Bees in Kenya: September 2019

It was this unexplainable feeling that we had to get back to Kenya. Every time I wanted to fight God and say we haven’t been in America that long but He kept directing me to His mysterious plans. I wanted to run from His purpose for our lives- just like Jonah. I questioned God a lot! I felt like it would be too hard to go back to Grace Family because there is always so much work to do when we arrive and in the past have endured so many disappointments and a lot of corruption. It seemed impossible and I had a hard heart towards God’s plan. We had so many family and friends asking why we were moving back to Kenya after only 15 months in America. We couldn’t explain the urgency to anyone but we knew God had laid it on our hearts and we were not going to run from His plans.

God showed us the urgency of our move after a week of being in Kenya. We got a call from Christine’s high school that she was pregnant and due any day. The first reaction David had after the call on his phone was to gather prayer warriors together to pray for Christine and her baby. It was a shock to us all but we had a peace that surpassed understanding. No one had told us when we were living in America that Christine was pregnant. The staff hid it from us and never mentioned a word when we would talk with them on the phone. Our staff did not even tell us upon arrival and we found out later they all knew about it. Needless to say, after much prayer and weeks of seeking, we replaced all of those staff people.

A few days after the call from the high school Christine arrived home for August break. We warmly welcomed her home. Christine later told us that some of our staff were telling her to find a different place to live because David and I would never welcome her back home because she was pregnant. They made fun of her, shamed her and tried to drive her away. Thankfully, Christine is persistent and said she would not go to live anywhere else because this is her home until David told her himself.

18 days after our move to Kenya, Christine delivered a beautiful, healthy baby girl she named, Rayana Jeptoo (8/8/19). Christine cared for Rayana her first month of life and now is back at high school for the last term of her senior year. God laid it on Ian’s mom’s heart to come to Grace family to help care for Rayana while Christine finishes high school (Ian is one of our eldest guys here in his junior year of high school)! What an answer to prayer! We call Ian’s mom-Kogo because she is a grandmother and she loves on Rayana like one of her own grandchildren. It has been a joy to have a newborn at home and to see God’s hand at work through all of this. We don’t know the full story of how the pregnancy happened but God has asked us to show grace, love, and mercy to Christine. God will reveal what the next steps are, in His timing.

Micah 6:8 “The Lord has shown you what is good. He has told you what He requires of you. You must act with justice. You must love to show mercy. And you must be humble as you live in the sight of your God.”