FINALLY
FINALLY
Exodus 15:2
"The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him— my father’s God, and I will exalt him."
We can’t believe it, 2 years ago this month we headed back to the UK not knowing just how long we were going to be out of Kenya for. We packed with haste, just one bag between the 5 of us. After 7 flight changes and cancellations, we managed to get the last flight back to the UK before all the planes were grounded.
Not only was Covid-19 seriously rocking the world and everything in it at that point, but Kelly was asked to return to the the UK by the British Homicide Unit. A few years ago, she medically assisted several victims of a mass stabbing. Tragically, the case turned into a murder case. The decision to come back to the UK, or stay in Kenya was taken out of our hands and we were suddenly launched back into England. Little did we know that years would pass, not months but years, before we were to able to return to Kenya as a family again.
How long would we be in the UK for? What were we going to do in our waiting? Everything hung in the balance.
Well, Covid-19 blocked and diverted us from being able to book flights again and again, and finally a decision was made to stop making plans. Instead, we had to let go, and let God.
Unaware of what our hearts and minds really needed, it was time for some recalibrating.
We longed to be back with our Kenyan team and community, but it was clear we needed to wait. Being able to continue working with, empowering and supporting our colleagues from the UK throughout our time away has been different, but amazing. Seeing our team fly as the Centre became the ‘Regional Crisis Centre’ for vulnerable children in Kenya during the pandemic was incredible. The organisational and situational challenges were extreme, but our team worked so hard and we did everything within our ability to protect some of the most at risk children in Kakamega, Western Kenya. Our team admitted and later reintegrated 3 times the normal number of at risk children last year!
In the midst of that, we decided that Jono would continue to home educate the boys. We really feel that God has entrusted us with the responsibility of transferring the principles that He has taught us to the hearts and minds of our most precious gifts God has given us. He knows what is best for our children, and we continue to feel prompted to home educate in this season. We know that home education isn’t possible for everyone and each family should absolutely do what they have got to do in regards to their kids schooling. Home educating has been what feels a huge sacrifice and yet the world’s biggest blessing! We pray that providing our boys with an early years education based on God’s Word, will give them all the tools they need to make good decisions for the rest of their lives. Who knows how long we will do it for, but so far the boys and Jono are building great momentum and it allows each child to have daily one-to-one! Some of the proudest moments we have had as a family this year has been listening to Hunter (6 yrs) being able to read books to his brothers - he really is doing a brilliant job!
Kelly continued to work within the UK side of the charity ‘Kenyan Children’s Project’ from our Norfolk base and has since opened a small KCP officer here too!
YES, HE DID IT! God MIRACULOUSLY provided and established a perfect little home for us after nearly a year of living with our in-laws/parents. Honestly, we are indebted to both our families, our grandparents and our parents, who have been so kind and generous, letting us overstay our welcome and who seemed to have a tonne of grace for our growing crazy family.
If there is one thing we can truly shout from the roof top about our Father God, is that He truly knows EVERYTHING! He knows what is around the corner, all our needs, every single one. He cares. He is Jehovah Jireh. Just as our family battled some huge health challenges, suddenly longing for our own space to bring stability and make more special memories, He provided. The funny thing is, we didn’t even ask, nor did we even dare to dream. He knew what we truly needed and He literally provided a miracle.
Over the years, Kelly has always had something going on health wise in the background. Watching her power through 3 pregnancies and do everything she could to see God’s light shine in this world, a time suddenly came when this “thing” was no longer in the background. In September 2020, a month after moving into our Norfolk home, we suddenly needed to seek urgent medical help. One day, Kelly was literally unable to get out of bed without blacking out. She had a standing intolerance that meant she would fainted every single day when she went from sitting to standing. On some days she would end up on the floor between 15-30 times. Life became very difficult, managing so many symptoms. She soon got her diagnosis, a condition called “PoTS”. After many months, many tests and investigations, and having to work from bed, things started to get a little easier.
Since the diagnosis, it has taken our family a lot of time to understand it. Ultimately, her autonomic nervous system is dysfunctional and so a new pace of life has had to be learnt. (Those of you that know Kelly’s character and personality well, will understand why she has found this particularly hard to learn.) The illness was making life so difficult for her and us as a family. Jono was caring for the boys and Kelly for many months…
It was so debilitating but prayer and medication has made things so much more manageable. Without these vital drugs, Kelly could quite possibly still be unable to stand. We thank God for the drugs and the various consultants she is currently under!
At the start of this year, Kelly also has had surgery to remove some suspicious breast tissue and she is waiting for treatment for a few other different things too. We would value prayers for complete healing in her body for all sickness and chronic illness. We are believing for a full bill of great health for her, and our whole family!
One thing is sure, the joy of the Lord has truly been our strength throughout. We have refused to give up, Kelly has laughed her way out of some heavy times, and we have all kept going because we don’t want to miss out on serving our Lord, our family and our community wherever God places us!
As we are currently in better health wise, and the world seems to be opening up again in regards to travel, we recently felt a prompt to RETURN TO KENYA! Yes, we are finally returning… as a family! Kelly was successfully able to do a 3 week trip at the end of 2021 to check on the projects and do a trial trip. The fact is, Kelly has lived with PoTS (though not diagnosed until 2020) since she was a teen and therefore she lived with PoTS throughout our time in Kenya. That is quite extraordinary as heat is one of Kelly’s biggest triggers for symptoms to heighten. We are trusting the prompt and believing that life simply has to go on…
When we told the boys that we were all going to Kenya, the room went wild and Hunter shouted “FINALLY!” We all cheered and celebrated, it was such a great moment!
We will be heading out for 6 weeks and we simply cannot wait to be with our team and friends, and share the goodness of God and His light to all we meet!
We look forward to updating you as there is so much going on with the projects, alongside a lot of excitement for what’s to come at the organisation’s new site. We cannot wait to see what God is going to do next… and possibly even begin talking about a LAUNCH!
So, FINALLY!!!
The bags are packed, we are all pretty ecstatic…
And… we fly today, God willing!
We will be in touch!
Jono & Kelly (& the boys) Xx