Love Nuggets from God

Happy Fall Partners!

I love Fall because it’s a beautiful reminder of what’s always happening behind the scenes! God created such a beautiful cycle of new beginnings, growth, color changes and rest in the 4 seasons and it’s a reminder to us all about the cycles of life.

I often feel that things with Give Amore are stagnant. I can feel that they aren’t growing or aren’t growing fast enough…but then. But then, I’m reminded that when something seems to be buried it’s actually planted and soon blooms and growth is coming.

That’s what’s happening in various cycles and seasons of Give Amore. I’ve fully released this ministry to God. It’s His. I’m just a willing vessel to be the pass through and the voice for our brothers and sisters across the globe. It’s His to continue or to stop. And, once again when I felt that things were buried, He resurrected new life!  

There’s been so much goodness happening! One day last month, I received a general donation. Later that day, the team messaged me that there was a school infested with jiggers and could we do a jigger removal clinic (even though we haven’t done any in a long while). I asked how much it would cost. Guess what? It was the EXACT amount that had just been donated! I call that a LOVE NUGGET from God! A reminder HE is in control! So, that’s what you’ll see in this newsletter…all the reminders that God is in the midst of stirring hearts and compassion to change the world and make it more like heaven.

I am ever grateful for our partners in health and hope. I pray God stirs in someone’s heart to join me in Kenya next year. I’m desperate to get back and trusting God will bring me the perfect partner(s) to travel with and be the hands and feet of Jesus in Kenya. PS: I’m my best version of myself in Kenya. It’s truly a beautiful place and experience! Please message me if you want to know more! 

Please read on for hope and encouragement of how we ARE making a difference!

God bless,

Christa Horst

Founding Director

Give Amore

“When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.
”

— Romans 12:13

Jigger Free Feet Once Again

2022 gigger clinics premiered this month with over fifty recipients benefitting from the program. Children formed the majority of the beneficiaries with most of their feet on fatal levels making this initiative the promptest and much needed for their craving of a good night’s sleep.

Our primary targets are school going children who are the most vulnerable due to their inaccessibility to foot cover, hence after every jigger clinic, our patients each get shoes to prevent any reinfections during and after treatment. With most families living in dirt houses which are a breeding ground for jigger causing fleas, our team further sensitized them on efficient tactics that help mitigating the thriving of the parasites.

Our endeavor is to ensure our community is free from these enemies of comfort and we hope and pray these efforts persist and last over time. Our prayers and gratitude go out to our thoughtful donors whose kind contributions promise lasting comfort to these miserable children.

35th Well to be Unveiled Soon

Celebrations linger in some parts of western Kenya as villagers of Emulele welcomed a new well earlier this month alongside the commencement of another well in Ebumweche village, two blessings that promise long lasting supply of clean water to these befitting populations.

To Emily and her family, it is a dream come true after years of enduring long treks in search for this precious life saving commodity and much more as a woman. She anticipates a productive future given that this solution frees up most of her days’ time which will be channeled towards economic activities she has long shelved.

Women bear most of the load of water fetching and most of the time find some relief in their children who skip school to help in this tedious daily task. The sinking of the latter well adds up our total wells to thirty-five and as its launching approaches we pray for its sustainability and unmatched service to its caretaker community.

Meet the Team

From tailoring school, computer training, wells, food distribution and so much more projects and activities, we rely on our dedicated team to ensure everything runs glitch free from time to time and this month we celebrate them. Ranging from accounting, planning, project execution, monitoring among others, their on-time delivery is worth celebration.

In and through the pandemic, we have achieved so much least imaginable breakthroughs and we couldn’t do it without our efforts, time, skills pooled together and catalyzed by this amazing team to be where we are today. We are thankful and hope for even more blessings in the foreseeable future.

Serving in different roles, it is an honor to witness change right from the front row on a daily basis and much more in the lives of communities they either know so well or have lived alongside for a very long time nay the rest of their lives. We pray for blessings upon them and their families as we prepare for the next chapter of service delivery.

We are Making a Huge Difference

Meet our Give Amore Team!

Standing Row left to right…Duncan (our newest staff member), Jack (one day will be a preacher), Henry (our accountant and a husband and father), Brian (he trains our computer students), Erick (husband, father and works closely with all aspects of our programs), Geoffrey (he completed our computer classes and is disabled but works hard supporting our facilities), Judith (wife, mother, works closely with our children, especially focusing on their mental and physical health), Paul (photographer, writer, newsletter editor involved in all areas of our programs.

Bottom Row-Evans (our Made with Amore Tailoring School teacher), Winnie (our Made with Amore Sewing School Teacher and graduate from our programs).

Dearest Partners,

We hope you and your families are wrapping up a memorable Summer and ready for a new season ahead!

We are beyond thankful for all our generous partners who have stayed the course through crazy times and for new partners that have joined us! You all recognize that when so much feels out of control, a great response is generosity and to help others! We know the Lord loves a cheerful giver and we appreciate your support more than you know!

This month, we have a few featured articles of some of the great things that have happened this month! But please know, every day we are making a difference! Our programs in Kenya affect hundreds of people daily! Our legacy of water, education, health and hope is immeasurable!

We hope you can take a few minutes to read just a few ways God is using you to make a difference!

As always, thank you for your trust, partnership and prayers!

Christa Horst

Give Amore Founding Director

A Single Well Can Do So Much

After drinking from streams and even at times ponds for years, the people of Lukoye village in western Kenya now have a second chance of rewriting their story in an endless prose of health and productivity from that of constant waterborne diseases and unaffordable medical expenses and even at times, fatalities. Give Amore is gifting a well to this wonderful community and its construction is soon to be concluded thanks to your thoughtful and generous giving.

Just recently the community through their emissary reached out to us with grave concerns of infections that were deemed to be water related seeking thoughts and ways for a lasting solution to their problem. Sadly, a dog’s carcass was uncovered upstream hence the cause contamination of the water consumed for weeks by this unsuspecting community.  

Therefore, this well is timely and will provide a sustained remedy to this grave ordeal by supplying clean and safe water for drinking among other domestic uses to tens of families in this well deserving community. We pray for its speedy completion and a gallant entry to service.

Zooming Off to Serve

Just like many other organizations, Give Amore depends on transportation to get almost, if not all, of its job done; therefore, our recent acquisition of a motorcycle goes a very long way in ensuring this good work keeps yielding affirmative change in many lives in western Kenya.

You might wonder, why a motorcycle? Well, despite them being a very popular means of transport in rural Kenya, they are the only effective alternative in accessing very remote areas where even a small car can’t due to poor road network. They are fast and easily maneuver foot paths to get help to those who need it most.

Their durability, reliability and efficacy have stood the test of time and have proven to be the bedrock to the wins we celebrate today. We pray this new acquisition does just that for the many more times ahead for the glory of God and service to mankind.

Volunteer of the Month

For years now, Duncan Otieno is our longest serving volunteer with a stellar tag of dedication to service. He is one of the essential cogs on our wheel of bettering lives, every time and again reminding us that service to others, equals finding one’s self.

We recognize and cherish his unwavering commitment to our cause, his efforts, dedication and self-drive to service that have translated to the achievements we applaud presently. It takes a great sacrifice such as this to steer our ship of change even further into the future of possibilities.

You are an inspirational soul and disciple, lighting the way for our team and the community at large. Thank you for your commitment, energy and time to time thoughtful sacrifices you make without pouting when called upon. We celebrate you!

Planning Our Next Trip to Kenya! Want to come?

We hope you and your families are thriving and enjoying time together the past few weeks. It’s a busy season for us Americans filled with weddings, graduations, summer vacations, college planning, preparing for a new school year and so much more!

It’s in this season that includes a little extra rest and relaxation for most of us that I miss Kenya the most. In year’s past I would be planning a trip or coming back from a trip. Unfortunately, for 2022, I don’t see a trip in the cards unless God stirs in the heart of someone else to join me! It’s a trip like no other and I prefer it to the most exotic vacation as you will laugh, cry, be amazed at nature, meet the kindest people, and MAKE A DIFFERENCE! The biggest difference will be in your heart as you will have a heart and compassion for others like you’ve never imagined. I like to say, “The biggest miracle is often a perspective change” and I sure could use a perspective change from all the first world problems we have going on here in America these days (and legitimate problems too).

If God has been tugging on your heart to join me in Kenya, PLEASE REACH OUT! I’d love to have a conversation with you about it and see if it’s the right time (or when is) for you to join me. I know God will bring me the perfect travel partner(s) soon!

In the meantime, please read on about our continued work in Kenya and how we truly are making a difference in the lives of so many!!! As always, thank you for your trust, partnership, and prayers!

God bless,

Christa

Changing Lives One Day at a Time

Having successfully completed a six months tailoring training at Give Amore, Jista, one of the recent alumni of the program, couldn’t be any prouder of her achievement courtesy of dedication and hard work, despite being seven months pregnant. She is now ready to take on her lifelong dream of becoming a professional tailor immediately after the birth of her child this fall.

Just like numerous young women in her community, she had to end her education prematurely due to financial lack thus setting her on the path of early marriage and taking care of her family as a stay at home mom. This offered no possibilities to advance her education let alone learn a new skill due to lack of time and most importantly money to finance her training but not until the opportunity to train with Give Amore happened.

Conveniently located near her home not only could she spare the much needed time, but also learn charge free in our fully equipped tailoring classroom keenly guided by competent teachers. Further. Upon her graduation, Jista and her course mates were each gifted with a sewing machine among other tailoring aids to catapult them to industry as women in business. We wish them all the best.

Well #33 In Service

Lack of water equals no life and once again your generosity has yielded another water well for yet another community in western Kenya, a gift to behold. This new blessing brings to thirty-three the total number of wells sunk in our portfolio since the inception of the program.

This community comprises of tens of families; forming the primary beneficiaries and also being the chief caretakers of its sustainability throughout its years of service to come. Alongside providing clean water to the community, it will be saving women and children valuable time that was prior lost in long treks in search of water, that now can be invested in industry.

It is a huge motivation to reminisce of how far our consolidated efforts in this partnership have changed lives remarkably over time and be hopeful of what the future holds. Further, everyday gratitude and joy exuded by communities such as this one imparts in us the understanding of how it is to be the hands and feet of Christ.

How Our Food Distribution Program is Changing Lives

Many families in western Kenya live under $1.90 a day, an amount which is impossible to support a healthy livelihood in any part of the world. This urgency and more are the reasons why Give Amore came up with her food distribution initiative to help alleviate, if not entirely, malnutrition and hunger.  

Statistically, one in three children in Kenya suffers from chronic undernutrition therefore, your efforts in combatting this menace is not underestimated. However, we believe so much more needs to be done and with our synergy of hope compassion for mankind and love, so much more will be achieved in due course. 

Alongside clean water, economic empowerment among others brilliant programs, it is embedded in our hearts that provision of nutritious diet to our sponsored children helps in realizing a lasting impact in their lives today and most importantly in their futures to come.

The Ripple of Love

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.”

— Mother Teresa

What a busy time of year this is! It seems the world has woken up after a two-year slumber! It’s spinning faster and faster (and at times seems out of control). It spun so fast that we missed the May newsletter as I was busy getting ready for my 18-year-old son to graduate high school! When I started working in Kenya, he used to draw pictures and sell then for ten cents each to raise money for the orphans in Africa! It seems like yesterday! 

Give Amore has accomplished so much! But we still have so much to do! Let us not grow weary of doing good! Galatians 6:9. Our ripple is just getting started!

One of my favorite things lately was a message from Paul in Kenya. He had bumped into a graduate of our sewing program who told him our sewing program CHANGED her life and to thank us! WOW!!! I love hearing that!

I’m missing my team. I’m missing our children (who have grown up so much since I’ve last been there) but God hasn’t cleared me to go to Kenya yet. I need an amazing travel partner. He’s always sent me with one. I’m praying He provides one soon!

So, in the meantime, I hope you enjoy just a few snippets of goodness that we are blessed to be a part of in Kenya!

Thank you for your trust and partnership! We are blessed to be on this journey with you!

God bless and keep you!

Christa Horst

Founding Director

Give Amore

Well #32: Abundant Blessing

As our hearts overflow with joy and love, a well in a remote village in western Kenya is brimming of clean, safe water ready to quench the thirst of hundreds of its’ beneficiaries. This new baby in town was commissioned in a prayer ceremony and handed to the community bringing our total number of boreholes sunk to thirty-two.

With the water problem being so perennial in the vast western region and beyond, women and children traverse miles in search for this precious necessity, but not anymore for this community because well #32 has got their backs with plenty of water; safety assured.

On the other hand, well #33’s sinking has kicked off in yet another village and should be completed in due course, thereby expanding the scope of number of lives touched in varied ways through this life changing initiative and thoughtful partnership. We thank you for your steadfast support.

Family Empowerment at its Best

There is a new cow in the village and it is a beautiful gift to Petronilla and her family of four. Not only will this cow supplement their diet with the much needed dairy product they so crave, but it will also be of essence in their long term economic growth and prosperity in various ways.

With a widowed mother who mainly does menial jobs to help put food in their bellies, this heaven-sent gift suffices as the best side income generator for the family, as well as hone their interests and love for animal husbandry.

Most people in communities in Kenya sell animal by-products, such as meat and milk directly to consumers who widely constitute mostly family and neighbors, as well as strangers. As seen over the years, this venture fetches much needed extra money that the families need. We pray this venture grows into a sustainable enterprise.

Blessings on More Blessings

Our recent Made with Amore sewing students graduation.

Our pool of Made with Amore tailoring school graduates keeps growing exponentially after four other brilliant young women graduated after successfully completing a six months training on everything embroidery. They each received a sewing machine to help catapult them into a future of possibilities.

These beautiful women further exhibited their prowess in design and dress creation by each making their own dresses of choice and rocking them as their own models. Further, they kept the dresses as souvenir of their productive days at Give Amore as well as a reminder of the second chance they got at life.

Most of these women come from broken violent marriages with deep scars of despair and bleak hopes. Others are school dropouts due to lack of school fees and forced marriages with a deep desire to learn and do more with and for their lives. However, certainly with this empowerment they can take on their future and further better it for others who follow.

The Goodness of God-April 2022

Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. -Psalm 27:13

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. -Psalm 23:6

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. -Romans 8:28. 

For over seven years, Give Amore has had a front row seat to see the goodness of God in Kenya through clean water, education for orphans, providing skills training for adults and medical clinics! When I look back at the vision God gave me to “do what I can do” and “BE the hands and feet of Jesus” to his children in Kenya, I’m in awe. So much has changed the past seven years. I still can’t believe that I get to have a front row seat to the generosity and compassion of others! 

I try to not focus on the fact that I’m just one person doing what I can do here to be the voice of our brothers and sisters across the globe and instead focus on who God has brought to us to support us! I’m constantly reminded how small I am and yet how powerful we are when we step into action under His prodding. Yes, I’d like to do so much more! Yes, I wish I had more time and more energy to focus on Give Amore! Yes, I wish we had more resources to grow into the vision that God gave me for a beautiful building that can be a community center of hope and health, but in the meantime, I will focus on what I can do and the amazing people He has brought along this journey with me.  

Read on for a few short articles showing just a glimpse of the goodness of God this month! It really is miraculous! Sometimes the miracle is kind people with good hearts coming together to make a difference. 

I love you all and thank you for putting your compassion into action through your support! You are treasured!

Blessings, 

Christa Horst

Founding Director of Give Amore

Well #32 Sinking on Course

The sinking of yet another well is underway in Emulele, Western Kenya, a clear indication that another community’s water problem will be solved soon. This well brings our total tally of wells sunk to 32 and will provide an enduring solution to the endemic water problem that has haunted the community for decades.

During the inception of the project, our team traversed the area and came to terms first hand with the difficulties women and children face just to get this precious commodity home. Despite the long distance and tiring terrain, the saddest bit was that the water collected was never enough to cater to a family’s needs.

Therefore, this well provides a sustainable solution to these problems as well as diminish the spread of prevalent waterborne diseases such as cholera bilharzia and more whose eventualities are fatal. Our hope is to help eradicate water problems in western Kenya and beyond and so far our efforts are fruitful. The well will be commissioned later in the month.

It's Back to School Time in Kenya

It’s back to school for Students in Kenya and our sponsored children are well equipped with the necessities to face the learning period ahead of them. Each student received the required stationery and text books as well as their regular supply of food and toiletries. 

Further, this school semester will realize the transition of Petronila, Fredrick and Walter from primary to high school respectively giving them yet another chance at education. With all their school fees paid fully up front, all our sponsored children will have all the time to focus on their studies without distractions.

Through education we seek to harness our children’s chances at a better tomorrow as well as achieve a ripple effect of change throughout the community through these precious ambassadors. We wish them all the best in their pursuit of education.

More Empowered Women

Another class of brilliant women graduated from our Made with Amore tailoring school resoundingly skilled and equipped after six months of training. They each received a sewing machine, certificate of completion and a stool for the future ahead of them.

Also, they got a chance to showcase their skills earned by making their own dresses and keeping them as part of their completion gifts. Most of these women hail from very poor backgrounds with families to look after and this program gives them a chance to excel in providing for them.

Some are married, others single mothers while others school dropouts, however, this program gives them an opportunity at making it in life by not only providing them with skills but also equipment to set up local businesses and later give back to their communities in different ways they can. We are proud of them.