House Construction

Here's a photo this evening of the construction of the children's home.  The wood on the top left is where they are pouring a concrete beam that goes all around the house and connects the walls together for strength.  They call it the "ring beam".

Children's Home Design

Many of you are likely wondering what the design of the children's home is.  Here is a rendering of the front view.  It will contain 4 bedrooms on each wing along with 4 showers and 4 toilets on each side.  In the center is the dining room which will also serve as the assembly area for worship and other meetings.  Looking out from the front veranda will have a beautiful view of the countryside and the children's play area.  If the Lord is pressing you to help contribute financially towards the construction costs, please visit the children's home webpage at www.graceofgodchildren.org

Maji (water)

Since we're deep into the dry season here in Kenya, the well at the children's home has run dry.  These days, my routine consists of driving about 3 miles to the small stream nearby to fill containers with clean-looking water for the use of the 17 children, 2 workers, and the 10 or so construction crew who live on site.  Imagine enough water to cook and clean, take baths, and mix cement.  It adds to around 1,000 liters every day.  Here is a picture of our construction foreman and two helpers as we load water.

Friends

Here's a picture of Gabriel and Hillary, his close friend and our oldest at the children's home.  They are both attending the primary school in class 8.  Next year, Hillary will be heading off to high school (which are all boarding schools here in Kenya).  Hillary has quite a dramatic family history and is a very hardworking boy with a very bright future.  However, he is in need of someone to step up and sponsor him for him to be able to achieve his dreams of finishing his education.  If you are interested in knowing more about Hillary, please contact us.

work

This is a really manly picture.  It makes it seem that I'm actually accomplishing some work.  The reality is, I'm so out of my comfort zone here.  You just can't imagine trying to build things without electricty and with hand tools that are much worse than the cheapest quality you can buy in the U.S.

a what ?

Here's a picture of Ian standing atop the fireplace we're having built inside the orphanage home.  Kenyan's would never burn wood inside a fireplace just for warmth but there are many things about this house that will be unique to them.

Home School ?

Here is our matron - Sarah teaching some of the Grace of God kids at the children's home.  They're reviewing the anatomy of plants. 

By the way, there still is no electricty at the home!  We're hoping to have it installed in the next few months.  How would you live in that environment???

Market Day Reward!

Congratulations to our kids for memorizing 10 selected Bible verses and the names of the books in the New Testament.  They received their own money and a trip to the local market for some shopping.  In the pictures below they are showing off their prized purchases.  Among the favorites were watches for the boys and skirts and hats for the girls.  You'd be amazed at all you can buy with 200 shillings!  What a fun time for us to get to reward their hard work and see the joy it brought them.

Christina & Jacob

The kids can find fun and adventure wherever they are.  Here are Christina and Jacob playing above the river during one of my trips to fetch water for the children's home.

Cheptigit Primary School

Gabriel is attending class 8 and Christina is in class 3.  It's going so-so :)

Boys' Night

While the girls were living in luxury at the hotel Friday night, the boys "roughed it" at the children's home.  We built a campfire, ate beef and ugali, and played "tag" until about midnight.  There were boys falling asleep on the ground, but eventually everyone found a bed inside.  The kids had a great time, and we're looking forward to our next opportunity for the guys to hang out, when we plan to go camping.

Girls' Night

Friday night and Saturday we split the girls and boys from the Grace of God Children's Home and had some separate time.  All the girls spent the night at the Kaptagat Hotel, watched movies, painted toenails and did other girly things.  They had a great time together and were so helpful to Kellie. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTINA

Wow, it's our 1st, no, 2nd no, 3rd birthday celebration here in Kenya.  Christina turned 9 years old on Friday.  Of course birthdays are not big events here in Kenya, so we kept it low-key, but today we managed to bake a cake in a kind of "dutch oven", and it turned out great!  What a treat!

Chicken House

We've finally started building the chicken house, and it's BIG!  It's enough space for up to 100 chickens.  Maybe we'll even be able to sell or trade some eggs in the future.  By the way, the house is the same construction as many people's homes here in Kenya - sticks and mud.

School Bell

I'm not sure why this picture keeps loading sideways but you can still see the school bell here at Cheptigit.  The metal rod hanging down is something I donated recently.  Before that, the timekeeper student would throw a rock at the wheel and it was dangerous because the rock would fly back in an unpredictable direction.

School Days

We're really spending a lot of time and effort ministering to the children at the local public school - Cheptigit Primary.  At the school, there are over 100 kids in Kindergarden - ages 2 thru 6.  There are only 3 teachers allotted to manage these kids.  So our friend Kimi has been helping out every day with them. 

Sometimes our daughter Abigail goes to the class but the chaos that surrounds her is usually too much of a distraction for everyone.

Fred and His Mother

Fred is the cook at the Grace of God Children's Home and he also supervises and stays with the boys in their dorm.  This is a picture taken from our visit to Fred's home deep in the Kerio Valley near the town of Flourspar where they mine flouride from the mountains.

Firewood

I finally got a chance to try carrying a load of firewood like the women regularly do.  I'm sure there must be a trick to it...

Kerio Valley Trip

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to drive down into the Kerio Valley to take Fred - the cook at the children's home to visit his mother at her shamba (farm).  It's his responsibility to plow the fields using a hoe before the planting season begins next month.  The valley is a beautiful place within the Great Rift Valley and life there can be difficult.  We took 12 people with us in the pickup including 4 children from the home (Roy, Victor, Teresa, and Winny).