springs of hope

Well I am sorry for my lapse in blogging…so i will try to update you on as much as I can.
This past week we had some issues at the site where we are building. The men that we hired from that community were starting up with the men we have from our church community. To make a long story short it was not good, but it has been resolved. All this tribal rivalry can be upsetting, but Bishop Opicho spoke to the men about unity. That they are Kenyan!

This and other incidents were upsetting to Joseph, and he asked me on Tuesday morning where God was in all of this. (You wonder sometimes) I tried to reassure him that is why we are here. We are supposed to be the God in all this. Representing “HIM”

Well later that mornig we went to visit Mama Brenda…because on Sunday she spoke to me and asked me if there was any work she could do for us. She said she would do anything pick up trash what ever she had to do to catch up on her rent (she is 3 months behind and her rent is about $4 USD) and get food. She said it is hard to explain to Brenda that they have no food. She said children do not understand.

So we went and helped Mama Brenda catch up on her past rent, and get food for her children. We then met with a woman named Nelly. She is Taking care of 3 orphans herself. She tried to open a pre-school to pay for the children, but it failed. So she is doing what she can to help these children she has taken on. One being a small boy Solomon who i am very partial to. Solomon was abandoned by his mother, and his father is a drunk who abused him. He drops in time to time when he is drunk to see how he can hurt him, but Nelly tries to protect him. We helped nelly with food. She is a poor woman trying to make a difference.
Then we went to Visit Catherine. Catherine is the mother of three Ann, Grace, and Moses that I mentioned in my last update. I had to find out what was going on because on Sunday Ann told me that her mother would keep Grace, and Moses, and that she would come live with Me & Joseph. We had to find out what this was all about. We went and told Catherine what Ann had said. She explained to us through our trusted associate Daniel that in March Moses’ father (Ann’s & Grace’s father is dead)who is now hopefully gone had brought home a man who he said was his cousin. This man proceeded to try to Rape Ann. He did not succeed but Ann now has nightmares, and feels like she cannot trust her mother. We stayed for quite sometime to work this out. We are still trying to help Catherine start her business also.
As we were there Catherine explained to us that she thought she was in a hopeless situation at one time. That is when Ann met us and started seeing us at Jotham’s. She told her Mom she wanted to ask us if we could help them out of this life they were living. Her mother told Ann who is 11 that if she felt she could speak enough english to ask us she told her to go ahead and try. So Ann is the one that started our relationship with Catherine and her children. Catherine told us that she has seen God through us, and what we have done for her and her children. We talked more and before we left I asked her if we could pray for her. We Did and when we were done she told us she would like to accept Christ. We were thrilled. We then prayed with her, and she accepted Christ right there with us.
I am not writing this to boast but to tell you how faithful God is and that he truly affirmed what i had talked to Joseph about that morning. We are here to represent Him. God is in us and works through us!

I will sign off for now but promise to continue with my updates on Hellen and her twins, and Joseph who could not get back to school.

Love & Blessings
Molly

Well we have been here for a little over 2 months now, and we are starting to get used to living in Kenya. I can tell you that 2 weeks into it I was missing family and friends something awful. We took sometime for ourselves about 2 weeks ago and went on our first weekend trip to Samburu. It was a much needed time for our family, and we saw many animals from Cheetahs to Lions, and Giraffes, and Tons of Elephants.

We also moved into a place on the 2nd we are renting, and we are very happy with it. We were thankful for the time we were able to stay with Bishop Opicho & his family, but it is nice to have a place we can call home. We have plenty of room so we are ready for anyone who would like to come, and visit us here in Kenya. We would love to have you! There is plenty of work to be done here. Construction, Medical, VBS, many kinds of outreach projects, and there is always time to see this beautiful country & it’s people.

We are happy to say that the Care Center is moving along nicely. Monday we should be pouring the cement, and picking out our stones that we would like to have on the building. We can hardly believe that we are at this point, and if it had not been for God, and how he works through people like you this would not be possible. Keep praying that we continue to move forward, and that we do not run out of funds. God has brought this project this far. We know He will not stop now.

We have been assisting some women who have HIV so that they can start some small businesses, making them able to support themselves and their children. At times this can be hard as their situations can be heartbreaking. There is Helen who I have mentioned before. She returned home with her children to have them not only get sick again, but get infested with bug bites. She lives in a mud home, and the bugs have taken over. We are working to help her move to a new home, and then help her and her babies by seeing how she can start a small business to support herself & her family.

There is also Catherine, and her children, Grace, Moses, and Ann. All who are very dear to Joseph & myself. We do not know her status, but she has been made to leave her home by her “Husband” and she had no where to go. We assisted her with finances to move, and now we are looking to help also with a small business. We can help Helen for approximately $200 USD, which will provide her with her first month’s rent, funds for a business, and enough to get her a small bed, and a charcoal stove to cook on. She needs to get herself & the babies off the ground so they will not get sick. We have paid for Catherine’s first month of rent which is about $25 USD, and she needs about $50 more to start her business. This could be a great project for an individual or a group at church.

We are meeting this Sunday with the youth at All Nations Springs of Life to plan future outreach activities. We will be doing outreach activities to the Street Boys, and we would like to go back to Ward 12 at Nakuru General Hospital, and pray and talk with the patients in the AIDS wards. We have also been talking to a Head Master at a local school here about mentoring some of the 35 boys that attend there that were former street boys, and seeing what we can do to help them stay on the right track.

But we ultimately know that we cannot accomplish any of this without God, and his unfailing grace, and you. What I have expressed to you in this update is only a fraction of what is happening here. There is so much more, and as I said we cannot continue the building or reaching out to help lift up those in need without you. Please continue to pray for us, and the people we serve. Pray for the continuation of construction for the Care Center so that we can help the children more effectively. We ask for you to pray about continued support for us as moving here and starting our lives completely over has come at a cost.

We ask if you have made a commitment to help us monthly please send that in for July. Again, we thank you for your love, prayers, and Support! For more info go to WWW.SpringsofHopeKenya.org

Love & Blessings, Joseph, Molly & Elijah Bail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

It has been sometime since i wrote, and so much has gone on. We have been to the school to visit the boy we returned, and he is doing well Thank God but how A moment with another boy who is in the streets can wreck you. How you try to get him back to school after he has left, and they will not take him back because of foolish decisions he has made which we understand, but it is hard to deal with, and how you have to be stern, and tell him you cannot help him at this time while he cries. It breaks my heart. So if anyone wants to take a chance on a 15 year old boy named Stephen to go to school let me know.

We met with Simon today and he is on the streets because his Mother & Father both remarried, and left him to fend for himself. We are praying that once we move to our own place we maybe able to help him by giving him a place to live.

We were told about a young Samburu girl who is orphaned and 12 years old, and has been betrothed to a 67 year old man. We will do whatever we can to make this not happen.

We have been in contact with numerous cases of children orphaned by AIDS or just plain thrown away. For lack of another word. Tossed out like trash. i am sorry to be so blunt but it is mind boggling. We know this is all the learnig process. As we said there is so much to do. We have put in for our work permits, and will then meet with the children Dept here.

On a very good note today we broke ground on the foundation. Jotham spoke to the men who are working, and let them know how important this project is to God, and that we need unity, as we have two differnt tribes working together, and there has been some tensions due to the recent clashes. We then prayed, and anointed the ground with oil. Then Joseph & Jotham broke ground.So now we can start laying the foundation. It was very emotional for us. It has been a long time coming and obviously we need this building soon. the sooner the better.

We have also met some people from Austrailia. They are Mary and Ivan. I believe we have mentioned them before, but i feel they will became dear friends. They have a baby orphanage here, and we really enjoy their company.

Helen, and the twins are in a childrens home at the moment. We will be seeing her and the babies within the next few days. We will also be visting her home, with another Ministry that helps people dealing with AIDS, and see if it will be possible for the babies to return. It may not be a good environment for them to return to.

Please pray for us, and the discernment that we need when being pulled in so many directions. We need to know where we will best serve the children of Kenya and How we will best serve our Lord and Savior.

My last blog did not go all the way through…so Alot was missing at the end of my story. Needless to sy praying with Rachel for her salvation was so powerful. i talked and prayed with her and Joseph prayed as he rubbed her back gently he could feel the bones she was so weak.

Monica is now home, and she is better but we hope to help her with some of her food needs because she will get sick again if she does not have any food.

Friday we met a man named Ivan from Austrailia. He and his wife mary have a baby orphanage not far from where we are building. We have heard of them, and this meeting was unexpected, and pleasant as he invited us back to where there place is for lunch, and we were very impressed. It was a top notch facility, and i hope ours will be so nice. It is a bit larger, and we realize we will probably need more land in the future. We not only enjoyed meeting them but the 35 beautiful children in their care. Mary & Ivan were awesome, and I hope to become friends with them.

I can briefly over view the last few days. Saturday we visited Jothams daughter in Kericho where her school is. It is beautiful countryside with mountains, greenery, ansmany tea fields. Very lush, and green. we visited the site of the project, and it is coming along. We have the land almost leveled.

Sunday joseph was not well so went to church,and later that day we went out to a New church that Jotham has just started in a place called Ngoogoo. yes Ngoogoo.
He started it under a shelter that cattle dused to stand under to get out of the elements. We traveled with some others singers, and pastors, andyouth from the home church in Nakuru, and it was quite something. They do not have a church in this area so the people, and the children there are so Happy. It is in a very rural area, and it is actually the are where Helen is from. That is how we first came to know abotu her. Her sister was there with her son, and on of Helen’s other children. She wanted me to see where the live, and I have to say it is nt a place for sick children. It is mud, and one room. One very small room with dirt floors. They are also consdered squaters at this time, and will not be allowed to stay there much longer. So now Helen is still in the hospital,because the twins have fever, especially Jeff, and they beleive they may have Malaria.
So we need to pray for them. They need a place that is asfe for the babies, and close to town so Helen can get treatment.

Monday & Tuesday we ran in to some of street boy friends. Bought them breakfast. Some of these stories are so complicated. They can be hard to disiffer. Most tell you want to go to school, but with no where to stay, and figuring out if they are orphans or runaways it is hard. We have tried to help A boy Stephen, and it is a long story, but the school he was attending will not accept him back because of the issue of him leaving. This is where you have to really pray and ask for God’s guidance to show you the ones you can, and cannot help. It is hard, and without the resources we have to come to the conclusion that we have to focus in the building so we have place to run this all from. A place to take orphans, and we have to work through the system to find out who and can, adn cannot help. It is hard because youcan be pulled in so many ways.

We went out to the land to check on the site on Tuesday, and also visited Helen & the babies. They look so much better, but we are glad they are getting the care they need for the time being. We also brought candy for all the children in her unit. There are so many. Many with burns, and one girl who has been there for 3 months her name is Gladys. She has swelling on the brain. Her head is large, nad her mother holds her while we talk to her. We know she was once a normal little girl, adn we try to make eye contact with her, and she seems to listen. We feel for her ,and her Mom who stays with her there with her little son Evan who is about 2. I really was praying for her to be healed, and i do believe she will be.
I would like to ask for you to pray for all the people we come in contact with. As we were leaving the hospital we ran into a friend whose sister has AIDS he was there to take her home. She is in what maybe the final stages. Please pray for her. A miraculous recovery. She has 2 children.
I would also ask that you pray that God would Bless us with the resources we need to do this ministry properly so that we can help more people, and have a facility that we all will be proud of. We know that it is just beginning, and we need his Grace, Love, Patients, and for him to Bless the work we are doing here in Kenya.

Well to day we went to the land to see how it was progressing, and it is nicely. It is going to take sometime to get it all leveled so that we can state laying the stones.
We were able to go visit Monica from the hospital she is Nancy,s Mother. It seems like another miracle has occured because if you saw this women last week and what she looks like today the are two totally different people. She looked very good. We brought her some fruit, and she told us she was ready to be released. This is the woman last week that was sick from her AIDS, had no hope, and now was looking well, and hopeful. They would not let her go until she paid her bill for her bed which is about 150 shillings a day. So that does not make much sense, but that is what they require. So she could not go home.So we felt we had to help her so she could. She was very thankful. These are the situations where it is hard to say no. As we talked to her again there women all over this place sick from AIDS. Some looking at you in way that you know they are thinking maybe they can help Me! It is heartbreaking.

There was a woman in the bed next to Monica who was very, very thin and frail. I reached out to her to hand for a moment, but she would not let go. I could hardly here her when she spoke so I had to get in very close to her. Then I Daniel told me that she was asying that she wanted to be saved.

Today we went in to town to take care of business, and of course we met a new boy. His name was James. He is 13years old. very dirty, and hungry. We took him in to Sweet Market, and bought him breakfast and tried to find out his story. He said he did have a place to go but must have left as they were poor and he thought the city may have something to offer him. It did not. He could not read. I know because he did not know what was on the Menu. We decided to try to get him back home. So we had Daniel get him to the Matatu going to his home, and made sure he got there.

After trying to pick up a package at the post office to no avail we went out to land to see how the work was going. They are working very hard, but doing all thing manually can be a but time consuming.
After that back to the post office. Remind me to set a whole day aside next time I need to pick up a package. I wont even go into detail about how long it took us to get this. But, God is working on my patients.

Today we were ready to go again. Daniel, and Victor picked us up today and we went in to town so Elijah could get fitted for Victors wedding, which will be coming up on August 9th. After we were done we went, and got Helen some diapers & bottles for her babies. She has been moved to a new hospital, which is farther away, but a much better facility. It is a Catholic Hospital called St Mary’s. Helen seems to be doing well there and the babies also. Jeff is still on oxygen, but he looks much better, and Joseph actually got him to smile a few times. She has able to go there through a Ministry called Love & Hope. They assist people with AIDS. They want to meet with us on Tuesday since we seem to be the only ones really helping Helen right now.

We also went out to the land where we wanted to see the progress of the tanks being put in all is good. You should see the holes that these guys dig by hand. There were 2 for the water tanks, and one hole was for the Choo (restroom onsite for workmen) it had to be almost 25ft deep. They did this by hand unbelievable. Then we went to a near by Neighbor and talked to her about adjacent land as we my need more. We would like to grow some Food right near the facility.

Well all of this took most of the day, and we are back at home (Jotham’s) tomorrow we will be going to church, and to street church to meet with the street boys again.

Goodnight, and God Bless!

Well we have been sick for the past 2 days, but should be better by tomorrow. Helen and her babies have been moved to a different facility, and we will be seeing her soon. It is in a different area but I think it has better equipment for the babies. We are now able to talk to her several times a day because of the phone we purchased for her. She says the babies are fine. That is a typical answer here so we will update you once we are able to see them. Little Miriam is so cute, but at almost 3 month weighs 5lbs. and Jeff less. So we are praying this hospital will be better for them.

We have been talking to Nancy whose Mom is in the Hospital with AIDs. She is hoping that we may be able to help her baby Caleb with some medicines, and clothes. We will call her and see what we can do.

Just want to let you know we need you to continue to pray!

Yesterday morning Joseph went out to the property and they are putting in the tank, and putting up a site building so that we are ready to go. Unfortunately like everywhere else cost have gone up substantially. Due to the inflation, and the clashes. So we need to brace for the increased cost of the construction.

Dear friends of Molly, Joseph and Elijah,

Today I had to uninstall the old blog software (no longer supported or secure) and re-install a new blog software package. The posts and comments appear to all be intact but if you had the blog page bookmarked or if you were subscribed to the RSS feeds, you will find that the old links no longer work. I apologize for any inconvenience. Please update your bookmarks. Add a comment here if you run into any difficulty with the newer version and I will look into it as soon as possible. God bless you all.

Pam Seibert
Site Hook Creative Services

Well today Joseph, Myself ,and our friend and driver Daniel went back to the hospital to see Helen and the babies. We stopped and bought her formula, water, wipes, and diapers for both the babies, and a little gift for the girl, and her baby next to Helen who was being lost due to her lack of swahili. When we got there Jeff was having very hardtime still he cannot breath and there were doctors trying to tend to him. We saw Helen and I held little Miriam. Helen grabbed my hand an led me outside. I just met her on Sunday, but I love her and her babies already. She looked me in the eyes and told me that they told her that one of her babies was Negative,and the other positive. I just held her close and prayed for her and her babies that God would heal them all. We were both on tears. Here she is all alone, and the only one she has is me to tell this very sad and personal thing to. I felt honored in some strange way to be able to be there for her. She divulged to me that the one baby girl that seems to be healthier is the one that is positive. The other who is just hanging on is negative. But, we are praying baby Jeff pulls through. We sat with her for quite a while and left and told her we would be back at 1:00 to get her a cellphone so she is able to contact us incase of an emergency. We also wanted to see if we could meet the young ladies husband (who we figured out was Maasai) because we heard that he spoke Swahili, nad we wanted to see if we could help them in any way.
When we arrived back Helen was elated that that we were able to get her this phone. Her reaction was very endearing, and sweet. When we went back to check on the other girl she was in tears as the doctors were trying to resuscitate her poor little baby. Oh my.. we felt so helpless as she left the building and they pressed the babies little chest. I must say they did try. But again so sad as people were standing and milling around, and not really paying much attention to this tragic situation.
We stayed with Helen longer, held her baby Miriam, and checked on little Jeff some more. We then were leaving and as we walked out the door the Maasai girl was sitting outside on the ground just bewildered. No one was helping her so we sat by her side and not being able to speak I just cried, and rubbed her back. She then broke dwn and wept. Her husband never showed up, and her baby was still lying inside in the midst of all the other babies dead. We were determined to find someone to communicate with her so Joe tried to call a Maasai Pastor he had met the day before when he went to pick up sewing machines in Maasai land. But he could not get him. So Daniel said he was going to walk the Hospital until he found someone. He returned with in 2 minutes with 2 young men who spoke her language. She told them she was alone, and she had no way to go home, and her baby was gone. We told her we would help her go home. As we said this all the sudden all the women that acted like they did not care came around us. They were all so grateful to us for getting her home. They were very sad for her. So as she gathered her belongings in a large size plastic bowl, and the gift I had brought her earlier she left. That was that. Her baby still lying in side next to the others. Oh my goodness Lord you only know what this is all about. We were then going to leave, and many women were gathering and telling Daniel of stories of family members with AIDS and how their children needed help, and could we help. My God the needs are huge. Then a young woman named Nancy came up with her baby named Caleb. She asked if we could go visit her Mother on ward 12. Her Mother has AIDS and was giving up hope. maybe if we came to visit with her she would have some hope. I was not sure what we could do but i knew we could not say no. We realized this was the AIDS ward. We stayed and talked to her Mother Monica, as she lay in bed in a fetal position. We stroked her hand, and told her how special she is to God, and how much she means to him, and then we prayed for her. As turned to leave I looked around and there were women all around me sick with AIDS. I felt like I wanted to embrace them all as they looked at us with sunken sad eyes and small feeble bodies. We will be back I know. Monica’s daughter was so thankful, and their story was heartbreaking as they were victims of the clashes. We helped her so she could get through the month, and get some food for her mother and her baby. Life is so hard and sometime I go through it in autodrive. But, I know as I came home and the days events all sunk in I wept for all of these women, and their children. I Just pray that God will be with us and sustain us so that we can continue to help young women like these and their children. I hope that you will pray for them and for the Ministry that lies ahead of us. We did get a text message from Nancy as we left the hospital it read…PRAISE GOD.AFTER YOU LEFTMY MUM HAD A TESTIMONY COZ SHE WAS ABOUT TO GIVE UP. i KNOW IT WAS GOD WHO SENT U2. later in the evening she called again to thank us, and she told Joseph to tell me she loves me., and then Helen called to thank us, and tell us her babies were doing good. Praise God!