Executive summary:  We’re returning to Australia for a planned year home this June! Life in the nonprofit, military or volunteer world has a rhythm:  workers in refugee camps work on location for a few months, then return home for some respite.  When Andy was in the Navy, a three year “sea duty” period of submarine deployments was followed by two years “shore duty”.  And in our world of Christian nonprofit work, an overseas placement of 4 years is followed by an assignment in a home country – for rest, reporting to partners, further education, reconnection. In April, we marked 6 years in Kenya (4 years since our last extended home visit) – and we’re quite ready to spend some time at home 🙂 .  So in mid-June we’ll say goodbye to Kijabe for a year and return to Adelaide, Australia.  We have several priorities for this year – so here’s what we’ll be doing: Taking a deep breath – the last 4 years have been fruitful but exhausting.  Back-to-back projects, leadership in a large hospital with insufficient resources, health challenges with our own kids, managing a revolving-door growing SIM team, a 3 month national doctors’ strike, serving in a (wonderful!) place where needs always significantly outweigh resources.  We are looking forward to taking some time to recalibrate and refresh. Giving our kids further ‘roots’ in one of their passport countries – children like ours are sometimes referred to as “Third Culture Kids” – children whose life is mostly experienced in one culture (Kenya), with a passport from a second culture (or second and third, in their case!), but who often feel they “belong” to neither.  During this year in Australia we hope to give them roots there through a full year in an Aussie school. Further education – Our time in East Africa has opened our eyes to areas in which we need to deepen our knowledge. Mardi will be starting a fly-in-fly-out modular Master of Business Administration at the Melbourne Business School, for further equipping in medical leadership – we are thankful that she was awarded a major scholarship which covers much of the cost.  Andy will complete his Master of Divinity from the University of Melbourne, wrestling with the issue of colonialism in theology, among other things.  We are both excited to have this opportunity to be better equipped for the work we are passionate about. Connecting with partners – Many of you have faithfully partnered with us financially, prayerfully, emotionally, and we are looking forward to reporting back on the work, how we are doing, and connecting with your life and journey these past few years. Continuing to be involved in our work here – Andy has projects that will continue while we’re gone, so will continue to work over email and Skype, with one or two visits back likely during the year.  The Pediatric Emergency and Critical Care training program will continue in the approvals process, with its launch is likely while we are in Australia – so Mardi will continue to help with teaching module development and research publications by distance. Taking the opportunity to assess “what’s next” – we are glad to have the opportunity to step back and ask ourselves – how are we doing?  How was the last 6 years?  Did we do what we set out to do?  How might our calling and work look different next time?  We are at this stage planning to return to Kijabe in mid-2018. So what does this mean for you in 2017-2018? We still need a committed partnership team.  We will not be taking full time jobs in Australia – if we did we’d be unable to deliver the objectives above 🙂 .  We will be as reliant as ever on our team of financial, moral and prayer supporters as we have been while here in Kijabe.  For...