Happy Easter!

April 14, 2017

Happy Easter Everyone!

This weekend we celebrate the most important event in history, and the most important holiday in all of Christendom. We celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. The crucifixion of an innocent man seems an odd thing to be happy about, but the results of that sacrifice gave us Life. Jesus’ sacrifice paid the price of our sins.  Through his death, we could be made right with God, and through his resurrection, we could obtain eternal life with God.  Now, through faith by grace, we are redeemed from the Pit and given new life.  The old is gone, the new has come! We are a new creation.

In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and have it to the full.” For those of us who know Christ as Savior, this is good news.  For those who do not know Christ, it insinuates that they do not have life.  The fact is, they do not.  In I John 5:12, John writes, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Christian, “gird your loins” as the saying goes, and invite those who do not know Christ to know him. Share his love with your neighbors. Help where you can. Encourage where you can. Weep with others. Rejoice with others. Pray for the lost. Let them see the hope you have in you, and be ready to explain that hope.  That is our job.

So, again, let me wish you a Happy Easter, and let us rejoice in God’s grace to us and in the good news we have heard. What a great day to know our Savior, Christ the Lord! He is risen! He is Risen Indeed!

In the love of the Savior we serve,

John and Becky, Ruthie and Gracie

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!  God willing, 2017 is the year we are moving to Africa!  We have spent our Christmas break packing the basement and moving those items into our storage area (John's mother's basement...thank you Mom!!)  The girls' passports arrived in the mail and we have scheduled our first Sunday School Class to share information about our Mission.  The year has started off great!

We have been reading Families on the Move, Growing Up Over-Seas and Loving It! by Marion Knell.  The book shares how to prepare our family to move to a different culture.  Once we move to Africa, our girls will be considered MKs, or Missionary Kids.  Another term used is Third Culture Kids, or TCK.  The book discusses the strengths and struggles typical MK's have.  This information is not only helpful for our family, but also in preparing to work with MK's at RVA in Kenya.  

Our niece, Elizabeth, graduated from RVA and is now a Resident Assistant in Germany at Black Forest Academy, a school similar to RVA.  On her blog, she recently posted the feelings of one MK at her school.  Elizabeth wrote:

At the beginning of the semester, I asked one of my girls if she considered the country in which she lived “home.” I wasn’t surprised to get a hesitant answer. For many of my girls, no place in the world feels like home. They’ve grown up in two (or three or four) worlds, moving multiple times to different countries and even continents. They’ve lived in transient communities, where people come and go with the seasons. They’ve said goodbye to friends and given away pieces of their hearts to those they love along the way.

You can read the rest of Elizabeth's post, Home is Where the Heart Is at :

https://elizabethamyrick.wordpress.com/2016/12/15/home-is-where-the-heart-is/

We are excited to share with our friends and family more about our mission working with MKs and their families.  Please let us know if you have a group of friends or an organization that would be interested in hearing more about our mission.  This could include groups like Sunday School classes, or small groups and civic groups such as Optimist Clubs, Red Hat Societies, and sororities.  Please email us at jbmyrick@aimint.org.

Several people have offered to pray for us. THANK YOU!!!  If you want to join our prayer team, then email us or reply below and we will add you to our list.  Here are our current prayer requests:

• Please pray for God's guidance and for our thoughts to be clear as we share with Sunday School Classes on Sunday, Jan. 8.  This will be our first time sharing together as a couple, so please pray that John and Becky find a balance that works for both of them.
• Please pray for our friends and family.  Pray their hearts and minds will be open to learning more about our mission.  
• Please pray for the students and staff returning to RVA.  Classes start soon and it can be difficult for the students to return after being with their families for the holidays.  Pray for the staff's wisdom to support the students.
• Finally, please pray for our financial support.

Thank you for your prayers and support!!

John, Becky, Gracie and Ruthie

As 2017 gets closer, our to do list keeps growing!  But we are closer to getting the twins passports.  On Saturday, we took the whole family to the post office (We don't suggest trying to get passports in December!!)  and sent off all of the paper work to get their passports.  The postal worker was VERY kind and patient!  She gave the girls two suckers for being patient and helped us with the details we missed on the passport applications.  It took some time, but now we wait.   It will be nice to check that off our list!

Many of our friends and family would like more information about Rift Valley Academy (RVA),  the school we will be working at in Kenya.  Here is a link to a video created a few years ago.
RVA Video 

 John is in the middle of the video.  Can you find him??

We will create a new tab at the top of our blog to give more info about the school and to share pictures.  This blog is a work in progress....Becky will get it all up and running but it may take a few weeks (she is working mostly during the twins' nap time)!

Please post any questions you have below and we will do our best to answer them.

Thank you for your love and support as we begin our mission!!

Africa, here we come!

We are excited to share we will be moving to Africa in July, God willing. An opportunity has opened with African Inland Mission (AIM) for us to serve two years at Rift Valley Academy (RVA) in Kijabe, Kenya. RVA was established in 1906, and has a long history of serving the needs of the children of missionaries and their families.  It is a K-12 school, serving about 500 students a year as both day and boarding students.  We have accepted a position, and John is slotted to teach 6^th grade at “Titchie Swot”, the elementary portion of the Academy, a position he served in for seven years previously.  For John, this move will be a little like going home, but for Becky and the girls, everything will be new.
We will soon post our prayer letter and information on how you can join our prayer support team!