Vehicle Woes

The engine of the truck died on us this week, just in time for a mission team from VA to arrive.  We know that God will provide throughout our challenges.  The mechanics are doing most of the work here in the yard at the hotel.  It took seven of us to hoist the engine out.  It's normal here for the auto repairs to be done wherever the car breaks down.  Nearly everytime we drive to the city of Eldoret, we pass at least 1 vehicle stopped in the driving lane with a few mechanics underneath.

Painting Begins

Painting has begun at the children's home!  We've been painting the girls bedrooms this week and hope to complete them and the bathroom shortly.  The children are all so excited by the progress and also the new colors for their rooms.

 

Our Visitors

  

We've had the great pleasure to host these six young ladies over the past few weeks. The 12 of us have all been staying in the same house, sharing food and only 1 shower! It's been a great time for all of us though and we have been blessed by the experience. The children at the Grace of God Home have been noticeably more energetic and jovial during this time. It truly is amazing how much a little love and attention can improve the attitude of a child.

Alley Cleanup

An alleyway right in the middle of our nearby town of Flax where our friend Pastor Titus and his new bride Monica now live.  You might think that this is just a seldom used side alley but in fact it is the walkway to the front of a large set of apartments housing dozens of families.  This path at night is especially trecherous without a flashlight.  We'll take it on in a couple of weeks as a cleanup project to help display the love of Christ to this community.

Roof Progress

Final roof construction on the house has begun this week with hopes to have it completed in the next few days before our first team of visitors come from our home church of GraceLife Baptist in Christiansburg, VA.  Painting inside the bedrooms has also begun this week and our visiting college girls are making great headway.

Benard poses in the foregroung of the new children's home.

Father's Day in Kenya

Oh yeah, I got a new shirt !!!

Wedding Day !

Congratulations to our friends Pastor Titus and Monica as they were wed on Saturday, June 16th at Titus' home church.  It was truly a wonderful service and the bride and groom are enjoying their new life together.  Gabriel and Vincent were honored to be the ring bearers during the service. 

All of the children and staff at the Grace of God Children's Home were able to attend as well as the Medlin family and our 6 visitors so the muzungus were well represented :)

Ephesians 5:31   "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."

Remember the birthday package?

Thank you GraceLife ladies for your encouragement, from far and near! Your birthday wishes arrived in Eldoret, Kenya (30 minutes from us) on April 13th. I don't know what happened to that package during the next 2 months, but it found its way to me today!  God's timing is perfect.

  

It's great to have Shantel and Mindy here with us!

Eliud, Dennis, Christina, Mindy, Jacob, Teresa, and Sharon playing Spoons at our house

Church this morning at the Grace of God Children's Home in Kenya.  Thank you Lord for your message from John chapter 11.  We are well over 60 strong in attendance and the neighbors are all asking to be allowed to come.  People are hungry for the Word!

Visitors

Thanking God for our visitors! 

We're so grateful to have these girls sharing the love of Jesus with the children at the Grace of God Children's Home. (From top left) Mindy - VA, Briggi - GA, Sarah our full-time matron, Danielle - PA, Shantel - VA, Joi - GA, Natalie - FL.   

Celebration Time

This past Friday was a national holiday here in Kenya, something related to independance.  The children were out of school on Friday and so to celebrate, we had them all come to the hotel where we stay to spend the day playing games, watching a movie, and just hang out.  As part of our celebration night, 3 of the kids won a competition to see who could repeat all 22 of the verses we've been memorizing and also say all of the books of the Bible. 

Congratulations to Teresa, Sharon, and Hillary.  The girls each received a new copy of the Childrens Adventure Bible and Hillary was given the devotion book - Life On Purpose for Men.

Home Church





 

Inside the chicken coop - Michael teaching and Sharon translating

Another Sunday, another opportunity to worship the Lord here in Kenya with our brothers and sisters in Christ. In fact, the neighbors are asking us if they can be allowed to come and worship with us.  Of course we are excited to have the opportunity to worship with as many as possible, however we have some limiting factors right now - primarily space and language barrier.  So our approach has been to quietly allow a few neighbor kids to come and visit with us, but only as many as we can handle. Today's service saw 27 visitors in addition to our 17 children plus the 5 short-term missionaries we have and the 6 Medlins. That's a total of 55 for service! Praise the Lord! To make room for everyone, we moved our service inside of the chicken coop (yes, you read that correctly). Please pray with us that the new building will be completed very shortly so that we can move into that house and also for translators to come with a heart for these children.



55 in attendate for our church service inside the chicken coop