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!