To the Saints

Spending a few days at Kijabe (RVA, Hospital, Moffat Bible College, printing press, etc.) provides an encouraging boost to the front-line missionary.  Because this place is packed with saints and stories, with long history and fresh ideas.  In Bundibugyo we are a small lone team, and the exits seem to be outnumbering the entrances these days.  So we can feel a bit like weary Elijah needing God to remind us of the hundreds of others who are holding to the faith.  In the process of orientation we met parents originating from America, New Zealand, UK, Kenya, India, Sudan, South Africa.  And serving in places all over this continent, some as difficult (or MORE difficult) to reach and to persevere in as Bundi.  And in between enrollment tasks, we dropped in for visits with a handful of local on-station families whom we've grown to befriend over the years, people who are planning medical mission policy for dozens of sites, or who are faithfully caring for children, or juggling disparate classes and duties. Including a surgeon and his wife who will reach age 70 this year, I'm guessing that nearly 40 of those years have been dedicated to Africa.  And our hosts at Sunrise Acres (our stopping point on our return trip) who appeared as RVA staff in a 1975 yearbook I flipped through.  It is humbling to sit in the presence of these saints even briefly, and I thank God for the testimony of endurance.