Dear Friends and Family,

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” James 1:17

As we all know, there are different seasons of life. At times, God allows us to go through very difficult and painful seasons. Some seasons are easier. But in all seasons, God is faithful and kind and trustworthy. We have been in a season of varying degrees of change. We are thankful that God remains the same even as life shifts endlessly. We have seen God working in and through these changes and providing various needs in various ways. We have been experiencing His abundant good and perfect gifts in tangible ways. From an unexpected trip to the U.S. for Melissa in September to our month in the States to look at colleges and spend time with family to a wonderful holiday in Botswana celebrating our 50th birthdays and upcoming 25th anniversary, God has poured out His blessing.

We arrived in the U.S. the weekend after Thanksgiving. Our travels went well and we hit the ground during a cold snap so it was a bit of a shock to our systems but December turned out to be rather mild. We had hoped for a good dumping of snow while in Pennsylvania. It snowed just a little bit one morning and Rachel was able to make a small snowman before heading out for a college tour. Her college visits went well, visiting Lancaster Bible, Grove City, Geneva, and Messiah. Lancaster Bible sits at the top of her list, and she’s hoping to pursue a degree in elementary education. Thank you for your prayers with regard to these visits. We trust that the LORD is directing her in all of these significant decisions.

Before we traveled to the States, a friend had said that she was praying that we would get some rest. Well, I was a bit skeptical about that. We were VERY busy. We had something on the calendar almost every day and some days had more than one engagement. So I wouldn’t say that it was a restful time but it was certainly a time full of good gifts and blessing. We were blessed to share meals and fellowship with so many people who love us and pray for us and just wanted to spend time with us. We were also invited to speak briefly and pray for our church congregation. We are in the process of working together with the missions team to develop and more in depth partnership in which we will host teams from Hershey Free Church annually. These teams will be multifaceted and have a dual purpose of discipleship and ministry. We hope and pray for much fruit to be born out of these trips but we would really love to see God use this partnership to bring more full time workers to Tanzania and beyond. We also gave an update in our fellowship class and Jon and I split up and spoke to the elementary aged kids who raised over $2000 this past summer to buy solar players for one of the unreached people groups with whom we are involved and who have only a few books of the Bible in their heart language. It was treat to be able to thank the kids in person and to be able to tell them a little bit about Tanzania and what God is doing there.

The highlight of our time in the U.S. was being able to be together as a family for a few weeks. We had some family outings including a long planned for trip to the Philadelphia symphony orchestra to hear Handel’s Messiah. It was especially wonderful to be able to do that with Jon’s parents and sister as well as my mom. The five of us also went ice skating together which was really fun as we had never done that together before. Believe it or not, each of our kids had actually been ice skating once before when their dorm’s (at different times) did an outing to Nairobi where there is an ice skating rink. Someone gifted us tickets to Hershey’s Christmas Candy Lane at Hershey Park so we bundled up one evening and headed over for a few rides and treated ourselves to some soft pretzels. Otherwise, it was just good to be together.

Many people continue to ask about Drew’s foot. It has healed well. He said it aches a bit on occasion but doesn’t bother him much. He is back to flying this semester and really enjoying it. Josh will graduate from college in May with a degree in Sports Administration but will continue on for the next 2 years to get his master’s degree. The LORD has really provided in this as he will continue to work in the rec center as a graduate assistant. This will cover the cost of tuition and any extra hours he works he will earn. He is already living off campus and that is working well for him. Rachel is back at R.V.A. and has been training for the volleyball season which will start after her April break.

We returned to Kenya at the end of December and had a few days in Nairobi to recover from jet lag before taking Rachel back to school. We returned to a cool and rainy Arusha which is very unusual for this time of year. We had a week or so to get ourselves organized before returning to Kenya for meetings. During that time at home, we were able to go to our local A.I.C. church to say goodbye to the outgoing pastor, Mahalu, who is now serving in Magambua and to welcome the incoming pastor, Maela, and his wife whom we have known since our early days in Usandawe. They arrived in Usandawe back in 2006 to serve at a church about an hour from us right around the same time we arrived in Magambua. They moved away a few years ago so we only saw them on occasion but what a blessing to now be “neighbors” again. They invited us to their home after church and we spend a wonderful afternoon together catching up on our families and ministries. We hope to be able to continue to build relationships and partnerships with both of these pastors who now serve in Magambua and Arusha. What a joy to see how God is working!

After our meetings in Kenya we returned home for just a few days to once again get reorganized for three separate trips to different places with different climates and with different purposes. We spent an absolutely amazing 10 days in Botswana (we will write more about that separately), then had a day and half in Nairobi before going our separate ways. Jon flew up to Egypt for a leadership conference and got to start out by visiting the Pyramids. I spent Sunday morning with Rachel and then traveled up to Eldama Ravine to spend some time with family. This weekend is RVA mid-term break. Rachel has 3 friends joining us so we will spending the weekend in Nairobi together. They have plans for various activities and cooking/baking etc. After that we will return home for another week or so before the next round of events. We are so thankful for God’s grace to us in all of these travels. We do look forward to having most of March and April at home but May through beginning of July will see us away from home again most of the time.

I continue to be involved in language and orientation for new missionaries. It has stretched me in different ways. I really enjoy some aspects of this work, other parts of the job are more challenging but I think that’s probably true for just about any kind of work. Jon’s job description has changed a bit as we have fewer missionaries for whom he is responsible now for a few different reasons. Some have left but our geographical area of responsibility has also shrunk. Jon has been spending more time working with A.I.C.T. in developing partnerships for leadership development and missionary training. He is also responsible for supporting TIMO teams in Tanzania so that means supporting team leaders, doing orientation for new team members and debriefing when teams wrap up.

Please pray for some things coming up:

1) An AICT Bishop’s Mission Awareness/Strategy Conference, which Jon is helping to plan, happening near Arusha February 20-24. Pray for all the upper AICT church leadership to be encouraged and equipped through this conference to send their own missionaries cross-culturally.
2) AIM Ladies’ Retreat in Dar, which Melissa and others have been planning, on February 23-27.
3) A trip for us at the end of February to Ikwiriri on the coast south of Dar to visit the Ott family, who hope to lead a TIMO team starting in 2025.

Thank you as always for partnering with us in various ways. We are so blessed. I know I use that word often but I really feel that is a theme for us right now. May the LORD also bless you and keep you!

In Him,
Melissa and Jon