Look who is 1

It has been too long since I have added something--my apologies.  Matthias turned one on the 15th! What a blessing. He loved his cake and his presents.

Brothers in the yard...

A Few Days to 11-11-11

11-11-11. A date to remember for many. In the Rabe house it is Julianna's 6th birthday. We will spend the day in Kisumu. She wants to go to the Kenshop (a bakery!). Pastry here in Kenya lacks the French influence but Kenshop does their best.

The term is over half finished. We are looking forward to the December holiday. In the meantime it has been great to teach at ABC and Matongo training up men for the ministry. Please keep us in prayer as we are thankful for going on a week with everyone healthy!  Matthias has been without a cold for 2 weeks!

Midterms and form 4s

Mid-term break has come at Matongo. It came at a good time! We are now able to visit with a medical mercy group from the US who will be treating and dispensing medicines in Dago which is only a few Km from here. The Bible College is still going but we have mid-term break next week which will give me two weeks of half week breaks. ( I teach at Matongo Mon-Tue-Wed and Atemo Wed-Thu-Fri).

Keep the kids in prayer. Noah is dealing with a virus and he is getting the worst of it since he is the last to get it.

Please pray with us for the Form 4 (Seniors) at Ringa Secondary. We will have a prayer service for them on Sunday the 16th as they begin their KCSE national exams (like the US's SAT).

Almost a month

Well, here I am in Nairobi again. It has almost been a month since I was here last. Today I have come to pick my son's passport! Talk about a process!

School is underway at Matongo and all the students have arrived. We are now entering week three and busy parsing verbs, surveying the Old Testament and studying the Gospels. This week ABC opens and will bring the business to full strength (5 courses) to teach.

We are also thankful for our visitor's safe arrival. Kathy Sweet from Redeemer Lutheran in Chico is with us for the month. She arrived and brought us a monsoon! They say here that we are blessed when visitors come and bring rain. Kathy will be with us this week, next week in Kisumu working with DCM and the School for the Mentally and Physically handicapped. The last week we will send her off on safari, visits with a deaconess and finally off to home.

Picking Tea in the Fields in Kisiiland and Kukus on the rooftop.

While on our trip to Nairobi we went thorough the tea fields as mentioned below so here is one more photo and...this would never happen in the US...PETA would have a cow! Kukus on the rooftop on the way to market!

Kericho and Tea Country

We were traveling to Nairobi to get our son's passport in order and we took pictures along the way. Here are a few photos of the tea country. The above photo is of the worker's homes. The other on the right is of the fields. This was a great "short cut."

Prep for one last exam

Well, the Ringa Girl's are on holiday. Here they are studying for one last exam. The tent doubles for worship space on Sunday mornings. Lord willing we will be able to begin building some time in the future. Right now we have to be content with worshiping under a rented tent.

We too are on holiday. Stef prepares for the kids school at the end of August and I prepare for Matongo. The holiday is good to relax and prepare.

A Summer Photo

Things are well. It is the holiday break for the Rabe family. The kids are on break from school and I am preparing for my courses in the fall term. Meanwhile we are enjoying a little less structure around the house and finding how much better a structured life is!

End of the Term

It is the end of the term at Atemo Bible College. We finished Reformation History. Now it is prep time for August courses at Matongo. Meanwhile, a ONE MONTH BREAK! We are hoping to visit a few sights, take a little time to travel but we won't go to the Mara. (Stef and the Kids went while I was in the US and the roads were so good that they "baptized the side of the matatu" numerous times as they put their heads out the window.

I will be posting photos and sending out the newsletter in a few days.

Thank God for all of you...for your prayers and for enabling us to be here to serve.

The Big fish

Well I did get to go fishing while on my great adventure in the US. Rev. Bunting landed the big one...10.5 lbs. He did not let us forget that he caught it all day long!  It was a good day

Falls near Atemo

 A little photo of the waterfall near our home.

Looking forward to the travel home...soon

Mission Festival Portland at Redeemer Gresham

What a two day event. It was a great joy to be with God's people at the Mission festival held in Gresham at Redeemer Lutheran Church sponsored by CLCC.

Rev. Dr. Quill was there to present on Friday and on Saturday had a great Law/Gospel sermon on the miraculous catch of fish which pointed us to Christ Jesus!

It was a great conference led by Gene White and Rev. Dan Freeman with CLCC to equip the laity for evangelism and affirmation. Indeed I forgot that I had gone to Concordia College Portland and seminary at St. Louis with Rev. Freeman. What a day to see brothers in the ministry!

It was a joy to be with another Rabe (the pastor of Redeemer, his wife is a Rabe--even though a shirt tale relative, nevertheless a Rabe!). Only three days until I head back to Africa. All in all what a great trip to the US to visit with God's people who support us in Kenya.

Please pray for the DT7 students who graduated on the 11th of June and will be ordained and installed soon!

Tomorrow is my last day of travel and one last visit before I head back to Kenya. I will be visiting with God's people in Milton, Washington.

Oh, it will be good to be home with family!

Inglewood, Cypress, Sonora, Sacramento

It has been a fast furious trip up and down the coast of California. Holy Cross received me and treated me with a warm reception. It was great to stay with my aunt and uncle and see my cousins too!

It was great to once again see God's people at Good Shepherd Inglewood. They have a great organist! Lunch was awesome as well as the host and hostess!

Sonora welcomed me warmly to a great potluck--we don't have those much in Kenya. What a joy to share with God's people of Sonora all that we do in Kenya.

Lastly, I prepare to go to Town and Country Lutheran Church and Rancho Cordova this weekend. One thing is certain that in all the congregations that I have visited the LWML has truly been supportive--after all that is what they do--support missions!

I thank God for all our congregations, prayers and financial support--you allow us to serve.

L.A.

It was a great visit with God's people at The Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Inglewood. Great Law/Gospel sermon by Pr. Von Hindenberg and wonderful to receive Christ's gifts in the Divine Service.   Fellowship with God's people was a joy as was brunch!

Chico

It is a blessing to be with my home congregation in Chico, California. Tomorrow I will be presenting to the LWML zone rally. What a joy to be with these women who support the work of Christ's church!

Here a few photos while I am able to use the internet--

 Rabe Family photo

 Noah helping mud a home

 Advert in Kisii

Big and little brother

Chico

On my way to Chico. Will present on Saturday to the LWML Zone Rally, preach at the Divine Service at Redeemer on Sunday. It is a blessing to be at my home congregation!

Trip

No, I am not nor have I ever been to Spain. Someone hacked into my yahoo email and my contacts sending an email saying I need 120,000 euros to pay a hotel bill. This is a scam!

So sorry for the email if you have received it. I have a new email account and will sent it to you if you contact me via the comments on the blog.

I am in the states now and will be visiting congregations in California from May 21st through June 5th, St. Louis and Washingtion.  Will keep you posted.

Portland

Well, it has bee a long, long time since I posted last. Today I arrived in Portland after 30 hours of travel that began in Atemo Sunday afternoon. It is good to be home for a little while to visit our supporting congregations. But, it is hard to be away from family for five weeks.

Over the next few weeks I will be in California, Oregon, Missouri and then back to Kenya. Please keep Stefanie and the kids in your prayers and me too as I travel a great deal over the next five weeks.

Peace in Jesus!

Photos of the Kids

Since some of you have not been able to access the links to the photos here are some of the kids. We are all well, healthy after a week of 'colds' and thankful for good health. The term is over at ABC and still going at Matongo. God is good all the time, all the time God is good and that is his nature.

Ring around the rosy...

Although this picture was about two months ago it captures how the kids enjoy their time in Kenya.

Finals at ABC ended this week and now I am only teaching at Matongo. Now I can focus more time on learning Luo and Kiswahili and the PHd.

One Happy Baby

Matthias

I have been a little slack with the blog. The rains have come and it is difficult to get a signal at Atemo. So here is a little smile from a little Rabe.

mid Term break

We are at mid term break now at Matongo. This last weekend I spent time at Gisage with the assistant principal of ABC and some of our students. It was a joy to gather around the Word and Sacrament. This congregation, although they are building a new building, has not had the sacrament in many months. They are also delighted because as a parish they now have a pastor who was just ordained last week.

I have also uploaded photos.

Are You Lost?

"Are you lost?" You might have been wondering why I have so few entries on the blog. Well, internet is slow here in the hills of Atemo and the coursework has been heavy (18 hours) of teaching each week. But it is a joy. In the midst of this I am teaching 16 students at Matongo and 27 at Atemo Bible College. I have visited Transmara and supervising an intern student at the local congregation in Dago. During the last few weeks the students at Ringa Girls asked me, "Pastor, are you lost?" A strange phrase that I have finally got after being here for 4 months. It means, "where have you been?" It was good to hear that they missed their pastor who has had to have the evangelist fill in while he was in Dago and Transmara.


Our time here has truly been a joy. Last week we also met a few people from the LCMS who have been here for a hymnal conference at Matongo. Rev. Dr. William Schumacher from the St. Louis Seminary, a Deaconess working on the Hymnal project in Kenya and a few others. We also have Pastor Charlie Froh and his wife Jan at Matongo. Pr. Froh has been entertaining the students in the afternoon.

All is well in Atemo and we will do our best not to make you ask, "Are you lost?"

Visit to Transmara

It was a good weekend to visit one of the congregations in the ELCK. I traveled with the principal, deputy principal and four students from Atemo Bible College to the Transmara area. We visited a congregation in Isokon, Kenya. It was a mere 51/2 hour drive. Two hours on “good road” and 3 ½ on rocky, rutted and potholed road. Indeed it was a joy to visit with this Massai congregation which is home to one of our evangelists and first year students at Matongo.

We were treated with the usual welcome meal and spend the observing their childrens program. I spent the night in the home of the congregational leader. They were truly welcoming. Sunday morning service was to start at 10am and about 10 before 10am one of the students wanted to take us to the overlook to the Mara. It was truly beautiful to see the Mara from above. So needless to say, the service began at 10:30ish after we arrived. We had hoped to start the service early (ha, ha) so that we could depart soon and arrive home before dark. Service, though, was three hours and by the time we ate and visited the home of our evangelist in training we departed at 3pm. Overall it was a great trip to visit with God’s people in Isokon and to preach God’s Word of Law and Gospel pointing the Christians to Christ Jesus.

Visit to Transmara

It was a good weekend to visit one of the congregations in the ELCK. I traveled with the principal, deputy principal and four students from Atemo Bible College to the Transmara area. We visited a congregation in Isokon, Kenya. It was a mere 51/2 hour drive. Two hours on “good road” and 3 ½ on rocky, rutted and potholed road. Indeed it was a joy to visit with this Massai congregation which is home to one of our evangelists and first year students at Matongo.

We were treated with the usual welcome meal and spend the observing their children’s program. I spent the night in the home of the congregational leader. They were truly welcoming. Sunday morning service was to start at 10am and about 10 before 10am one of the students wanted to take us to the overlook to the Mara. It was truly beautiful to see the Mara from above. So needless to say, the service began at 10:30ish after we arrived. We had hoped to start the service early (ha, ha) so that we could depart soon and arrive home before dark. Service, though, was three hours and by the time we ate and visited the home of our evangelist in training we departed at 3pm. Overall it was a great trip to visit with God’s people in Isokon and to preach God’s Word of Law and Gospel pointing the Christians to Christ Jesus.

School in full swing

School is in full swing at ABC and Matongo. It has been great to teach the various courses and equip these men to serve in the harvest.

School is in full swing in the Rabe house too. Although Matthias likes to interrupt Stefanie is hard at work teaching math, reading and all the other courses. Gabby and Noah are turning out to be great readers and Julianna is following.

This last week we had the joy of visiting with a group from the US who were here for a medical mission trip. It was a great opportunity to visit with friends from the US and see so many helped (300 per day) at the medical clinic north of Kisumu.

A New School Year

It has been a week of beginnings and preparation. January 11^th began the term at Atemo Bible College. We are now in the midst of studying the book of Acts and Early Church History up to the Reformation. Matongo began classes today and I begin teaching tomorrow (Wednesday January  19^th). I will be teaching hermeneutics, Worship, New Testament Survey and New Testament Theology. It is great to be getting underway with the New Year at both schools.

The children are doing well and back into the swing of school with a few adjustments as we work around Matthias’ schedule. This weekend we are looking forward to going to Kisumu to see Pastor Meeker, Deaconess Lorna and medical group that they are hosting for a medical clinic.

This day we also give thanks for the faithful witness of Peter. Today is the day in the church year that we remember his faithful confession of Jesus as the Christ. May we too be faithful and build our faith upon the solid rock of our Lord Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for our sins!

Two photos of the Rabe gubber

We are doing great and enjoying the New Year. School begins for the Rabe kids and for most of Kenya as well.

New Photos for New Year

I have posted new photos on the picasa account. Hope you all are having a great New Year!