13 August 2014

We're Coming to America!

WHEW!!  After a crazy month of hosting a team of medical students and other visitors to Shirati, launching Mama Maisha, visiting multiple villages for various projects, preparing for and attending the Lahash East Africa Conference, traveling to Lahash project sites with Lahash staff members and much, much more.  I got home on Monday evening, spent Tuesday catching up on emails, and finally, today, got around to something I've been needing to do for months: asking for your help.

Every two years we try to get back to the States for Christmas to visit family and friends, check in at the Lahash office, and do presentations to expose people to the work we're part of in East Africa.  This year we are super excited about coming with our whole family; Innocent and Gretchen for their very first visit and Wesley for the first visit he might possibly remember bits of.  We found a fabulous deal on airfare for mid-November, so that immediately after Innocent closes school for the year, we will dash off to Nairobi and fly into JFK in New York City.  A week-long visit to a Mennonite church near Toronto will start off our trip, then Thanksgiving in Oregon, then a two week road trip through southern Oregon and all the way down to San Diego and back again.  In January we'll go up to central and eastern Washington, then leave at the end of January to get Innocent back into school only a few weeks late.  In order to do all that, we need to raise $8,000.  Can you help? 

You can write a check to Lahash International for the Otieno Travel Fund or go to our secure online giving.  We're hoping to be able to purchase airfare in the next month, so please don't wait.  So many people read this blog and get our letters and emails, so if everyone could contribute something, we can do it in no time!

Please also pray that Fred and Innocent will get their American and Canadian visas.  They're going in for those interviews in a few weeks, and it would be so disappointing if they didn't get their visas.

Thank you all for reading this, for caring about us, and (in advance) for contributing to our travel expenses.