Adjusting to American Life

We have been in the states for about six weeks now and we can hardly contain the whirlwind of events that are swirling around us. One of the main reasons for coming out was to be a part of my

younger sister, Kristin, and her fiance, Kevin's wedding. We have been swimming around in the world of wedding events at my grandmother's house (where we are currently staying). With less than one week till my sister's big day and all of the wedding events and other appointments it was inevitable that someone was going to get sick. So here I am, day 2 of residing in what I refer to as "the bat cave" and loading myself up with orange juice, Emergen-C, 7-up, tea, soup, Nyquil and whatever else I can get my hands on to heal up before the big day. And most importantly, staying away from everyone else in the house is absolutely ESSENTIAL. Not only are the bride and groom at the same house, but the ring bearers (Josiah and Christopher), the officiator (Jonathan), and of course two bridesmaids (myself and my sister, Erica). So everyone is avoiding my sick space like the plague! But I am so blessed that they are all still taking very good care of me and everyone seems to be chipping in to take care of the boys. Benjamin has started walking and he is SO great at his balance now. A minute ago I left the "bat cave" and saw him walking around and balancing so much better. It's such a sweet time to have family all around and to have our little Benjamin in the beginning stages of walking. We enjoy seeing family get a kick out of him too. We were surprised by my sister and brother-in-law who flew in from Australia on the day before Thanksgiving. We thought they were coming in on Friday but the surprise was on us this time!!! We have never had the chance to meet our Australian born brother-in-law, Mitch, so we were beyond blessed to meet such a precious addition to our family. Cheers mate! Thanksgiving was an absolute dream for our family. The company was amazing and we got to connect and catch up with so many family members. The time was precious, so refreshing and dear to me. I even signed up for the Long Beach Turkey Trot and ran my first 5K before the Thanksgiving festivities began! I wanted to update the blog with a few pictures of what we've been up to while we've been here. I hope you enjoy them!

Fergusons are here, SURPRISE!

We are so blessed and thankful to have made it here to California safely. After traveling with a 4, 3 and 1 yr. old for 19 hours, we were praising God for our sanity! We were so excited that we had our whole family and friends believing we were coming home on November 10th when the WHOLE TIME we had planned on coming in Oct. 19th. We had each and every surprise planned for months and we could hardly wait till we were finally embracing family after two long years away from them. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Our first thoughts as we came back into America were, "Wow, everything is so big and open here." And we were in awe of all the advertising. It's funny how much we can forget by being over seas for just two years. Jonathan has been invited to speak at a few churches to share what the Lord has been doing with us in Kenya and to teach some studies. We are so excited to meet new friends and are thankful for the opportunities to share with other believers. Tomorrow Jonathan will be teaching at a church in Arizona called Cross Connection International Fellowship. Please pray that the fellowship is blessed by the teaching and pray for opportunities to minister in this sweet fellowship. Things have been a whirlwind since we've arrived and we ask for your continued prayers for our family as we adjust for this short period of time. We will be in California till mid-January. Special thanks to my best friend, my grandma, Judy, for running around all over town to get everything in the house so we didn't have to worry about coming home and having to shop for diapers, find a high chair or stroller, get food. And thanks for keeping up the web of lies on our behalf so we can surprise the rest of the family. Special thanks to our F5 care team; Linda and Ross, Dorrys,Susan and Les, Katie, Nikki, The Copalbo Family and the Hinrichs Family for the goody basket and for all of your arranging and running around on our behalf so we can settle quickly. We just love you guys and are so thankful and blessed. We thank you again for your out pour of love for our family. If you would like us to share with your small group or church, please contact Jonathan Ferguson at mungubariki@gmail.com. Love, The Fergusons

Jehovah Jireh

One of the many blessings about being on the mission field is not only do we get to witness God move and change us and the people He's called us to but we see Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. One of my favorite things to do with our missionary friends before we moved to Kenya was find out all of the ways they have seen God work and the ways they were provided for. Over and over I've heard friends say, "We saw the amount of money that came in, we saw what needed to be paid and the we were definitely in the red! At the end of the month we saw the money we paid out and looked at what came in and we knew the Lord how 'multiplied the loaves'!" I loved hearing that story. I definitely don't love learning the story before we have seen the loaves multiplied. In light of the last post I just thought I would share with you a bit of how God has been faithful and as the saying goes, "Where God guides, God provides". This month has been a test of faith. Do we believe God has called us? Absolutely. With this truth firm in our hearts we wondered how we would survive this month and how God was going to provide. Immediately stuff began to pour out of my heart that surprised me. "Well, I guess we're done. We're going home permanently," I began to tell myself. "I don't even see how we have grocery money." I'm not saying this to guilt anyone but where we are weak God proves himself strong. Where we lack, He covers. Where we come up short, He is our complete provider. I did not have see or even have faith that we would make it through the month. I began to panic and lost sleep at night. Panicing and worrying about finances is like trying to come up for air when you feel like you're drowning in a pool and you're floundering to make it to the top. Yes, I've had time to examine this feeling well. The next day I went to my weekly Women's Bible Study. We are studying Revelation with Beth Moore and in the beginning introduction to the session she says something like, "I don't know what your situation is today and what you're dealing with at home but can I ask you, has God dropped you before? Why would he drop you now? Say it out loud altogether, (all audience in unison says) Why would God drop me now?" Tears began streaming down my face as I said, "Why would God drop me now?" In my heart I say, "I'm suffocating Lord, help me!" Then peace. I wish I could say that was the end of my wishy-washy doubt-to-hope-and-complete-faith experience but we love to grab back on to worry, don't we people? In my mind I kept hearing missionary friends say, "Never have we gone without". I tried to embrace it but quickly came sinking back down to the bottom of the pool with the reality of our situation. All I could do was pray. Can I make that story mine now? The one where God multiplies the loaves? Can I say that we've seen SO MANY miracles this month that we've lost count? Can I tell you that right now, at the end of the month we are not hungry but full? Can I tell you that God is good beyond compare? Psalm 65:9-13 says, "You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it.You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing." One of my favorite passages where Jesus talks about worrying is in Matthew 6 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." His word is true. I hope this story blesses you. I don't know what your situation is today, whether you were just let go from work or can't find a job. Whether you are living in plenty or in need but God is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. Can I ask you to do something strange right now and say out loud, "Why would God drop me now?" He won't. You are His child. Adrienne for the F5

A Request...

This is never an easy thing to talk about. Most missionaries would rather never mention this. But after much prayer, we felt that it was something that we should share with you all.

Over the last few months, our support levels have dropped. This happens to missionaries at various times, especially during the summer months. Each month our support level is different, but God has been good, we always end the month with enough.

The support we received this month was $500 less than what our usual expenses are, not inclusive of additional expenses such as doctor's visits, computer and car repairs, and travel expenses relating to our upcoming furlough. God again has proven faithful, continually providing additional support as we have needed it.

We currently are in need of an increase in monthly support of about $500/month. This may sound like a lot, but our current monthly support (after paying social security taxes and insurance) averages about $1100/month. We try to live very frugal lives, as this amount must cover rent for our house, utilities, food, rent for church, gas for the car, and any other expenses that arise.

As the month is drawing to a close, we are asking for you to prayerfully consider financially supporting us. At the end of this post is the contact info for Shepherd's Staff, the organization that handles our finances.

If you are currently supporting us financially, we want to thank you for this. We want you to know that you are just as important a team member as us on the field, for without you, we would not be here today.

Thank You!
Jonathan, for the Ferguson Five


You can mail checks to:
Shepherd's Staff Mission Facilitators
PO Box 53640
Albuquerque, NM 87153-3640
Please be sure to put Acct: 5509 on the memo line

Or, you can give electronically through credit/debit card by visiting:

http://shepsstaff.org/ferguson.aspx

and clicking on the "Donate Now" button.

Please Pray...

Hi gang!

We wanted to update a prayer request we had in our last newsletter regarding a lady in our fellowship. She is HIV Positive and has not been doing well lately. We are praising God that she knows Jesus but we are sad to see her body deteriorating so quickly. Her medicines have stopped working and she has been prescribed medicine that will reduce the pain as her time seems very short. One of her last requests was to get baptized and since she hasn't been well the last few weeks she hasn't been able to come to church so we are praying about what the Lord would have us do. We know that as Christians, baptism is a commandment given to us by Jesus but we also know that it is not essential for salvation. With that being said, we would love to see her baptized and we know that this is very important to her. Please pray for an open door so we can see this sweet sister baptized.

Praise!



We praise God that he has given us a whole year with our sweet baby boy, Benjamin. We had some neighbors over for cake and tea and had great fellowship. We can't wait for you all to meet our little guy when we come in November! (We also can't wait to watch him get his first taste of an In-N-Out Burger!!!!)

We thank the Lord and your prayers for our move. Although we were only moving next door, we were consumed in organizing our friend's house (we were housesitting for another family) so they could come home from Germany with a nice tidy house. We are now in our home and we still get the pleasure of watching amazing animals just outside our window. Just last night the lions were roaring louder than I've ever heard them. (: Thank you Jesus for your AMAZING gifts to us.

Thanks so much for keeping us in your prayers and for your notes of encouragement and love.

Adrienne for the F5

On the Home Front...

We have been getting ourselves prepared for yet another move. We thank God that He has allowed us to live in a few different places since moving to Kenya. This will be the fourth house our family has been in in just two years. We have been painting our new house. This house has some sentimental value to it as we are moving into the old Gorden household. We are so excited and blessed that we can stay out here in Rongai because we will still be looking out into the game park and the kids will have lots of room to play. Our landlords will be the German Family we have been housesitting for and they are a wonderful family in the Lord.

We have been trying to settle into a routine here, trying to balance taking care of someone else's home, their pets and getting our new home clean and prepared for us to move in. One of our exciting projects is our gardening endeavors. Jonathan has started a garden for the German family for when they get home. We have harvested so much from the garden already! Every time we pull lettuce from the garden our heart swells with pride because we've NEVER done anything like this before! Praise God!

Recently we were eating dinner when we spotted some giraffe outside our home and we ran outside to watch. Here's a picture we snapped. Notice the kids still have their bibs on! We though you'd get a kick out of seeing this awesome photo.

Praise and prayers:

We have received our approval for our visas and we take our passports in next week to get them stamped! Thank you Lord!

We are also getting excited to visit friends and family as we prepare to come back to the states Nov. 10th. We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible! Please pray for all the details surrounding our flights and our time in the states.

We thank God for your continual prayers for our family out here. Earlier in the month Jonathan got an amoeba and was very ill but we praise God that he has fully recovered and God was so faithful to our family for carrying us through that rough period.

Bless you guys,
The Fergusons

Living Water Christian & Farewell to the Gordens

I am finally mustering up the energy to write about the happenings of the last few weeks. It has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster since we bid our dear friends, the Gordens goodbye. Let me start off by saying the church was officially handed over in early April to Jonathan. Calvary Chapel Missionaries here in Kenya, stood with us in unity that Sunday to pray and witness a neat transition for the church. Robbie's message was bitter sweet as he encouraged the LWCF saints to continue in the word and encouraged Jonathan to stand strong and stay humble as a servant and under shepherd of God's people. After the message was over, Robbie had Jonathan and I sit at the front so he could pray for us and invited the congregation to pray as they laid hands on us. This was so reminiscent for me of our final Sunday at Refuge where folks we loved and prayed for prayed for us and committed us into the hands of the Lord. Unexpectedly, people stood up one by one and gave their testimonies of God's grace in their lives. They couldn't help but rejoice as they recounted their lives before they knew Christ and how grateful they were to have been fed the word of God so well. I was blown away and touched by how good our God is. The service was beautiful, full of love, joy and a few tears. The experience was one I'm sure I'll never forget.

So the time came, the dreaded day of April 28th, to say goodbye to our mentors, our family, our pastor, our friends the Gordens. Leading up to the date we had sweet fellowship as the Gordens expressed their excitement for what God is going to do in Living Water. Counting down to the date, weeks turned in to days, turned into hours. Before we knew it we were sitting with a few friends, eating pizza and trying to figure out how we were going to get through the next hour. Just as quick as that Thursday came, the Gordens were whisked away in a taxi to head to the airport.

Please continue to pray as we are finally getting used to the new normal. It was very difficult to see our dear friends go but we are so blessed for a friendship that is stronger than we thought a friendship could be. The closeness that comes between friends when Christ is it's center is just beautiful. Please pray for the Gordens as they are now in the states before they head off to Samoa.

Adrienne