Last Days on The Central Coast

Well, the adventure continues as we prepare to leave for our new home in Kenya. We are loving our living experience with the Jenison family and will be so sad to leave! Kenya Grace absloutley loves her friend Brody and wakes up asking for him as well as the other members of the household. We have been enjoying our mini travels to Lompoc, and Porterville and other nearby churches. Every time we share about where God is leading us and all that He is doing it stirs our hearts for what is ahead. There is still so much to do before we leave the Central Coast December 7th but we are determined to enjoy every moment we have with friends and every opportunity we have to enjoy the beauty of the Central Coast. For those of you who know about my dad's heart attack, he is doing so well, regaining strength everyday and currently walking 2 miles a day. Praise the Lord. Mom is doing well and a little more rested after she and dad came up for a visit. Matt's parents are back in CA for a visit and we got to all spend time together! It's been such a blessing. They were also all able to be here for our church Farewell party. The party was a huge blessing and we felt so loved by so many people. Please keep praying for us and stay tuned! :) Blessings in the name of Jesus Christ! Peg for The P3

Back in the States

I Peg wanted to write Home in the title, but realized we aren't really home because we don't have a home to come home to. We are technically back in the states after an absolutely amazing trip! Our God is an awesome God and blew our minds at all He did. KG and I are down at my parents recovering and adjusting to a new time zone while Matt jumps back into things full swing in SLO. We will be living with our good friends in Los Osos and are looking forward to processing our trip and preparing for the big move. I won't write more as my head is nodding off to sleep but wanted to let everyone know we are home! ;)
God bless you and thank you soooooo much for your prayers!

In Kisumu

We arrived in Kisumu Sunday morning and were so blessed to be picked up by our dear friend Diane! I cried when I Peg saw her. I am a little sleep deprieved, but it just did my heart good to see someone we knew waiting there for us. It made it feel more like home. :) Poor KG was up at 4:30 that morning and didn't get to sleep again until 1:15 that afternoon. Needless to say sleep wasn't great last night. She woke up at 2:30 am and didn't go back to sleep until an hour later. She was factinated by the mosiquito net, (which did look pretty cool since daddy had made it go around her bed and ours) and kept playing with it. And of course ended up creating a lovely gap inviting any bug who was interested. :0 PTL we woke up with no bites! We are here with the Gordan family and KG is loving being with Abby who looks like she is 4 but is only 2. They are having a lot of fun together! :) Well, we have seen a lot in these two days. Diane took us to see two houses yesterday and the Lord showed us some things here in Kisumu that we didn't expect. He is showing us the unreached here and it is throwing us for a bit of a loop. Mainly because it is a lot of the white community here and Indians. He has given us a lot to pray about! We have been to two communities to look at housing and feel really good about one area. We are learning so much of things we need to bring and have and things we need to do. We are so blessed to have Steve and Diane and the so many missionary families. I even visited an International school for children where there could be an opportunity to teach dance. This afternoon we are headed to the supermarket to do pricing for household items. We are pleased to tell you that Kisumu is at rest and people are doing well here but recovering from the riots and unrest. (Matt now writing) Tomorrow we will be meeting with one of the local boys who is currently residing in Nairobi and whom we met at CIF (Ed Compeans church) He has a heart to reach Kisumu where his family is from and he has given us a page full of the prayer needs of the community here. The first and biggest prayer need he gave us was for a Bible Believe & Bible Teaching church that will teach through the Word of God. Needless to say, since that is just what we feel God is calling us to do, we were very excited about meeting and talking with him futher. Although we met him at Ed's church in Nairobi, he happend to be traveling to Kisumu at the same time as us and hence we are able to further converse with him while here in Kisumu. Well, we will write more later. Thank you for your prayers.

Hi Everyone!
Mama finally gets to write! What an experience this is leading a missions trip and being a wife and mama! God has been sooo gracious to us! You wouldn’t believe how amazing KG did on the plane rides here. She actually slept a bit and we have some funny stories to tell! She did really well the first day but all the sleep deprivation and stimulation did her in by the second day and that was toughest day for she and I. But wow, has she adjusted amazingly!!! The people LOVE her and she loves them. We keep getting confirmation over and over about how well she will do here and that is so encouraging for me mama! The kids here love her too and it’s funny because they see white adults all the time but don’t see white babies, so she is a star everywhere we go! Today we went to an animal orphanage and there were a lot of schools there and the kids were following us around watching KG. It was so funny. Every time she would do anything they would laugh and get excited! I think she was more exciting than the simbas. ☺ When we did the outreach in one of the slums, the kids were fascinated by her. When they started grabbing for her feet, we headed back to the matatu (bus) and hid out there for the rest of the time. Of course KG couldn’t sit still so she pretended to drive the bus with our driver and flirt with the children out the window. The kids thought her name was so cool and they would stand at the door and call to her. I probably don’t have to say that she LOVES the attention and all the love the team is showing her. Yesterday as we sat out in the country in a half made stick home she went around to many of our team members and laid on their laps and let them love her. Of course Auntie La is still her favorite! After the retreat she hardly would go to her daddy just La and I. But daddy has won his way back in to her heart. ☺ KG loves the African food and now eats double what she ate at home. We think she is going through a growth spurt! She is so long and her hair is really growing here. You won’t recognize her! ☺ People even say they think she is Kenyan. Here is one more story. At the women’s retreat when the American worship was happening she was not interested and would try to move the chairs around but when the African music started she would start dancing and clapping. I thought that was so classic. ☺ Please continue to pray for us. KG does have a cough that is congested and a clear runny nose but boy has the Lord protected her from sooooo much. Oh, one more thing, the first two days when we were trying to adjust to the time, we think she was cutting an upper molar because after about 5 days we saw it! What a tough cookie. We are headed to Kisumu this Sunday through Wed. Please pray for protection against Malaria and that our time would be fruitful for our future. Also that we would be a blessing to our missionary friends who need some encouragement. I love you and miss you all, especially grandparents. God bless you! Peg

In Kenya with Kenya! It has been a one of our biggest blessings and one of our biggest challenges to have our 14 month daughter Kenya Grace with us on this trip to Nairobi, Kenya. The challenges have been mostly in two areas, that of sleep, and that of cleanliness (trying to keep her from having too much contact with many, many germs, which is especially difficult while ministering in the slums). On the other hand, the joy and delight on peoples face to see a mazungu (white) baby here in Kenya is worth it all. Not only that but their reaction to her name is so priceless. God has been using her to soften hearts and open up opportunities to minister and share about Jesus. God uses all things for his glory.

Today, Peg and I had a beautiful time visiting a language school we are interested in with our missionary friends the Compeans. It was a fun a relaxing day for us, and beautiful country. Keep us in prayer as we pray through which language school God would have us go to.

Pray Requests

Please pray for health and rest as we travel over the next couple of days. We leave LAX around 1:30 in the afternoon and travel to London on a 9 hour flight. We then have a 12 hour layover in London followed by a 10 and a half hour flight to Nairobi Kenya. Please pray for our little girl to sleep and charm the passengers and for mom and dad to have strength to be parents and lead a team. :) We love you! Praise Jesus!

Life Change in Process

We are less than a week away from going to Kenya for 3 weeks with a group of wonderful women who are eager to serve the Lord! It has been a whirlwind for we Pottengers as we empty our house, sort through our things, sell and pack items, and leave our little Cayucos home permanently. All this while still maintaining normal life and ministry. Sometimes I (Peg) feel very overwhelmed and usually tired, but the Lord continues to minister to me in this season and in fun ways. My mom was in town for a few days (such a comfort and blessing) so she got some good grandma time with Kenya Grace. I got to go for a much needed bike ride and a beautiful lunch with a close friend as well as attend the worship portion of our mid - week study. VBS was in full swing at the church and so the sancutary was completely decked out with the theme, "Power Lab." As I was enjoying the music and just taking everything in, my eyes were drawn to the big sign in the middle of the stage that said, "Warning! Life Change in Process!" "Wow!" I thought, that is me! I am in the middle of a Life Change. The Lord used the theme for each day of the week (it was printed up on the stage) to minister to my heart about this process. He is so good and faithful that way. I'm not sure if any of the kids got ministered to by the VBS (though I'm sure they did) but I definitely did! :) Kenya Grace continues to be a trooper and senses some changes but is happy as ever and loving life! Praise the Lord for that. Prayerfully I can get Matt to blog before we leave, but he is so busy at the church and currently filling in for our Pastor who is in Russia. We'll post prayer requests before we leave but in the meantime pray we can get everything done and give God glory as we do it! :)