Raelyn is stepping into the next chapter of life!

Tomorrow our youngest, Raelyn Burr will graduate from High School. Rosslyn Academy has been her home since we arrived in 2006. Many wonderful memories of attending her games and going on field trips with her classes. She has decided to attend Vanguard University in Costa Mesa California and will pursue a degree in Environmental Science.

We are also proud of all her achievements, she will graduate with highest honors and recently was named Female Athlete of the year! She is excited about the next chapter, please keep her in your prayers. She will be working in the US this summer before heading off to California for her first semester of college. Our family will be based in Texas but traveling all over as we share our burden for Kenya. If we can come and share at your church or home group, please let us know soon as we are booking our calendar through August of 2020.

Praying for rain

Recently Bryan visited with the land owners and elders of the community where we built a large catchment dam to collect rain water during the rainy season. There was still water in the dam from last years rains, praise God! Kenya is experiencing record droughts that seem to hit year after year. The men stood around Bryan and prayed that rain would return as well as for God to bless the work of his hands that he might be able to build more of these systems to help other communities. We are currently looking for funds to place another dam like this one in another community. 

The dam has allowed this Masai community, who depend on cattle, to experiment with agriculture. A few of the young men have been to agriculture training and have started growing some crops. Moringa trees seem to do well in this hot dry climate and they provide nutrition for people and animals alike. They also provide shade for other crops to grow as well as high vitamin content in the leaves and seeds.

Bryan and another missionary, Kevin Smith attempted to visit a village in far northern Kenya recently. The journey was tough, with the second half being extremely rough conditions. The bikes had problems and they were never able to reach this village. The two are planning a follow up trip and will use the lessons they learned on this trip to be better prepared. There is a Kenyan missionary in this village working among an unreached tribe. Our goal is to visit and see how we can partner with this missionary to see transformational development help him reach his community. 

Roadside repairs tested our mechanical knowledge on this trip!

We managed to find a flat rock that would serve as our work table as we rebuilt a carburetor.

Our last breakdown was on the way back to Nairobi. We were extremely grateful for a large tree that was nearby. We spent a couple of hours working on the bike and realized it was beyond our ability in that environment. We managed to find a truck passing by that would carry Kevin's bike back to Nairobi. 

Sometimes getting to the destination is just as fun as being there. In this case we were discouraged but we felt like God had spared us some real difficulties as the remaining 350 miles of desert crossing would have really tested us. We will make plans to visit again once we have all necessary repairs completed and have gathered all the info we can on the road conditions and security issues along the way. Thanks for your prayers and support! Blessings, Bryan and Kim

Water is life!

The students at Olgumi Primary School would take turns going to fetch water for the schools daily water needs. One day First Grade would make the 3 mile round trip to the nearest water point and the next day another class would make the trip, filling jugs with water to bring back so the school cook could prepare lunch for the students. These rain gutters and tanks provided by a generous donation from First Assembly, North Little Rock and BGMC enabled the school to catch a lot of water during the short rains in October. They are now able to stay in school and complete their study schedules instead of spending several hours per week fetching water. When the local dams dry up, the families of the students can also come to get water for their family. The rains usually come in October and last through the first couple of weeks in November. The long rains don't arrive until April but a few surprise rain storms have filled the tanks once again and the students are rejoicing. 

Agriculture among the Maasai

Its been a while since our last post. Life has been busy with Bryan working on a Masters Degree at Eastern University. Its finally over, a long two years but the learning experience has been valuable and there have been many practical applications to our work in Kenya. Our friends in the Rift Valley have been exploring agriculture as a new way of life. Traditionally the Maasai have depended on cattle for everything but the environment has changed, both physically and demographically and this has required some adaptation. One young man in particular has shown a keen interest in farming and we sent him to a special training on farming in arid lands. He has done well and has started crops of cabbages, beans and has also begun planting trees in his home village. The charcoal production industry has decimated their land and they suffer from recurring droughts now. Honest is determined to reverse this deforestation and show people a better way. We are committed to walking alongside him in his efforts to be the agent of change in his community. The church is also taking bold steps and has committed to standing with him in preserving a space for model farms and tree plantations.

Honest with his first crop ever, the largest cabbages Ive ever seen!

We will be visiting his farm site this week and will update with progress on his latest efforts! 

Maasai Agriculture

Kisharu Primary School and Kisharu AG Church both now have greenhouses that they will be using to teach students about agriculture while growing food to supplement the lunch program that is provide by Convoy of Hope. More pics to come of the progress of this project.

We are thankful for the partnership of Redmond Assemblies of God Church, Redmond Oregon! This team has worked and loved the community of Kisharu. Hope to see them in Kenya again!

Convoy of Hope Field Team from Redmond Oregon

A great group of people from Redmond, Oregon and Convoy of Hope are here to help us install two greenhouse gardens this week! Will post some pics of these awesome folks in action.

We hope your 2016 is off to a good start! Ours has certainly been busy. Raelyn plays on the varsity girls soccer team and with practices daily after school, two games per week and tournaments....its been busy. Kimberly is enjoying her classroom of 5 and 6 year olds and making sure they are ready for first grade! Some of them came to Rosslyn Academy this year with no English background and they are on grade level and planning to move on to first grade at the end of the school year. Our ministry in Kenya has also been busy. Convoy of Hope's Women's Empowerment program is expanding! We have 30 women in the program at present and training starts this next week with the most recent group. They will complete 12 weeks of business training before launching their new businesses. For many of these women, who have had very little education, this is a big leap of faith that takes enormous courage. The smiles and success stories are very rewarding. Stay tuned for updates on this incredible program. We have also enjoyed working with student teams from Rosslyn Academy. The Cultural Field Studies program gets kids out into the rural communities and involved in ministry and interaction with people from different cultures. For most of the students, this is a highlight of their time at Rosslyn Academy. We really enjoy being a part of this program.                 Keep in touch daily if you wish via Facebook!