Nakumatt, Haircuts and a Test!

Our life in Kenya has proved to be a challenge in many areas. We have seen God’s mercy as we get by without a car and learn how to cook from

scratch. It seems that our lives consist of making grocery lists (there aren’t many preservatives in the foods here so they don’t last long), studying and playing with the boys.

Our first test is this Friday, so

we have been studying hard this week. After our review in class today we feel like we can do well if we keep studying. Friday will be a short day in class for us. We plan on taking the kids to Brackenhurst and letting them play on the playground.

Going to the grocery store over the weekends has been no easy task. We shop at a store called “Nakumatt”. It’s kind of an “all encompassing” store. You can do your regular grocery shopping, buy appliances, furniture and lots

of other things. The Nakumatt we went to this last weekend was three flo

ors. The hard part about the shopping is figuring out how everything is categorized while our one and two yr. old boys sit in the cart. The last three times I’ve been to Nakumatt, it was very warm inside and one of the times we had t

hree power outages in the store. It was completely pitch black inside. It’s all part of the adventure.

Last Sunday on our trip to Nakumatt we had to pick up hair clippers. Having three boys in the house, we needed to figure out a solution to their ever-growing hair. Yesterday I cut Jonathan’s hair and it turned out great (I used to cut his hair consistently about 2-3 years ago.) Josiah, who loves getting his haircut, hopped right

in the chair for his turn. As I started to cut the back I realized I had WAYYY to short of a setting for the clippers. I called Jonathan in the room to help “fix” it. Although I can’t say the results were disastrous, they were DEFINITELY less than what we hoped for! The front looks great but the back….well, that’s a different story. Poor unassuming Josiah.

Well, please pray for us as we take our first exam on Friday. We’ll let you know how we did!

Blessings,

Adrienne

Welcome KWAVE Listeners!

Hi there KWAVE listeners!

Welcome to our blog! We love to keep our blog updated with the latest happenings of our lives, here in Kenya so please come back and check in often for our updates. If you would like to be added to our email list, please email us at at Ferg4africa@gmail.com and send us your address if you would like to be added to our newsletter.

In case you missed the message Friday, visit www.refugefm.com to download the message!

Bless you guys!

Adrienne and Jonathan Ferguson

Tune in this Friday!

Hi there,

Jonathan and I looked at each other a few hours ago and knew we had to do it. The long (for us) treck to Brackenhurst. It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so many hills. But we wanted to post an update for you guys.

This weekend was a crazy whirlwind of events. Saturday, our friends Robbie and Elizabeth (the Sr. Pastor and his wife) of Living Water Christian Fellowship, came to pick us up for another shopping trip in Nairobi. We needed to pick up some groceries as well as some essentials for cooking and such. After a long shopping trip at Nakumat (the grocery store) and THREE blackouts while shopping, we were ready for a break. We hopped back into the car and made the trip back to Limuru (which is about 30 minutes), dropped off our groceries and our friends took us back to the church. Around 8:30 PM we were dropped off at the church to spend the night and so we wouldn't have to make the hour drive on a busy Sunday morning. Praise the Lord, we got rain on Saturday night (Kenya's been in a severe drought) but it also caused a piece of the ceiling in the church to cave in and collapse. The thud was so loud it scared us half to death and it made a long night for Jonathan who was wide-eyed after that.

The church service was great. The boys were a little rowdy and they have been fighting off a little cold since the plane ride and they have been going #2 after every meal. So we had lost a few outfits to the accidents. We were able to visit with friends we haven't seen in a few years and go out to Ethiopian food. After that, the boys passed out in the car and we made the hour drive back to Tigoni. Upon arrival, Jonathan noticed something was missing. OUR KEYS!!!! Our keys were back in Nairobi and the boys were so fussy. We thought, "Oh no!!!!" Thankfully our instructor, Peter, lives just don the road and had a spare set of keys. Once we got inside, we got settled and went our back to HAND WASH our clothes. After dinner (which was quite eventful!) we heard rain. About an hour later I erupted into laughter and thought, "Our clothes are STILL on the line!" haha. If we didn't laugh we would probably cry!

In other news, this Friday our interview on KWAVE (107.9) at 4:30 will be on the air. So tune in!

We thank the Lord that he has brought us to this place and we love the people and know the Lord has been faithfully providing.

Adrienne for the Ferg4

Thank goodness it's Ijumaa!

Josiah and Christopher in front of the house

Jonathan, Josiah and Christopher in front of the house

This is our classroom. We have 3 people in the class which makes it great for asking questions and really understanding the instructor.

You may not be able to tell from the picture but this is a HUGE pit we put our trash in. It's located at the back of the house and someone will come by and burn it for us. haha! The pit is HUGE!!!

This is Joyce. She takes care of the children while we are in class and helps around the house. Joyce is used to working with Americans and has been such a help with getting our life started here in Kenya. She also brought us a big bag of avocados from her tree at home. GUACAMOLE!!!!

Pole (sorry) this picture is sideways ): This is our house/language school. It is beautiful, isn't it?

Ahhh....sweet Christopher and Josiah love hanging out in the kitchen while we are doing chores and making meals. They are having a ball here!

This little lizard was found in the bathtub drain as Jonathan tried to take a shower one morning. We think someone left the window open and the little guy crawled right in. Jonathan picked him up and the lizard jumped straight off the second story and landed on the ground. Poor little guy!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the boys on the plane. Aren't they cute?

Habari za nchama! (What is the news of the afternoon?) We have just finished up our first week in language school and can say thank goodness it's Ijumaa (Friday)! We also have a holiday coming on Monday which is the break fast for the muslims so we've got a three day weekend.

Language school is proving to be a challenge but Jonathan and I are studying so hard and practicing our kiswahili on the locals. For two days we greeted people on the streets in kiswahili and most of the time we wouldn't get a response. So we asked our instructor about this and he replied, "It is not often that you come down the street and just greet them." Oops! haha. The people were very gracious with us wazungu (white people).

We are looking forward to a great weekend. Our pastor, Robbie, will pick us up tomorrow and take us to village market to do some grocery shopping and we will spend the night at the church. After church we will come back to the house once again.

A couple days ago we were invited to Zeb's house, a fellow student, for dinner. It was about a 30 min. walk to his house, but the view was breathtaking! I actually had to hold back tears once I got to his house. It was indescribable. Pole (sorry) I forgot to bring my camera ):

We have had a great first week here in Tigoni and the language school has proved to be the best thing we could be doing right now. It is the perfect transition to our life here. Every morning Peter, our instructor, greets us with, "Habari za asubuhi?" (What is the news of the morning?) In which we reply, "Nzuri" (good). Then he will ask us, "Habari za watoto" (What is the news of the children?) and we reply, "Nzuri". Dada Stella, the woman who teaches the second half of the class, has been teaching us our numbers, how to tell the time, verbs and lots of other things. After next week we will be in class from 8:30 AM till 3:30 PM. We have been so blessed by the school and the instructors.

Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers. As the language school gets more intense we will need prayer for rest and patience with our children. Being in school to learn a new language can be quite exhausting.

Ferguson Update

Hi there everyone,

We just got a few minutes to update everyone on the happenings since our arrival on Thursday. First of all, THANK YOU so much for your prayers. We have TRULY felt them.

First of all, Praise the Lord, we got ALL our luggage and went through customs with no problems at all.

The first night in Kenya we stayed with Pastor Robbie aned his wife, Elizabeth as well as their lovely daughter Abigail. We all slept great and woke up to (beleive it or not) wild baboons playing just outside the house. Josiah wasd so excited to get to see animals and talked about them all day long. We see lots of animals on the road...cattle, sheep, donkeys. Every bit of it has been such a thrill for Josiah and Christopher. Believe it or not, Josiah and Christopher are sooo well adjusted. It has been such a blessing.

Robbie and Elizabeth took us out to shop for food and necessities Friday and moved us into our place. It was an all day affair and we were exhausted by the end of the day.

So here are a few details on the school we started just today:

The school meets just downstairs of where we stay so that is a HUGE blessing. We just had our first day of language school and we learned the "dos and don'ts" of the culture as well as some other things. For the first two weeks we will attend class from 8:30-12:15 and then we will progress to stay at school till 3:30PM. The kids LOVe our new home in Limuru and they just got acquainted with Joyce, the woman who will take care of the boys while Jonathan and I attend the school. It's so great because we have a chai break (tea and mandazas <----spelling?) around 10 and the kids come down for chai too.

I'm sure there's a lot more I could share and we have been tremendously blessed so far. We will update with lots of pictures as soon as possible.

Love you guys!
Adrienne

Saying goodbye....

Well, the Fergusons are just days from departure and we can hardly believe the time has just flown by!

We had a change of plans with our language school that threw us for a loop this last week. We were emailed by the language school and they informed us that school will start Sept. 14th (we thought school would start in Oct!!!!) We land in Nairobi on the 10th so we are definitely going to be stretched the first few weeks in Kenya.

We've posted some pictures of just some of the

goodbyes we've had in the last month. To be honest, emotions have been on such highs and lows with the (Jonathan's side of the family)

realization that we have to say goodbye to everyone we love so deeply. Our friends and family has showered us with love, prayers and support as we make this transition.

Flight Details:Our flight leaves, Tuesday September 8th (3 days!!!) at 9:15 PM (Flight #BA268) from LAX and we land in Heathrow, London at 3:30 PM on the 9th. We leave the 10th of Sept. from London to Kenya (Flight #BA 65) and land in Kenya at 8:55 PM.

Our care team meeting had a potluck last Monday for our last meeting together. We had such a great time together and people pulled out their best recipes and we had a great meal together! (Shout out to Linda for making THE BEST bread pudding I've ever had!!! Laurie-the BEST chocolate covered strawberries and Susan for THE BEST chicken EVER!) Wow, I feel like I'm giving out awards at the Emmy's or something!

(Adrienne's side of the family)

(Adrienne's dad's side of the family)

Jackratana.com

JackRatana Photography- Family Farewell Potluck

Disneyland with some friends Friday night

On Friday night we had A BLAST with some of our fellow "Refugees" and great friends at Disneyland. You should've seen us trying to load onto rides at the park (14 people!). We had a great time!

Breakfast with the Hinrichs

The Hinrichs treated our family to an AMAZING breakfast at the Pancake House in Anaheim. Jonathan got the apple pancake (HIGHLY recommended). The word "pancake" just does not do that monster justice. It was more like an apple pie. We had great fun with the Hinrichs, as always!

Today I had a great time hanging out with my mom. She's getting married October 17th and so I got to go see her try on her GORGEOUS wedding dress. I was going to post pictures of my hot mama (smile) but then I realized, Gabe, my mom's fiance, may catch a glimpse of my mom in her dress. Sorry, Gabe, you'll have to just wait!

(Last Care Team Meeting all together)