When your father is the college guidance counselor, you hear lots and lots about different universities. It can make an impact, even if you are only four years old. During a bubble bath, Ben and Kate told me:

Ben: I’m going to Harvard.
Me: Why Harvard?
Ben: I already know how to spell it.
Katie: I’m going to Harvard too.
Me: Why Harvard?
Katie: I already have the shirt.

I marvel at their clarity, and can’t WAIT to read their application essays.

This has been a hard year for some good reasons. The illnesses we have been fighting and the imprisonment of a friend for no good reason has been so frustrating; he has been in prison for four months, and every time he is scheduled for trial, the truck that is supposed to take him to court is not working. A couple we met from America who have tried to adopt a little girl and have been stalled for months is something that makes me depressed.

But the biggest reason the year has been hard is that I’ve missed my family and friends in America. When we first came to Africa, I was so cut off from everybody after Stephen died that it was a relief to be away. This last year in the states showed me that He had healed me, and I was eager to reestablish relationships. I miss people, and that hasn’t happened since I’ve been in Africa. So, it has been hard, but good hard, right?

The second computer center is up and running. It has been a long hard road with lots of unexpected problems, but the center is up and going. Almost nine hundred children will have chances that most never get in this country, thanks to you.

The headmaster told me that I couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to have nothing and then be given riches like this center. I told him I understood very well; the story of my life is that I had nothing and Jesus filled my heart.

This school is in the poorest of poor areas. When we were installing the computers, two little boys kept jumping up and down and asking `Will we get to learn computers?’ When I told them yes, they hugged each other in excitement.

Walter, my friend who is the genius behind these centers, is leaving this part of ministry to go to a very rural part of Kenya. I can’t imagine how hard it will be for them, and I just wanted to make sure that everyone gets a chance to keep up with his adventures. From the bottom of my heart, I am grateful to Walter and want to encourage you to consider supporting what he and his family do. His email is: wmmiddleton@aimint.net and if you are led, I hope you will contact him.

It is also a great thrill to be part of the food program. I was at a school last month when a student fainted from hunger. I get so angry at unnecessary hunger and hate the stupid poverty in this country, but I am so glad to be able to do a little about it. We are buying tons of maize and beans, but a wise Kenyan man told me that when a westerner sees Kenyan poverty, it hits you and won’t let you go, and that is the blessing and the curse. You get to do something about it, but it hurts you all the time.

But there are things that seem big, and there are things that are big. When someone is baptized at RVA, it is a big deal. The whole school turns out, and each person baptized selects someone to baptize them, read a scripture, and pray.

We have an amazing staff at RVA; lots of young energetic people who do so much for the kids. It is an honor to work among them, and I often don’t think I fit in, because I am the old cranky staff member. It is those young staff members, rightfully so, who usually get asked to pray.

But this term, for the first time, a little girl asked me to pray for her. Anne was one of my favorites at this school. She was just here for a term; her dad is a doctor and came out for a short time. Anne was just so full of life it was impossible not to like her.

I’m not sure why I was chosen, but I can tell you this: it is such an honor to be invited to be a part of someone choosing to be baptized. I tried hard not to cry, but I choked up at the end.

It’s great to be a part of computer centers and feeding children, but being a part of someone’s life can happen anywhere. It can even happen to cranky old men who are fighting discouragement in a far away land.

Your pal