I'm not sure, but I think I have become a victim of racism. Very mild racism but racism nonetheless. Many people here do not seem to value me as a person. They only value me for what they have predetermined is in my pocket. This is one of the more frustrating things I have come across while being here. People I have never met will ask me for money. They do not ask my name or where I am from, only for cash, and they seem to be surprised when i do not give it to them.

This is so with John and Nancy's families as well. To be fair, I must say that this is no one person's fault. Most racisms or prejudices come from a long history of events and everyone I have met has been extremely hospitable. However, their families are starting to wonder why John and Nancy are not sharing the money that Mark and I have given them. The truth is, we have given them no money for personal use. Some of the money that was donated has been given to buy food for the children, or for trasportation fare for necessary business for AMCC. We are seeing now that it is causing problems with the families, putting pressure on John and Nancy, and then on Mark and me. This pressure is due to most Kenyan's pre-concieved notion that all whites have lots of money and that they should be giving what they have. How to deal with this situation with grace, patience, wisdom and peace, is the greatest thing I'm asking to be prayed for over the next few days. (For Mark and I both)

I've been here for about 6 weeks now and I'm starting to realize how much I miss my girlfriend Maggie! Family and friends, I miss you guys too, but I'm not longing to hold your hand. ;) Currently Maggie is working with a group who are helping people from Burma in an International Displacement (IDP) Camp. She'll be doing this for the next two weeks. Please pray for her safety and for the Lord to move through her there. So, how does this relate to AMCC??

The good news is that Maggs is coming here! She already bought a plane ticket for June 15th and she'll be here for about a month! God is so awesome! So here's another thing you can pray for: That Maggie and I stay focused on the Kingdom first, both now as we are in separate countries and also when we are working alongside of each other. God is so good!

Also, we've recieved a few care packages! Praise God! Some one has sent spices for us to "mix it up" a little when eating gethari or ugali. I've never appreciated spices so much! Thank you guys!

The kids are currently on break from school for about a month. Many of them have done very well over the last semester. To reward them, Mark and I thought it would be a cool idea to take them to Mt. Kilimambogo! They set off the other morning with five of the kids and Nancy. I had to stay home to take one of the children to Mukarara for medical reasons. :( When they reached Kilimambogo they discovered that it was going to be much more expensive than planned. So instead, they went to 14 falls! which was just around the corner. (40 kilometers away)

As far as the self-sustaining project goes, we're back to the chicken idea! There seemed to be something fishy about the rice fields thing. Evidently the government officials in charge let some other people rent the land from them so they could rent it someone else to make a bigger profit. I'm not sure exactly, but we're not going to move that direction anymore. However, John's dad has given us a plot of land to put a chicken house!

This week we are researching all the costs before we move forward. Hopefully by the next blog, I'll be able to say that AMCC has initiated it's first self-sustaining project!

The greatest news this week though happened on Saturday! One of the kids' older sisters came to AMCC to talk to John about finding a job. She stayed for about 3 hours just talking with John about her life and the Lord. After a while, John came up to me in the classroom and said "Excuse me Nick, Gladys wants to get saved. Will you come pray for her?" I was ecstatic! We went in and I asked her a few questions about what she believed and we prayed together and she asked Jesus to be Lord!

The great thing about this was that earlier that morning I was thinking to myself about working at the children's home. I was thinking about how we don't seem to get to share the gospel much because of what we do. We're mainly wrapped up with taking care of the children. So it was awesome that the Lord is still using AMCC to reach out to his people as well as taking care of them!