IMPORTANT!! Stuff To Pray For!

John and Nancy, send their greeting to you all. Both of them, along with Mark and I, have decided to get together and pray for about 2 hours every morning! I have to admit this will be more than I've ever prayed before. At first I was wondering about what we could possibly pray about that would take 2 hours every morning. Well, here it is:

1. House Rent (for which we have no money. It's due in about a week!)
   
2. Sauce Pans (We only have one that doesn't leak and it's wearin away fast)
   
3. Healthy varieties of FOOD (Beans and maize, three meals a day, for three weeks so far w/ occasional fruit)
   
4. Funds for school exams
   
5. Clippers! (for the kids hair. Evidently having anything more than a shaved head is shabby)
   
6. Funds for cell phone use (for social and safety reasons. Remember we have no electricity)
   
7. Firewood (for cooking the food we have)
   
8. Gas for lanterns (especially important for praising, study and eating after 6:00)
   
9. Children's Neccesities (Lotion, toothpaste, laundry soap, bathing soap, shoe polish, t.p.)
   
10. For God to raise up partners, supportors and friends for AMCC
    
11. What to do with the income generating projects (chickens? rice fields? cows? small business?)
    
12. A Self-Sustaining Project (This differs from and income-generating project in that it is something done that may not make a profit but will cut costs instead)
    
13. Upcomming Fundraising Project! (this is mostly for food to last through the year)
    
14. LAND! LAND! LAND! (There seems to be so many possibilities if we only had some LAND!)
    
15. Replacement workers and volunteers for AMCC
    
16. Funds to pay replacement workers
    
17. John Muhika (specifically for his chronic back pain and for good relationship with his family who lives in another town due to children's educational need)
    
18. The enemies of AMCC
    
19. Against any spiritual enemy or power of darkness
    
20. Intimacey in relationship within and amongst the staff and children
    
21. Health for the children and staff (getting sick is a serious threat because there is no health fund)
    
22. Future school fees for the children going to high-school next year
    
23. Wisdom in setting up a bank account
    
24. Vehicle for AMCC
    
25. That Mark and I would be more of an asset to the community supporting AMCC rather than a detriment
    
26. Wisdom and direction in decision-making
    
27. Strenght in Unity, Patience, Faith and Love for each of us at AMCC
    

Please pray with us over any of these issues! I know there's a lot here so I don't expect any of you to pray for them all, but pick a few please! It means so much to pray and it's so good for us to be asking the Lord for His Kingdom to come together.

As the Lord answers these requests and petitions, I will be updating the blog. The Father is so good! Till then...

Hello friends! John and Nancy greet you all in the Lord Jesus Christ! There have been some exciting things happening lately at AMCC.

Last week, one of the kids ran away because he was made fun of by his peers for speaking his mother tongue at school rather than Swahili or English. This is against the rules in school and here at AMCC. We prayed for him that night and found out before we went to bed that he was picked up by a paster about 6 kilometers away. Apearantly he had run away because he didin't want to face the shame of being kicked out of AMCC. Early the next morning, Mark and I had the duty to go and retrieve him because Pastor John's back has been giving him some serious problems lately. So Mark and I made the hike, thanked the pastor and started toward home with Jeffrey walking between us.

We told him that we loved him as our own little brother and that there was nothing he could do to make us love him less. As we spoke to Jeffrey, he started to cry and my heart began to melt. At this moment I felt the closest to being a parent as I had ever before. We assured him that he was still a good boy and that having good character didn't mean one was always perfect, but rather one faced his mistakes when he made them.

There is no doubt, I am growing closer to these children. They have always been my little brothers and sisters in Christ, even before I knew them, but now I'm beginning to feel it. At night, Mark and I take turns doing the night watch. We go to each room with a flashlight 5 times throughout the night and check to see whether they are covered or not. You see, currently AMCC doesn't have a bank account, let alone any saved money. If one of the children gets sick and has to go to the hospital, they have no money to pay the bill. So to prevent this, we make sure they're nice and cozy in their blankets.

We're also learning how to cook gethari! Whoo hoo! Straight up maize and beans. I think we're on week three for having gethari for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mark and I had to pass a health inspection to work in the kitchen, which also carries the requirement of wearing an apron during preparation!

Thankfully, over the past week, we've gone to meet John's parents down the road and also to see his family who lives in the town where his daughter is going to school. At both places they served us way too much food, and it was extra delicious.

Among other things, Mark and I have helped pull water from the well and to carry firewood. I was trying to do it the native way with the rope around my head. I didn't realize why all the Kenyans were standing along the roadside laughing (more than usual) unitl I met another Kenyan friend who informed me that only women carry the wood this way. :P He told me that men carry it on their shoulders. So I chuckled, nodded at the laughing Kenyans and repositioned the wood on my shoulders. This was evidently more amusing than carrying wood like a woman. They laughed all the more, only this time it was accompanied with applause. Sometimes I feel like I might as well be a circus clown on a unicycle jugling fire. Even if they aren't laughing, they seem to stare almost as if they are in awe.

The greatest news lately is that AMCC has just been granted, by the government, to go from a Community Based Organization (CBO) to an actual Government Childrens Center! What this means exactly, I don't know yet. But what I do know is that the government has been keeping a close eye on AMCC for the last two years and AMCC has passed all the neccessary requirements to achieve this status. So it must be a good thing.

About the chickens...It's gonna be really tuff cause AMCC doesn't actually own any land and the space that we have isn't adequate to support chickens. We have heard of a rice field oportunity though. According to the information that we have currently, one can make a 200% profit after the first harvest. It sounds too good to be true, but so do many of the Lord's greatest blessings. More about the rice fields later.

This update was written a bit later than I had expected, but the last time we had access to the internet, Mark was typing away while I was frequenting the toilet! Praise God that's overwith! And I don't think I'll experiment with drinking the water again.

On Wednesday we're going to look at the rice fields! Please pray that we can use these as a means of self-sustainability for AMCC. Till then...

Jesus is the King!

How bout chickens?

(For some reason the kids love feeling my mzungu hair)

Hello my few and faithful blog readers! Just wanted to show a few more pics and let you know where we are in the situation. (Picking beans again)
Mark and I, after broken hours of discussion and prayer, decided to scrounge up $500 dollars (40,000 Kenyan shillings) and give the money to AMCC. Part of the money was from Bloom, my sending church in Denver, and the rest was left over from a benefit concert Mark put on a few months ago.

(A bridge we cross to get to electricity, 30 min hike)
We're still trying to hang on to the $900 that Mark and I set aside to help start a sustainable food project. This money came from Bloom, Grace World Outreach (home church in Oklahoma!) and many other much appreciated friends and families.

We should be alright on food for about 6 weeks or so now, but we really need to get crackin on that project. We're thinkin chickens! How fun would that be!?

If you guys have any suggestions, we're all ears. Please pray for us to do the right project. And if that's chickens, pray they won't die, cause I hear chickens like to do that a lot. I hope to be writing another update Friday. Till then...

(Imagine a 14 passenger vehicle with 24 people!)

THE LORD IS GOOD!!!

(Mark trying to catch a zebra, man they're fast!)
Mark and I have been in Kenya for six days now without Mark’s bag! The airline lost it and we made it back to Nairobi today to pick it up! This was an act of the Lord because all matatus (people-crammed ’94 Nissan vans) going back to Nairobi went on strike! In Thika, we found one in a desolate part of town, made it here to Nairobi and finally got Mark’s bag! Praise God!

So many things are different here, even than Thailand. The first night Mark and I stayed at John Gichane’s, a God-fearing, Kenyan man who drills water wells. When we arrived at his house late Thursday evening, a tall man with broad shoulders, wearing a trench coat and carrying a large wooden club, met us just outside the dark green, dented, metal gate and shouted something in Swahili to our taxi driver. When Mark stated we were friends with Bwana (Mr.) Gichane and that we were to stay the night, he let us in.

The Gichane’s were very good to us and quite hospitable. From their house in Nairobi, Mama (not sure what her real name is) John’s wife and their son David drove Mark and I to another town called Niavasha. There, we stayed with Jason and Lesa Hovingh who are fellow Mzungu (white people). They took us to a field about one mile away where we saw zebras, gazelles, water buck, water buffalo, warthogs, and caribou! No lions yet they say they’re near!

After two nights with the Hovinghs, another Kenyan man named Joel, who is also running an orphanage in Niavasha, took us to Gatanga, which is the actual name of the very small village we are staying. Two days before, two men were murdered due to a hi-jacking on the very same road we took! The police stopped us and seemed quite disappointed to find nothing wrong or illegal with Joel, Mark, or me.

(John is the man standing)
Upon arriving at AMCC, John Muhika and five older Kenyans welcomed us. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so honored. They had so many encouraging and thankful things to say in their Mother Tongue, Kikuyu, which John translated for us. They prayed for us and fed us goat meat with rice. We ate on wooden tables and benches in a room with no light but that which came through a plastic covered hole in the ceiling.

(Yumm!)

It was soon after our meal when we discovered that we were staying in the same room with John, which is an 8’x12’ studio. John sleeps on the floor because he insists it is better for his back and Mark sleeps under the bed where he can’t roll over because he also insists that it’s better for his back. My back is fine so I get the bed! Not sure how that worked out. We also discovered that we have no electricity! How fun is that? ;)

Since then we have met four prominent Kenyans involved in the government who have assured our safety. However, we were advised not to tell anyone that we are from America. Hmm? We are to tell anyone who asks, that we are from AMCC. One of the men, the Minister of Parliament for Kenya!! evidently has the power to “sac” or fire anyone in the police department by a simple phone call. He gave us his personal phone number and told us to call him if we had any trouble. I’m not sure if his telling us this information was more or less comforting.

(AMCC is is the building on the far left)

Even so, I have no fear. I’m sure plenty of really bad things could have happened to us already that have not and only because of the grace and goodness of God. It seems He has given us favor with the government though! He is so good to us and there are so many needs here, but we will take things slowly and surely. Love you all! Please remember to pray for us and for God’s direction and instruction. I hope to be writing another update in about a week, Lord willing! Till then…

(Mark and the kids at the well)