Blum July 2026

“Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Psalm96:2-3).

Greetings! We trust in the Lord that you and your family are well. We wanted to get another newsletter out as things are moving quickly toward our departure. We are praying we will be in Africa by the end of August, God willing. Our funding overall is currently at around sixty percent, and we need to raise a bit more before we can plan our exact departure date. We also have some doctor and dental appointments that we must finish up.

We have heard back from our current church, Calvary Chapel in Poulsbo Washington, and our previous church, Aspen Ridge Church in Evergreen Colorado, that both are willing to sponsor us monthly. In fact, between the two churches we will be getting about a third of our monthly need supplied, which is amazing! What a blessing. We spent almost two weeks in Colorado, including July 4, and had great visits with family and friends. We also spoke at the services at Aspen Ridge Church and were able to catch up with many of our friends who still attend.

As we mentioned previously, we sold our house and are working on dispensing of all our stuff. Lorri finished her school year, and we are also boxing up all the kindergarten books and educational games to add to all the books and materials we had at home. When all of that is ready, it will be shipped to Rafiki Home Office in Eustis, Florida. From there, it will go to Africa to be used in our ten schools.

Rafiki Rwanda campus

We have started an eight-week-long online course with two other missionary couples, called TREK. It stands for Training in mission history and mission culture, Reflection, E ngagement with other personalities, Knowledge of God, self, and Rafiki. It is all about the life of a missionary and cross-cultural ministry, as well as the history of missions in Africa. It is quite humbling, especially as we share with friends and family who worry about us, how remarkably safe and peaceful Rwanda is today. In the second half of the 1800’s, as the first real push of the Gospel into Sub-Saharan Africa took place, many missionaries to central Africa faced almost certain death from disease and violence. The Congo and the areas around it were called the White Man’s Grave because of how many were lost to Malaria and Yellow Fever. So many paid the ultimate sacrifice to create a window of opportunity for future generations, for the planting of the church in Central and Southern Africa. As we prepare to go, we stand on the shoulders of those giants in the faith.

Not only do we sing to the Lord, we also make a “Joyful Noise” at the Rafiki Schools in music class

A national worker tends to the garden on the beautiful Rwanda Village grounds

We have been enjoying listening through all of the Rafiki podcast episodes whenever we are in the car. Each time we reach the end and our director Karen says “We are praying for twenty more missionaries to go to Africa full time,” we both get a big silly grin. Praise God, we are going!

If you wish to support us, you can do so by visiting https://RafikiFoundation.org/missionary-detail/stephen-and-lorri-blum-263.

We are so grateful for the encouragement, support and love of all of you, our friends and our family!

Please pray with us

• To raise our funds and get to Africa quickly as the new school year is starting soon.
• To continue to grow our prayer team.
• Praise God that the 25/26 school year finished well (both here and at the Rafiki Schools) and that kids are progressing on.
• For several building upgrades that are happening this summer in the Rwanda Village that we would like to see completed before the next school year starts.
• For safety for our Villages in Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda during this Ebola outbreak, and for the situation to begin subsiding soon.
• For safe travel to Africa.

Learn more about Rafiki’s expanding opportunities.

Visit our newly designed website RafikiFoundation.org to learn how to:

• Purchase the Rafiki Bible Study for small groups for your church or neighborhood
• Serve as a missionary with Rafiki
• Sponsor a child with the Rafiki Foundation to bring God’s Word and the best education in the world to some of the neediest children in the world in Africa.

Explore the Rafiki Foundation YouTube channel.

Visit (youtube.com/@RafikiFoundation) for videos from Rafiki children, teaching at our annual Enrichment conferences, and the teaching at our African classical Christian conferences.

Listen to our podcast for current discussions on Rafiki’s work in Africa

truenorth.fm/show/the-rafiki-foundation-podcast/

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