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| Cristo Rei....overlooking the city of Lisbon. |
Friends,
As Marilyn and I jet back home to resume our usual lives, we
pause once more to review our time in Kenya, and finally, our time in
Lisbon. We are rested and hopefully
ready to tackle our upcoming move into a new home, and a return to work, a
return to our volunteer activities, and our small group activities. Service at Tenwek has become increasing
difficult as we continue to age and move further away from fulltime active
practice in hospital medicine (for me) and obstetrics (in Marilyn’s case). Time marches on, medicine advances at an
astounding rate, and protocols and treatments continue to change. Each time we go to Tenwek, it takes a little
more time to “shake off the rust” and to get back into the practice of Kenyan
medicine. Nevertheless, it continues to
feel “right” to us, and we are always rewarded for having practiced obedience
to our perceived call. The Kenyans that
we serve are unfailingly appreciative, gentle, patient, and
long-suffering. The long-term medical
staff that we partner with are likewise unfailingly supportive, gracious, and
appreciative. The Spirit of God is
definitely at work in that place. As a
result, we plan to continue going to serve in Kenya until we feel that we are
no longer helpful, or until it becomes clear that we are no longer called to
short-term medical missions. Alternatively,
we would likely be more proficient if we were there for longer periods of time,
or on a more frequent basis?...yikes!!…God only knows what He has in store for
us?! If this happens, we may need to
continue shedding houses and possessions!!...not an unpleasant thought at this
point in time! As has become our
routine, we met up with our friends Peter and Petra Axt from the Netherlands
for a brief period of exploration, leisure, and renewal of old bonds of
friendship after our departure from Kenya.
This year we visited the lovely city of Lisbon and enjoyed outstanding
weather, outstanding food and companionship, a sunset sailing expedition, some
E-biking around the city, and finally a day trip to the magical city of
Sintra. Here we visited the incredible
remains of a Moorish castle (from the time of the Crusades), and an additional
castle (the palace of Pena) that was used by the Kings and Queens of Portugal
as a summer retreat during their monarchy period. It’s difficult to imagine how these
structures were ever successfully assaulted/captured given the difficulty we
had in just reaching them (with roads and buses no less!!). They were quite spectacular and pictures don’t
quite do them justice. I would encourage
you to go visit if you ever have the opportunity! After all of the above “leisure”, we find
ourselves somewhat physically spent and thankful to be sitting again (at least
for the time it takes us to return home).
Then the next leg of our “sprint” begins anew!! We hope to see, and reconnect with each one
of you in the weeks ahead, though please be patient…it may take some time for
us to “catch our breath”! For now, we
will be signing off from our blog till next year…in the meantime Marilyn and I
wish each of you the peace and love of Christ in your everyday lives and
families.
God bless,
Randy and Marilyn.
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| Meeting up with old friends...Peter and Petra Axt. |
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| A toast to a tradition... |
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| Caipirinhas...I like Brazil's better!! |
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View of a miniature replica of the Golden Gate Bridge, as viewed from Cristo Rei, a miniature replica of Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro...
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| Roof top dining at our hotel in Lisbon... |
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| Rooftop view of the city.... |
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| Castelo dos Mouros...an incredible site in Sintra, Portugal |
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| View of Sintra from Castelo dos Mouros |
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Last night in Lisbon...dessert of course!!
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