Recieving mail

Many people have asked us if we can receive mail in Africa.  We can receive it through one of our MWP staff members in Kenya.   Send mail to. . .

 

Kevin and Shalene Massie

c/o Eugenio Kirima

P.O. Box 250-00521

Embakasi Village

Nairobi, Kenya

 

We can also receive mail at the MWP P.O. box in Alabama. . .

 

Make Way Partners

Attn: Kevin and Shalene Massie

P.O box 26367

Birmingham, AL 35260

 

Team members will be brining our mail over to us throughout the year.

 

We will fly into Nairobi on April 7 and plan on being there a few weeks.  We will return there periodically to get supplies, mail, and rest.  Please pray for our safe travels and for a peaceful election.

 

Blessings,

 

Kevin, Shalene, Abigail

Correction to the election date

The Presidential election is scheduled for April 11, NOT March 11.  Please put it on your calendars to be praying for Sudan on that day!

Blessings of peace,

Kevin, Shalene, Abigail

"Little Tent in the Bush"

            Many days I reflect on how much I feel like I am living “Little House on the Prairie”.  I loved that show growing up, and maybe I secretly longed to live like that.  Was that God preparing me to live in Sudan?  I was sharing with Kevin that life feels normal here.  That is a weird feeling since nothing about our lives is “normal” as we would think of normal.  But, what is normal as a Christian?  Serving one another, reflecting the character and love of God, caring for the widows and orphans, honoring, respecting, and loving your spouse, and walking with our creator daily, these things are normal.   I am spending time observing the culture here and the people around me so I can truly see them and love them as Jesus would.  I am a student as I learn from this culture and learn Arabic so I can communicate.  

           

I am thankful for a young woman, Susan Bakhita, we have hired to help us take care of Abigail, with some chores, and language learning.  Our heart, in who we hired, was to help support a widow in the community.  This young woman lives with her grandmother, who is blind.  In providing her a job, we are helping support her and her grandmother.    She is a member of the church where Romano pastors and hopes to minister in the church one day.  I am thankful for a Godly young woman to learn from. 

           

                 Mixing Soil for the blocks

The building progress is coming along!  We have a man from a company called Hydraform, where we purchased our block making machine, here training our guys to make blocks and build our first building.

                

 Our first "Life Saving" blocks!         

We are thankful to have found soil 50 yards away from our compound that will be used to make these blocks.  We won’t have to truck in the soil.  The blocks are designed to fit together and will make our building process quick and smooth.  Next week we hope to begin building our administrative building.  We have the foundation dug for this. 

                

Abigail continues to grow and win the hearts of those she meets with her smile and big blue eyes!  She is beginning to test her ability to stand.  I find her standing over her toy box to reach the books that are behind and standing up in the bath.  Recently, she stood in the bath and looked up at us while she slowly took both hands off of the side of the wash basin to stand UNASSISTED!    We were amazed.  She seemed very proud of herself.  It is hard to believe she will be a year old in less than a month.  She enjoyed sharing her Veggie Tale video, “God Made You Special” with our compound cook’s children.  They seemed excited to see a video probably for the first time ever!

                                                                                                                

Here are some things we enjoy and that make our lives abnormal here in the bush. . .

• Making popcorn on the stove top, not in the microwave
• Setting the mouse traps before bed
• Filling the water filters twice a day
• Washing cloth diapers in a wash basin
• Having our “sink” on the ground in 2 wash basins
• Looking overhead for creatures (snakes) when you enter the pit latrine
• Sleeping under a mosquito net
• Falling asleep to the sound of the generator, praise God for some electricity!
• Abigail enjoying playing in the tent in her toy box before it gets too hot!
• Beautiful sunrises and sunsets
• Staff and family devotions
• Playing guitar and singing in the evenings
• “If you see vegetables in the market, you better get them. . . they may not be there tomorrow”.
• Washing clothes in a plastic tub with a wash board and hanging them on a clothes line to dry (did I mention “Little House on the Prairie”?).
• Seeing chickens roam the compound, not normal for us anyway.
• Pit latrines and bucket baths
• VERY bumpy roads
• Cooking and living outdoors
• HOMEMADE egg plant parmesan, spaghetti, pizza, creamy garlic pasta, potato salad, curried lentils, Mexican re-fried beans and Spanish rice with avocado salsa and homemade tortillas, eggplant stew and rice, tuna salad
• Dinner by headlamp instead of candlelight
• Porcupine for dinner. . . they really are going to eat it!

Please pray with us for the first ever “free and democratic” Presidential election coming up on Sunday, March 11.  This is a critical time for the Sudanese people.   Please pray for a peaceful process and vote.  Pray that our building process will continue to go smoothly.  Pray for Kevin, Abigail, and I as we are flying to Nairobi on April 7 for a respite and time for reflection and personal growth.  Pray that we will be open and listening to the leading of the Holy Spirit as we live our daily lives in Sudan. 

Love, Kevin, Shalene, and Abigail

Massies on the Move!

Kevin and I appreciated Matt keeping Abigail for a few hours while he was here with us.  We took a ride through the bush on the motorcycle.  It was a great date!  We enjoyed a cold drink at a local hotel and time “away” to catch up. 

  We had “spur of the moment” visitors with us today.  Michelle Perry and Jenny Joy came by to meet us.   They are with Iris ministries and have started an orphanage in Yei, Sudan.  It was neat to have them in our kitchen and share tea and our heart for giving life, love, and home to orphans.

            Abigail had a play date with our compound cook’s son. As the babies sat in the floor playing, I listened to these women that work so hard to provide food for our laborers as well as take care of their own homes.   They shared their laughter and amazement of seeing Kevin cooking a meal recently.  They asked me to hold a seminar to model how I got my husband to cook for me.   I chuckled and said, “In our home, we work together sometimes on meals.  Kevin enjoys cooking and is very good at it.” 

           We are happily standing on the site for a future orphan home.  We have a beautiful view of the mountains behind us!   We look forward with joy and expectation as we dream about laughing children that will soon be occupying that space!

            Abigail was worn out after entertaining people today our tea times!  Then, she was up and helping mommy cook stir fry.  

            Please pray with us for the upcoming election on Sunday, April 11.  We will be flying to Nairobi on April 7 as a precaution during the election.  We will enjoy a brief respite on a lake for reflection and much needed time for our family and with God.  We will also be celebrating Abigail’s 1^st birthday and taking her for her 1 year vaccinations. 

Kevin, Shalene, and Abigail

Massie Update

We finally have internet connection in Moti.  All of us have been sick over the past week.  We have all had Giradia and I (Shalene) have had walking Pneumonia.  We have these diagnosis because of a missionary doctor here that has faithfully seen us and helped us get the right medications.  We are very thankful for Dr. Philip and Linda Byler.   They allowed Abigail and I to stay with them for a night and helped take care of Abigail while I rested.  That was a huge blessing!  They had a new grandson born the night we stayed with them, so it was neat for Abigail to be a “stand in” granddaughter for them to hold.  We were rejoicing with them as they received the news!

Kevin has continued to stay busy helping coordinate clearing of the land and building the fence around our compound.  We took a walk yesterday and he showed me the perimeter of the fence.  It is a lot of land!  He has been pleasantly surprised at how quickly the men have cleared the land. 

My days consist of cooking in our new outdoor kitchen, cleaning, washing diapers, taking care of Abigail, bathing her to keep her cool, and visiting the cooks on the compound.  I am beginning to learn some Arabic from them.   

Abigail is crawling and has her two top teeth coming in.  She loves to play with the musical cards her Grandmother Young bought for our birthdays.  She opens them up and looks up at me with a grin and waits for me to dance and then joins in.  It is so much fun!  She also loves to see the chickens run around the compound.  She looks at them and then at me.  I say, “Chicken, bawk, bawk,” and she laughs and claps.   She loves to go for a ride in the land Cruiser to Torit, which is about 3 ½ miles from Moti.  The rode is VERY bumpy and she squeals and laughs until the rocking puts her to sleep.  The best way for me to carry her is in the Ergo carrier so I can hold her head and brace myself over the bumps.  We could  use the car seat, but that would be to easy and not near as much fun!

Eugenio, our taxi driver friend from Nairobi, visited us for a few days.  He wanted to see what he helped us buy supplies for.

Here we are in front of our Kitchen with our tent in the background.

We have enjoyed having Matt McGowen, our new MWP staff member here.  He is visiting for about 10 days.  He helped Kevin make our bed frame and “re-roof”/ tarp our kitchen just in time for a big rain storm.  The previous day it rained and the kitchen got pretty wet from leaks.  The rain was unexpectedly early.  What a blessing!  It really cooled the air. 

A picture inside our tent.

 We are thankful to be connected again so will be able to send more updates!

Much love and blessings,

Kevin, Shalene, and Abigail

Massie Update

Hello!

Here is a little update from our life here.  We do not yet have internet access, we are visiting some missionary friends and using theirs.  We will be getting it soon.   We are having some problems with our e-mail sending.  I have some e-mails sitting in my out box since Nairobi.  So, if I haven't responded to your e-mail, that is why.   Face book is a great tool to communicate right now!

We are SLOWLY getting settled.  Everything here takes much longer to do than normal.  Kevin was able to get a shelf set up for me in our bamboo kitchen.  It is a BIG step up from balancing our cook stove on a wheel barrow with a small sliver of shade beside our tent.  We now have a good shelter and a big ground mat for Abigail and some of our cooks children to play under.  I love our little kitchen.  It is wonderful to spread out our food and kitchen items and get unpacked.

Kevin has been VERY busy with the laborers on the compound staking out the lines for the fence for the orphanage, and coordinating many other tasks and people around the compound.  They will be putting up the fence soon.  Our bath house a latrine were just completed yesterday.  We are very thankful to have a place to bathe and "squat".   We also installed some wiring and lights yesterday.  So, last night we were able to sit around our tent and kitchen without bugs swarming our faces from our headlamps, and were able to see well!  We were very thankful for these little miracles!

We are excited about having Kimberly, Fred, and Matt (our team and Directors from Make Way Partners) coming to visit us for the weekend!  We also have our taxi driver friend from Nairobi that hopped on a plane we had coming for an unexpected visit.  It is nice to have visitors.

Continue to pray for our adjustments.  Abigail is starting to get adjusted to the heat.  It has been very hot.  The locals say that means the rains are coming early.  Pray for relationships and communication with the workers.  Pray for God's spirit to fill our compound and community!

Blessings and peace,

Kevin, Shalene, and baby Abigail

Massie update from Torit, Sudan

Hello family and friends,

We have arrived safely to our new home in Torit!  Our truck has also arrived safely.  Hallelujah!   We were greeted at the airstrip by Phil and Linda Byler who are missionaries here.  They graciously gave us a place to stay for a few nights.  It has been nice to begin building community with them.  They are very excited to have a “granddaughter” here now. 

It hotter than normal here, but we are faring well.   Abigail seems to be adjusting.  I have to keep her well hydrated. 

Kevin, Romano, and some local men worked hard yesterday dragging our two 20ft. shipping containers off of the truck that we will use as storage.  They also worked hard unloading a 1 ton block making machine off of a truck.  In Sudan, there are no cranes.  So, we have to be creative using trees, manpower, and pullys to move heavy equipment.  It takes much longer than if we were to have the proper equipment, but they always find a way!

Today, we hope to begin setting up our tents and building shelter for some shade. Abigail and I hope to make our way to the market and buy food to cook our first meal on the Hope for Sudan compound.   

We are glad to be here and are very thankful for you all keeping up with us and praying! 

With love,

Kevin, Shalene, and baby Abigail