Typos

In the last post of pictures I had intended to write. 'smiley girl' not simply girl. and its supposed to say anna and friends. thats what you get from a near exhausted father doing work in the library till it closes, and getting up with the kids early in the morning. Please pray for us and my term papers. THanks.

Mr T and others

Hi friends, here is the long awaited pictures of Mr. T and others.
-Mr. T 1
-Mr. T2
-Poor sick Mommy
-simply girl
- anna a friends. notice the difference in skin tone, hair color, and facial structure. An indian, an Ethiopian, and our little squeaky (or talky now!) see ya.

A quick Update

Hi friends, here is a quick update.
We had mid-term break this past weekend (which is really only a Friday and Monday off), so a long weekend, but its been good to have a bit of break. It appears as though things in Kenya, are actually getting better. The violence is subsiding, and the negotiators have reportedly begun to workout something that will work as a settlement for the political situation. Thanks for praying, keep praying though, because, well, I for one will believe it only when we see it. Its been a tense couple of months. Interestingly, the violence of the last two months has really had little to do with politics. The political disagreement only gave an excuse for tribal tensions to flare. But anyway... so we had a good mid term break, which for me was spent trying to get started on term papers and things. I have had some success and also some rest, which is great.
Jamie is sick. Not as a bad as last time,but none the less. So really the only thing she does is rest. Right now this is best. Her rest is somewhat imposed, by me, to try to ensure we don't repeat what happened last time. She has only thrown-up a handful of times. So please keep praying for her. And pray for me as i try to fill in some of the gaps, for a while. Gladwell has been great and is learning to cook lots of cool stuff.
The kids are doing well. Junio is enjoying his school. His school is situated on this side of town and in a safe and secure "out of the way" location so he has had no trouble going to school these past weeks. They had crazy hair last friday, for which, we cut Junio's hair to look like Mr. T. I'll post a picture as soon as I can. But he now likes to come up to me and tell me, "I pity the fool..." Annabelle is generally happy, and doing well. She has had a bit of an adjustment with not being the center of Mommy attention. This, of course, is inevitable and it will continue this way. But she enjoys going to the store with Daddy and taking walks with Gladwell and our good friend "aunt" Julie. She has gotten a number of bug bits recently, but they are not bad and are under control (in fact, this time she seems to be reacting to them much better than usual). Praise God for this.
Well, i guess thats about it. Thanks for praying, thanks for watching.

Jer

Lots of News

Lots of News:
Hi everyone...greeting from Kenya. We are well, thanks for your prayers. As most of you know the violence in Kenya continues, but we remain safe and secure. Classes have started, and seem to be going well. For the moment we are finding things a bit easier than last term, but it is still early. Its also a bit more technical linguistically....which is fun.
In other exciting news, we have decided to put Junio is a different school. There is an American School very close to here, which also gives us a discount as its a missionary school and was started by our organization. We really think this is going to work out great. Junio was having some issues with understanding different words because of the Kenyan accent. As a result his reading in the long term, was going to be hindered so we decided, we needed to do something now to ensure he doesn't have to catchup later. And so far, he loves it. He has one of the best teachers there and is really enjoying things. They have a fantastic library, and he still has a multinational class with classmates from around the world.
Also in other wonderful news! We found out last week that Jamie is pregnant again!! WE are very excited, but also a bit apprehensive, because as some of you know Jamie was very sick for 7/9 months last time and had to be hospitalized during that time. SHe started to get sick about 5.5 weeks along last time. Now she is 6 weeks along, and so far so good, only slight nausea which has been remedied by a quick snack. Please pray for her, that it is not like it was last time. Everyone keeps telling us you just can't compare pregnancys, they are different each time, I do hope they are right, but we'll see. As I said so far so good. If we are right the next "Langlette", as one of our friends called it, will be here just in time for the next academic year in September.
So thats the skinny. thanks for watching.
Jeremy

Pictures:
Annabelle feeding her new baby doll
Junio and his friend Johnny on a bouncy castle before school started
my new haircut courteousy of Jamie.
Jamie hard at work with Morphosyntax
a fun pic of the kids

A Reflection from Jamie

15.01.08
So, many people have asked us how we are doing here with all the political upheaval. It is hard to describe how much we feel like newbies at all this missionary stuff. We have colleagues in war torn countries all over the world who deal with the kind of thing that we have dealt with here on a daily basis. So, I suppose, after awhile you just get used to it.
Today there is supposed to be some crazy parliamentary stuff so we are not allowed to go near the city. This last week was pretty calm with the only riot being when we finally decided to venture out and go to a restaurant, a riot broke out about ten blocks down and we got a text about it and left. Thankfully we had finished our food! But that is basically the situation. There is just this constant tension, should we go out. No, not today. Is it ever going to feel safe again? We are not the only ones to feel it. The Kenyans here have never feared for their lives before like they have in the last month. There are many people who are bitter and angry and feel extremely disappointed and scared all at the same time. All we can do is constantly lift our worry, anger and bitterness to the Lord or we would all go crazy.

Our Dear Friend Victor

Hi everyone, Thanks soo much for your comments and posts on our blog, its really great to see who is "watching". If you haven't posted a comment please do. As the violence and political upheaval in Kenya slows down and, we hope and pray fades away, our attention turns again to preparing for school. Term was delayed by our administration a week, so that people might have a chance to travel safely and perhaps recollect their lives a bit before we are hit with work.
Below is a letter from a very dear friend of ours, he is a pastor from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (another country that has been torn apart in the past by war and political violence). He is a student here with us at NEGST. We got to know him while doing a project with him last term (which we got an A on by the way). He is trying to find avenues of sponsorship for his studies at NEGST. We asked him to write a short testimony, and we told him we'd give him a bit of "publicity" on our blog. If this is a direction the LORD might move you, please contact us, We have more financial specifics. If you don't know our email adress give us yours via a comment to this post, and we'll contact you. Think of it this way, in supporting people like Victor and others, you are building and strengthening the church in Africa. One of the worst problems the church faces in Africa, is not necessarily hunger and lack of provision (though this is a deadly African reality), but lack of a substantial Biblical and Orthodox theology (perhaps a even more "deadly" reality). There is a severe famine in sound Biblical teaching on this continent, and NEGST is one of only a handful of institutions the LORD has blessed Africa with that seek to remedy this need.

I am Victor Lonu Budha, from the North-East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). I am married to Carine Dheve Lonu and God had blessed us with six children: 4 daughters and 2 boys. They are between 12 years and 9 months. With them, I have one orphan, a boy who is 13 old, in my charge. My home church is Communauté Evangélique au Centre de l’Afrique (CECA-20) and especially Eglise Locale CECA-20 Sukisa/Bunia.

I accepted Jesus as my Saviour and Lord when I was very young, during an evangelization campaign. But it was in 1988 that I committed to serve God. I began as singer in a choir and a Sunday school teacher. After my secondary school, I taught in a primary school for 3 years. Then I worked as secretary in my church denomination for 5 years and I went to theological studies for 3 years. After this period I served as headmaster in a bible school from 1996 to 1998 and I went again back for 2 other years for theological studies. When I finished in 2000, I went, as a teacher, in another bible school from 2001 to February 2005. From April 2005 to August 2007 I was pastoring in a local church.

My journey to attend NEGST began in 2001 but I only got my admission in June, last year , 2006. But I could not come to begin the academic year 2006-2007 in September, because I did not have money to pay school fees and my church was unable and still the same to help me in this matter. As the admission was valid only for 2 years, I finally decided, even without sponsorship or any promise, but by faith, to come at NEGST, because I was convinced that God’s time has come for me to be at NEGST and I did not want to lose my admission that I got after many years.

According to the financial difficulty, which has not changed even now, my wife and children remain in my country and I have come alone. I had just enough money for my travel from Bunia (which is my home town) to Nairobi. My wife is dealing with many issues to help the children (school fees, daily life) while she is jobless. To be without scholarship, separated with my family and the fact that my country has not a stable peace, especially my area (Ituri District), gives me great sadness much of the time and sometimes I am unable to concentrate for my academic tasks.

According to the deterioration of the country with the effects of wars, the church there has became very weak. It is true that the church is economically poor, but also it needs help in teaching of biblical principles and appropriate strategies for its growing. That is the main aim for why I am at NEGST and I will go back, when I finish, to my country to serve God in the church of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, considering all these facts, I am looking for the financial support. Any assistance of this kind will be your great contribution for the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

May God bless you.

Victor Lonu Budha.

one more Picture

One more picture of Junio and Micaiah with their new bikes.

Christmas in Kenya...more pics

Pictures are:
-Us on Christmas
-Tim and Jeana
- Don
-The girls
- Annabelle wanted to go out... (don't worry we let her and it is completely safe)

Christmas in Kenya

So our first Christmas away was full of fun and friends. We had our friends, the Roths (Tim, Jeana and Micaiah) up with us from Tanzania and a friend named Don who works here in Nairobi at the Embassy. Don provided and cooked a delicious 16 pound turkey, Jeana made her famous peppermint fudge with ingredients sent from the states and I settled in on the green bean casserole, and the birthday cake for Jesus. Junio's favorite presents were his bike, a sling shot (not from his mother, I'd just like to point out!) and new superman shoes that light up when he walks. Annabelle loved opening the presents and saying "Krisamasi, Krisamasi!" over and over again. Micaiah also got a new bike which was very exciting!
Tim and Jeana have had to extend their stay with us because of violence from the elections here in Kenya. It is long and complicated but if you would like to know more about it you can look on the NY Times or Washington Post websites. They are planning to leave tomorrow morning to head back to Tanzania since we have had one day of relative peacefulness and there is a big demonstration planned for Thursday where it could be much worse for awhile. I have been really encouraged by a couple of verses in Lamentations 3:21-26, "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." Please pray for the Roth's and for us. We have seen the Lord provide and we have seen his protection over us and his friends but we have been stretched to not constantly fear. We are constantly waiting for the Lord to do something to end the violence.

Pictures: - our friends the Roths
- opening gifts
- Don and his amazing turkey (which we are still eating, who knew it would become so valuable now that food is a bit scarce)
- Annabelle and a new Christmas doll
- Junio and his new bike

two more

A picture of our Christmas tree and annabelle and her friend showing each other their bellys.

Pictures of Christmas Tree

Friends here are some pictures of our Christmas setup which also happened to be Momma Jamie's birthday. Happy Christmas. Thanks for watching.

A Bit of Rest

Hi everyone. Its break time and that means rest. And rest is, in fact, what we've been doing. As well as getting a newsletter ready, and getting some gifts for our family back in the states and things. This week we are house sitting for one of our professors. They went on "holiday" as the British call it, to the coast, and so they graciously let us spend a week at their house. It is bigger than ours, nicer, has internet, a washing machine and a really big yard/garden around it so the kids can play. Its been nice and quiet because its on the other side of campus from where we live.
In other news, Jamie's Birthday was last week, Junio and Jeremy went out and bought her a fake Christmas tree for her birthday. We also went out to lunch, to Jamie's favorite place, Java House (www.nairobijavahouse.com), for American style food, she had a burrito, lemonade and a mocha frappucino for dessert. We took Gladwell with us. She loved it. It was her second time ever having a hamburger (the first time we found out was earlier this term when we all had to eat lunch at the cafeteria here).
In kids news, Annabelle has been loving the sand box in the back yard here and Junio has really enjoyed playing with a few of his closest friends instead being bombarded with tons of kids all the time. We were able to babysit Lilo and her older brother and sister,Jonathan and Abigail, while their parents went all the way to the other side of Nairobi for the day. They played so well all day. And Annabelle, of course, loved having her best friend Lilo over.
Jeremy was able to go and shadow with a colleague last week. The fellow is a translation consultant working with some languages in Tanzania and is based out of Nairobi. Jer absolutely loved the work. They had a great time checking the translation the native speakers had done and making comments. thats it for now, thanks for watching.

Its Over for now

Hi Everyone... we are done! we finished out First term out of 6 this week. Its nice to have a break. We go back to school on January 7th. IN the mean time we will be resting, spending much needed family time relaxing. Junio will finish school today (Thursday 29th). We had plans to go to Tanzania to visit some friends working in Northern Tz for Christmas, however.. it became a better option to have our friends come up to us. SO they are coming in a couple weeks. We also have the opportunity to house-sit for some friends (actually one of our profs). SO we'll do that, and have a bit more room for about 10 days or so. So thats the quick skinny. We are beginning our next newsletter, so y'all should get that sometime before too long. If you don't get it and you want. Post a comment here and tell me, and how to get it to you, and I'd be happy to put you on. Also if there is a particular question you have about our life and studies here, post that and maybe we can address it in a post or in the newsletter. thanks for watching -Jer et al

Pictures attached this time:
- Junio in his school Christmas program ( i dont know why the tall kids were is the front)
- Lilo helping Annabelle take a bath
- outside our house at night
-Annabelle deep in philosophical conversation ( takes after her Dad!)
- Junio's fantastic smile

its been along time

Hi, everyone...I do hope you are well. many people have mentioned to us via email that they really appreciate viewing our blog. So frist, let me apologize to y'all for not updating it as regularly as we'd like. Things have continued to be very busy for us, and they will only get busier for the next couple of weeks. We are now in our last month of our first term at school. We find ourselves deep in the middle of research projects (thankfully we've chosen good interesting topics), and various other things. In three weeks time we will be studying for exams. We end on the 28th of this month, and then praise the LOrd, we can rest until the 7th of Jan. when term 2 starts. It, truly, has not been bad at all. We have really enjoyed our classes (despite the work load) and have learned a ton that will be useful in the future ministry God has called us to.
We have remained mostly well this term. Really the only one who has been sick has been me (Jeremy). I have had a cold on and off for about 6 or 7 weeks now. I finally have access to vitamin C so, that is starting to go away again,(I hope this time permanently).
Annabelle is doing very well. She has decided to start her terrible twos a bit early, and so now she thinks she can do many things by herself. Luckily for us, we taught her to ask for help if she couldn't do something, and she still does ask every once in a while. She is at the point of constructing two word sentences now. her usual repetroire is "mow nease" - more please, "down now" "nakk pease" - snack please, "ain uu" - thank you, "santi" - thank you (swahili asante), and "dizi" - banana (swahili ndizi). Yes she is doing pretty well at swahili...as is Junio. However, Junio is a bit embarrassed to speak swahili to his parents. We also have to remind him to speak American English when at home so I can understand him.
Both the kids have good friends. Junio has a good friend next door, named emmanuel (manu for short). They love to hang out together and play soccer with all the other kids. In fact, we don't see Junio very much during the day (you'd think he was 16), he's off kicking the ball with Manu or somebody else and having a grand old time (with the occasional disagreement in the middle, you know they yell at each other, maybe one throws the other on the ground, victory is declared, and then back to soccer). Annabelle also has a couple of little friends her age. One is the daughter of an Ethiopian family here. They love to play together and in fact share toys and food together quite often. Her name is Lydia, though everyone calls her Lilo, except for Annabelle who says "wiwo." Her other little friend is a little boy a little younger than her (Lilo is a bit older). His name is "wiam" I mean Liam. He is the son of another American family here, doing a PhD.
We have over the past month been attacked by swarms of ants coming from the trash bins behind our house. The first time they came they came in our room at about 4:30am, we had our bed next to the window and Jamie woke up with them on her head and all in her hair. She was combing dead ants (or alive ones) out of her hair for a couple days. Several times they came in the kids room, very scary in light of Annabelles allergies to bug bites, and once they visited the kitchen. We have things mostly in control now, but it was really stressful for a while there. We kill them with boiling water, and kerosene, and bug spray. I check behind the house every night before I go to bed to make sure we are safe. They have not come for about a week now, perhaps its the coffee grounds we put on the window sill (a friend of ours said that works, so we tried it, and it really seems to -something to store away for the next time you are in Africa.)

Long time

Hi Friends, I am very sorry I didn't realize its been a month since last we posted. We suddenly got very busy with papers and readings. We are in the middle of our first term. We are both enjoying our classes allot. Jamie has about half the work that I do, which is great so she still has time for the kids and taking care of some of the house work. However, our house help Gladwell has been fantastic, we are really getting along well with her.
The Kids are doing well, except that Junio is getting over an ear-infection. He also lost one of his front teeth now and the other one is loose. Hes doing well is school as well, and is really beginning to read. Annabelle is happy and health and decided to explore on her own for the first time today. She walked all the way to Junio's school and tryed to climb the ladder to the slide she didn't get very far up it thankfully, before Jamie got her.

news for the 4th of September

Hi everyone...I hope you are well. This week we have been involved in orientation for our school. Next week classes start. We are excited to be here and settled and we are looking forward to starting classes though everyone tells us classes are alot of work and we will be very busy, they may be right, but we'll see. Jamie is probably only going to take 3 classes and I will take a full load of 16 or 17 credits (5 or 6 classes).
We will both be taking some linguistic courses including phonetics, sociology of language and something about vernacular media (non-print). But I will additionally be taking Greek (probably) and something else I forget at the moment.
I am excited, but I don't want to lose our family life for the sake of our schooling. I want to have a good a balance.
In other news, we are in the process of buying a car. its a 88 Toyota Corolla Station Wagon, something to get us around nothing fancy. We are buying it from a missionary who flys planes for an organization here in Nairobi. I will post pictures as soon at I take them. I think its a good setup.
Thats it for now, thanks for staying posted. see ya.

Jer

PS. more pictures. The flower I took the other day and I thought they came out pretty neat. The others are self-explanatory.