Prayer requests and needs!

We now have a near completed classroom in the new building. Here’s before and after shots. We are waiting on the glass for the windows and paint, but we are looking forward to having the class 8 students taking their exams in this room. Usually the class 8 students would have to go to another school for testing because in Kenya you have to have a superintendent and a “guard” in each testing classroom to keep cheating and what not down. We didn’t have the room to do that before but now we do – praise God! Catherine was saying how it really disrupted the students by going to another school because of harassment and the strange environment and that showed up in their test scores. Now they will be at their own school with their fellow students. We are also praying for the DO (District Officer) to “bless” the room for Form 1 (grade 9). Then our class 8 students will not have to find another school or possibly drop out because of lack of funds. Please pray with us for this provision.

We visited Mercy Child Foundation and took with us a bag of beans (90 kilos worth), a bag of rice (90kg), cooking oil (6 x 3 liters), sugar (90kg), salt (15 x 1.5kg) and milk (20 x 1 liter). They had been eating maize only for a couple of days. When I say maize only that’s exactly what it is – they boiled the maize and ate that – no salt, no tomatoes, nothing else to cook with it. We went through the needs with mama (the house mum) and got a long list of items that need to be purchased. That means more cash is needed to purchase them. How wonderful it would be to not have to use cash to feed orphans, but that’s the world we live in. So please, if you are considering donating pray about it and see if the Lord is leading you to give from your abundance to help these children who are hungry, naked and thirsty.

I interviewed every child at Mercy with some difficulty. Many of the younger children do not speak Kiswahili or English – they speak their “mother tongue” which is Meru. So we had a round robin of translators! I asked my question in English, Ruth would interpret to an older child in Kiswahili and they would then translate from Kiswahili to Meru for the younger kids. But to watch the older kids help the younger ones was phenomenal! They really care about one another and have made this their family. Many of the children were brought here by their local church. Some had both parents who had died, they were living with an aunt or grandmother who couldn’t take care of them so the church brought them in. Some were in single parent homes (usually mom only) and mom gave the church permission to take the children to this orphanage. That is love in action – giving your child up because you can’t take care of them. Mama is doing a fantastic job here with what she has; please keep her in your prayers for the Lord to strengthen her faith daily. She was reluctant to tell us the needs at first but we ensured her that we wanted to help her and the children and we wanted her to be honest with us about the needs. Hence the long list when we left! Included on that list is soap, tissues, lotion, firewood, kerosene, matches, dishes (like Tupperware which isn’t available here!) for the kids (they have to carry their lunches with them to school every day) and utensils. If you noticed this list doesn’t have any of the daily needs like food. So the funds needed aren’t just for a onetime thing – it is for an ongoing basis.

I know this was a long entry but I felt the need to let you all know what is happening at a specific orphanage. We are here trying to follow the path God wants us to take and our prayer is that He will provide. Thank you for your support and prayers. The prayers of His people are part of what uplifts us on a daily basis.