Kennedy is 4!

It is so hard to believe that Kennedy is four years old! She was so excited to turn four and mostly excited for her birthday parties! She had a birthday party in Indiana with the Boon side of the family and then another party on June 5th, her birthday, here in Mason with our family and friends.

Claire is getting so big, her personality is growing right along with her! She is always making us laugh and is quite the entertainer. Last night the Guzman, Kuenkels, and our family all drove a 15 passenger van to a church in Marysville, Ohio. Claire sat next to Matty in the van and talked his head off the entire ride! She came up with some pretty interesting things to say! The church was so sweet and it was an amazing experience to minister as a team. We all got taken on for support, despite a few missteps...! Aaron asked one of the members, who was in a wheelchair, if he had an accident. The man answered yes and Aaron asked him if it was permanent...the man looked confused and answered yes while pointing to his prosthesis leg. The look on Aaron's face was priceless. We were also short on time during the service, so I forgot to mention the fact that I was saved in my testimony. I realized it halfway through and added it onto the end...very embarrassing!
Aaron is definitely feeling the stress of working full-time and being a traveling missionary. It has it's challenges, but God is providing for our family in so many ways and is teaching us SO much!
My little sister graduated from Mason High School last week, which was a weird experience. Time flies! This is going to be another crazy month, but we are so thankful for the opportunities that God is giving us to serve Him. We will be in Kentucky this weekend and Indiana the next weekend.

Things have definitely changed in the last month. We officially moved out of our home and into my (Steph's) parents basement. This has been quite an adjustment, but we are confident that God is using this to grow us in faith and patience. This is a huge blessing because it relieves us from paying a mortgage and gives us more freedom to travel. The girls absolutely love their new "home" and it is great to be SO close with our family the last two years we are in the states.
Kennedy had a ballet recital on Sunday and did great! She had 15 people (family and Team Kenya family) who came to see her. She was so cute and very serious about her time on stage. She wasn't nervous at all and never missed one step. You could definitely see the leader in her as all the other girls watched Kennedy to see what their next move should be. It is hard to believe that Kennedy will be 4 on June 5th! She rode her first roller coaster yesterday at Kings Island and screamed throughout the entire ride. She let us know that it wasn't her scared scream it was her excited scream!
Claire is always making us laugh. She is definitely a free spirit and unfortunately has her mothers mean streak. She loves to pick on Kennedy, but also wants to be just like her big sister. Kennedy is in the process of helping Mommy teach Claire how to use the big-girl potty. Kennedy is a great teacher and is also very motivated by the fact that Claire earns candy for both of them when she goes in the potty!
We have two churches to visit this June and are looking forward to ministering in both of them. Aaron has been tirelessly working between his job at Fifth Third Bank and making calls to pastors and churches. As of now, we have 17 churches on our calendar! God is definitely continuing to bless Team Kenya! We had a anonymous family from our church donate Garmin GPS systems to each family in Team Kenya!! Stay tuned as we have a busy and exciting summer ahead!

Support!

We have officially received our first support through ABWE from my sister and brother-in-law, Tiffani and Caloway Puckett. This raised our support from 0% to 1.18%! This doesn't sound like much, but it was SO exciting to see that support level raised! Thank you Tiff and Cal!!! We also have our churches support and other family members and friends that will begin in May. We should be at 10% by the end of May. We have 12 other churches booked right now and Aaron is continuing to work very diligently on calling pastors and booking meetings. We have a church in Columbus, Ohio that we will be visiting tonight and another church on Sunday. God is truly blessing our family and it is so exciting to continue getting closer to Kenya! By the end of the week we will be moved out of our home and into my parents basement. God is giving us special grace and extra faith in giving up a home. It is a blessing that we even have somewhere to live and this will give us greater flexibility in finances to travel more and not be worried about a mortgage. We are trying to make this move very special for the girls and are keeping everything positive and exciting...one step closer to our home in Kenya!!!

April is also an exciting and very busy time for our family. We had just recovered from the busy month of March when this month came in full force. I (Steph) am working on finishing my last class with Tyndale (Worldview) and have been doing a lot of reading and writing papers. The biggest thing that happened this month was the wedding on April 11th, of Michael Paul Leek and Alisa Kuenkel, our TK team members and best friends. It was a crazy week of wedding planning, decorating, and organizing. Aaron and I were both in the wedding and Kennedy was the flower girl. She did a great job and loved every minute of it!! The wedding turned out beautiful and Alisa was gorgeous! Now that the wedding is over, I am realizing that Alisa is gone to Washington D.C. for the next several months and it is pretty sad. I miss her already and can't believe that she is 9 hours away. We are so proud of them and can't wait to see how God is going to bless their ministry in Kenya. They will be moving back to Ohio in January 2010 and will continue on track with the rest of the team.

We enjoyed our Easter in Kentucky with the Pelfrey family. It is such a blessing to have an amazing family that enjoys each other so much. We enjoyed swinging on vines(which Aaron broke mid-swing), a vicious Easter egg hunt, lots of food, and even going for a run in the park that evening. We are definitely savoring each moment that God is giving us with our family, knowing that we will be leaving for Kenya soon.
Our next step is moving into my parent's basement in the next two weeks. It is a hard process of shifting through everything we own...putting it into four piles, throw away, give away, sell, and keep for Kenya. We are slowly getting it done, but have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks. The girls are very excited to move into Mama and Papa's house, but are not very excited about downsizing their toy collection!
God has blessed us in a great was by allowing a little more flexibility in Aaron's job so that he can be making calls to churches. He has been very busy making these calls and God has already blessed us with 9 church bookings!! We are so excited to share our ministry and passion with these churches and look forward to the time ahead.

The Boon's

Meet the Boons
Aaron Boon graduated from Baptist Bible College, Springfield Missouri, in 2003 with a degree in Pastoral Studies. He and his wife, Stephanie, were married later that year. They now have two daughters, Kennedy and Claire.

Their Calling
Aaron felt God’s leading into the ministry as a teenager. Stephanie felt a similar calling towards ministry after her parents, Jerry and Charlene Pelfrey, took her on a mission trip to Kenya as a teenager. In 2007, while praying for God’s direction in their lives, God began to move their hearts toward the mission field, more specifically Kenya, Africa.

Their Team
As the leaders of Team Kenya, the Boon’s feel blessed to be working with such a focused, talented and compassionate group of men and women, who share their love for the Kenyan people, desire to see them come to the Lord and mature in their faith.

Their Method
Bringing glory to God by building and establishing local, indigenous churches is the heartbeat of Team Kenya. The Team has two main cultural objectives in focus; the high Muslim population along the coast of Kenya and the regions huge and escalating number of parentless children and neglected youth. As the Lord directs, the ministries within Team Kenya will be addressing those issues, as well as other purposeful contextualized ministries, to effectively reach Mombasa for Christ.

I Peter 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen

What two years can do...

It was almost exactly two years ago that we surrendered our lives to serve God as missionaries to Kenya. The past two years have been the busiest, scariest and the most incredible years of our lives. God has been so gracious to our family and has guided us through every step in getting to Kenya. There has been so many doors opened and prayers answered, it brings us to tears just thinking about it.


This past month has been especially exciting as we were officially appointed by ABWE (Association of Baptist for World Evangelism) to be missionaries to Mombasa, Kenya. This included a 9 day training in Harrisburg, PA. We were joined by our team, Matt and Melissa Guzman, Ryan and Jayme Kuenkel, and Shantelle Brutsman. Michael Paul and Alisa Leek will be attending next year after finishing his duty in the Marine Corps and Brittany Pelfrey will attend in two years, after completing nursing school.


The very next week, we were commissioned as missionaries by our sending church, Grace Baptist Church in Mason, Ohio. Our team was able to do our very first missions conference together at our sending church, which was an incredible blessing. Bruce O'Neil, president of Manna Worldwide, came in for the missions conference, which made our team so excited. We love Manna and have the greatest of respect for Bruce. It was a wonderful week and was concluded by a very special commissioning service, in which our entire church had the opportunity to pray over their missionaries. God really moved in our church and has touched the hearts of the congregation in a great way toward Kenya. We are so excited to see the wonderful things God will do in Mombasa, right here from Mason, Ohio.

Our family is taking another big step in our journey to get to Kenya. We will be moving into my (Steph's) parents basement at the beginning of May. This will allow us a lot more freedom financially to travel and raise the support needed to get to the people we love in Kenya. This burning desire to glorify God through ministering in Kenya is what fuels us to be steadfast and unwavering in our pursuits to get there! To quote the apostle Paul in his letter to Thessalonians,

I Thessalonians 4:13 "So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us."