Friday, February 14, 2014

Today was supposed to be a work session:  crunching numbers for the milk cooling station and writing a proposal requesting grant money from the USA to help with the purchase of the equipment.  Instead, it ended up being a very relational day!  While in town to buy some fresh veggies, we were contacted by one of the RUN board members who wanted to introduce us to another architect.  We spent a good amount of time talking with him about our architectural plans and the costs to have them completed.  Then we headed home for a tour of Zippy’s “zero grazing” dairy.  We thought it might help us with some planning for the milk cooler.  After the tour, we prepared ourselves a delicious lunch of fresh veggies:  tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers and carrots.  We were having a really good conversation when Dawn bit into a carrot and broke a tooth!  Dawn was perfectly willing to go to a motorcycle spare parts shop and purchase a tube of SUPERGLUE, but Ellen insisted we go into town and find either a tube of denture adhesive or a dentist!  Three stops later, we did manage to find a young dentist who was willing to try and create a “temporary partial”.  But while waiting to see the dentist, Dawn had an awesome conversation with a man who had come to the dentist to wait with a friend.  This fellow was a local pastor who was working on his religion degree from a public university.  He said it was a field ripe for evangelism!  What a unique way to look at things, and to both test and share his faith!  While Dawn was with the dentist, Ellen was chatting with his receptionist and found out the young lady is the granddaughter Dina, one of the mama’s who has helped to oversee the beginning of the Blessings Hope School.  What a small world!  Tomorrow when we go back to the dentist, we’ll be taking three copies of our Bibles to give to the doctor and his staff. 

Prayer Points:

1.      Today was a reminder that we should be asking for prayer for ourselves as well as our board members!  Travel here is a daily challenge and we don’t want to take our safety for granted.  Pray for us as we travel on the Kenya infrastructure.

2.      Isaac’s brother is showing some improvement from the stroke he recently suffered; please keep praying.

3.      Pray that God will help us to find a reputable architect with whom to work.  This has been one of our greatest challenges since we started working on plans for the land development.

4.      We are earnestly seeking a Rotary International contact in Kenya with whom our own Rotary Club in the US can partner to work with on the cooling station.  So far we have been completely unsuccessful, and this is another key to the work we are proposing.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Today was another work session for Ellen and Dawn.  While RUN Kenya board members met and interviewed architectural candidates for the Training Center plans, Ellen and Dawn spent the day trying to put into words a way to cast the vision for this work.  We need to capture the hearts and minds of Kenyans and Americans who will see the value of lifting people out of spiritual and economic poverty by placing a milk cooling station on the land in Sibanga.  Our Kenyan board members need your prayers.  Since we arrived nearly two weeks, each member has experienced at least one family member being hospitalized.  This is making communication with each other difficult and good decisions are not being made on a timely basis.

Prayer points:

1.      Acting Director, Isaac Gikonyo’s brother has suffered a stroke and is hospitalized.  Pray for his healing.  Pray also for Isaac who is taking a Master’s level course and writing his thesis, pastoring a church, heading up the RUN board, and looking after his own family.

2.      Samuel Wafula recent lost his grandfather and now has experienced the death of an aunt.  When a family member dies in Kenya, it is the financial responsibility of the extended family to help with expenses which include the funeral, transportation and a large meal to serve hundreds of mourners.

3.      Pray for Ellen and Dawn to move with God’s timing.  The excitement over the milk cooling station is building and there is pressure to move quickly.  This makes it difficult for them to discern God’s timing versus the timing of an eager community.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

This morning began with a morning motorcycle ride to Blessings Hope School and Orphanage near Kitale.  Samuel Wafula had invited us to come and spend the day with the teachers, students, guardians, and other workers to celebrate all that God has done for this young organization which has grown up out of a heart for orphan children in the area.  Blessings Hope is a God miracle in the sense that they have been able in just 18 short months to accomplish the unimaginable:  they have purchased four acres of land and rented an additional two for farming; purchased two dairy cows (named Grace and Mercy), both of whom were carrying calves; built five classrooms, two dorms, and a cooking area, and have almost completed construction of a widow’s home which will accommodate 5 women; obtained government certification for the school, planted a church, and provided much needed care for 80 orphans along with schooling for the surrounding community.  As if this isn’t amazing enough, the heart and soul of the community are the guardians, teachers and staff who work tirelessly to support and maintain all the children who have flooded the doors of Blessings Hope!  Often, they even do this without pay for weeks at a time!  It was encouraging to celebrate with them all that God has done.  They remain with many challenges.  We were blessed to be able to sit with women’s groups and hear what they are doing to overcome challenges.  We also spent time with the teachers and staff to understand their needs.  The best part of the day was when Ellen was able to share the story of David and Goliath with the children.  As animated as she was in the telling of this great Bible story, her Kenyan translator was even more so and the children hung on every word.  This day was a great reminder that there is much joy to be found in ministry, and encouragement in seeing one small vision grow into something larger than anyone could have imagined when God blessed what small thing was given to start this work.

Prayer points:

1.      The teachers and staff need a more consistent income so they can provide for their own families

2.      The women’s groups have visions for great projects which will produce income for their families as well as the school.  The need is for shillings to start these projects.

3.      The church has outgrown its classroom space and members are even standing outside to listen to sermons.  A larger structure is needed so this growing family of God can worship as one body and continue ministering to the surrounding community.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Monday presented us with a great opportunity!  Two of our board members arranged for us to travel three hours north to Lelaan where were able to observe a milk cooling station.  We were accompanied by three farmers from the Sibanga area that were interested in seeing first-hand what bringing a station to their area would do for them, their neighboring farms, and the community.

We were told that in the Lelaan area there had been much tribal fighting but the cooling station had brought peace to the farmers as they began to see how it benefited not just them but the surrounding area.  They went from having only a few shops nearby to having a street lined with shops, a bank and also a school offering Forms 1, 2, and 3.  This is the American equivalent of Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors!  It was very encouraging to see all the positive life changes this one operation has brought to an entire community! 

The farmers who went with us returned very encouraged and we are counting on them now to tell their neighbors what they saw so more people will become aware of something being planned to help them improve their standard of living.  The trip to Lelaan Highlands Dairy was very helpful in formulating plans for this project in Sibanga.  It is our hope that our station will have the same positive community impact.

We also took the opportunity to bless about a dozen workers and managers with their own copies of the Bible.  They were very encouraged, and we have received requests to send more!

Tuesday started with a brain-storming session involving our future training coordinator.  We discussed what type of training will be offered and how it will be presented.  The result was a plan which we think will fit the vision very well.

We had to complete some difficult negotiations on the architectural work and have spent a good deal of time praying that the result would be we respected those who worked with us and we were good representatives for the Kingdom of God.  His presence was certainly felt in the meeting as we sensed calm throughout the discussions.  We are getting a new taste of what long-term mission is about.  Even though we are not staying here long term right now, all of our planning is geared toward that and it affects our daily decisions and plans.

A note of praise for little baby Ellen.  She has been diagnosed with Typhoid and Malaria but she is home now and on medication.  As a result, she seems to be feeling better.

Our prayer requests are for:

1.      Protection against things that would create division among board members

2.      Steady progress

3.      All of the logistical details associated with getting our NGO registered here

4.      New beginnings with different architects for training center construction plans

5.      Encouragement for us to make opportunities out of challenges

6.      Pray for healing for our friend Lillian who works at the cyber café.  She is suffering complications from a surgery about a year ago and is currently in the hospital.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

We are sorry to have kept all of you in suspense for so long, but it seemed as soon as we hit the ground in Kenya we were off and running!  A delayed flight coming out of Amsterdam resulted in our arrival in Nairobi with just enough time to shower, shrink-wrap our bags for shipping by bus, and catch about an hour’s nap before we had to be ready to leave for the plane taking us on to Kitale.  We arrived about 9:00AM, in time to pick up a few things at the market and then we were preparing for an afternoon meeting with the RUN board of directors.  Since that time we have been in almost non-stop work sessions to get some momentum on construction projects for the land which has been purchased in Sibanga.

After counsel from the board, we have concluded it is in the best interest of RUN not to partner with the SACCO on the construction of the milk cooling station.  We have spent an enormous amount of time gathering necessary information to move forward both with the training center and the milk cooler.  There are many obstacles which need overcome such as government certification for the foundation as a registered NGO, signing of land deeds, architectural work, and learning of Kenya requirements to put project plans into motion.  This, along with being relational with our neighbors and others in the community keeps us very busy.

Please join with us in praying about the following:

        1. The foundation certification documents get to us soon

        2. The land owner gets back in country to sign documents completing transfer of ownership

        3. The training center drawings can be finalized

        4. We find a Kenya Rotary connection to help us with our grant application

  5.Little Ellen Wafula (named after our very own Ellen Cathers!), daughter to our board member Samuel, recovers from the high temperature she has been running for the last three days.

        6.  We will be on the road all day Monday traveling north towards Pokot to look at some cooling stations in the area.  We need safety for the journey and wisdom to ask all the right questions to make our station in Sibanga a success.