In a little over a week, our first team of the summer will be leaving for Kenya! Michelle Rose will be leading her team of six to Soweto on May 26th where they will spend seven days loving on our kids and staff. In addition to this very fun task, they will be photographing all of the students and staff, gathering additional profiles for our student records, providing relief for the teachers, and building relationships. Michelle’s team not only has photographers, but also teachers in training who hope to assist in the classrooms and provide much needed help to our teachers. In Kenya, the workload for a teacher can be extensive. Without school books, the teachers must write each child’s activity into his book. This can take hours. Team Rose will be able to take some of the pressure off and perhaps even get some teaching time! Two of the ladies, Kylie and Taylor will spending an extra five days after the team leaves to glean and share knowledge on the educational front.
In addition to the six ladies, one male by the name of Flat Stanley will accompany the team. His job will be to document each day’s activities and report back to our blog at least once while he is in Kenya. Team Rose will also be on a secret mission-the outcome will be something you will not want to miss. Stay tuned as our team launches their great adventure.
Once Team Rose returns, Jeromy Smith will be taking a team of nine to Soweto to serve our kids and staff in a bit of a different way. Team Smith’s nine members bring many different talents. We have a juggler, a basket ball star, and two members from the medical field, a computer guy…and that’s just a few of the team members! This team’s focus will be a little more spread out than our May team.
The Smith team will leave on June 20th and hit the ground running. First, the team will be heading an orphan permanency conference on June 23rd and 24th in Nairobi where local pastors and church leaders will be trained in the Biblical mandate to care for the orphan as God cares for His children. The conference will focus on the need for the church’s involvement in family preservation, reunification, and permanency for every child.
The team will also spend some time in disease prevention training. In addition, the young men will be hosting an outreach into the community through a basketball/soccer clinic. Our young ladies will be building relationships with the older girls at the center and leading conversations that begin training them to be young ladies.
The team will also spend a day serving in both a children’s’ prison and a ladies’ prison. And not to leave our computer guy out! He is hoping to travel to Kenya with a few basic laptops that can be used to lessen the workload on our teachers. Right now, all grades are kept in ledgers and added up on separate paper. If a teacher desires to create a ditto for the whole class, he must either go to an internet café or write each one out for each student. It goes without saying that access to a Word type program would be extremely valuable.
Several of you have asked how you can help-here is the list of things still needed for the trips-
Plane Tickets for those going
Cost of renting the conference building and food
Black dress or tennis shoes in child size 9 to youth 6
Socks and underwear
Flip Flops youth sizes adult smalls
Care kits for the prisons-toothbrushes, soap, feminine care
Laptops-preferably wiped with an office program installed (although our computer guy will take anything!)
Bibles-for the prisons
As our teams set off, please keep each member in your prayers. Pray for flexibility, for growth, and for a servant’s heart. Pray that each member will be as much of a blessing as he will be blessed. As always, we appreciate your partnership.
Kim
