Ugali is a Kenyan dish that consists of boiled cornmeal. If it sounds appetizing, you need to read it again. We had a luncheon for all the computer teachers, and many remarked that I didn’t eat the ugali. When I asked why they ate it, three different people told me that if you ate it at night, you would not wake up with hunger pains, which is a real issue for most Kenyans. I found a way to look away, because I thought it would embarrass them to see me cry.

Perhaps the greatest gift Kenya has given me is the gift of tears. I been afflicted with cynicism for most of my life, but Kenya has managed to pierce my hard heart again and again. Tears are your proof that your heart hasn’t gotten hard, and it is easy for that to happen here.

We are so grateful that because of a church in the states, we are going to add another school to our food program. That means 35 schools, and over 20,000 students will eat lunch this coming year. Learning doesn’t occur when a child is hungry, and so it has been so important in the goal of equipping students to find their way out of poverty.

The computer labs are a different story. Our funds are drying up, and there are many schools that need solar or upgraded computers and we are barely paying our teachers. If your accountant has come to you and told you that you REALLY need more deductions, we should probably talk. The word the Lord has given us is to maintain and improve what we have until the ship comes in again, but we need help.

Nancy is teaching French and in charge of teacher development, and it has been a thrill to see her embrace that role and really have a vision for all of us at RVA to get the training to get better at what we do. She has been innovative and passionate, and it has already made a difference.

Last year broke me in ways I had never been broken before, and it has changed the way I relate to students. My approach as a college counselor has been corporate/results oriented. This year has shifted to more of a relationship oriented approach to dealing with kids. I’ve tried hard to help students hear the Lord as to where they should go, and in many ways, it has felt like I am starting to get the hang of this. Our first student in 105 years will be attending Duke in the fall, and his parents, who have sacrificed so much to serve the poor, just cried when they saw that he would be able to go without taking on debt.

Our book, which was on hold, is really coming along and it looks like it will come out next year. More to come about that, but we are grateful for what we have seen so far.

Matthew has had a great second year of college, and the twins are doing well being back in Africa. Last year saw our oldest graduate from college, pay off his college debt, get a good job and most importantly marry a wonderful young woman who is currently working on her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia.

What you long for with your children is that they marry a great person and find work that satisfies them. We have seen that with JT, and we are so grateful. But however great that is, it reflects that a stage of your life is over and that comes with a measure of sadness. This is the first time that all of us won’t be together for Christmas, and while we rejoice that our son begins new traditions with his new wife, a part of me aches for a season that has passed. Embrace the time you have and be grateful for it is something I wish I had done a much better job of.

We are so grateful for your support and your prayers. And as we begin our 13th year in Africa in a week, our prayers are with you and our hearts are grateful for you.

Your pal,
Steve

They started to sing the melody to the song “I’m a Believer” but they had changed the lyrics to reflect Christian lyrics. But there was no denying that we were SINGING A NEIL DIAMOND SONG IN WORSHIP.

I can cross something else off the bucket list.

I (Nancy) recently had the opportunity to travel to Bamako, Mali, as a part of an accreditation team. It was an amazing experience on many levels – Mali, though still on the continent of Africa, is a six and a half hour flight from Nairobi; although it was the cool season, the temps climbed into the upper 90′s every day that I was there (I felt like I was back in Texas – well sort of). It’s a French speaking country, and it was very fun to be using French every day; I joined with a team of 4 other educators from international schools in Africa (Morocco, Burkina Faso, Togo and Mozambique) to come alongside a school and help them assess their educational program. Wow! It was a tremendous professional experience as I had to view the entirety of a school from educational program to extra-curricular activities, from cafeteria to school nurse, from school board to parents to students. It gave me an entirely new perspective on my niche as a teacher, which I hope will impact what I do here at RVA for the better. I also felt like I made 4 new friends and was able to share my testimony with two of them. Oh the places God takes you …

I went down to Munyu school recently. We have a SHORT (less than 2 minutes!) video about our visit:

It is a poor school in an area that has been devastated by AIDS. Because of the food that you have provided, they have added over 200 students to their ranks. The computer lessons were lively, with our only Masai teacher adding something special to the lessons. The school had always been the lowest in the national tests in their zone. They have been first for several years now.

It all seemed well, but with a raging inflation rate, money has been so tight for so many here. I was making conversation with the kids, and I asked a young boy how he was doing. He told me that his father was dead, his mother had AIDS, and he lived in his older brother’s backyard. There was no food for him except for what he ate at school for lunch. During the weekends, he went out and begged for food.

He later told me that he was lucky, because he had a brother and he didn’t have to live on the streets; he could live in his brother’s backyard. He told me that he was grateful to learn computers and so happy for the food at lunch.

I drove home and prayed. I wish I had a wise homily to end this with, but I just prayed.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Your pal,
Steve

“Mr. Peifer is delighted to announce that the broken glass on his historic, personally signed picture of Neil Diamond has been repaired and is available for viewing in his office with an appointment.”

(I just thought you would want to know.)

I first met Alan in the weight room at RVA. It isn’t hard to do; it is little more than a large closet, so those of us who are 6am work out people tend to get to know each other. It turned out that he was from Texas, which made it better yet.

Alan is a doctor who has come to the mission hospital adjoining RVA for over 10 years. He comes for a month every year. He uses his vacation to come and work for free at the hospital. He pays his own way to come. He eats most of his meals alone, and he works long, long hours.

The guy that writes this newsletter knows this guy who, for some reason that he can’t figure out, wins awards and gets all kind of recognition he doesn’t deserve. That guy has met a real hero, and he wanted you to know.

Nancy and I got to go to Kamuyu Primary School last week. It was the first school we had been to since we’ve been back. We have had lots of car issues, and we hit the ground running here. It has been busy.

But being back at a school reminded me of the scripture that says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.” Watching little kids who have absolutely nothing engaged in an excel class, and getting it is, just about the most exhilarating thing I can think of.

We made a little video of our visit that you might enjoy.

The headmaster told me that when I first came to the school, the students feared me. When we brought the computers to the school, they feared the computers.

There wasn’t any fear at Kamuyu last week.

Your pal,
Steve

Shockingly, the calls never came. And so I trudged back to Africa with defeat in every step of the way.

But God had a bigger plan.

RVA does outreach to the community once a term. You might , as Nancy did, give manicures to women in prison, or pick up trash, or help a widow rebuild her home. I was assigned to drive a group of students to paint a mural at a nearby health clinic. Because my artistic abilities are so acute I can make my children cry if they get me as a Pictionary partner, I spent most of my time playing with nearby children.

Then the opportunity came. One of the students asked me to come because she was trying to paint an ear on one of her figures and she needed to look at a real ear.

For the first time in my life, I MODELED. And you would not BELIEVE how beautiful that ear turned out.

I think I have a future in male modeling. I am RIGHT NEXT to the phone.

It was hard to leave our adult children in America, but God has granted us real peace in returning. Our car has had a flat and the battery has died, so we haven ‘t been able to get out much as we try to replace the problem parts. We are in a smaller house on campus, which is nice and we have interesting neighbors in our backyard.

We have had to register with the government in order to continue our computer program. When we first started, we talked to the government and they advised us NOT to register. Now we have to, which means jumping through lots of interesting hoops and paying taxes on the salaries of our computer teachers. This meant that we had to apply and they rejected the name Kenya Kids Can. If you are a big fan of big government, perhaps the name they gave us might give you pause:

Organization for Children in Computer Technology

What has been remarkable is how God has protected us from my stupidity and arrogance. When we first came, I was all about being Big Whitey to the rescue. After years of stumbling, we realized that having strong Kenyans in principal positions made all the difference. Somehow, He led Margaret for the school lunch program and Lucy for the computer centers; all the work continued while we were gone. Current thought in development is to have nationals do the bulk of the work, and somehow we stumbled onto the right people who are trustworthy and have a true vision for excellence and honoring the Lord.

With our computer centers, we have felt like the word we have from Him is to maintain and improve what we have. We really don’t have the monies to build any more centers; we are not receiving enough each month to cover our payroll, which is about $2800 a month. Our goal is to get better with what we have, and wait until we see that it is possible to grow again.

We were prepared to cut back on the school lunch program, and somehow the monies came in. We thought that we would be late, and then there was a teachers strike and I was told, “DO NOT COME. IT WILL BE VERY MUCH DANGEROUS.” As the strike ended, we were able to begin getting the food to the schools.

The costs have increased; this term it cost us $2.05 to feed a child for a month. That is a small amount, but when you multiply that amount by 20,000 students for a three month term, it is a tremendous amount of money. We are trusting Him to help us and guide us and provide. We spent a year in the states feeling very healthy, but we have all been sick since we have been back. When you have been here 12 years, you understand that it is all part of what you get when you are here, but we are hoping for better health soon.

A Kenyan friend saw me and told me, “You have eaten very well in America.”

It was hard to argue.

Your pal, Steve

• Matthew started college and had a great first year at the University of Richmond.
• I had eye surgery and went from 20-2000 in my left eye to 20-40.
• We used our hotel and airline points to take Ben and Katie to Disney World.
• I received the NACAC Educator of the Year award, which caused the superintendent of RVA to remark, “They never observed your driver’s ed class.”
• JT graduated from Wake Forest and two weeks later married the lovely Janelle, a woman he had met the first month of college. They are living in Charlottesville, VA, where she is working on her PhD in clinical psychology. When Matthew applied to Richmond, we had no idea that both the older boys would end up 45 minutes from each other.
• Because of the issues with the famous book 3 Cups of Tea, I was asked to replace the author as a keynote at an educational convention, which was sort of like winning lunch with Angelina Jolie and having me show up instead.
• Nancy presented a well-received paper on integrating biblical truth into curriculum, which made me even more impressed with my impressive wife of 26 years.
• We used part of the advance for the book to take a cruise to Alaska, which was a miracle that we didn’t expect to be able to do once we entered the mission field. The book has been delayed by circumstances beyond our control, but we are hoping for 2012.
• I got to give the commencement speech for CCA, a dream so unlikely that I could never articulate it to anyone except Nancy. The generosity of CCA to allow the twins to attend CCA is a gift that can’t be measured by us.
• People gave us cars, food, clothing and so much more. We don’t have the words to express how much it meant to us.

The big theme of this year was being broken. Issues with the tough things that being abandoned can bring made it a hard year, but we saw wonderful progress being made and we are so grateful. We think we better understand how to avoid burnout and protect ourselves and our family.

More than anything, we realize what a privilege it is to serve the poor of Kenya, and we are so grateful for your help. We are way behind on the food donations, so we are contemplating going to only offering food M-W-F. The gentleman who built the computer centers has left the mission field, so we are going to try to maintain the 20 existing centers we have and see what is next.

Our mission headquarters has moved! The new address is:

AIM
PO Box 3611
Peachtree City, GA 30269-7611

The new link for giving on line is www.aimint.org/usa/give.

We leave August 13 and hope to be in Kenya for three years. We are having a thank you at Milwaukee Joes in Colleyville at 33 Main Street on August 5 from 7-9. Hope you can come by and let us say thank you for how richly you have blessed us.

Our prayer requests:

1. That we will know what to do with the food program.

2. Saying goodbye to JT and Janelle was so hard. Please pray that we find a way to return once a year during a school break to be with them. Our mission allows Matthew to return once a year, so we are fortunate that we will get to see him, but it is hard to make peace about not seeing your oldest for three years.

3. That we serve Him in all we do.

Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again. We are so grateful to you.

Steve, Nancy, Ben and Katie Peifer

Somehow with your help, we managed to feed 20,000 students a day for the year, even with donations way down. We have completed 20 computer centers in some of the most rural areas in Kenya. For some reason, I still win awards. We have a book coming out with Zondervan in the fall.

It all sounds so nice.

But this has been a year with beginning to deal with the hard issues that adoption can bring. One of our little ones will have a fun day and then in the evening begin to cry and when we ask why, they can only answer that they are sad.

When your children are hurting and you can’t fix it, it will break you like nothing else will. We are seeing a counselor who deals with the special issues that adopted children face.

We are broken, but we have the hope that came to all of us 2000 years ago.

We are broken but we hope.

Your friends,
Steve and Nancy Peifer

Old Friend:  Nancy, you look so great!
Same Old Friend:  Steve, how ARE you?

Comparisons can be CRUEL.

We have gotten to see JT, dropped off Matthew at University of Richmond, and I have had eye surgery which resulted in my eye going from 20-800 to 20-40. It has also caused me to react with shock at the dark-ringed, wrinkly-eyed guy who shaves my face in the morning. Thank you for not telling me what was really going on with my face.

I had the great privilege to receive the Excellence in Education award from the National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC). If you aren’t in the profession, it means nothing to you, but it is the highest accolade you can receive if you are a guidance counselor. Like many things in my life, it did not occur like I wished it had.

NACAC had been good enough to tell me I was winning the award, but we had a computer crash and I didn’t know when it was. I showed up to the convention and asked someone at the NACAC booth WHEN I would receive the award. She told me Saturday and that it wouldn’t be necessary to say anything.

I was so excited about this award that I actually bought a NEW dress shirt, something I hadn’t purchased new in over a decade. I was going to think deep thoughts and prepare a GREAT speech.

I showed up for the opening session dressed for success with a yellow t-shirt and jeans. One of the authors of Freakonomics spoke, and I distinctly remember thinking, “I am SO lucky I don’t have to follow THAT guy.”

Then they gave an award. To a woman who came up with PAGES and PAGES of a PREPARED speech. I should point out that since my eye surgery, I have become a charming member of that special group that shouts, “Where are my reading glasses?” Often.

I couldn’t find them, so I asked the woman next to me, “You have young eyes. What does the program say about awards today?” She assured me that they were only giving two awards, and I thanked Jesus and I promised to never sin again as I listened to the second award being given.

Then I saw my picture being flashed on the stage.

I was sitting in the very back of the auditorium and I had to run up to the stage. I am never nervous before I speak. I should be, because I’m not much of a speaker, and maybe fear would eliminate my muttering and meandering, but I’m just usually not nervous.

I walked up the stage and promised Jesus many, many things I thankfully cannot remember, but He gave me a word for this mostly secular organization:

When my son died, I had the same dream for months. I could see him and I knew if I could get to him in time, he would be ok. I would run as fast as I could, and I would always wake up before I could reach him.

I haven’t had a dream, but I imagine a huge wave that is going to hit Africa. The thing is, we have time to get the children to safety. The thing is, we can save all the kids we decide we want to save.

How many children do we want to save?

In spite of everything, it was well received and I had many positive responses, and two interesting ones:

Guy at Door of College Reception:  Your speech was AWESOME dude. I actually cried. It really moved me.
Me:  Thanks so much!
Guy at Door:  Where is your ticket?

Young Woman:  When I get OLD, I want to do something noble like YOU.

The real reason for this email is to let you know that, after 11 years, our email has changed to Peifer@rva.org and to remind you that we would appreciate the opportunity to share with your small group or church or just about anything.

Nancy went to Chicago to visit her father, and I decided to do something special with Ben and Kate. We were going to see their first 3D movie. They were so excited, and they just loved the experience.

The movie we saw was Despicable Me. If you haven’t seen it, it is about a bad guy whose life turns around when he adopts some children.

Ben and Kate couldn’t understand why that movie made me cry so much.

Your pal,
Steve

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1. If you are like me, once you went digital, you hadn’t printed out many pictures lately. I recently went through three years of pictures, and printed out the highlights. When we looked through the pictures, the kids that you are helping to feed LOOKED better. Years of good nutrition began to have an effect; they look younger and more alive. Being hungry ages you prematurely; eating regular nutritious meals helps a kid look like a kid should look.
2. Of the 34 schools we work with, EVERY school is ranked academically first or second in their zone. When we started, every school was ranked last, except for one school which was second to last. Good nutrition is essential to academic achievement.
3. There are dozens of students who have received good jobs because of their computer skills, but more than anything, they have given the students an excitement about learning and the hope that they might have a chance to escape from the poverty that surrounds them.
4. All that being said, when you have been somewhere for 11 years, you get used to things. A fellow college counselor and friend of mine, Ryan Riggs, was here for a visit and he wrote something that was a good reminder for me:
   “My thrill and humor from the matatu quickly disappeared when I visited one of the elementary schools, the Kiriko Primary School. While the children were happy and appeared to love being at school, the condition of their school was simply horrendous. It had no electricity or running water. It had a few window panes in the windows, but those were few and far between. I had a difficult time getting my mind around how such an impoverished school could exist in such a glorious setting.  The juxtaposition between the run-down school and the beautiful scenery in the background was unsettling. I visited 10 different elementary schools in the region that week, and it was the same every time: Happy kids, but terrible learning conditions. And these were the schools that had both the feeding program and the computer labs up and running.  We have all seen the TV ads beseeching us to send money to starving African children. The image is always the same: a sad faced child holding an empty bowl with flies buzzing around his or her face. Let me tell you that the reality is much worse than that. The vast majority of the students I saw had only one set of clothes, their school uniform. About half had shoes, obvious hand me downs or American thrift store rejects. Many of the classrooms had dirt floors, and the “blackboard” was simply an area on the wall where the cinderblock had been sanded down and painted black. The textbooks, if there were any, were at least 20 years old. Remember that I visited some of the best elementary schools in the region.
   “The feeding program is remarkable – both simple and effective. Each student gets a full bowl of steaming hot githeri every day. Githeri is one of the staple dishes in Kenya, and provides both protein and carbohydrates. Steve ensures that each of the 34 schools receives a steady supply of dried beans and corn. Collecting firewood, water, and cooking supplies is up to the individual schools. Each morning, several adults in the local community cook lunch for the students in that school. After several hours of classroom learning, recess, and more learning, the students line up for lunch outside of the school’s kitchen. I say “kitchen,” but once again, what passes for a kitchen at many of these schools is but a pale resemblance for what we think of as a school kitchen. In fact, most of the elementary schools in Kenya are so poor that they cannot afford to build a chimney for the kitchen. The cooks have an open fire pit in the middle of the floor, and use the bottom third of cleaned out, cutoff oil drums for large pots.”
5. We are grateful for the progress but want to be realistic about how tough it really is.
6. So much has happened, but we never forget that I came to Africa a broken man. When you bury one of your children, a part of you dies. I would not have invested in someone like me, but you all supported us and allowed us to be a part of something that has been life changing. We are so grateful for all you have done for us, and although we don’t say it enough, we think it all the time.
7. Our hope is to raise additional support for more computer centers and more children getting good food. If you would be open to your church, your Sunday school, your small group, your place of work or just having some friends oven for coffee who might be interested, we would be so grateful.
8. We are all about Jesus. He is our beginning, our middle and our end.
9. Both Ben and Katie asked Jesus into their hearts in the last month. We are so grateful to Him.

Matthew graduated on July 17 from RVA, a school he has attended since second grade. He has had a great experience there, and a really great senior year. One of our traditions is that we played racquetball every Sunday. We started when he was in second grade, and the long term goal was that he would beat me in the final month of his senior year. He started beating me when he was a sophomore so he was a little ahead of schedule, but it has been a good way of connecting with my seriously over-scheduled son.

When we went down to play our final game, at the end of the game, I am sure I embarrassed him when I burst into tears and said, “I never wanted it to end.”

But games end and children grow and move on, and that is part of life that is hard, especially when you are on the mission field and you see your children once a year if you are lucky. I can’t quite make peace with this part of our life, but we are excited for Matthew as he starts at University of Richmond, and we are grateful we will be back in the states for his first year. We will also get to see our oldest graduate and get married, so it will be an exciting year.

On our anniversary, Nancy and I went to town for the night to celebrate. On our way back to RVA, we stopped to shop and eat lunch. I walked past an Indian family, and they asked me if I was Stephen. Since I had just been to the ATM, I was a little unsettled, but I said the only person who had ever called me Stephen was my mother, and that was when she was angry at me. They had seen me on CNN, and wondered if I might join them for lunch. I went and helped Nancy finish shopping, and then we joined them. They are a part of a influential family in Kenya, and had already made a contribution. After lunch, Sachit said that they would like to give 100,000 shillings (about $1300 in US dollars) a month to our work.  At the time, I didn’t know how we would manage to pay our teachers and complete our last three centers. His contribution is about half of our teachers’ salaries per month.

Jesus made a way. He has always made a way. Every screw-up in this work is from me; every good thing is from Him.

Your pal,
Steve

P.S. Thank you for what you have done. Our mailing address in the US is PO Box 210743, Bedford, TX 76095.

P.S.S. I’m having eye surgery on July 31. Please say a prayer if you can.

Earnest Middle Aged Woman:  Do you have any books on … biology?
Librarian:  Why, are you constipated?

The earnest middle aged woman agrees that she is, and the librarian gives her advice of her favorite choice of laxative. What I loved was the leap:  if you wanted a book on biology, what other reason could you want it for besides constipation help?

I honestly never expected to see a greater stretch, but look at this ad for cement in this week’s paper and I think you will agree that it rises to the level of greatness of my favorite ad. The first two sentences are CHOICE.

Kristy is a force of nature English teacher at RVA. She grew up here, and her mother was murdered in Sudan. It certainly hasn’t always been easy, but she has a wonderful husband and the cutest daughter. It was time for the next baby to be born, and suddenly we were getting news that it wasn’t going so well, and there were complications. We all breathed a sigh of relief when their son was born and everything was ok.

After about a week, complications arose for Kristy. There is a mission hospital near us with amazing doctors, but the technology they need to do sophisticated surgeries just isn’t in Kenya lots of the time. She suffered an infection, and then there was fear of kidney failure. The doctors finally told her:  you need surgery in the states that we just can’t do here. You need to go home immediately.

But she couldn’t. The baby didn’t have a passport, and they needed to get one. There are papers that need to be stamped, and they take a long time. They didn’t have a long time, and finally they were able to rush the passport and book their flights.

The mission had a nurse who would accompany them on the flight, and she would be able to administer the IV that Kristy needed to make sure the infection did not reoccur. They were all set to go, and then the airline said that she needed to be in seating that would allow her to lie down, and they hadn’t applied for that, and that would be another day. They were at the airport when they got that news. They called the doctors and the doctors told her:  just get on a flight and get back. You can’t waste any more time.

So they went to another airline and purchased tickets without the ability to lie down or use an IV. She had almost 30 hours of flying to do with a newborn.

They made it, but it was complicated.

Tabitha is a young Kenyan woman whom many of you have helped come to the United States to study. She had a great first year of school, with all A’s except for one B+. She is enjoying an amazing opportunity to study at Harvard this summer.

Tabitha’s mother died of AIDS in January. Tabitha has a little sister, and she came back here to become the legal guardian for Joy. Because Tabitha is now studying in America (and therefore rich), many previously silent and unhelpful kin have suddenly materialized to “help” Joy. They think  there is money in it. It brings out the very worst in people here. If Tabitha becomes legal guardian, she will try to bring Joy back to the states to care for her while she continues college. A lot for a 20 year old college sophomore.

It’s complicated.

We leave Africa in less than a month, and while I will have some more thoughts next month, I have been thinking about the last five years and how it has changed me.

For me, the last few years have been such a revelation. The longer that I am in Africa, the longer I realize that I get so much more than I could ever give. Africans have shown me a better way of relating to Jesus. They trust Him more than I do, and they handle the difficult issues of life with more wisdom and grace than I ever have. They have shown me by example that I needed saving out of my self satisfied suburban life as much as they need saving out of their poverty.

In my heart of hearts, I believe that Africa will lead the next wave of revival, and it will go deeper than any other revival because Africans have a deeper walk. I have gotten so much more than I could ever give. I’m so grateful that He has allowed us to be here. Our hope is to return to Kenya in August of 2011, and our dream is be here until 2019. In the end, we want to do what He wants us to do, whatever it is.

Nancy and I will be married for 25 years on June 29th. One of my best friends calls her Saint Nancy; you can probably imagine how interesting it must be to be married to me. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that Nancy had developed a nervous tic when I pledged to be twice as hilarious in our next 25 years.

I mocked the cement ad, but my wife’s love has always been the most solid thing in my life.

Your pal,
Steve

Elderly Woman: Do you know of this place that they call San Diego?
Me: Yes, I have been there many times.
EW: How does a woman such as me prepare to go to California?
Me: There is only one vital thing you must know.
EW: You must tell me!
Me: Instead of saying hello, you must use the magic Californian word.
EW: Please tell me the word!!
Me: Dude.
EW: Dude?
Me: In California, you greet people by saying Dude instead of Hello.
EW: Dude?
Me: Dude

Somehow this conversation caught on, and many people came over to practice saying the magic word. There was something quite inspiring about hearing dozens of thick Kenyan accents use the word Dude. After four hours, my student was told he would receive his visa next week and we prepared to leave. The elderly woman came up to me quite excited, because she was granted a travel visa. In Kenya, it is a sign of respect to call an older woman Momma.

Me: I am so excited for you, Momma.
EW: Dude.

She is SO ready to go to California. I take my responsibilities as a cultural representative SERIOUSLY.

The next day Nancy and I went into town to do errands and we decided to go to a different place to eat. It was a Lebanese-Sushi restaurant with a big brick oven for baking pizzas. While Indian music played, our Kenyan waiter served our food and said, “Bon appétit.”

That was a LOT of multiculturalism for ONE meal. We didn’t even need dessert.

There has been so much illness at our campus that many of us have been forced into roles we never expected. I was asked to teach third grade for THE ENTIRE DAY. I have absolutely no educational background, except for a legendary stint as an eighth grade English teacher, which set a certain standard at RVA that no one has fortunately been able to match.

Third graders have ENERGY. Although Ben and Katie are the two most wonderful children in the world, they manage to exhaust me almost every day. When you add 14 more children, it was like nothing I have ever experienced before.

This is not what you would expect a holy missionary to say, but by the end of the day, for the first time in my life, I wanted a cigarette.

Matthew is going to attend the University of Richmond in the fall. He was accepted to every college he applied, and how he came to Richmond is a story of how His plans are so much greater than ours. I won the Yale University Counseling Award a few years ago, so I am supposed to know what I am doing. Our mission allows us one trip with our kids to go to colleges, so Matthew and I visited thirty colleges last year. There were many he got excited about, but we never went to Richmond, and it wasn’t on his radar.

I went back to the states in October to speak at a college conference, and I had a free day. Lots of colleges were offering tours, and I picked the University of Richmond just because I didn’t know much about it. It was a spectacular campus, and I suggested Matthew apply. At that point, we didn’t know that JT’s fiancée would get a full scholarship to the University of Virginia. Richmond was just an impressive school.

Richmond gave him a financial package that will enable him to avoid a lot of debt. The biggest reason I feared going to the mission field was that I thought I would betray my own children because I wouldn’t be able to save much for their college. Matthew has been here since 2nd grade, and while we have saved every month, we don’t make much and we didn’t save much.

But He has provided. In fact, Richmond gives five full scholarships to international students, and an African student at RVA got one of them. She is an amazing kid, and it will be so great for Matthew that Charissa will be there. RVA students got great packages to Yale, Princeton and MIT this year; He has provided.

As we get ready to leave to go back to the states, we are trying hard to finish three more computer centers. Donations have gone down considerably during this terrible economy, but we need some help to finish them up. We will have 20 computer teachers, and they don’t get paid much ($100-180 a month) but with 20 it adds up. I hate to ask, but if He moves on you, we can really use the help.

I was at a school last week, and there is a new headmaster. The previous headmaster didn’t finish high school; he got the position because of political connections and because the school was a write-off. They didn’t expect much.

The school has improved so much that the government decided to get serious about it, so the new head master has a college degree and really wants to take the school to a new level.

I have to have eye surgery when I return to the states, but in some ways I’m seeing better than ever.

Your pal,
Steve