Editor’s note: Jennifer and Mark Bixler, along with their children Amos and Josiah Bixler, are hosting 2024-2025 IVEPer Elvis Otieno, who is from Kenya. Elvis serves as the combined ministry pastor for multiple church partners in northern Ohio. His assignment is particularly focused on deepening and developing relationships between the Swahili-speaking church in Akron and the English-speaking churches in the surrounding area.
We’re not sure exactly when or at what moment we decided to become a host family for an IVEPer, but we feel like the seed was planted when we traveled with a group from our church to Tanzania in East Africa in 2018. We were warmly greeted and made to feel like part of a family!
In 2020 we briefly hosted Muresi Ripau from Kenya for about four weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic set in and he had to return home. We had always hoped we could finish serving as a host family for at least a semester at some point. Then, this past summer, our pastor approached us about hosting an IVEPer from Kenya and we, along with our two sons, felt God telling us it was the right time to do it! So we became the host family for Elvis Otieno in August of 2024.
We had time to read our preparation materials from IVEP and the book Foreign to Familiar, which was helpful in explaining the differences between hot-climate and cold-climate cultures. We decided on a direct communication approach, asking questions when necessary to make sure everyone knew what was happening with everyone else’s schedule. Several of our friends in the community and our church had hosted IVEPers as well, so we knew we had good support in this endeavor.
After picking up Elvis from the airport, conversation and questions began to flow on the ride home. We found connections through people we had met at the Upanga Mennonite Church in Tanzania! Elvis has a terrific grasp of the English language and how humor works in the context of our country, too. He connects with people easily and is very sociable and thoughtful. Elvis’ previous experience in a cross-cultural setting has made it easier for him to adapt to U.S. expectations of what “keeping time” means.
He is definitely up for new experiences! He rode the Ferris wheel at our local county fair, traveled with us to Houghton, New York, to watch our oldest son’s team compete in a cross-country race, roller-skated for the first time with Central Christian School’s fifth graders, and took in the first snowfall of the year with all his senses! Watching him enjoy these experiences has helped us appreciate them more in our own lives as well.
Elvis has been intentional about making connections with our two sons. He’s shown interest in what they are doing, playing games and striking up random conversations at home about school, family and faith. In two recent instances, he accompanied our oldest on his running workout in the snowy weather and took in a basketball game that our youngest son was playing. Our parents have also embraced Elvis as one of the family, and a major part of it is that he shows an interest in who they are, where they live and their history.
Elvis has done work translating for our seven-church group, which includes a Spanish-speaking congregation and a Swahili-speaking congregation. He has preached at several of our community churches, helps teach Bible classes at Central Christian School, and has developed a gathering he calls “The Menno Table” where the seven churches can get together for Bible study, worship, or service work. He also enjoys meeting with the other two IVEPers in our community. We are blessed to have the MCC Great Lakes Kidron Material Resources Center coordinator, Sarah Doerksen, in our area. She and her husband host monthly game nights for area young adults and have included the IVEPers.
Building these interpersonal relationships is so life giving and the shared connections have been fun to discover. We take the time to share meals together, and to talk about our days and what’s coming up the following month. We also make sure to give each other space and time for quiet and rest, especially for Elvis after a day of translating for groups of people.
Hosting an IVEPer helps our family to see a glimpse of the world outside of ourselves and beyond our neighborhood and how God helps us form meaningful relationships through shared experiences, dialogue and faith stories.
Banner image: From left, Elvis Otieno, Jennifer Bixler, Josiah Bixler and Mark Bixler celebrate a district championship soccer tournament win for Central Christian School, Kidron, Ohio. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Bixler