Children's Ministry at Cornerstone

Cornerstone Faith Assembly Children's Ministry Worship

Last set of photos are of Amy teaching worship and dance moves to the children at Cornerstone, our host church. The children loved it and couldn't get enough! Yeah Amy!

Ryana had taught them some songs and moves from Kids' Camp last year so they knew what was coming and had a really great time!

Just Adorable Kids!

We traveled to Ndeiya where we had 2 workshops. The first day we had around 30 guests, and the second day they all came back and brought friends! The biggest day of all the workshops and a big blessing to all of us.

Photos of the children in Ndeiya...

Lunch: rice, coleslaw, goat and chipate! Chipate is like a Kenyan tortilla - yummmm!



Daisy and Betty (and Jennifer) who encourage, empower and speak on their village bank. They encourage people to get together in groups and as the groups save, they are trained in creating and maintaining businesses, micro finance, loans, etc. When the group has enough saved, after 3 months, the village bank will loan them 3 times what they've saved. Then the group can provide loans to the members of the group who are starting micro businesses. It's a great program and generated much excitement at every workshop.

Ethiopian food!!!

We were really looking forward to this wonderful treat! Jennifer, Amy and I treated our hosts to Ethiopian food on Sunday evening and it was not only delicious it was an adventure!

It is served on a washcloth looking thing that is actually the bread that we use to wrap around the food to eat it. The pot in the front is roasted goat and all the other piles of food were just delicious.

We like it so much we really have to smile as big as we can! ;)

This is Jennifer's artistic Ethiopian coffee pot. The coffee is really strong and is served with hot milk and sugar - yummm! Definitely one of the culinary highlights of the trip!

Soon Big Brain Academy

Pastor Soon started a school in this village in the outskirts of Nairobi and before she knew it she had 17 orphan kids living in her home and attending her school! We also provided food funds for the orphans here and it was such a blessing to see how much they were needed.

The classrooms were really small but colorful and well maintained and the children were very respectful and polite. They all had a song or dance or something special to say to us.

Of course the best part of visiting is hanging out with the kids!

Visiting Children's Homes

Amy joined us Thursday night and we spent the next day visiting 2 children's homes and a school in the outskirts of Nairobi.

The first home we visited was Praise Gate Children's Home. The children here were all street kids, some second generation. Lucy used to feed street children and families in the park and eventually rented a house and brought 6 street kids in. It was a lot of work teaching them how to live in a home and training them in discipline, perseverance and school work. She brought 6 more kids in and the first 6 helped teach the new kids. Now there are 38 of them!

All the kids were very excited about our visit and just wanted to play. They took us on a tour of their home and to see the cows and greenhouse next door, then into the forest to see the monkeys. They seemed to be very happy in this home.

Tamara and Mary, Amy with "the boys"!

Jennifer in the green house and one of the adorable kids!

We provided food for Praise Gate kids with North Coast children's ministry contributions.

Last day in Kenya

Our last day in Kenya - beginning our flight home at 11 PM. Jennifer and I have become wonderful friends and sisters through our ministry preparations and and we are great travel companions. We have had a great time together on this trip. I was calling her my partner, but my daughters told me that really wasn't the best word to use ;) So now she is my ministry partner!

Jennifer, Paster Mercy and Daisy - our Kenyan sisters in Christ.
We spent our final morning with Rachael, packing bags of baby clothes for orphan children. Thanks to Rachel, Susan and Alyx for all the clothes! And to Susan, Heather and Suzi for baby and children's vitamins! These were supposed to be for Happy Life Children's Home, but the Pastor there never responded to our messages. Don't know what happened there and we were pretty disappointed that we didn't connect, but these clothes and vitamins will be a great blessing to many other homes.

After packing, we were joined by many of our new friends for a delicious roast goat meal before leaving for the airport. The day flew by and I was not looking forward to leaving at all. I would love to spend so much more time here.

The amazing blessing waiting for me at home though, is our new condo at the beach!!! I only saw it once briefly before leasing it and it was a big mess with the previous tenants packing to move. But I fell in love with it the moment I saw the photo of it on the Internet! Every time I think of it, I smile with joy. Ryana and her friends moved our stuff in last weekend and she said the place is gorgeous!!! No, that's not quite it; she said it was GORGEOUS!!! So although I will be sad to leave Kenya, I am looking forward to an amazing new season at my new home at the beach. We are half a block from the sand and I have a patio off my bedroom with a full on view of the ocean - I can't wait to move in!!!

Thanks so much to all of you who have supported Jennifer and I with prayers, financial support and friendship, and those who sent funds for the workshops. Your contribution has truly changed hearts and lives and made such an impact here for orphan children. The ripple has extended far beyond the workshops themselves and the response from so many people is just overwhelming. I am so blessed to be a part of this wonderful work that God has called us to!

Thank you all for being a part of this with us! I can't wait to see what He does next!

The Father's Heart

The group in Buruburu in a brainstorming session. And Amy suffering from jet lag - she just got in last night!

The name of our conference/workshops is The Father's Heart and our theme is God's Heart for the Orphan. With 6 workshops in 4 locations, we have fine tuned our message and customized it for each audience. From rural, poor, uneducated people, to well-educated pastors, doctors, orphanage directors, we have spoken from our hearts to share God's words of hope and encouragement. The team here is so incredible and we have grown to love each other so deeply through this time together. This pilot experience has been successful beyond our wildest imagination!

My foundational scripture for this trip is Ephesians 3:20 and God's promise is true! It is so clear to all of us that God has been working and moving people's hearts toward adopting children into families. We are all humbled and overwhelmed that He has used us in this mighty work for the children that He loves so much. What an amazing experience to be a part of.

One of our new best friends - Rachael - has a partner in Canada that she communicates with daily. He is so inspired by what we are doing and has met with a group of people from Sudan who want to do the same thing there. All I can say is "here I am Lord send me!" Actually, I'm jumping up and down waving my hand up in the air shouting "pick me! pick me!" ;)