Merry Christmas from Kenya!

Merry Christmas everyone! Just wanted to leave you a short message this Christmas!

Hadithi hii imetoka katika kitabu cha Luka, mlango wa pili, kifungu cha kwanza mpaka cha ishirini. (This story is from Luke 2:1-20)

Siku zile Kaisari Augusto, mtawala wa milki ya Kirumi, aliamuru ya kwamba watu wote wa milki yake waandikishwe. Hii ilikuwa ni sensa ya kwanza kufanyika nayo ilitokea wakati Kirenio alipokuwa liwali wa Siria. Watu wote walikwenda katika sehemu walikozaliwa ili waandikishwe huko. Yusufu alitoka mji wa Nazareti uliopo Galilaya akaenda mpaka Bethlehemu mji wa Daudi kwa sababu yeye alikuwa wa ukoo wa Daudi. Alikwenda huko kujiandikisha pamoja na mchumba wake Mariamu ambaye kwa wakati huu alikuwa mja mzito.

Walipokuwa Bethlehemu, wakati wa Mariamu kujifungua uli fika, naye akamzaa mtoto wa kiume, kifungua mimba. Akamfunika kwa vinguo na kumlaza horini, kwa sababu hapakuwa na nafasi katika nyumba ya wageni.

Usiku ule walikuwako wachungaji wakilinda kondoo zao nje ya mji. Ghafla malaika wa Bwana akawatokea, na utukufu wa Mungu ukawang'azia pande zote. Wakajawa na hofu kuu. Lakini malaika akawatuliza akisema: ``Msiogope! Nawaletea habari njema ya furaha kubwa, na habari hii ni kwa faida ya watu wote! Kwa maana leo katika mji wa Bethlehemu, amezaliwa Mwokozi ambaye ndiye Kristo Bwana. Na hivi ndivyo mtakavyomtambua: mtamkuta mtoto mchanga amefunikwa vinguo na kulazwa horini.''

Mara jeshi kubwa la malaika wa mbinguni likatokea na pamoja wakamsifu Mungu wakiimba:``Atukuzwe Mungu juu mbin guni, na duniani iwepo amani kwa watu ambao amependezwa nao.''

Malaika hao waliporudi mbinguni wale wachungaji walish auriana: ``Jamani, twendeni Bethlehemu tukaone mambo haya ya ajabu yaliyotokea, ambayo Bwana ametufahamisha.''

Kwa hiyo wakaenda haraka Bethlehemu, wakawakuta Mariamu na Yusufu; na yule mtoto mchanga alikuwa amelala mahali pa kulia ng'ombe. Walipomwona mtoto, wakawaeleza yale waliyokuwa wameambiwa. Na wote waliosikia habari hizi wakastaajabia yale waliyoambiwa na wachungaji.Lakini Mariamu akayaweka mambo haya yote moyoni mwake, akayafikiria mara kwa mara.

Wale wachungaji wakarudi, huku wakimtukuza Mungu na kum sifu kwa yale waliyoyasikia na kuyaona.

Merry Christmas!

Jonathan for the Ferguson Family

2 Ferguson birthdays and Mbui mbui zaidi (more spiders)!

Hi everyone!

We are currently in the middle of

studying for our midterms. We can hardly believe we are HALF way done with school! Please pray for us as we have an oral midterm and a written test. We also had a written test last Friday so we've been studying hard!

This last week was Josiah's and Jonathan's birthday. Josiah was born on the 7th and Jonathan, the 9th. So we celebrated during chai time on the day of Josiah's birthday (half hour break between classes) and had Josiah's birthday party this

last Saturday. Check the video below to see Josiah getting sung to in English, Kiswahili and Korean!

This is the cake Jonathan made. "Dirt and Worms"

Josiah and his buddies enjoying chakula cha mchana (lunch). This is probably the most diverse party we've ever had!

Dada (sister) Stella-One of our instructors. The name "dada" is actually not associated so much as a "Catholic" title but you can use "dada" with any sister in the Lord.

Okay so after I uploaded that video of the spider eating it's prey (a termite), I wanted to share with you a few more "little" spiders we found in the house.

This is an African Rain Spider. Apparently not harmless but I have to say, I freaked out like a little girl (for the record this is Adrienne :) ) Jonathan caught it in the bucket above and put it outside.

Okay, I really wanted to post this video but I want to apologize for how many times I say "Oh my God"....I won't make excuses....I feel really bad about that but check out the video!

And to end on a good note, watch Josiah get sung to in three different languages!

Bless you guys!

The Ferg4

SPIDERS and bugs!!!

Hey guys!

I decided to post a videos GNARLY scary spider video here. Let me

ALSO just note that there is an ACTUAL dead tarantula at our church too....I've not seen any live ones though. Okay I have a second video BUT I need to find a way to load that second video better because for some reason the whole thing won't load ): but I am putting up some pictures too!

Love,

The Fergusons

So, believe it or not, this is the pile of WINGS I swept up after last nights rain

. When it rains we get hundreds of termites outside that will swarm to the lights and apparently their wings are very delicate. We woke up this morning and these wings of these termites were EVERYWHERE!!!! Each termite has four wings!

We took a class trip to the Tea Farm about 20 minutes away from the school. There were Colobus monkeys on the roof and this is a picture of Jonathan feeding them mangoes!

This picture is at our friend, Ruth's house. Ruth is the one on the swing. This is the same house where we had Thanksgiving

Josiah and his friend from Sudan.

This picture was also taken at another time at the tea farm. This is Josiah's friend, Mary. Josiah ABSOLUTELY adores Mary.

Happy Thanksgiving from Kenya!

Well, it's finally here, our favorite time of year where we all stuff ourselves silly! It's funny when you're a kid you love the special days of the year where we get presents and it seems like the older Jonathan and I get, we just look forward to special days of eating! haha! Today, (Thanksgiving for us) we are currently waiting for friends, fellow missionaries to come celebrate this special Turkey Day. We have so much to be thankful for and it is our ABSOLUTE privelage to serve the folks here in Kenya. We are developing great relationships with people and even testing out our Kiswahili. We are actually having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We are having turkey, stuffing, gravy, salad, mashed potatoes, yams, sweet potato pie and Jonathan and I made pumpkin cheesecake. Oh happy day!

Since we haven't updated in a WHOLE MONTH, we have a lot to catch you up on! Swahili school is going very well. We are becoming more confident in speaking Kiswahili with the locals. We are just excited about the school we are at. They have given us confidence in speaking Kiswahili. When we speak Kiswahili with the locals, people are so excited to help us along with the language. It's great!

We had a guy move in our house a few weeks ago. His parents are Baptist missionaries that lived in Kenya for several years and hey were just assigned to oversee missionaries in Uganda. We love having him at our house, he's a wealth of information since he's been an missionary kid for years.

We have just put up our Christmas tree a few days ago. So it feels like Christmas at our house a little earlier than usual. I told Jonathan that I wanted to make it look like Santa Claus threw up in our house. haha! With us being away from family and friends this year we just need to feel Christmas for a while. So we want to get some Christmas scented candles, have lots of goodies and do lots of Christmas projects with Josiah and Christopher.

Well, we tried uploading some new pictures for you to see but our internet isn't loading them so we'll try again real soon.

Furaha Siku ya Shukarani! Have a great Thanksgiving!

The Fergusons

A Man Named Samuel

A few weeks ago, Adrienne and I took the boys up to Brackenhurst for a snack and to let the boys run around a bit. We had our usual fun, and then began the walk back home. (I thoroughly enjoy the walk home from Brackenhurst more than the walk there, as coming home is all downhill!) On our way home, we stopped to buy some bread at a duka (small shop) by the road. An older man was sitting outside the shop, and asked us something in Swahili that we were not able to understand. He repeated himself, and as we were about to simply say "Pole sana" (very sorry!), A younger man came by and translated for us. After answering the question, we began talking with our new translator.

His name was Samuel, and he looked no older than I do. He was walking with his son, who was named Isaac. We walked down the road as we talked, and I asked him where he was from. He said that he was from Western Provence, and that he was in Limuru looking for work to support his son and himself. He asked us what we were doing in Kenya. I answered that we were missionaries, and had come to share the message of the cross. His face immediately lit up, and shared that he was a believer as well. He said that he had already found a great church in the community, and loved going every Sunday. I thought, here is this guy who came looking for work, but even before he found a job, he made sure he found his church. I knew then there was something special about Samuel.

As we walked toward our home, Samuel began talking about how it was wonderful that we were following God, even when he called us away from our home. He reminded me about Abraham, and how he was called apart from his family as well. He encouraged me to stay strong in the Lord, to remember that if we tried to do the work using our own power, we would fail. It would only be in relying on the power of Christ that we would succeed. Here I was, in Kenya to encourage the Body of Christ, and I was being ministered to myself. I thought to myself, and then said it aloud, God is good.

One of the best parts for me was that, as we went our separate ways, Samuel did not ask for help. He had just been talking about how God will provide for our every need, and it appeared that he wasn't just talking the talk, but was actively living what he shared. We are often asked for money, simply because of the color of our skin. But here was a man that has not been able to find work, who was simply trusting God to provide for him and his son. I later thought about his son Isaac, and the example that he has in his father of what it means to be a Christian man.

I was deeply encouraged by our short conversation we had, walking down the road from Brackenhurst. I was stirred up in my spirit from seeing this man's faith, and from seeing the way his son looked up at him as we walked. His son looked like he was proud that Samuel was his father. I looked down at Christopher, whom I was pushing in his stroller. I hope that one day, Christopher and Josiah will be able to look up to me with that same pride.

Neema na Amani,

Jonathan, for the Ferg4

Trials and Tests...

Language School: As I mentioned before, we took our first Kiswahili test last Friday and we got the results back. All glory to the Lord, Jonathan and I both aced our tests! What a relief. We celebrated by taking the kids to Brackenhurst to play on the playground and we just relaxed the rest of the day. This week the school has added a new part of our instruction. The school hires “conversants” to spend about an hour with us everyday speaking in Kiswahili only. The first day was miserable from stumbling over grammatical errors and constantly asking for the “word for this or that”. It was frustrating. The second day with our conversant was amazing. Jonathan and I were able to have a normal (closer to normal than the day before) conversation in Kiswahili. Wow! We are actually believing we are going to speak Kiswahili well at the end of the six month school. Incredible, huh? Oh! And every Monday, we sing praise songs in Kiswahili and we get a devotion from one of the instructors. The devotion is always in Kiswahili only, no translations. It’s always exciting when we catch a word or two or three more than we had the previous week.

Living Water Christian Fellowship, the church we are attending and will eventually serve after language school, is thriving and doing well. The fellowship is a small group of people but they are getting grounded in the Word of God. The people are so wonderful and very friendly. Please pray with us as Jonathan and I are praying about taking over Children’s Ministry as soon as school is over.

God has been so faithful to meet us right where we are at. The last week for me, Adrienne, has proved to be a bit better in terms of homesickness. It’s very easy for me to let my mind drift into the happenings of life in So. California and to be honest, get resentful of this calling to Kenya. I start thinking about missing out on major family events like birthdays, holidays or my mom’s up and coming wedding. I’m not going to lie, it gets hard. About a week ago, I admit, that I was praying and asking God why He would ask this if us. Why he would take us away from everyone whom we love so much. The Lord told me, “I know, I’ve been there too.” And it hit me, Jesus had to leave his mom, his brothers, friends, everything. The Lord above all other people knows what it feels like to be in a foreign place without the comforts of home to do soley what He came to do. Not to equate what we do out here with the work Jesus did for us on the cross. But He knows. It’s hard but worth it. I thanked the Lord for meeting me at that place and at that moment. The following Sunday, we were unable to attend church because of the high cost to hire a driver to take us an hour away to Living Water Christian. So we resolved to attend Living Water every other week until we move closer or get a car. So, last Sunday we walked to Brackenhurst to download some Sunday studies from Refuge and a few Wednesday nights. Sunday night, as I was making dinner, I listened to Peyton Jones’ Wednesday night teaching at Refuge. Man, was that teaching an answer to prayer. Peyton and his wife, Andrea, missionaries to Wales, were in town and Peyton gave a study that really ministered to Jonathan and I. We were nearly in tears till the end. Peyton’s message talked about how the Lord not only knows how it feels to leave family and friends behind as Jesus did on the cross, but he gave us to each other to be the body of Christ. Jesus told Mary, (John 19:26) “Dear woman, here is your son” and then Jesus told John, “Here is your mother.” Jesus knew how hard it would be for Mary to lose her first born son and how hard it would be to for John, Jesus’ disciple, to lose such a close friend, a Rabbi (teacher). So Jesus gave them one to another to fill that gap. That’s what the Lord is doing with us here in Kenya, he has given us friends and other members of the body of Christ when we need our family and friends that are so far away. The church here is Jesus to us when we want to see Him so desperately. God is so faithful!

Prayer Requests:

Josiah to get over this bad fever he got yesterday and that it wouldn’t infect the rest of us.

For Jonathan and I would be diligent in studying Kiswahili and that the language would continue to “click”

For a car!

Financial provision

Wisdom in dealing with street children/beggers

For our family to be in the Word daily and to seek God as our sole provider

For the Lord to be our strength when we feel homesick.

Robbie and Elizabeth and their daughter, Abigail (Senior Pastor of LWCF and family)

Thanks so much for your love, prayers and support. We miss all of you terribly but just know that God is working in us and stretching us in ways that we never thought

The Ferg4

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