Praise God, We Have Made it To Kenya!

Our Journey to Kenya has been long, challenging, filled with many highs and lows, but ultimately rewarding. Praise God we are now in Kenya! It really is a miracle that we are here. We are so thankful for all of your prayers, financial support, and encouragement. Here is a glimpse of our journey. If you don’t have time just read the “highs” and “lows (challenges)” below. If you have some time grab a cup of coffee or a steamy chai tea, sit back and enjoy!

HIGHS:

• Getting on the road with a minivan full of kids and a moving van with our 31 pieces of luggage traveling with us to Kenya.
• Meeting 3 other great families that joined us for checkout at AIM headquarters in Peachtree City, GA
• Flying with these 3 other families- It takes a village to raise a child or to move 12 children through three international airports
• Getting on the plane in Atlanta! There was nothing else we could do to prepare at that point...just sit back for the ride
• Kids had a great movies selection on the plane- they could each choose their own movie to watch
• Arriving in Nairobi, Kenya
• Getting to sleep at the Mayfield Guest House in Nairobi, Kenya after being awake for close to 36 hours
• The kids playing outside at the guesthouse with their new friends
  The kids saying they love Kenya
• Being greeted by family, Mark and Carolyn Kinzer, and catching a ride with them and all our luggage to Rift Valley Academy (RVA)- where we will be serving.
• Getting a sim card for around 50 cents and being able to call the friends and family in the U.S.  for around 3 cents a minute!
• Seeing our new home in Kenya that people graciously began setting up for us ahead of time.
• Having the kids say their high after their first full day at RVA was “everything” and their low was having to “leave Katie and Em's house and go to bed” (Kate and Em's are their big cousins:-)
  Feeling “at home and at peace” at RVA...like I am where God wants me to be!

LOWS:

• Packing up and selling everything
• Finding out we had no seat assignments 3 days before our travel and would not be able to sit together as a family.
• Two long plane rides with many kids
• Having to deplane in Amsterdam the “old fashioned way” down the slippery metal stairs in a high winds and cold rain with 10 pieces of carry on luggage and three children...Tyler ran away from the door back into the plane and into my arms with tears in his eyes!
• Loading, Unloading, Loading, Unloading, Loading, Unloading over 70 pieces of luggage in our 4 family group traveling to Kenya together...with most pieces being near the 50lbs maximum!
• Spending 2 ½ hours in the Nairobi Luggage claim area trying to gather and find all our luggage, determine what bags were missing, and submit a missing claims form amidst a throng of people at the claims counter, with 12 delirious children and 8 overtired adults.

Overview: God is Good, Gracious, and His Mercies are Unfailing

For more details and pictures read on:

We were hoping for an early departure, but in true Wills Family fashion we departed
Franklin, TN on Tuesday around lunchtime. Here are some pictures of the kids grabbing their last Little Ceasar’s Pizza for a long time in the back of our moving truck.

The journey to Peachtree City, GA for our checkout at Africa Inland Mission (AIM) headquarters took us around 5 hours and it went by quickly. We stopped at a backcountry gas station near Chattanooga, TN and the kids got to see some fisherman with a catfish weighing in around 75lbs. It was as big as Madison!

We were in a whirlwind of meetings taking care of all the last minute details at AIM such as our benefits, how to get access to our checking account in Kenya, making sure our computers were working so we can all stay in touch, etc. The kids had a wonderful time with their teachers and they even prepared a song for us right before our departure. Check out the video below!

We arrived at Atlanta’s International Airport with luggage for 4 families moving to Africa. All bystanders were speechless at the sheer volume of luggage we unloaded for curbside check in.

We basically took over the entire Delta section.

It was really a blessing to be flying out with other families. It takes a village to raise a child or to move several children through the airport.

We were able to help each other out through airport security, navigating the terminal, boarding and deplaning...even trying to figure out how to fill out the customs and immigration forms. The trip consisted of two legs- Atlanta to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Nairobi. Total travel time was around 20 hours. There was very little sleep on the first flight. Tyler and Madison were freaking out several times because they couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep, which resulted in a kicking and crying fit with most of the kicks landing on the poor passengers beside them:-( The movie selection was great for the kids and each of us had our own screen.
                    
We took the journey one step at a time...lets just get to Peachtree...just to the airport and check in our luggage...just make it through the first flight...the second flight…

A welcomed sight!

...and then we arrived in Nairobi and thought our journey was coming to an end...But God wanted to refine us a little more. We waited in the “appropriate” visa line for 20 minutes not going anywhere and then realized that all the signs directing traffic through the visa counters were suggestions, but in practice no one followed them. So we moved to the “Flight Crew/Expedited” line and made it through with ease. The next challenge was to gather our luggage and somehow get it through customs. We could only fit 3 pieces of luggage on the luggage carts and just our family had 31 pieces so 11 carts. Jill and I were the only ones big enough to push the carts, so we only needed 9 other people to help us push our carts through the customs line! Well we did not get chance to solve that problem because we were too busy trying to find our missing luggage. We had to go through all our luggage tags to try to determine what bags were missing, all the while searching for them throughout the baggage claim terminal. It turned out that 12 pieces of luggage (only 4 of them were ours) among our group of 4 families did not make the journey with us to Kenya and were still in Atlanta. So we had to wait/wade through a throng of people, again organized lines are not the norm, to get to the counter where we could submit a missing baggage form. Our trials turned out to be a blessing as the challenge of getting our luggage through customs disappeared. The customs officials must have retired for the evening as our hosts were now allowed into the baggage terminal to help us and we could bring our luggage out one cart at a time while others kept watch over the remaining luggage.
The ride to the Mayfield Guest House reminded me that Africa is still Africa! All the talk about how you can now get almost anything you need in Nairobi made me think that things have changed to the point where Nairobi was a little America...my ethnocentrism shining through! The last time I was in Kenya was when I was 16 to visit my family there, the Kinzers, at RVA. Let me assure you that Africa is still Africa. As we left the Airport it still smelled like Africa...something burning somewhere...trash...wood...??? The drivers still drive like they are in Africa...think anarchy on wheels. Most importantly, the people are still beautiful and kind. In a sense this familiarity comforted me. All things were not new, I have experienced some of Africa before.
The guesthouse was a blessed sight.

We were so close to getting some sleep, but not until all the luggage was unloaded from top of the Land Rover and the bus, and then huffed around 40 yards into the guest house hallway. There was a community bathroom and shower, bug nets hanging over our beds, but none of that mattered, we were going to get some sleep and we did! Breakfast came and went at 8am, but we cherished our sleep more than sustenance, so a granola bar was our breakfast as we stirred around 10am and headed to our first meeting. The kids were playing outside, running freely and safely throughout the compound.

 

It was a wonderful sight. I felt a tremendous peace and sense of accomplishment, not self-accomplishment, but that God has done a great thing and invited us along for the ride.
This peace further descended upon us as my Uncle Mark and Aunt Carolyn arrived at the guest house to bring us back to RVA for a couple days to get settled into our new home and to give the kids a glimpse of what fun lies ahead. The kids were super excited to see them as they were something familiar to cling to in a very unfamiliar land. They also heard that Aunt Carolyn was planning a party for them so they were super excited for some good food. When we arrived on campus and saw our home for the first time in person (a friend sent us some pictures she took through the window, just to give us an idea of what was to come) we were just so overwhelmed by the warm and loving welcome we received.

We had special note on our front door from some friends from candidate week, and other notes throughout the house welcoming us, people brought us yummy baked goods, and they even placed rental furniture into our home and setup beds so we could just crash and not worry about unpacking anything. God is so good and we are so thankful for God’s little workers that helped us to feel His love in a very tangible way.

We had a wonderful dinner at Mark and Carolyn’s house (pictured below).

After their first day at RVA we asked the kids their High’s and Low’s and they all said their whole day at RVA was their high and their low was having to leave Uncle Mark, Aunt Carolyn, Katie, and Emily’s house that night! God is so good! We are so undeserving of His love, yet He freely lavishes His love upon us. I know it is early in the process and there will be challenging times to come, but right now we feel a tremendous peace and contentment knowing we are where God wants us to be. Thank you all for your prayers and financial support so we can serve God here in Kenya.

Michael