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).

Sunsets

This is a picture of our typical sunset here at the Grace of God Children's Project.  Hard to beat anywhere in the world especially considering you can see the Milky Way galaxy in the nighttime! 

Would you like to see the view?  Why not plan a visit to us here and spend some time loving on these wonderful children?

Love from home :)

We've received a couple of packages from the U.S. recently - mostly m&m's for Kellie.  We've thoroughly enjoyed everything so much.  Thank you to those who've send us things - it really is a huge blessing just to get some mail.

Here's a picture of Abigail with her new doll from Grace Webb...

Kipkelion A.I.C. Church

This past Sunday, I was blessed to be able to attend and speak at the church of our friend Monica located near her home at Kipkelion.  Over 100 were in attendance and we truly had a great time in the Lord.  I preached on the topic of approaching our God with the heart of a child from Mark chapter 10 verses 13-16.

 

Punda

I have a local guy bringing me some grass to use for thatch roofing and he carries it in on a homemade trailer pulled by a punda (donkey).  A bundle cost 12 cents which seems really cheap to Americans but for a Kenya, it's free money - just a little bit of work.

fly swatter

I was recently at the house of some new friends here in Kenya and there were many flies inside the house.  As we were swatting the flies away, I mentioned to the family that we have plastic "fly swatters" in the U.S. that we get some satisfaction from.  The owner of the house said "oh, we've got those" and he reached over and pulled out a fresh cow's tail which he proceeded to start killing flies with.

 

Church Plant ?

Please pray with us as we are very seriously wanting to plant a new church in our community.  The need is huge and the people are thirsty!  Please pray that God would send a pastor to us soon.

Playground

The team last week helped us get started on the playground.  So far we have 4 swings plus a tire swing and a see-saw and a slide.  The kids absolutely love it all.  It's hard to believe but there is no playground equipment anywhere here in Kenya not even at the schools.  What a huge blessing this will be for the Grace of God children as well as the community kids.

Water Tower

Completed Water Tower built by the team last week of Doug, Tom, and Jay.  Thank you so much guys for dedicating your time, money, and energy.  We can't wait to have you come back!

Building

The building is coming up!  The crew is putting up about two courses of stones every two days.  It looks small in this picture but the footprint is 100' wide and over 30' deep.

Virginia Team - Doug, Tom, Jay

This week we have a blitz mission team of guys come in to construct the water tower for the children's home. Thank you to Tom and Jay from Roanoke and Doug from D.C. for giving so much to these kids during this week.

Muzungu Laundry

Here's how we do our laundry here in Kenya.  Thank the Lord that the Kenyan girls are so good at it and are eager to help us.  Isn't there always something that we can learn from each other?

West Pokot Mission - February 2012

Street Evangelism in Lomut

 Over the past 3 days, I traveled with a mission team to a remote region of Western Kenya called Pokot to encourage the local pastors/churches and distribute food supplies to needy families within the area.  In this arid land, temperatures are consistently high and these nomadic people live in desert like wilderness conditions.    The Pokot people live independently of modern society far from the hub of Nairobi and visits from Westerners are infrequent.  It is our desire to participate in the Great Commission of Christ, doing our best to share the Gospel with the unreached in this vast land.

Pokot Mission Team

We were able to provide 25 families with a few days worth of food stuffs consisting of dried corn, beans, sugar, rice, tea leaves, salt, and cabbage as well as an allotment of second hand clothing.   Asante sana to those of you who have contributed financial to our family as you have also been a part of this blessing given to the Pokot. 

The Lord’s people are surely trying their best to reach people in areas like this, however just as the Bible reads in Matthew 9:37 - “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”.   We visited 4 churches on the trip, two of which are not staffed with pastors or even workers.  Typically a layman is responsible for leading the service and ministry each week.  Even at the more established church the children’s Sunday school time was led by one of the elder girls in attendance.

Food Distribution

The people are so very needy in this land; physically, emotionally, and certainly spiritually.  In one of the homes that we visited, a young woman has two young daughters, both with tumors in the brain and the mother has been ailing for more than a year of unknown origin.  She is afraid her husband will take a 2^nd wife if she is not able to bear more children.  She believes God loves her and has provided for her needs but she needs love and prayers from others and further Christian discipleship.

Can we do more???

Titus

Food Distribution - Kimi

Church in Pokot

Fresh Mango - SO GOOD !

Pastor Peter & Gabriel

Baby Nursery

Children in Pokot

Trees are for Climbing

The Medlin kids are doing well here in Kenya.  I believe we are all fully adjusted to life here.  Gabriel & Christina are now attending classes at the local primary school where they are taught all the basics, plus the kiswahili language and even Christian Religion (C.R.E.).  Jacob likes nothing more than working with the construction crew as they build the house and Abigail enjoys the attention she gets from all the children's home kids and workers.  Everyone in the community knows who we are and they are always very kind to us.

Eat More Chicken

We hope that chickens and eggs will be a big part of the children's diet here in Kenya.  It's rare for them to get protein other than from beans.  Here is a picture of Winny Awino and the boys' attempt at building a chicken coup.  Does anyone from the U.S. have experience with breeding chickens and coup design?  We could really use some help on this one...

Obama Land

God's Amazing Children

Without exception, every day of life here in Kenya is full of the unexpected.  Sunday afternoon I thought I was going to town for a business meeting only to find myself at a rescue home for albino children.  I had the pleasure to share lunch with and speak to these 40 children about God's love for them.  It truly breaks your heart to see the pain these unwanted children have experienced as they are rejected by their families and communities.  I'm so very excited to take a planned opportunity to come back to these children and provide them with just a little something that will brighten their lives.  Are you willing to assist them in some way???

Equator

I'm not sure why it interests me so much but I always enjoy stopping at the earth's center line.  Here I am with Pastor Titus as we came through on our way home from Nairobi on saturday.

GOGCP Property Design

With 5 acres of land and only the houses currently on site, we're left with the decision of designing the rest of the property.  Here's a basic sketch of how the layout might result.