pray that he would still believe it.  And in this way You will carry him."

*tears!*

The other graduate is someone we adore as well.  Bella's family were our neighbors when we lived at Tenwek, and her dad and Eli still work together for the Family Medicine residency program and we have a great love and appreciation for their family as a whole.  So the entire evening was one of joy and pride.  I love how well our WGM family loves our missionary kids!  Our hearts go with them wherever they are in the world.

So, Retreat was a great success and I thank God for His provision and protection and blessing over it all.