Thursday, August 13, 2009

We've moved!

Hello to all our readers. Our blog has moved, please visit us here.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

A message from Gideon

We received the following email from Gideon a few days ago. I thought it would be nice for you to hear how well the children are doing in school at Nice View Academy/Orphanage from the Executive Director (Gideon).

Tati is doing very well in school and looks happy.He was position 3 with 382 marks.I hope he will score good marks in KCPE.Generally all the kids are trying to work hard in their school work . We rewarded the good performers and the rest felt challenged and so i expect a lot of competition next term.The class eight did a district exam and they managed position 2 out of 82 schools. So you can see that the academy is doing well and i thank God for this performance.Its also because of your efforts with Tammy that you have made our pupils comfortable and have been learning while their needs are being met translating this to good results.Thank you

Here is another part of Gideon's email to show how the country is doing right now during the drought:

The dry season is still going on and you can imagine how it is now without water for many Kenyan. I thank God that we have water that has became a problem in the country to a point of affecting electricity generation.From tomorrow the country will be having power rationing for the next two months until we receive the expected short rains in october.I thank God for His provisions and all our donors for their great support.May God bless them all!



And I wish to also thank you. Thank you for your continuing support and if you'd like to join us in helping the kids in Kenya please visit our website where you can donate securely online.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

New school update

This photo shows where construction was of the new school building when we left Kenya in October 2008.

The second floor roof had just been poured and the supports had to stay up a few more days.




All the students at Nice View were so excited about being able to use the one room that was completed even if the desks had not been painted yet (they are painted now)! The Class 8 students were joking with their lower classmates that they (Class 8) would have the new room.






I'm not good with heights so just watching this guy from the ground made me dizzy! As you can see from the next photo, the windows are in this section but they aren't complete.




This is where the building sits as of today. A third floor is planned and after its completion it will be one of the largest buildings in Tala! While we were in Tala last year many people were coming to the school looking for employment and wanting to enroll their children in the school. We had to remind everyone that the building wasn't finished so no work and no enrollment. Gideon (Executive Director at Nice View Academy/Orphanage) is handling the enrollment of the existing school very carefully. He does not want to bring in more children than can be handled with the funds available at the present time. As more support is given he, along with Saved By God's Grace, will move to bring in more children to the orphanage.

But like any construction project, funds are needed to proceed. Right now we only have funds available to buy food for the three orphanages (Mercy, Eldama Ravine and Nice View) and even those funds do not completely cover the costs. Please prayerfully consider if you can help. If you are already supporting Saved By God's Grace, thank you!

Chuck and I look forward to the time we can serve our friends and family in Kenya for an extended period of time, but until then we are called to tell of the needs in Kenya.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Street ministry in NYC

A taste of New York style street ministry. We went out to different parks throughout Brooklyn with Agape Christian Center. Music, drama, testimonies...it was a time of praise and thanks for all God has done for each of us! Over 200 people gave their hearts to the Lord during the week! Praise God!!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Drought and famine continue


Let me first say that Timmy is me (Tammy)! For some reason the "a" in Tammy is very hard for the kids to say or maybe it's my accent (everyone tells me I have a mid-western accent- whatever that means)! Anyway I thought this was a neat picture sent to us by Pauline from the kids at Nice View- thanks dada (sister in Swahili)!

For those of you who are supporting Saved By God's Grace know that you are remembered by the kids at Nice View, Mercy and Eldama Ravine. Your help is greatly appreciated and you can see from the following email that it is greatly needed.

Our friend, Nathan, is a Kenyan we met during our trip in 2008. He and his wife are raising their baby boy during difficult times. He tells us how things are in Kenya at this time:

Kenya is currently undergoing a severe drought,there has been no food in our farms and people are scared,many people including children in the worst hit regions are feared dead,a big no of people are going without food.The biggest problem is however lack of sufficient water!

This is real life for our friends and family in Kenya. I pray that when you read this you will say a prayer for them and their country. My heart and prayers and energy go towards loving our God and trusting Him to bring providence to Saved By God's Grace.

I wish I could fix it all, but God has placed these specific children in our path for us to reach out to. I have always loved the story of a man who was asking God why there was poverty in the world and why He didn't take care of it. Then God asks him why the man wasn't doing anything about it with the resources God gave him.

God will be faithful and I trust Him to move people's hearts to also reach out and help. I pray we are all listening to God's voice and stepping out to help those He puts in our path.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Greetings!

Just a brief introduction and a few ways to contact us:

Our website is SavedByGodsGrace.org or

you can find me on FaceBook or

follow me on Twitter or

email us.

We would love to hear from you!