springs of hope

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!