Blum June 2026

Greetings! We are praying this newsletter finds you well. We have not written since April and we want to let you know how things are progressing with our move to Africa.

In March, we listed our house for sale. And four days later we were under contract, with a cash offer and a thirty-day close! We closed on time and have moved everything out of the house. For now, what has not been sold or given away, is in storage. We are working hard to go through all of it, so that we can have a minimal amount left here when we head out. Most of our “stuff” will be sold or given away, but all of the school material like books and other teaching aids is being shipped to Africa by Rafiki! Lorri’s 5000+ home school library books will be used in Rwanda and across the continent.

Our missionary teammate Sarah leading morning assembly.

Happy students!

We are currently living with our friends from church, the Sibleys, in their guest apartment. It is very comfortable and nice, and they are so sweet to make it available to us!

Summer is here, and with it, beautiful weather, with occasional sunset walks on the beach. We wish we had more time for those activities but even a little down-time this time of year is great.

We have scheduled some time to see family to say goodbye. We have been able to have a week at Disney with two of our kids and their families. And in early July we will be in Colorado for a week to see more family and share with many of our friends the opportunity to partner with us in this work.

While we were in Florida, we also got to attend the memorial service for Rosemary Jensen, the founder of the Rafiki Foundation. Rosemary was ninety-six and was more than ready to go home to the Lord. She will be remembered for her passion for the people of Africa to know the Lord, and to be equipped to be productive and industrious economically and spiritually. We are so thankful that at our March training, we were able to attend a session with Rosemary during Enrichment, right before we needed to leave to fly home. What a blessing to have seen her in person, the first and only time.

Here at home, as we go through all of the things we have accumulated over forty years, we are reminded that the stuff is not what makes a house a home. But there are still many memories tied in with our things.

We have started attending business meetings over Microsoft Teams with the Rwanda missionary team to get into the swing. It is great to start to get a feel for the work ahead, the challenges we are working through, and the fruit we are seeing. I (Steve) am working on an IT issue already that is in my area of expertise.

Right now, we are at six percent for our funding, but with verbal pledges we are actually over twenty percent of the way. We need to be over fifty percent before we can move to Africa, so we are praying for more sponsors to answer the call of the Lord to be a part of what we are doing in Rwanda through Rafiki.

We would like to praise God for a healthy delivery of a baby girl, Emily, to our fellow Rwandan missionaries Rachel and Eric.

We love all of you and we are so grateful for the encouragement we have been receiving as we share what the Lord is revealing to us about this mission in Africa.

Please pray for us

• To raise our funds and get to Africa by the beginning of term one in early August.
• To continue to grow our prayer team.
• Pray for our school year to finish well across our ten African schools.
• Pray for several building upgrades that are happening this summer in our 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.

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