During this week, both of our computer power cords died. Which explains the inconsistent posts and lack of photographs! This morning I actually have time to enter the Internet Cafe and use their computer for a while, but this will probably be my last time before home.
This morning, Saturday, we visited the baby elephant sanctuary. We got to touch and photograph adorable baby elephants! Now we are heading to a late lunch and then walking to Becky's for Bible Study. We are all very tired from our busy week of VBS. Tomorrow we have church services, then we are training the 2-5 year old teachers in the afternoon. Then we pack and head to the airport at 5am on Monday.
Our final adventure is our overnight layover in Amsterdam where we will have a little time to see the city and take a canal tour and walk through the city. Then we arrive in LAX mid day on Tuesday.
Please pray for continued safety and a smooth trip home.
Blessings to you all!
Love, Tamara
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Crazy Busy Week!
This week was crazy!
Sunday we shared in the teen class, went to church, participated in a skit for the children's ministry, tried a new restaurant (delicious) for lunch and spent the afternoon preparing for our teaching the next day.
Monday and Tuesday we trained the teen leaders in children's ministry foundations and prepared them for VBS. There are almost 30 teen and young adult leaders who teach the children on Sundays or are volunteering for VBS. They are so excited and respectful and willing to learn. They love the worship songs and the games! The leaders are doing a great job! Becky has trained them very well and they are already doing much of the things we are training them to do. Our job is very easy! Becky, the Children's Director invited us to her home after training for lunch and we had our first real salad - we have been craving fresh salad greens! They call it cow food here and most Kenyans don't eat fresh salad greens! We played volleyball and shared dinner and had a great time of fellowship!
Wednesday, we hit the ground running on the first day of VBS. It is also the day of voting on the referendum - the new draft constitution for Kenya. We have all been praying for a peaceful day with no violence or riots. God answered our prayers and Kenya now has a new constitution.
We gathered in the morning for prayer and worship then the VBS began at 9am with the games Lanae taught us. The children and leaders were in the church building, laughing and calling out as they played games with beach balls. As I walked through the room, I felt such a rush of joy and peace and gratitude. I feel that I am just exactly where God wants me to be. I remember the quote from the movie Chariots of Fire: When I run, I feel God's pleasure. I felt exactly the same way, I am doing what He created me to do. This morning, as I serve God in ministry, I feel his pleasure!
There were almost 100 children the first day and it went so smoothly! The leaders did an amazing job and the children were so adorable! Both Lanae and Ryana were amazing in their roles as worship leader and game leader and everything just flowed so well! We had lunch with the team and prepared for the next day of VBS.
We were invited to Bishop Kamau's home for dinner and his wife Ruth made a delicious Kenyan meal for us. Rice, chicken, potatoes, greens, chipate (delicious flour tortilla type of bread) - it was wonderful! They have an adorable 3 year old named Stephanie who was so sweet and cute during the evening.
Thursday the VBS also went incredibly smoothly and we had a few more children. Becky invited us over again for volleyball and fellowship. They took us to an amazing Ethiopian restaurant with delicious and amazing food. They bring it out on a huge platter with a giant tortilla type of bread and you eat it with the bread and your fingers. It was so much fun and so good! Everything I've eaten here has been delicious and wonderful and we haven't had any stomach problems at all - what a total blessing!
Friday was the final day of VBS with even more children attending. One of the components of this weeks VBS is Compassion. I taught that session and it began as a challenge to me personally because so many of these children are so incredibly poor compared to our standards. Will they understand or even care about other children who have even less. But God is so amazing! On Wednesday, as I shared with the children about God's love for us and how he wants us to share his love with others, they understood. I told them about children in Turkana in Nothern Kenya where the children are so poor that they run around naked until they are around 9 years old. I noticed that we all had clothes on so we are rich compared to those children. I also reminded them that our hearts are rich when we know Jesus. I told them about orphanages in the Kiberi slums very near VBS where the children didn't have any parents and very little food and medicine. We agreed to bring shillings, clothes, shoes or if they had no extra to spare, they would write a not to the children. And they agreed to tell their parents about the children and ask their parents before they brought anything from their homes to share.
Tuesday morning so many of the children ran up to me to show me the shillings and clothes and shoes and notes that they brought for the other children. They were so excited to share their offerings! My heart was so touched and again I felt such a wave of joy to be here. By the end of Friday, we had a huge pile of clothes and shoes, 2,075 shillings (our goal was 1,000) and several notes to the children who will receive our bounty. What an incredible gift. We prayed for God to multiply this offering just like he did the loaves and fishes and the children were so blessed to give.
I am completely humbled and totally blessed. These children and families who have so little, offered up such a huge gift to God in their compassion for other children. He is so good!
VBS ended much too soon! We ended the day by joining the angels in heaven celebrating the new decisions for Christ made by the children. The bubble gun and silly string was such a hit that the people in the office wondered what in the world was going on. I reminded the children how much we loved them because Jesus loves us first and that their leaders gave their entire week to love them. I asked them to tell their leaders thank you and give them a big hug. Ten minutes later our hearts were still being blessed with big hugs from so many children - it was amazing!
Sunday we shared in the teen class, went to church, participated in a skit for the children's ministry, tried a new restaurant (delicious) for lunch and spent the afternoon preparing for our teaching the next day.
Monday and Tuesday we trained the teen leaders in children's ministry foundations and prepared them for VBS. There are almost 30 teen and young adult leaders who teach the children on Sundays or are volunteering for VBS. They are so excited and respectful and willing to learn. They love the worship songs and the games! The leaders are doing a great job! Becky has trained them very well and they are already doing much of the things we are training them to do. Our job is very easy! Becky, the Children's Director invited us to her home after training for lunch and we had our first real salad - we have been craving fresh salad greens! They call it cow food here and most Kenyans don't eat fresh salad greens! We played volleyball and shared dinner and had a great time of fellowship!
Wednesday, we hit the ground running on the first day of VBS. It is also the day of voting on the referendum - the new draft constitution for Kenya. We have all been praying for a peaceful day with no violence or riots. God answered our prayers and Kenya now has a new constitution.
We gathered in the morning for prayer and worship then the VBS began at 9am with the games Lanae taught us. The children and leaders were in the church building, laughing and calling out as they played games with beach balls. As I walked through the room, I felt such a rush of joy and peace and gratitude. I feel that I am just exactly where God wants me to be. I remember the quote from the movie Chariots of Fire: When I run, I feel God's pleasure. I felt exactly the same way, I am doing what He created me to do. This morning, as I serve God in ministry, I feel his pleasure!
There were almost 100 children the first day and it went so smoothly! The leaders did an amazing job and the children were so adorable! Both Lanae and Ryana were amazing in their roles as worship leader and game leader and everything just flowed so well! We had lunch with the team and prepared for the next day of VBS.
We were invited to Bishop Kamau's home for dinner and his wife Ruth made a delicious Kenyan meal for us. Rice, chicken, potatoes, greens, chipate (delicious flour tortilla type of bread) - it was wonderful! They have an adorable 3 year old named Stephanie who was so sweet and cute during the evening.
Thursday the VBS also went incredibly smoothly and we had a few more children. Becky invited us over again for volleyball and fellowship. They took us to an amazing Ethiopian restaurant with delicious and amazing food. They bring it out on a huge platter with a giant tortilla type of bread and you eat it with the bread and your fingers. It was so much fun and so good! Everything I've eaten here has been delicious and wonderful and we haven't had any stomach problems at all - what a total blessing!
Friday was the final day of VBS with even more children attending. One of the components of this weeks VBS is Compassion. I taught that session and it began as a challenge to me personally because so many of these children are so incredibly poor compared to our standards. Will they understand or even care about other children who have even less. But God is so amazing! On Wednesday, as I shared with the children about God's love for us and how he wants us to share his love with others, they understood. I told them about children in Turkana in Nothern Kenya where the children are so poor that they run around naked until they are around 9 years old. I noticed that we all had clothes on so we are rich compared to those children. I also reminded them that our hearts are rich when we know Jesus. I told them about orphanages in the Kiberi slums very near VBS where the children didn't have any parents and very little food and medicine. We agreed to bring shillings, clothes, shoes or if they had no extra to spare, they would write a not to the children. And they agreed to tell their parents about the children and ask their parents before they brought anything from their homes to share.
Tuesday morning so many of the children ran up to me to show me the shillings and clothes and shoes and notes that they brought for the other children. They were so excited to share their offerings! My heart was so touched and again I felt such a wave of joy to be here. By the end of Friday, we had a huge pile of clothes and shoes, 2,075 shillings (our goal was 1,000) and several notes to the children who will receive our bounty. What an incredible gift. We prayed for God to multiply this offering just like he did the loaves and fishes and the children were so blessed to give.
I am completely humbled and totally blessed. These children and families who have so little, offered up such a huge gift to God in their compassion for other children. He is so good!
VBS ended much too soon! We ended the day by joining the angels in heaven celebrating the new decisions for Christ made by the children. The bubble gun and silly string was such a hit that the people in the office wondered what in the world was going on. I reminded the children how much we loved them because Jesus loves us first and that their leaders gave their entire week to love them. I asked them to tell their leaders thank you and give them a big hug. Ten minutes later our hearts were still being blessed with big hugs from so many children - it was amazing!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Blessing Parents!
Saturday, July 31
Got up early to pray and review my notes for the two hour Parenting Seminar I led today. By the end of the session there were 19 parents and all of them really seemed interested in becoming better parents. My focus for the workshop was on encouraging parents to be the spiritual leaders in their home. I shared what God says about parenting, helping our children grow a relationship with God, characteristics of children at various ages and how they learn and specific tools to use in parenting.
Most of the material I pulled from the Extreme Home Makeover series I taught at New Song several years ago. It was so cool to be teaching again! I asked Ryana to share from an adult child’s perspective what a child needs from her parents and they all loved her! They had lots of questions, mostly about children’s behavior at different ages and they really wanted to learn more. Three of the women came up afterwards needing some support and I prayed for each of them. It was such an amazing blessing to minister to these women who work so hard and have such tough situations.
After the workshop we had an hour to relax with a cup of tea, then we walked about a mile to the Becky’s home – she’s the Children Director’s at Cornerstone. We figured we should walk because that’s how many of the locals get around! And it felt good to walk because it was the first time we really got out into our neighborhood. After the study we stayed to play volleyball with Becky’s family. Team Coates and Team King – we got trampled! But next time we’ll be in shorts and sneakers instead of skirts and flip flops and then we might be some competition – maybe!
Got up early to pray and review my notes for the two hour Parenting Seminar I led today. By the end of the session there were 19 parents and all of them really seemed interested in becoming better parents. My focus for the workshop was on encouraging parents to be the spiritual leaders in their home. I shared what God says about parenting, helping our children grow a relationship with God, characteristics of children at various ages and how they learn and specific tools to use in parenting.
Most of the material I pulled from the Extreme Home Makeover series I taught at New Song several years ago. It was so cool to be teaching again! I asked Ryana to share from an adult child’s perspective what a child needs from her parents and they all loved her! They had lots of questions, mostly about children’s behavior at different ages and they really wanted to learn more. Three of the women came up afterwards needing some support and I prayed for each of them. It was such an amazing blessing to minister to these women who work so hard and have such tough situations.
After the workshop we had an hour to relax with a cup of tea, then we walked about a mile to the Becky’s home – she’s the Children Director’s at Cornerstone. We figured we should walk because that’s how many of the locals get around! And it felt good to walk because it was the first time we really got out into our neighborhood. After the study we stayed to play volleyball with Becky’s family. Team Coates and Team King – we got trampled! But next time we’ll be in shorts and sneakers instead of skirts and flip flops and then we might be some competition – maybe!
Working with the Kenyan Children
Thursday 7/29
In the morning Ryana and I went to the Church to help out in the preschool and primary children’s classrooms. When we arrived the children were sitting in class “taking tea” aka “drinking” chocolate and a snack. It was their last day of school for the break and after they finished we all went outside to play games. The teachers announced that we were going to lead them in games. Which we hadn’t planned to do, but we quickly came up with a few games and started teaching them. Suddenly we noticed that the teachers had disappeared and 2 hours later we were still outside with the children struggling to think of games to play with them. The older boys all wanted to play soccer which they call football and the younger kids just wanted to hang out with Ryana! It was a great morning!
In the late afternoon we met with Bishop Kamau and Pastor Amos and made plans to visit an orphanage in Nakuru on Friday. We were supposed to visit the baby elephant sanctuary, but we chose to visit baby humans instead ;)
I spent the afternoon preparing my materials for the parenting seminar I am leading on Saturday and the girls just chilled. It was a relaxing afternoon.
Friday 7/30
Visit to Nakuru – St. Ann’s Baby and Children Home.
Jimmy picked us up for our 2 hour drive to Nakuru. We stopped at the supermarket to buy some things to take to the orphanage; tea, drinking chocolate, sugar, biscuits and cooking oil; basic food staples.
Ten minutes away from Nakuru all traffic stopped. Several cars in front of us had stopped in the road because there had just been an accident right in front of us. A matatu (a taxi van) and a pickup truck had a head on collision and several people were dead and many others were trapped in the vehicles. They had to pry the car doors off to get the injured people out. It was horrible. As Jimmy got out to see what he could do, we prayed for the injured and the families of the dead. We were so thankful for God’s protection; it could so easily have been our car in that accident.
It took quite a while to clear a path for traffic and we finally arrived at the orphanage as the children were finishing their lunch of rice and beans. They were so excited to see us. Our heavy hearts from the accident scene lightened with the sight of the children. After a quick tour of the house we ended up in the playroom with the children. They all wanted to be held and cuddled and they pulled out books for reading. We enjoyed a crazy hour with about 20 children from age 2 to 4 years old. They are so adorable! After a while it must have been nap time because some of the children started crying and would not be consoled. So the staff took them all outside to work off a little energy before nap time.
We sat down to talk with Irene, the founder of the 3 year old orphanage. I asked her to share her story of how the orphanage got started. She was living in London with her family and had never worked with children except her own, but felt God’s call to return to Kenya and care for the abandoned children in Nakuru. Her orphanage takes newborn abandoned children and nurses them to health. The stories are amazing and heart wrenching; brand new babies rescued from pit toilets (can you imagine a newborn baby surviving that?!), from the bush, from dumpsters, from the river bank (they named that boy Moses ;) I can only imagine the desperation of the mothers who abandon their children to the elements and certain death. These are all miracle babies; each one should have died of exposure, disease, drowning in the latrine. Yet here they play, beautiful, healthy precious toddlers and pre school children.
When Irene told us the story of how she started the orphanage and that she named it after her youngest daughter Ann because it was an extension of her family, I was done in. My heart was captured by the children and the love of this woman and the tremendous need for these adorable little ones to be placed into real families. Ryana has been aggressively petitioning me to adopt 2 or 3 or all 20 and take them home, but I think God has other plans for my involvement.
We returned to our hotel thoughtful and hungry. As we sat down to dinner, we discussed our day. Each of us felt the same heart beat; to raise funds to support this orphanage, these children and the Kenyan families willing to foster or adopt them. Kenya makes it virtually impossible for international adoption. They require both parents to spend 3 months in Kenya bonding with the child before the adoption process even begins. So our united thoughts are to sponsor Kenyan families to adopt the children. Each child fostered or adopted will not only provide them a family, but will free up room at St. Ann’s for another rescued newborn requiring round the clock care to be nursed to health.
In the morning Ryana and I went to the Church to help out in the preschool and primary children’s classrooms. When we arrived the children were sitting in class “taking tea” aka “drinking” chocolate and a snack. It was their last day of school for the break and after they finished we all went outside to play games. The teachers announced that we were going to lead them in games. Which we hadn’t planned to do, but we quickly came up with a few games and started teaching them. Suddenly we noticed that the teachers had disappeared and 2 hours later we were still outside with the children struggling to think of games to play with them. The older boys all wanted to play soccer which they call football and the younger kids just wanted to hang out with Ryana! It was a great morning!
In the late afternoon we met with Bishop Kamau and Pastor Amos and made plans to visit an orphanage in Nakuru on Friday. We were supposed to visit the baby elephant sanctuary, but we chose to visit baby humans instead ;)
I spent the afternoon preparing my materials for the parenting seminar I am leading on Saturday and the girls just chilled. It was a relaxing afternoon.
Friday 7/30
Visit to Nakuru – St. Ann’s Baby and Children Home.
Jimmy picked us up for our 2 hour drive to Nakuru. We stopped at the supermarket to buy some things to take to the orphanage; tea, drinking chocolate, sugar, biscuits and cooking oil; basic food staples.
Ten minutes away from Nakuru all traffic stopped. Several cars in front of us had stopped in the road because there had just been an accident right in front of us. A matatu (a taxi van) and a pickup truck had a head on collision and several people were dead and many others were trapped in the vehicles. They had to pry the car doors off to get the injured people out. It was horrible. As Jimmy got out to see what he could do, we prayed for the injured and the families of the dead. We were so thankful for God’s protection; it could so easily have been our car in that accident.
It took quite a while to clear a path for traffic and we finally arrived at the orphanage as the children were finishing their lunch of rice and beans. They were so excited to see us. Our heavy hearts from the accident scene lightened with the sight of the children. After a quick tour of the house we ended up in the playroom with the children. They all wanted to be held and cuddled and they pulled out books for reading. We enjoyed a crazy hour with about 20 children from age 2 to 4 years old. They are so adorable! After a while it must have been nap time because some of the children started crying and would not be consoled. So the staff took them all outside to work off a little energy before nap time.
We sat down to talk with Irene, the founder of the 3 year old orphanage. I asked her to share her story of how the orphanage got started. She was living in London with her family and had never worked with children except her own, but felt God’s call to return to Kenya and care for the abandoned children in Nakuru. Her orphanage takes newborn abandoned children and nurses them to health. The stories are amazing and heart wrenching; brand new babies rescued from pit toilets (can you imagine a newborn baby surviving that?!), from the bush, from dumpsters, from the river bank (they named that boy Moses ;) I can only imagine the desperation of the mothers who abandon their children to the elements and certain death. These are all miracle babies; each one should have died of exposure, disease, drowning in the latrine. Yet here they play, beautiful, healthy precious toddlers and pre school children.
When Irene told us the story of how she started the orphanage and that she named it after her youngest daughter Ann because it was an extension of her family, I was done in. My heart was captured by the children and the love of this woman and the tremendous need for these adorable little ones to be placed into real families. Ryana has been aggressively petitioning me to adopt 2 or 3 or all 20 and take them home, but I think God has other plans for my involvement.
We returned to our hotel thoughtful and hungry. As we sat down to dinner, we discussed our day. Each of us felt the same heart beat; to raise funds to support this orphanage, these children and the Kenyan families willing to foster or adopt them. Kenya makes it virtually impossible for international adoption. They require both parents to spend 3 months in Kenya bonding with the child before the adoption process even begins. So our united thoughts are to sponsor Kenyan families to adopt the children. Each child fostered or adopted will not only provide them a family, but will free up room at St. Ann’s for another rescued newborn requiring round the clock care to be nursed to health.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)