June 30th Update from Philip

It is Monday June 30. We have started to get adjusted to the time difference. Tracy still has her watch set on Texas time and lets us know what time it really is. We will be traveling to Machakos tomorrow to start our Africa Based Orientation class at Scott Bible College.

Here are a few pictures of our trip and the first few days.

Eating breakfast in London. The extra two people are also with AIM. They will be teachers at Rift Valley Academy, the school the kids will be going to.

Here I am loading bags on top of a car at the Nairobi airport.

Sunday morning getting ready to walk to church. We went to the Good Sheppard Church about a 20 minute walk from the Mayfield Guest house (the House behind us). The RVA choir performed at the church. It was a very meaningful service. The Christians here are very excited about their faith and are not afraid to express it.

Baxter found a stick and some old potatoes to play baseball with. The potatoes soon were mashed. We made a baseball with duct tape. Some of the local kids soon joined in. It is so amazing how kids can relate to other kids so easily.

Just a little update. You are all in our prayers.

June 28th - We have landed!

Well we are finally on Africa soil. What a wonderful experience after all the preparation that went into this mission. We feel so blessed already and all we have done is drive from the airport to the guesthouse. Our travel went well. The first leg of 6 hours was manageable but the 8 1/2 leg from London to Africa seemed very long. We can't complain because all the flights were on time and they serve a large amount of food and water, tea and juices on those long flights. We made it to Nairobi with 17 of the 18 bags. The missing bag was tracked down to London and will be arriving Sunday night. That is quite a miralce in itself. We may actually set the record for the shortest time a bag has been lost!

We are very exhausted but I wanted to post a few pictures so that you could see some of what we experienced yesterday and today. It is almost 1:00 am here and we are looking forward to laying down to sleep.

I can't get the pictures to upload with this connection so I will try again later. Thanks for reading and for all you do to support us through prayer and financial support.

June 25th - The journey begins!

We have finally embarked on the journey God called us to almost 2 years ago. It seems like just yesterday! Those of you who helped us pack and finish last minute details might wonder what we did the first 22 months. I can't tell you but we were busy with something! Packing was even more difficult than I thought it would be. We had stuff spread out all over the house, vacuum (Space) bags, action packers and duffle bags. It was chaotic as the picture at right shows.




Philip and I finished what absolutely had to be done at 4:00 am on Wednesday morning and we were leaving at 5:00 am so we just got ready and skipped sleeping. Luckily we managed a few hours on the drive up to Dallas and on both of the flights. When we showed up at check-in at the airport with our 19 bags to check the poor fellow behind the counter said he had never had to check so many bags before. It went without a hitch and we only had 4 bags over the weight limit of 50 pounds. All the bags made it to Newark and were undamaged! We only had a couple of lotion bottles explode. Thank you for those of you who prayed for our travel.


Taking a break in the Newark Airport

5:00 am - June 25th Tired but ready!

It was so nice to get to AIM headquarters at Pearl River. It feels as close to home as we are probably going to get for the next two years. We met up with a family and a single guy who were at our candidate week in August. It was great to see them again. They will be with us at ABO and Ryan, the single guy, will be teaching 5th grade at RVA so he will be one of Tracy's teachers.

Emily has been journaling in her journal and I have included her first day's page here. I hope she keeps it up.

June 25th, 2008

"It's been a little crazy today. But we managed to stay together and get all the bags on the plane. I'm on the plane to Newark and yes that's how you spell it. I'm about to land and got to go. bye.

I'm in Newark and getting our luggage off the luggage machine. We were in the middle of getting our luggage when this guy walks by us holding a sign that said AIM the Janders. I screamed at my mom because she usually doesn't listen. I finally got her attention and told her. So we got all of our bags to the car and we happened to be going with another family too. They have a cute little baby named Annika. Well we drove to the AIM mission place and had the best dinner ever and I have one more thing to say. Goodnight!"

I love seeing life through a child's eyes. Never mind that we were all exhausted - we had ravioli, salad, rolls and cake! I'll post more soon. We are leaving at 6:30 pm and should arrive in London at 6:00 am on Saturday. I'll try to post some there. Please keep us in your prayers. We are amazed at God's provision for us and know that many of you are praying. Thank you.




"For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ" Acts 28:30-31 NIV

This verse spoke to our hearts because it so mirrors our life for the next two years. God is truly amazing and still speaks to us from His word. We just need to learn how to listen!