Ministry Update

No pictures this time. Just some updates. The biggest excitement of today is word on the container. There's a family from FBC Keller that has gotten a container full of stuff donated. We've been waiting almost 2 years for it. It didn't take off on the boat from the U.S. until a few months ago. The main thing is a playground on the container. Well, today it has completely cleared all inspections and is currently on a truck headed our way! Amazing I tell ya. We've heard discouraging stories of containers sitting in the port for months and racking up so many fees that they never got it out. We kept praying it through and now its on the way! Yea! There's also many things in it for the children such as clothes, shoes, toys, back packs, and so much more. Thank you to the Dempsey family for all the incredibly hard work you've put into getting it here. Bud is going to Nairobi on Friday to meet visitors that are coming from the states to visit us. Bud is planning to come back with them Sunday. The container is supposed to be here Saturday! So, that means I'll be handling directing the driver to our property and getting people together to help us unload everything! Pray for this. I'm not too overwhelmed, but just a little. Yikes.

Our little "homeschool" with the children in Mattaw has gotten off to a great start. The children are so eager to learn. We hired a certified teacher to come and teach grades 1-3. Vivian, our house mom, is teaching what they call nursery and baby class. We would call it pre-k and kindergarten. Its so fun getting things together for them, which I've spent a lot of time doing this week. In the public schools here the teacher to child ratio is not very good. Also the resources for learning is very limited due to finances (third-world country). Not many children have their own books and the teaching is mostly based on lecture and memorization, no hands on or object lessons. We're able to do this with our children. We also added arts and crafts class in their schedule. Once a month we'll take them on some sort of field trip. Places such as the airport, musem, animal place, captain davies (small reserve with animals roaming free), and some other places. Our school could use much improvement but we've gotten off to a great start and have high hopes of a bright future for it. Lydia, the teacher we just hired, is so sweet and great with the children. For now we've named the school- Mattaw Imani School. Imani is Faith in swahili.

We've also recently hired a kenyan social worker named Humphrey. He just finished schooling in Nairobi this past year. He is so amazing at what he does. The most important thing to us is how strong his relationship with the Lord is. Everything flows from that which is so key! He's been running around this past week getting documents and information on all our children from the places they come from. All of them are from in and around Kitale.

Hollie is still here! I havent mentioned her much lately but she's doing great. At times people find it hard to be here because it can be hard to get a consistent schedule. Life here is so different from the states. The culture here is so much more relational oriented rather than schedule oriented. I think Hollie was back and forth with this but I can see an inner peace in knowing God holds her weeks and days and will lead her where He desires. She has such a servants heart. And such a willing heart to do and go wherever God says. We admire this and are so thankful to have her be a part of our team here. She's been helping us a lot with the medical aspect of these children. The four I mentioned that have been sick are really improving. Continue to espcially pray for Eunice. The wounds she has is from HIV, its such a terrible disease but we continue to cry out for complete healing. Baby Noah is doing amazing! The day before yesterday it just melted my heart... we arrived at the home, I walked inside, and there he was running up to me smiling. He could barely walk when he first arrived and had hardly any expression on his face. He sure wasnt interested in coming to me but was so weak he wouldnt cry much. We'd barely see him smile. Now he is running around playing and I actually got him to laugh! I keep trying to convice Bud to just let me bring him home but I'm thankful Bud is being responsible when he says strongly "no!".

More to come, I could write all day about what we're doing now.

Living a fulfilled life,
Kimberly