Long time no newsletter! Sorry about that! Since the last newsletter was published, we moved from Texas to Arkansas, went to Kenya, went on a family vacation, went to 3 National Parks, went to Atlanta for work and JUST got home! God is good!
Hopefully, you followed along on my Facebook pasts and Instagram Reels for just a glimpse into our incredible trip to Kenya! It was so worth the wait! God brought me the perfect travel companions and helpers and it was a magnificent trip!
Larisa and Anna joined me in falling in love with Kenya and its people. We laughed, cried and shared so many incredible moments together! This experience is hard to explain to others so to have others experience it with me is so wonderful.
A few of the highlights:
-Distribution Day with our children and their guardians coming for a full day of activities including stickers, bubbles, learning how to play the recorder, songs, balls, games and a messages of hope.
-Working with the Made with Amore sewing students and staff for new tote bags! Also, getting to know the students and what a blessing this program is to them!
-Teaching some life skills to the computer training students and how they can control their attitude, their effort and their response to things. Super beneficial and fun time!
-Groundbreaking community party for well #39! It was our biggest even to date with the local papers and media coming out! Bishop and MP Titus Kamala joined and it was quite a celebration!
-A jigger clinic at the school across the street from our offices. This was a heartbreaking time for us as even though I try to prepare myself and the ladies, it’s harder than you can imagine. Seeing a young baby infested with jiggers is so unreal. Man, it was hard. But we treated dozens of feet and provided shoes and goodies for the students and staff!
-Attending Sheila Kamala’s Kenyan wedding! This was fun!!!! Dancing, eating local food, watching this beautiful cultural event was a definite highlight, especially because Sheila is my friend and we’ve hosted her in America multiple times. Great timing that we were there for it!
-Team Time lunch and guided hike in the rainforest at Rondo Retreat Center. This is always a treat for our staff and ourselves!
-We ended the trip with an incredible safari in Nakuru where we could fully enjoy God’s beautiful creation and creative animals!
One of the best parts of all of this was watching others back home come along side of us, pray for us, cheer us on and give generously to so many needs! It is so wonderful to have the view I have on the ground and behind the scenes to see how God is providing and to watch the fruit of the labor that began over 12 years ago! Seeing 40 clean water wells is UNREAL! Seeing the children grow up is beautiful evidence of what we are doing and why! And seeing the difference we are making in this community with our long-standing support is miraculous.
So, thank you for everything! But let’s not stop there! There are some needs that I pray God will help us meet! We need staff raises desperately. The cost of living has more than doubled but I have not increased the pay of our amazing staff in over 5 years. We need more jigger clinics that provide education and treatment to eradicate these nasty parasites! And we need to grow our sponsorship program! The wait list is a mile long, but our donations to this program are continuing to wane.
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Be anxious for nothing, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. ”
Thank you thank you thank you!
Be anxious for nothing, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:6
