Notes from Bob and Ellen

Ellen is in Africa for a month!

You can read all about it (as well as some other family news) at http://bobnellen.aimsites.org/

Back to Africa myself!

The ministry at ECHO continues to be rewarding. Every week I interact with missionaries and development workers around the world who are striving to help their communities flourish. Most of this is done by e-mail but we have a steady stream of visitors and several week-long classes each year. I also have the joy of interacting daily with our group of ten amazing interns as they prepare to serve in missions and tropical agricultural development.

In May three of us from ECHO will be going to Malawi to consult with the United Methodist Church there. They have a farm that they plan to use for demonstration and training of pastors in effective low cost sustainable agriculture practices. And the timing works out so that I can go a few days early and meet up with Ellen in Nairobi!

Late Feb. 2012
Ellen has been busy and traveling and I have remained relatively close to home.
In early January I had abdominal hernia surgery which was fairly minor but required me to refrain from lifting much of anything including suitcases. So no international travel for a while.
We have enjoyed time with our son, James, home from Tanzania for a few months.
At ECHO we conducted a one-week class in January and have had a number of visitors here for consultations.
Earlier this month our church in Fort Myers hosted a 4-day missions conference for the first time in many years. Ellen and I were involved in that as both hosts and participants. It was very encouraging to hear from the other seven missionaries present.
In March we are expecting more visitors at ECHO. In addition Ellen and I will travel to Albuquerque for a mini family reunion with our three offspring and in-laws. I am really looking forward to being with them there and also anticipating some good early spring birding in New Mexico!
April brings another one-week class to ECHO but hopefully you will hear more before then.

Where did December go? What with the ECHO conference, follow-up from the Nov. Africa travels and going to Cincinnati it just seemed to disappear.

Sunset on I-75

Our family enjoyed a great time together with the Wheeler clan in Cincinnati and Columbus.New Year’s Eve found me southbound on I-75.Ellen stayed behind to help her parents with a few moving details.

Back at ECHO we have hit the ground running. A light freeze hit us last night and a full class of students will be here next week for the Introduction to Tropical Agricultural Development class.
There is not much else to add except that it seems 2012 is off to a good start.

Here are links to albums from my recent trip to Tanzania, Rwanda and Kenya. I haven’t added much in the way of captions and descriptions but hey, a picture is worth…
Tanzania Album
Rwanda Album
Kenya Album

Our trip from the USA to Tanzania went very well and we arrived in Arusha Saturday night.

Construction in progress at Kimokowa sand dam

Yesterday (Monday) we went with two of our contacts and their staff on a visit to two sand dam projects up near the Kenya border. For more on sand dams see this link for the ECHO technical note on Sand Dams.

Terraces are dug by hand

It was encouraging to witness the cooperative effort between the communities and the assisting NGOs (Non-governmental Organizations).

Since we were in Tanzania we decided we should see some of the countryside so on Sunday we went on a day trip to Tarangire National Park. Photos from that safari are online in this web album.

Three of us from ECHO will be leaving next Friday, Nov. 4th for East Africa.
The first stop will be Arusha, Tanzania where we will meet with key people and discuss plans for opening an ECHO East Africa Impact Center.
Two of us will proceed to Kigali, Rwanda to consult with Akilah Institute for Women on plans for an agricultural component on their new campus.
From there I will continue on to Kenya and join our son James in a visit to Turkana. James and I will then attend the 25th anniversary celebration of the Africa Inland Church Cheptebo Rural Development Project on Sunday, November 20th.
And of course I will squeeze in some birding along the way!
My intentions are to send a report from each of these countries — you can check up on me

August 2011

Dear family and friends,

Late summer greetings from Florida. Thank you very much for your friendship, encouragement and support over these past 26 years. We ask you to join us in praying that the years of ministry ahead of us will be our most effective yet! Ellen and I continue to stay busy with ministry and travel.

My usual week at ECHO includes answering e-mails from our network around the world, consulting with visitors and interacting with our interns. I also teach one or two sessions in the one-week courses that are conducted here. You can read all about those at http://echonet.org/content/coursesAndWorkshops

Some of the questions that come in are specific about crop selection, gardening in the tropics or pests and diseases while other questions are more broad. Sometimes people need advice about how to “do” agricultural and community development with their local community. I also help connect people. For example one contact recently asked us about the growing seasons in Zambia and I was able to forward his question to one of our intern alumni now serving there who was able to give him a first hand report.

Speaking of interns, in the last year or so the young people who have completed our internship are now serving in Burma, Thailand, Panama, South Africa, Haiti and as I mentioned Zambia. It is a great privilege to be involved with these incredible people as they prepare for service.

And just recently an opportunity has come up to consult on a project in Rwanda and visit our potential ECHO Regional Impact Center site in Tanzania. That trip is planned for early November.

Ellen reports

The Lord has given me the privilege of ministering here in the US to missionary families preparing for Africa as well as on site once they are serving on that continent. Every year I attend 5 Candidate Weeks for new missionaries at Africa Inland Mission’s US Headquarters. Beginning in October, these will be held at our new headquarters in Peachtree City, GA. This is a time when I begin building a relationship with our families and their children, and assist them in planning to raise and educate their kids in Africa.

One of the main reasons Christian workers leave the field is because of family issues. In my work, I am part of a team that helps our families not just survive, but thrive!Many of you remember the homeschool weeks that I organized and ran when we lived in Kenya. I am now part of a team who travels internationally conducting weeks like this. During these times we have workshops for the parents, as well as an educational program and academic testing for the kids. In the past year, I have been able to help with a multi-mission conference in Mozambique as well as several AIM events in Kenya. In 2012, I have opportunities to minister in Niger, Kenya and Chad.

As you may guess, all of this travel costs money. It has been exciting to see the miraculous ways that God has met these needs. If you are interested in helping with the cost of these trips on either a regular or one time basis, please contribute as outlined below with a note that this is for “Hargrave – Homeschool Position”. Many thanks in advance!

Change of address for Africa Inland Mission’s US headquarters

As mentioned we are in the process of moving the US AIM headquarters from Pearl River, NY to Peachtree City, Georgia. Peachtree City is in the greater Atlanta area southeast of the airport.If you are supporting us financially by mailing in checks, please send support gifts and other related items to the address below:

Africa Inland Mission, Attn: Receipting
P.O. Box 3611
Peachtree City, GA 30269-7611

For online giving go to AIM’s main giving page on the web at www.aimint.org/usa/give

We appreciate you very much.

Sincerely yours,

Bob and Ellen Hargrave

One thing I do for fun, relaxation and a little bit of exercise is to count birds once or twice a month in Caloosahatchee Creeks which is a Lee County Preserve near ECHO. This preserve is undergoing restoration from previous use as agricultural land and invasion by exotic plants, mainly Brazilian Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius). More information about CCP is available online at the Lee County Conservation 20/20 site.

Tricolored Heron

Today I walked around a portion of the preserve and counted 28 different species of birds in a little over 2 hours. That’s not great by birder’s standards but pretty decent for a June morning.

Some of the summer wildflowers are in bloom now which added to the overall enjoyment of the hike.

Here are a few more pictures:

Homeschool Week at RVA

The children of missionaries—our treasure! My ministry in these past years since we left living in Kenya full time has been the children of our workers in Africa. Those sharing the Gospel are living in remote areas of the bush with unreached people groups. Others are in teeming cities. Some are working at schools for the children of missionaries.

Blazing hot, damp and chilly, desert thorns, lush hillsides and mountains, humid beachfront property… Resistant people groups, believers who want to continually learn more and more. Children who learn academics easily—those who struggle with paper and pencil… Americans, Koreans, Brazilians and Brits… Preschoolers and those deciding what their next step after Secondary School will be…

Coming alongside our families to encourage, support, teach and love… in Africa and in America… Skype, e-mail and sitting down together to chat… This is how I spend my days! What a privilege.

This past week, I have had the privilege of being in Kijabe, Kenya at Rift Valley Academy with more than 40 or our school aged children. I was joined by our team of educational consultants and some of the staff of RVA.

Mayfield Guest House

During this week, the children had their own academic program as well as joining the elementary school of RVA for classes. Standardized testing, as well as in depth individualized educational assessments were available. Reading methods, math games, transitions and organization were some of the topics covered in workshops for the parents.

Pray for our families… Many are working in difficult and isolated circumstances—educational choices available might not be in their mother tongue, children may have learning challenges—mothers feel isolated in alone.

Praise God for weeks like this when families can spend time together and encourage each other. Pray for me as I attempt to help our families to reach the people to whom God has called them…

God Bless! Ellen

Dear Friends -

Greetings from the shores of Lake Victoria – Mwanza, TZ! My apologies to those of you that might be on more than one of my address lists and thus have received multiple copies of this letter – Feel free to delete!

You may be wondering, have the Hargraves moved back to East Africa? The answer is – not at this time – We are still based in Fort Myers where Bob is on loan to ECHO from AIM – Africa Inland Mission – and Ellen is working in support of the education of our missionary kids.

The main reason for this particular trip is Bob’s assignment to head up a Symposium to be put on by ECHO in Arusha, Tanzania February 8-10th – eeek – that is next week! There is always plenty for me to do here in East Africa, so since it looked like Bob would need to be on this side of the water for about 6 or 7 weeks, we were able to work it with our mission for me to come as well. Part of the time I have been with Bob and part of the time I have been working on separate assignments in different places.

We left the US on January 9th along with Karyn Traum who just finished her internship at ECHO. She is Bob’s assistant for this particular project. We purposefully routed ourselves through Atlanta to avoid holdups with winter weather – but as you all probably know, the winter storms hit Atlanta brutally at the time of our departure, so we were rerouted through Minneapolis!!!! Although it was very cold and the snow was deep – the skies were quite clear – and we made it to Nairobi at the expected time.

How great to be met at the airport by George who works at our Guest House there and who we have known for many years! We were able to rest there at Mayfield Guest House and then fly on to Eldoret, Kenya where we lived Fall of 09 when we taught at the AIC Missionary College. It was great to reunite there with old friends and stay in the home of Ray & Jill Davis who are now on their Home Assignment in North America. We were able to use the Davis’s car during our week in Western Kenya. That was extremely helpful! A trip was made to the home of our dear friend Hellen- She is a Kenyan woman who lived in Cheptebo when we did and left about the same time as us. Her husband was usually drunk and abusive and she had two extremely mentally challenged children – along with a fine son who loves the Lord and is now in college studying Social Work (thanks to our Sunday School Class in Fort Myers). Our time with Hellen’s family was very encouraging!

Next we travelled to Cheptebo and as always were very warmly welcomed by Sally and Joseph. Joseph, a fine Kalenjin man, took over the project leadership from Bob when we left the summer of 03 – and has moved things way beyond anything we ever imagined. One clear mark is that now people all over the community are growing and marketing many delicious varieties of mangoes – and vast improvements can be seen in the average person’s economic situation. Also, the size of the congregation in the church has about tripled – and there are clear signs of spiritual growth and vibrancy in the church service – and all aspects of community life.

It is hard for me to express clearly all of the emotions that going back to Eldoret and Cheptebo evoke in me. It is very humbling to see “youth” that we ministered to and with come to maturity as such godly and competent leaders in the church and many aspects of social and community life.. Thank you Lord! It is only by your grace -

As you probably know, James is now a missionary in Mwanza, Tanzania. He took a bus from Mwanza, through Bukoba, TZ and then Kampala, Uganda and on to Eldoret meeting us there. Consequently, another delight was the fact that he was able to join us on this leg of our journey. He had not been back to Cheptebo for 8 years – so this was a great time for both James and the community – and of course a joy for us to get to spend this time with him.

It was quite hard to leave the valley – and many pictures of that time are on Facebook – if any of you are not on Facebook and would like to see those pictures, I can send you a link! Let me know!

The following week, Bob and Karyn headed on to Arusha, Tanzania to work on the Symposium, James headed to Nairobi to see a childhood friend who was visiting his parents along with his wife and daughter and I went on to AIM’s ABO – Africa Based Orientation. This is a three and a half week orientation for all of our new missionaries from the US, Canada, Asia, Down Under, Europe, South America and Europe – . I was able to help set things up and be a part of the first few days of this orientation. I met individually with each of the parents, and discussed their plans for educating their children in Africa. I was also able to help part of the day with the Children’s program – specifically the time when they were working on their academic school work that their mothers had assigned. The rest of the day they had a program which basically mirrored the program of the parents at their level – this time there were just 8 children aged 4 – 11. I did not post any pictures from this week.

After a weekend in Nairobi, where I was able to enjoy time with very close friends and James, I headed on to Arusha to join Bob and Karyn, while James went back home to Mwanza. Last week I was with Bob at “Engedi” – this is the base for AIM’s TIMO program – (if you are interested in learning more about this, you can check it out on AIM’s website: www.aimint.org/usa. and find the link to TIMO). Over the course of the years, I have been quite involved with many in our TIMO program, so it was such a delight to be able to come be there myself – a wonderful retreat about a 45 minute drive outside of Arusha with an unbelievable view of Mt. Meru. I have a lot of work that needs to be done by computer – so besides enjoying the environment, I spent a good deal of time working there.

We left Arusha by plane from Kilimanjaro Airport (with a lovely view of the mountain) on Saturday to join James in Mwanza. How special to be surrounded by the community in which he is living and meeting those that are a part of his daily life! He has just moved into his new home which is on the compound of a delightful Tanzanian family that have welcomed him – and thus us – with open arms. After church on Sunday, the folks from his local congregation made their way to his new home for a special blessing which we were delighted to be a part of. It is humbling to see our son thriving as an adult here in the Tanzanian community. His Kiswahili has certainly surpassed mine!

Today, Bob is flying back to Arusha. I will take the night ferry with James across a segment of Lake Victoria to Bukoba where part of his missionary team – all fellow Americans – reside. I will be there until Thursday morning, at which time I will fly back to Arusha to join Bob.

Next week will be the ECHO Conference – and then Bob will stay in Arusha to finish details, and I will travel to Kenya to work in the Children’s program of another AIM Conference and consult with more of our Homeschooling parents after which time we will return to the US!

Thanks to so many of you who pray for us, support us emotionally, spiritually, practically and financially – We could not have the privilege of serving the Lord without you!!!!

Much love and prayers -

Ellen Hargrave – for Bob as well