When it hits you and won’t let you go

December 23, 2005 by Steve Peifer

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...

Merry Christmas!

December 12, 2005 by Steve Peifer

Katie: Getting your hair braided is tough

But the results are worth it

Ben likes going for motorcycle rides with Biggest Brother

And he shows how much he likes it when he gets home

Matthew collected toys for the kids in the hospital this year and enjoys giving them away

JT recovered from his appendix surgery and has worked hard on his photography

We are buying hundreds of tons of maize and beans in anticipation of the beginning of school in January, and our second computer...

Update on Michael

November 15, 2005 by Steve Peifer

I wish I had good news to share, but I don’t—yet. Theresa and Michael, along with the rest of us here, know that God is in control. God is faithful. But Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”
In God’s plan that is greater than...

He didn’t know what it meant to be an orphan

November 7, 2005 by Steve Peifer

I need to begin by sharing an article from this Sunday’s newspaper.

This is a story that might not be found in an American newspaper.
There is an election going on for the new constitution in Kenya. Whenever I am in town, I ask my Kenyan friends what they think. They all have an opinion, and they are all rather passionate about it. The bottom line is that there is a lot at stake, and a lot of emotions behind everything.
The election...

The Call to the Battle

October 28, 2005 by Steve Peifer

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I have lost over thirty five pounds since I have returned to Kenya. The bad news is that I am still fatter than anytime in my life, except 35 pounds ago.
Many have asked the secret to my dynamic weight loss. I answer that it is a combination of sheer unrelenting discipline, magnificent will power, and various other celebrations of me. I am planning to write a diet book...

When African Realities Meet American Sensibilities—Nancy’s Perspective

September 20, 2005 by Steve Peifer

We are back in Kenya. This is our third time to arrive as a family and by far the most difficult. And I don’t know why. We knew what to expect this time, we had been looking this way the whole of the last year, but we spent the first several days here in a funk.
Thank you to all who were praying, because we needed it! Maybe we let ourselves get too spoiled by our year in America: the kindness...

No, it is a Prostrate; Adventures in Kenyan Surgery

September 8, 2005 by Steve Peifer

There are always adjustments when you return to a country. One of the first is health issues; you meet up with a whole new set of germs, and it can take time for your body to get used to them. Ben has had a bad cough for a week and diarrhea for almost as long. He has been amazingly patient through it all, getting up six or seven times a night, walking into the bathroom, unzipping his feetie pajamas (it’s...

The Gift of Pain

August 28, 2005 by Steve Peifer

There is always that one thing that helps you know you are back in Kenya. Last time it was seeing a family of baboons in the front yard. This time was a little different.
I have a 1992 Toyota that needed some work, and I took it to the dealership in Nairobi. There is a supermarket next door, and so JT and I wandered over to kill some time. There was a bakery, so we decided to get some breakfast. Behind...

Stories from the Field

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