I apologize that this blog post is coming to you so late. I have had a very busy month and am in the beginning stages of my upcoming transition making this a full season. It has been another lovely month of sunshine and some heavy rains at night helping to turn everything beautifully lush and green. One of my favourite parts of living in Kenya is falling asleep to the heavy rains on my roof. It is so peaceful and reminds me of God’s many blessings. At school, March marked reading month, so the students all turned into bookworms and it was so sweet to watch them discover the joy of reading. This month, we also had some fun character dress-up days based on book characters (you’ll see a Miss Smart turned Mary Poppins down below). I think my favourite costume was someone dressing up as a dictionary!
At our school, twice a year, we take a week out of the school year known as Spiritual Emphasis Week where the students have full days of chapel talks, worship times, crafts, games, and guest speakers. Imagine it like a weeklong VBS (Vacation Bible School). This week’s focus was on adventuring with Christ. The students enjoyed hearing testimonies of people’s journeys through life with Christ. Our school also partnered with a local World Vision school in the city. We invited them to our school for a day, played together, worshiped alongside one another, and were able to bless this school by providing over 300 books to start their school’s library. It was a great opportunity for the students to learn about blessing others, empathy, and experiencing God’s big family through developing friendships with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I particularly enjoyed the sessions that focused on teaching the students about worship, how we worship, why we worship, and what worship is all about. A highlight for the students was our glow and the dark worship event where we focused on shining our lights for Jesus!
Another opportunity that I have at my school is to lead a discipleship group with a fellow teacher. We meet weekly over lunch with a few of the fifth-grade girls to share our testimonies of God’s hand at work in our lives, answer their questions about faith, and journey together. This past month, we went out to a restaurant together and it was so fun seeing them open up more in a setting outside of school. We had some great conversations about friendship, God, interpreting the Bible, and of course, the topic many 11-year-old girls are interested in – boys! I am grateful for the opportunity to pour into these young girls and model for them a walk with Christ.
This month, I also celebrated my birthday! I was so blessed to have the day off of work, making a long weekend. I went to Amboseli National Park, a safari park here that is known for its large elephant population as well as clear views of Mount Kilimanjaro. I feel so grateful and blessed to enter another year of life in such a beautiful country. I was reminded of God’s many blessings in my life over the years. I am grateful for my health, my family and friends, a career that I love, and a beautiful home.
Two more very special people celebrated their birthdays this month, my brother, Jon, turned 30, and my nephew, Theo, turned 2! It is also hard to miss special occasions and celebrations living abroad, but I am grateful for technology to help close the distance. Two more months now and I will be able to see my family in person again! What a reunion to look forward to.
Another blessing this month has been a new friendship formed from church. A lovely lady from my church has adopted me and some other young people as her grandchildren. It is so sweet having a ‘grandma’ on this side of the world and the most amazing, God-fingerprinted part is that she actually has the same name as my Grandma (Esther). She invited me over for lunch after church one Sunday and showed me her lovely garden and shared her testimony. I praise God for the way he so personally loves and takes care of me.
Finally, a huge part of my month was filled a 10-day Spring break in which two very dear friends came to visit me. A friend I have known since I was 15 in high school came with her sister, from Germany, to visit me. I absolutely loved reconnecting, showing them the beautiful Nairobi, having quality chats, and hanging out together. Our visit was so healing and special. I think we all needed it. I am so thankful for my friends who chose to come and visit me here in Kenya. It encourages me, lifts my spirit, and is a forever memory to cherish. As I was reflecting on my 4 years here, I have been blessed by having visitors come each year. What gifts friends and family are. I always love showing them my home, my market friends, the beautiful animals and greenery, and making new memories together. I thank God for the people He has blessed me with.
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support,
-j.
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jocelyn's adventures in kenya. 
Dear Jocelyn, Your letters are always so interesting and exciting to read. I love how personal you make them, with telling about visits you have and your experiences with people there. Everyone should have a “Grandma Esther!”. How kind of our Father to give you one. I wish I could have had a teacher like you when I was in school. Just imagine Miss Mary Poppins teaching at my school! Wow, only in my dreams. The most unique teacher I had was a little old, very old teacher named Miss Robinson. She was also my mother’s teacher and mom said she was ancient then! She always wore a long black skirt, white high collared blouse with a black sweater and little black high topped boots (that would have been very fashionable in today’s world). She wore her hair pulled back in a bun. She had an artificial eye that was rather terrifying for a grade 4’er! You could never tell exactly where she was looking. She was incredibly strict and knew how to use a ruler to terrify even the bravest of us! I certainly behaved in her class and have never forgotten her! Our time since Christmas has been busy but not all that exciting. On a very sad note, Trevor’s one dog, Izzy, had to be put down. Broke their hearts. She was Tanya’s dog and Tan was a wreck. We felt so awful for them. Izzy was a great pet and still fairly young. Their other dog, Rae, was so lonely without her friend so they bought another pup. She is a and just as cute as they come. Rae was terrified of her and would run away when she came near. They named her Pepper. She is so energetic and always on the move. Trevor and family went to Toronto for spring break. Trevor took a group of students with him too. They had a marvelous time. Tanya and the boys loved it too. So that left their pups is need of a grandma and grandpa! So of course we stayed at their place and took care of them. Of course, Pepper is not potty trained yet – oh my! I was tempted to get some newborn pampers and put them on her! I know she would have just chewed them off and I’d have had a bigger mess to clean up! Pepper is still in the chewing stage and absolutely loved getting little chews on me whenever she could! My arms were pretty marked up by her! BUT SHE’S SO CUTE!! Blair has a new ministry – playing pool with a group of non-churched men. He’s really praying that he can minister to them and that they will come to Christ. They’ve been very accepting of him which is good. They are really good pool players and Blair isn’t yet. But they are very helpful telling him how to angle and whatever else pool players do! Pastor Anthony has been having a Hearing God prayer session one Sunday night a month. It’s soooooo good and been very exciting. Blair believes that God wants to bring 100 people to the Lord through our church this year. So we are really praying and believing that. On thing we’d sure appreciate prayer for is for all the people that grew up in the church and have left the faith. We have so many parents in Trailview that have their children leave to explore other faiths or none at all. Please pray that they will come back. Satan seems to be working overtime on Christians – giving them so many excuses to leave the faith. Thank you for your letters. We look forward to them – always so positive, so encouraging and so fun to read! We pray God will work out all the details of your transition and give you strength to finish well in your current position. Lots of love and prayers, Carol for Blair too!
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