:: it's a girl!! ::

this past week we were able to get an ultrasound done by our friend melissa - also a member of TK. she works at a pregnancy center in lebanon. after looking around for about an hour or so melissa was able to determine that it was definitely a girl! :) eden is going to have a little sister! we are very excited!! sisters are the best so im so glad eden and this new baby will share that special relationship!

:: eden turns ONE ::

i cant believe our little princess is already one year old!! it seems like we were just bringing her home from the hospital...time flies! she has changed so much over this past year which is crazy to think about as well! from just laying there and sleeping all day to now shes such a busy girl-crawling everywhere, almost walking everywhere, talking all the time - shes just growing up so fast! its so fun to watch her!

saturday we had a big birthday party for her - a monkey birthday for the monkey lover! she did so good. she was interested in all her gifts-it was so cute watching her expressions as we opened each one. and because she isnt too fond of getting her hands dirty she did not dive into her cake and make a huge mess like most one year olds do-but after we gave her a spoon to use she dove right in! so cute!

thank you God for the great year you have given us with little Eden!

:: our little monkey ::

eden got to experience her first halloween this year! last year at this time she was still hanging out in mommy's belly-OVERDUE!! :)because eden really likes monkeys, we thought it was only fitting for her to be a little monkey for halloween. we went out with her best friends - kennedy and claire boon and their cousins caloway and norah. we had a lot of fun-although eden was good to go after the first house handed out lollipops! im sure next year she'll be much more into trick-or-treating and getting more candy! :)

:: pray for a US MARINE ::

jayme's sister, katie, married Paul in November 2007. he is a part of the US Marines and is based out of Jacksonville, NC. this week his troop got deployed to Afghanistan for seven months. please take a moment to pray for him and the guys he is with-that God would watch over them and bring them home safely.

also please pray for katie and all the other wives and families left behind during this time. katie is such a strong woman but it is still SO hard for her. pray that God would give her the comfort and peace she needs for the next several months.
THANK YOU!!!

:: BERACHAH BAPTIST CHURCH ::

sunday evening we were able to spend some time with pastor lamar ferrell and his congregation at Berachah Baptist Church in Middletown, Ohio-with the whole team. they were having their missions banquet competition. each class got together and made food from a particular people group (such as african, german, polynesian, etc) - team kenya were the judges for this intense competition. there was TONS of food-lots of great stuff! we were stuffed. turns out we voted the polynesian group as the winners!

during this time shantelle and ryan and i were able to share our testimonies. actually ryan and i missed the morning service here since we were at another church that morning-the rest of the team was able to share in the morning.

we had a great time visiting with the people here-they were all so nice and inviting. THANK YOU for having us Berachah Baptist Church. you all were truly a blessing to us!
www.placeofblessing.com

:: CELEBRATION BAPTIST CHURCH ::

we were invited to visit Celebration Baptist Church in West Chester, Ohio. we have known Pastor Rick Groover and his family for several years-ever since they moved to Ohio in 2000. we had a great time getting to see them and the ministry God has blessed them with. celebration baptist church was definitely a blessing to us while we were there-we were able to talk to so many encouraging people.

this month is missions month at the church - so every Sunday they have another missionary come and share their ministry. ryan taught in the Sunday School hour then for the church service hour we gave our testimonies and shared our DVD. it was a great service and I am so glad we were able to be a part of it!

THANK YOU Groovers and Celebration Baptist Church!!!
www.celebratehim.org

:: FRIENDSHIP BAPTIST CHURCH ::

tonight we had the opportunity to visit FRIENDSHIP BAPTIST CHURCH in colerain, ohio. it is actually where my aunt and uncle-marla and dave veatch attend. while we were there we met so many friendly people that we actually had connections with that we didn't know about before.

ryan and i shared our testimonies and showed the dvd and then ryan did a great job presenting our ministry and giving a message. he always does! afterwards we were able to talk to many of the members - it was just so encouraging to us how kind and generous these people are. knowing that all these people will be praying for us is so encouraging!

we hope we were a blessing to these people as much as they were to us!

:: lots of stuff ::

we have been staying busy with lots of great things lately. never a dull moment! we are thankful to where the Lord has us in our lives right now.i know i say this every time but eden is just growing up so fast-it's amazing all the changes that happen to this little body in just one year! she just turned 11 months a couple days ago! cant believe it! she has experienced lots of new things and accomplishing a lot this last month. she went to Kings Island for the first time and actually got to ride a few rides-as little as she is! she is starting to repeat words now-which is so cute! "ball" being one of her favorites. eden is walking pretty good with her walker toys-not on her own yet, but that will come soon enough im sure! she went to the pumpkin farm with her nana and papaw and had lots of fun there and then the other day we got to go to another pumpkin farm with all her friends. she is lots of fun and definitely keeps us busy with her curiosity and busyness.

as far as ryan and i-we have stayed busy with the NANC classes in mid-September and the KCA banquet we attended. also we are in the process of learning Swahili. ryan also just finished the project for church-creating a very large cut-out of the world map to hang on the wall and display all the missionaries that Grace Baptist of Mason supports around the world. it looks pretty amazing if i don't say so myself! :)

we have a few churches we were able to make appointments with this month-so we are very excited about meeting with them. please pray as we present our ministry that God would touch hearts and that we might be a blessing to those churches.

:: eden is going to be a BIG SISTER! ::

we just found out that we are expecting our second!! eden is going to be a big sister! i am due april 24th-which is the day after ryan's birthday! we will keep you updated on the pregnancy process!

won't be long until eden turns one! i cant believe it. her and her little brother/sister will be 18 months apart when this little one is born!

:: condo for sale ::

check out the pics and if you are interested contact us for further details!! ryankuenkel@team-kenya.com - 513-309-8129

:: TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH ::

yesterday we were able to visit Temple Baptist Church in Portsmouth, Ohio. jayme's mom's aunt and uncle-and cousins-are members there. it was a great visit with the people there. everyone was so kind - it was a blessing to be there.

ryan was able to give a brief testimony in the morning service then in the evening service we both gave our testimonies, presented the ministry, and ryan preached a message. we were able to visit with the Norman family in the afternoon as she prepared lunch for us and her family-and Pastor Goudy and his wife Leigh came as well. it was a great time for all of us! jayme's parents also came to the evening service - thanks for your support!

thank you to Temple Baptist Church for all your kind words, generosity, and encouragement!

bigger every day!

last weekend we were able to visit with Jayme's sister, Katie. she came in town for one of her friend's weddings-so it was great to see her!

and eden just keeps growing up! she got another tooth on the bottom and loves being able to crawl around. she's starting to eat more solid foods-not much-but has been trying a few new things lately. eden is also pulling herself up to the standing position at times. it's so cute and fun watching her grow up! it's going way too fast though!!

:: such a big girl ::

eden is just growing up so very fast! it's sad but so fun at the same time! in about 2 1/2 weeks she will be 9 months old! i just cant believe it!

just in the past couple of weeks she got her first tooth that came through. and she also learned how to crawl! now she loves exploring and trying to pull herself up on things-that is when she is not in her cling-to-mommy mood! :) now when we go get her out of bed shes already sitting up or pulled herself halfway up on the banister-its really cute!

we are so blessed with our little girl! she is such a great baby and we cherish every moment with her!

:: now go ::

We just got back from 4 days up in Harrisburg, PA for another weekend of ABWE training. We were there Friday night for our recognition ceremony-which went really well. Two men from our church on the mission committee came up to share the special time with us.

Saturday and Sunday we had Good Soil Evangelism and Discipleship Training. It was some really good stuff that they were teaching us! We got great tools to use and lots of great ideas. Most of all, I think it gave us all a fire in us to go make intentional relationships and just talk to everyone we can to share the love of Christ with them!!

To see more about what we learned this weekend check out www.goodsoil.com.

The hardest part of this weekend was not being with Eden for 4 days! We've never left her before, but were unable to bring her this trip. She stayed with Jayme's parents and had a great time with them but it was hard being away for that long! We made it though!!

I'm pretty sure all of Team Kenya feels the same way but I can only speak for myself when I say that this weekend has put a desire in me that has been renewed from God saying "NOW GO - TELL OTHERS ABOUT ME!"

a little piece of paradise

on may 13th we started on a road trip to ft. walton beach, fl - the reason was for my cousin's wedding, but we also made a family vacation out of it too! my parents, brother, sister and her husband and our family all stayed in a condo together-it was wonderful to have a nice, relaxing week with my family. the weather was great. we were able to just walk out of the condo right to the beach or the poolside-whatever mood we were in that day! the week went by way too fast-as we headed back to "real life" on the 20th!

eden loves rocky-she loves to pet him and pull on his fur-its so cute. rocky hates every minute of it but he still lets her! he's such a good little guy.

it is a sad time for our family-it has come to the point where we have to give rocky away. when it comes time to move, we are unable to take him with us. once we start traveling more it would not have worked out anyway-so we would have had to do it sometime-it's just sad to have to do it at all.

i know he will be much happier with another family that loves him and gives him the attention he deserves but we just can't give him right now with being so busy.

we love you rocky!!

moving time

the time has come - we are taking the next step, just one more closer to kenya. we are moving out of our condo into ryan's parent's basement. they have a nice finished basement with two bedrooms and a big bathroom. it is a nice little area.

so this week has been crazy busy with packing and moving. tomorrow is our official moving day when we will be moving just about everything that is left out.

we are so thankful for the generosity of the kuenkels and their willingness to allow us to live in their basement.

pics of the new place to come! :)

ryan turns 25!

on thursday, april 23rd ryan turned 25 years old. we were able to go out to eat for a nice dinner while ryan's parents watched eden.

that weekend we was able to go on a guys weekend out to springfield, missouri for a Mark Driscoll-Song of Solomon Conference. he had a great time and said the conference was amazing. so that was a nice little get-away for him

the next week we celebrated with his parents by going to one of his favorite places-Qdoba, a mexican burrito restaurant. then we went back to his parents house for dessert and presents!

i think he had a pretty good birthday! :) it's all downhill from here!

Eden's Spring Photo Shoot

Eden is just getting so big so fast! She is doing so good sitting up on her own - it's really cute to watch her.

She enjoys eating real baby food once a day-for her lunch. Although she gives a "gross" face for the first bite-every time-she opens her mouth for more!

Eden is interested in just about anything going on around her now - she watches it all. Especially our little dog Rocky-who she loves to pull the fur on-and just cracks up at his bark!

The other day we took some Spring pictures...just wanted to share a few!

HAPPY EASTER

We hope everyone had a happy Easter! It is such a special time of year-especially because of what this holiday represents - OUR RISEN SAVIOR!

We got to spend Easter with both sides of the family-it was a great time with everyone!

Just wanted to share some pictures of our family on Eden's first Easter

our first missions conference

This past week we had our first missions conference as a team. It was at our home church-Grace Baptist Church of Mason, March 22-25. It was such a special and amazing week.

GOOD OLE BRUCE
Each night Bruce O'Neal challenged the congregation. Bruce is the president of Manna Worldwide-the ministry we will be partnering with for the feeding centers aspect of our ministry. He is an amazing man and someone our team has definitely grown to love in such a big way!

HOW THIS WEEK WENT
After Bruce spoke, some members of our team took a turn to speak about a certain aspect of the team - Sunday night the Guzmans and Shantelle spoke about 'compassion', Monday night Ryan and I and Alisa spoke on 'spreading the Gospel', and Tuesday night the Boons and Brittany spoke on 'discipleship'.

Wednesday night was a little different service-our commissioning service. It was an amazing service to be in. Our team got to share our testimonies and the church voted on commissioning us. They also had to vote on the support aspect-by ballot, which came back unanimous-everyone was for it! So humbling an encouraging to know that our church is so behind us and supportive!

There was also a time of prayer. Our team went up to the front of the church and sat-facing the congregation. The officers of the church spread out and prayed with us-laying their hands on us. Then they opened up the opportunity for the congregation to do the same. It was such an overwhelming experience-so many of our church family came up to pray with us. It was amazing! We were there until about 9:30pm.


There really aren't sufficient words to express our feelings of gratitude right now. We are so blessed to have the home church and the families that we have.

So, lots has happened these past few weeks. So many great things!

THE NEXT STEPS
Our next step now is just to call churches and get connections to set up meetings to raise the support we need. Please pray as Ryan will be contacting many churches-that we will get the meetings needed to raise support and as we start traveling-hopefully later on this year.


THANK YOU AGAIN FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT AND PRAYERS!

we are official now!

We just returned from 9 days of Candidate Seminar with ABWE (Association of Baptists for World Evangelism) in Harrisburg, PA. It was a long and tiring week but it was also VERY good! This week came with lots of tests as well as many blessings.

ANSWER TO PRAYER #1
It started out with a huge answer to prayer! We have been praying for a long time what God would have us to do regarding a vehicle. Traveling during pre-field with all of our belongings and things needed for meetings at churches, as well as a family looked next to impossible with a two-door sports car! So we were trusing in God to provide-and He did! We received a phone call on the way up to the seminar that God had laid on their hearts to give us a vehicle! This was a HUGE blessing-such an answer to prayer!

A TEST FROM GOD
We had a few days set aside for ABWE to do different individual interviews; one of them being a financial interview. A few years ago Ryan started a home inspection business-which obviously had some start up costs. Well as of now, it still has not paid itself off-because of the economy and very bad market. Therefore- there is some business debt that has to be dealt with.

ABWE has its rules regarding debt-whether it be consumer debt or school debt. But there isn’t anything written about business debt-that is how we even got this far. About halfway through the week it was brought to our attention that we would not be able to be presented before the board to be approved by ABWE with the debt we have.

It was really amazing to find out that one of the financial consultants of ABWE that we were discussing the issue with woke up in the middle of the night the day after we talked to him and we came to his mind-and then he prayed for us. After much discussion it was decided that we would not be presented on the last day. This presented a major road block for us. This means we can not go out to churches and raise support until we are approved! We just had to face the fact and trust God that His timing is always perfect.

ABWE gave us possibility to be presented before the board of ABWE if we could present to them people that are guaranteed to assist us with the plan we have in place. So we did everything we could in that area-by making phone calls, sending emails, and just praying-praying-praying!

ANSWER TO PRAYER #2
Sunday night-the night before the board meeting were to take place-we got a call that answered that prayer! PRAISE GOD! He worked out all the details and provided the funding we needed to proceed to the board interview on Monday! We were definitely humbled and so thankful for that answer to prayer!

So Monday we met before the board and were accepted into ABWE! It was such a relieving feeling after everything we had been through this week-but it's all God! None of this happened because of us! It was a pretty long day after preparing for the board meeting then getting everything set up, financially, with ABWE. Praise God that everyone on Team Kenya that went to this seminar was approved!

We are official now!!

our testimony

The Kuenkels
Ryan and Jayme Kuenkel were married in December of 2005. Together they surrendered their lives to God, not yet knowing what His plan would be. They began serving God in student ministries at Grace Baptist Church, Mason Ohio.

In 2008 they were blessed with their first little girl, Eden, and have enjoyed the learning process of being parents.

Our Calling
Ryan was saved at the age of 13 and felt God’s call into the ministry at a mission’s conference two years later. Since then, Ryan has had a heavy burden for missions and even had the privilege of living on the mission field in Puerto Rico during his childhood.

Jayme was also saved at 13 years of age. One year later she met Ryan while attending a Christian high school. It was in high school that Jayme surrendered her life to God. She attended Trinity Baptist College and finished her business degree at the University of Cincinnati.

In July of 2007 God began working in both Ryan and Jayme’s hearts specifically towards missions. After much prayer, they realized that God was leading them to the mission field. Their calling was confirmed after returning from their survey trip to Mombasa, Kenya in 2008.

Our Goals
The Kuenkels are a part of a team of believers from Grace Baptist Church. Their passion is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the Kenyan people. Through the local church, they will be establishing various methods of ministries in efforts to reach the Kenyan people more effectively.

An area of ministry near to the hearts of Ryan and Jayme is to start a youth camp in the city of Mombasa. This camp will serve a variety of different purposes in efforts to reach the neglected youth in Kenya.

Please pray for the Kuenkels in their pre-field ministry as they work to get to the field of Mombasa, Kenya.