Burket Thoene Family Mission

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this finds you all well.

We came back from Cameroon in May to resettle in the US so we could be closer to our families. This summer we had the great opportunity to travel around the US by car for 2 months visiting many family and friends and seeing many sights. We appreciate all of you who were so hospitable and generous with time, resources, and places for 6 of us to stay as we travelled along.

Since August we have been living in Frazier Park, CA,  about an hour from Jennifer's parents. It is a small rural community of about 2000 people nestled in the Los Padres National Forest at an elevation of 4,600 feet and a few miles off I-5.

The children are going to a small public charter school called "Peak to Peak" that sits surrounded by national forest at an elevation of over 6200 feet. It has a total of 80 children in K - 8th with multiple grade levels in one classroom. Christopher and Elizabeth are in 8th grade, Julianne is in 6th and Nicholas is in 4th. All of them are really enjoying their new school and making new friends.

Brent and Jennifer are working with Clinica Sierra Vista.  This is a very large federally qualified health center system in California (third largest the the nation) with over 1000 employees operating out of 70 sites in Kern and Fresno counties. The clinic we are working at is in Lebec, CA. Besides the two of us (who share one full-time job), there is a pediatric nurse practitioner who comes twice a week and a OB/Gyn who comes once a month. The communities that the clinic serves are anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours from any other healthcare services. So, for as close as we are to LA, the location is relatively rural.  There is one flashing red light on the 17 mile road connecting the 5 mountain communities. Reminds us a bit of the rural places we've lived in other countries.

We are enjoying the work and slowly coming around to the electronic medical record.   Clinica Sierra Vista is very interested in allowing us to continue our mission service and will allow us a month off (in addition to vacation time) to return to the missions every year.  In addition, we are hoping to start a global health track with the family practice residency program that is associated with the Clinica system in Bakersfield.  

While we miss many things from the mission field, we are grateful for our new life in the US and the opportunities to put service into action here. We are profoundly thankful for your prayers and support over the past 6 years while we were with Mission Doctors Association. Please continue to support MDA and their work to support missionaries around the world.

God bless you and your loved ones. We hope the holidays bring peace and joy.

Brent, Jennifer, Christopher, Elizabeth, Julianne and Nicholas