First Days

As you may have seen on our Fox River Missions Facebook Page (which you should definitely follow, if you’re not already - many more updates there!), our 2023 Kenya Team had very smooth travels to Kenya. Flights were relatively on time, not much turbulence, and all luggage arrived! Thank God for easy travel!

Sunday was spent in orientation, learning about our mission here, getting our first sights and sounds in this new culture, and preparing our supplies for the rest of the trip. And of course, after 24 hours of travel, and a day of new experiences, we were all in need of some serious sleep.

Our next two days were spent at the two primary schools that Fox River Missions supports — Crossroads Academy in Vipingo on Monday and New Life Academy on Tuesday. Two members of our team, Tyler and Nancy, have offered to share their thoughts and observations from these first two days.

Tyler writes:

Hey Fox River prayer warriors. Thank you for following our trip in prayer and thinking of these wonderful people in the Kenyan communities. Yesterday and today we had the pleasure of going to the primary schools in Vipingo and Bomani. Our focus was to meet the staff of the schools and connect with them as well as to spend time with all the kids and show them the love of Jesus. We arrived at the schools both days and we’re greeted by hundreds of kids shouting, singing, and dancing. I’ve never felt more welcomed than I did visiting these schools.

After the initial arrival we spent time in the chapels where the children gave presentations from their classes to welcome us. Some presentations included dancing and singing, playing instruments, and reciting Bible verses for memory. It was so evident that these kids have the joy of the Lord in their heart and the love Jesus so much.

Following the presentations we got to spend hours just meeting kids, playing games, and asking them about their families and the lives they live. So far, after two days I have heard countless stories from team members about how they have been absolutely touched by kids in these schools.

My favorite and most touching experience so far was meeting the staff at the schools. The first day in Vipingo I met a woman named Miss Nancy, who was in charge of all the support staff (cooks, gardeners, security, etc.) at Crossroads Academy in Vipingo. She told me all about her life and hardships she had endured, but her faithfulness to God was so evident. Not only does she love serving the kids but she is also a great mentor to staff at the school. She regularly holds staff devotions where she translates the Bible into Swahili for staff that have trouble reading English. My wife and I loved talking to her through the afternoon. My favorite Miss Nancy quote was when we mentioned that sometimes it’s hard to handle stress and anxiety in life she responded “Why? God will take care of it!” And it is so true!!! It is a simple truth, but one we need to remember and believe every day. God will take care of his children in different ways!

At New Life Academy in Bomani, I met a teacher named Mr Vincent. All day he wore a huge smile so big that the kids and staff around him couldn’t help but smile just as big. He brings joy to the kids everywhere he goes. He is in charge of teaching Physical Education, Math, Science, and Christian Religious Education (CRE) to children in grades 4-8. He brings a wealth of knowledge as well as a joyful and fun environment to learn. I had a chance to visit his classroom while he was teaching where he showed me how they learn and the whole time the kids were having fun. It touched me to see how invested the staff is in the lives of the kids. To them it is not just a job. It is a ministry every day. They see potential in every one of these kids and work so hard to give them opportunities to be able to take care of themselves and their families in the future. They also equip the children with tools they need to share Jesus with their communities at home outside of school. That is the mission of the ministry here.

I could probably write a book about the first two days of the trip but the blog only has so much space so if you want to hear some great experiences and stories find some of the team members during church sometime and talk to us about this wonderful ministry. We are IN LOVE!

God bless everyone for praying for us and supporting us to be able to be here. We are blessed and I’m so excited for what’s to come.

Nancy (Fox River team member) adds:

I was standing in the yard watching the children blowing bubbles with the bubble wands we brought them. The younger kids were having so much fun chasing the bubbles. I must have had a big smile on my face because a 5th grade girl came up to me and said “Excuse mam, you look like you are so happy!” And I said “This does make me so happy just watching these children having so much fun!”

These first days have truly been a blessing. We come to bless and to serve the people of Kenya — the students and staff of our schools, our missionary partners, and the communities around them — but we always end up being blessed ourselves by the love and the joy of Jesus around us and at work here in Kenya.

More to come soon! Follow the Fox River Missions Facebook Page for more updates and subscribe to this blog (using the subscribe button on this page) to get posts like these delivered to you email.

Heading Home

The team is in the airport and ready to board our first flight home.

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The 2019 Kenya Missions team with our missionary partners, Jenna & O’Neal

The goodbyes (or “see you next times”) are always hard, but knowing our partners are in good Hands makes the parting a bit easier.

As I write this, 12 of us are in line to board our first flight, a 2.5-hour trip to Ethiopia. After a short layover, we’ll have a 17-hour flight to Chicago with a brief refueling stop in Dublin.

Please pray with us for smooth and uneventful travel!

The team about to board at Moi International Airport in Mombasa

Vipingo big day

Today’s blog comes to us from Abbey.

Jambo! This has been my first time to Kenya and I have been blown away by the work that Fox River has done here. Saturday was our first community outreach day at Vipingo and it couldn’t have gone better. We had so many people come and the weather was perfect! It was a very independent day and was full of stickers, bubbles, tattoos, and face paint. We were able to interact with the kids, and everyone ended up with their own group of kids following them. 

One thing that I experienced for the first time was riding a camel. All of the children would push us to the front so they could ride with us over and over! 

For the entire trip I have been so shocked by how much the students want to help and that especially showed today. All of the older kids took charge and made sure the young ones where taking turns, forming lines when needed, and always offered to carry stuff for me. I’m so thankful for all that they have done.

Intro Days

(We’re having problems uploading photos to the blog at the moment. Sorry about that! This post will be text only for now, and we hope to add photos later. You can also watch Fox River Missions on Facebook for lots of photos!)

What a busy and fun couple of days!

Yesterday and today were all about introductions and building relationships. We had two similar days back to back, so this post will cover both days.

On Monday, we arrived at Crossroads Academy in Vipingo around 9am and were greeted by the whole school singing “Karibu Kenya” which means “Welcome to Kenya”.

Whenever we first come to one of our schools, we are treated to performances by the students and today was no exception. The school choir, which is preparing to compete in a national choir competition next month, presented some songs, and another group of kids presented a short drama. We were then introduced and welcomed by the Crossroads staff. Each of the staff personally presented us with a welcome gift of traditional Kenyan clothing items. Their generosity and hospitality is incredible.

After the presentations, Jenna Nyanje, our school administrator, and Pastor Jim Horne, our missionary partner, gave us a tour of the school grounds which included the church and feeeding center, the classrooms, staff administration area, Bible college, and Life Spring Rescue Center.

Our next stop was a tour inside Life Spring Rescue Center. Beginning four years ago, Life Spring takes in kids who have been abandoned or harmed and fosters them for a period of time, with the ultimate goal of reuniting with their families when that is possible and in the best interests of the child. When it opened, it was home for three kids. Today, we care for 17 kids, age five and younger. It’s truly amazing to see God at work in the lives of these most vulnerable kids.

The team then helped serve lunch to the primary school kids, and ate lunch with the teachers after the kids were finished. Rice and beans never tasted so good! We also had a little time to just connect and play with the school kids before and after lunch. Our team members jumped right in and played with those kiddos!

After lunch, we packed gift bags for the kids and presented them on behalf of the sponsors to each class. The gift bags included a bottle of cooking oil, bag of flour, package of salt, package of soap, box of cookies (or as they say “biscuits” because British English), a water bottle, a note pad and a multi-color pen (those clicker things that were big in the 90s - still popular here). The kids were thrilled - especially about the pen and cookies. These gifts were purchased using money given by sponsors specifically for special gifts, so ASANTE SANA (thank you very much).

After distributing the gift bags, we had time for team building with the school staff: teachers, maintenance staff, kitchen staff, and anyone else who works to help educate our kids. We played some Minute to Win It games, got to know our Kenyan partners, and generally had a lot of fun.

After the games, we got into groups - one American team member with 2-3 school staff - to get to know one another better. We walked through the school grounds, hearing about the staff members’ work, seeing their classrooms, hearing about their challenges, and exchanging prayer needs. It was a very effective way to build relationship in the short time we had remaining.

Today, we followed the same basic structure as we did at Crossroads Academy in Vipingo, but this time at New Life Academy in Bomani, and with a few twists.

Instead of beginning the day at our school, we first stopped at Kireme Primary School, the local public school in Bomani. This school is where our kids would be, were it not for the sacrificial giving that makes New Life Academy possible. Kireme does a great job with what they have, but what they have is a lot of kids. 1800 kids, to put it in the ballpark, from Pre-primary 1 (think pre-K) to 8th grade. Every year we offer the public school a gift to help them out, and most years it has been desks, since otherwise kids sit on a dirt floor. This year was no exception, and they were very grateful to receive the desks.

After leaving Kireme public school, we headed to New Life Academy in Bomani and received an excited and warm (if not rainy) welcome as we did on Monday. Each class presented a song, drama, or memory verse and welcomed us to the school. A group of students also demonstrated traditional Kenyan dance. It was so impressive!

As with Crossroads (Vipingo), at New Life (Bomani), we helped serve the kids lunch. The staff prepared an incredible buffet for us: rice, chapati (delicious flat bread), chicken, stewed beef, beans, cooked cabbage, mahamri (triangle donut), bananas, watermelon, and probably a few other things I’m forgetting. It was absolutely delicious. Again, they don’t have to do this. They do this because they are generous, hospitable people who love and appreciate us.

After lunch, we again played games and formed groups to get to know the staff at this school, as we did yesterday at the other school. Getting to know the staff and pray with them is such an essential part of the work we do here; it cannot be overstated how crucial and impactful this is.

We ended the day with some time to play with the kids. Some of us got to visit old friends from previous trips. Some of us made new friends. All of us traveled back to the hotel smiling and blessed.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and please keep praying for us and for the people we serve here!

Smoothest. Travel. Ever.

The 2019 Kenya Missions Team has arrived! Almost a full 24 hours after we met in Waukesha, we landed in Mombasa. We left our second plane perhaps a little sleepy, perhaps a little stiff and creaky, but overall doing very well. The travel could not have gone more smoothly -- praise God!

Beautiful views on our short flight from Ethiopia to Mombasa, Kenya

More good news to report: all of our luggage made the journey, seemingly as smoothly as we did. The twelve of us who landed today made it through immigration and customs without incident and were greeted by Denise, who traveled ahead of us by a few days, and by our partners in Kenya, Jenna & O'Neal Nyanje.

We made it thru customs!

Getting on the bus

After loading up our bus with our luggage, we made the journey to our hotel and began to settle in. It's important to stay awake until evening upon arrival, lest the adjustment to the new time zone drag on longer than it should. Denise will be diligent in keeping us awake (if not alert) with activities to help us acclamate to our new environment and prepare for the next two weeks. We just finished our orientation meeting and will soon be sorting supplies, preparing activities for the school kids, and later going shopping for any essentials.

Orientation meeting at the hotel

Sorting supplies in Denise’s room

The next two days will be our first visit to each of our two schools, meeting the kids and staff, and building the relationships that will serve as the foundation of everything we do here these two weeks. Tomorrow will be spent at Crossroads Academy in Vipingo and Tueaday we'll be at New Life Academy in Bomani.

Be sure to watch the blog and the Facebook Page for updates on what we are - and more importantly what God is up to in Kenya!

One More Flight

We've arrived safely in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! One flight down, one to go!

The last blog post said that we'd arrive in Kenya around midnight Milwaukee time -- this was a mistake. (Chalk it up to an early morning with little sleep!) We actually landed in Ethiopia around 7am local time / 11pm Mikwaukee time. We now have a short layover and then a 2.5-hour flight to Mombasa, Kenya.

The flight from Chicago to Ethiopia was fairly uneventful. Seemed like most of the team was able to get at least a little shut eye.

If all goes according to plan, we will land in Mombasa at 11:30am Kenya time / 3:30am Milwaukee time. At that point, we'll have 12 people going thru customs, which can be an adventure. We'll then have some activities to get settled in and keep us awake until evening as napping just makes the time adjustment worse.

Please pray with us that our second flight and entry into Kenya is as easy as the start of our journey has been!

And away we go!

The travel to Kenya has officially begun!

The team met at the Fox River Waukesha Campus at 4am (Wisconsin time) to get our bags all set and packed up into a trailer for transport to Chicago O’Hare airport.

After spending some time going over final logistics and most importantly spending time in prayer, we loaded up into two vehicles on got on the road!

The first leg of our trip is a 14-hour flight from Chicago to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We then have a short layover, followed by a 2.5 hour flight to Mombasa, Kenya. We should arrive just around midnight tonight Wisconsin time, which will be about 8am Sunday morning Kenya time.

We are currently through security and have a couple hours until we board. Wheels up at 9:30am! Please pray that we have smooth, easy travels.

Keep watching this blog and follow Fox River Missions on Facebook to see additional posts, photos, and maybe even a live broadcast!

Stay tuned and keep praying!

Kenya Graduations 2017!

It's January and that means it's graduation time in Kenya! The school year ended in November, final exams have been scored, and now it's time to celebrate and release the young men and women from Crossroads Academy in Vipingo and New Life Academy in Bomani to the world. 

We have 62 students graduating Standard 8 (that is, 8th grade), four of which have been invited to the top high schools in the country! 56 students in all are going on to high school, with the rest pursing other opportunities.

Graduation ceremonies will take place next week. Please pray for them as they take the next step in their journey, and check back here on the blog to follow along with us!

KCPE Testing

Students prepare very hard for the KCPE Exam.

The next three days are a very big deal for our students in Class 8 (eighth grade) at Crossroads Academy in Vipingo and New Life Academy in Bomani. In fact, Class 8 students across Kenya have a big week ahead of them.

Nov 1-Nov 3, Class 8 students in Kenya will sit for the KCPE Exam. This national exam is a comprehensive test of six subjects: Math, Science, Social Studies, Swahili, English, and Religious Education. The exam is graded out of a total of 500 possible points. It is intended to be very difficult. 400 and above is considered a very good score.

The KCPE exam functions as an end of primary school exam, but also a bit like the SAT or ACT here in the United States. A student's score on the exam can determine if they will be able to continue their education in high school, and what high schools they may be accepted into.

Needless to say, there can be a lot of pressure on the students to perform well in this exam. The students can become very nervous. They have prepared hard. Now they need calm minds to perform to the best of their abilities.

Would you join us in praying for these students over the next few days as they take this big step in their education?

Kenya Medical Mission Trip 2017

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Roger examines a student's ears.

You've probably heard a lot about the Summer Mission Trips to Kenya and Nicaragua and all the relationship building, supply distribution, and overall mission support that happens on these trips. Did you know that we also send teams on targeted medical trips to meet the health needs of the people we serve in those two countries?

The Kenya Medical Mission Trip in February 2017 is the next trip that our medical team is planning and we are looking for more doctors, dentists, and other medically-trained individuals to help us provide basic health care to the people of Kenya.

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Our Kenyan partners staffing the temporary clinic pharmacy. 

Medical Mission Trips are designed around clinic days. The team arrives at a school, sets up stations for exams, treatments, medication distribution, etc. The team then sees students and members of the community, performing basic checkups, treating conditions as the supplies and expertise of the the team allow. The day is tiring, but very fulfilling. 

On the February 2017 trip, the clinic days will take place at the two primary schools that Fox River sponsors (New Life Academy in Bomani and Crossroads Academy in Vipingo), as well as two other schools in the area. In addition to the clinics, the team will be focusing on providing some health education and health promotion. Educating people on basic health and self-care concepts can go a long way in improving the lives of the people we serve in Kenya.

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Jodie and one of her new friends on a Clinic Day.

Are you medically-trained? Starting to feel the call to spend about a week impacting the lives of literally hundreds of God's children in Kenya? 

You can read more information and begin the application process on our Trips page. While the trip is still several months away, time to prepare is short. Applications are due August 1, 2016. If you are interested in joining the trip, or even if you'd just like more information, please fill out the form on the Trips page, and someone from the Medical Missions Team will contact you soon.

Whether you're prayerfully considering being a part of our next Medical Mission Trip, or you'll be following along on our blog from home, please join us in praying for the Medical Team as they prepare to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Kenya, as well as for the people we go to serve!