May Update 2013

This update is long overdue. We’ve been so busy doing the things we hope our Father is instructing us to do. I say ‘we hope’ because it is so easy to get caught up in busy work and miss His perfect will. We know He will guide us even if we stray. Our only goal is to grow in the love of God and share that love with all we come in contact with.

We are finally making progress in the process of becoming a Kenya recognized official ministry. Why is this taking so long? We have been misguided by self seekers who took full advantage of our trusting hearts until now. God chose the time to reveal all things to us and now we are finally on the right track. We’ve learned so much about 'being wise as serpants' and are better able to identify those who would merely fake a friendship in order to benefit from our lack of knowledge and trusting hearts.

Alas, we are now genuinely a registered ministry called, StoneHouse Ministries International. We are now officially authorized to open new churches, orphanages, schools and any other ministry related work. We also are liscened to officiate at weddings, funerals or any other religious event. We can ordain men who will be legally recognized as ministers.

We now have up to date visas on our passports with enough time to allow us to obtain a re-entry permit that will cover us coming, going and staying in Kenya for the next two years.

The church, StoneHouse Fellowship, is growing numerically and spiritually. We have over 40 youth and young adults who meet weekly on their own motivation.

Our choir is getting help from our good friend Sammy, who has helped others by instructing them in how to lead in praise and worship.

Sundays are full with teachings and preaching and our gatherings are giving people a chance to share their testimonies. People are getting close and relationships are growing.

The ladies group is slowly progressing. We’re learning the best way to help these ladies. This too has been a learning process. After trying different ways to make it work, finally we are providing the materials for the crafts they make and paying them for their labor. That seems to be working best. We have an outlet for sales with a local curios shop. Sales are slow but we expect them to pick up soon as the tourists are starting to come.

The economy in Kenya dropped very low, before, during, and after the election of the new president. People were afraid to buy and sell because of the devastation of the previous post election violence of 2007. We watched as they successfully fought for a peaceful election. Because of this we haven’t been able to sell their crafts but now things are beginning to improve.

I’m working on a sewing school curriculum and I’m looking forward to getting that started. We’re still waiting on finances to get the rest of the supplies we need to start. Mainly we need electrical step down converters to plug the machines into. This will cost about $175.00 - $25 for each of our 4 machines and 3 sergers. We also need tables and chairs, scissors, thread, pins, tape measures, and other basic supplies. I’ve set up a sewing room in our house and I’m able to do a little with one on one lessons now.

L.E.A.R.N is still a main focus. Helping children go to school is a big deal here. Every school requires tuition fees and uniforms. If you can’t pay for your child they are sent home. No free school here. We have only 12 faithful sponsors and hope and pray that God will move on the hearts of others to donate to this program. The cost is only $80 three times a year to help a child.

Many come to us asking for help with college tuition. We are focusing on the primary and secondary school children for now but hope to expand our support to college kids in the future.

We also have a school of our own now called, StoneHouse Academy. This school was started 4 years ago in the home of James and Beatrice with 5 children and now has around 85 primary age students. With most students paying tuition we are able to help a few children, who are unable to pay, with free tuition. We want to improve the facility and educational opportunity to attract more students.

Health care is becoming an integral part of life. A few weeks ago a young couple brought me their 14 month old son. He has been struggling with sores all over his body for 4 months. He was being treated with Detol – a very strong disinfectant used for house cleaning – and Vaseline. The sores only got worse with this treatment. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at but I knew these things would not help. I suggested they stop the present treatment, bathe with Epsom salt water, and apply aloe vera. In less than a week’s time there was a notable difference and now the skin is clear of sores.

We have friends here who are working to keep Kenya “green”. They have a large tract of land and grow trees and plants to distribute all over Kenya in an effort towards reforestation. I’m learning about the bark of trees that are used therapeutically to build the immune system, lower high blood pressure, fight infection etc. I take every opportunity to educate people towards a naturaly healthy life style. They are very open and willing to learn and try new things.

Today, Monday, we planned to go to town to run a few errands. Well, things NEVER go as planned.

First we went to the bank to find out if a check from the US had cleared. Not only had it not cleared but we found out that half the amount was eaten up in bank fees and that it would take 21 working days because they had to 'snail mail' the check to the bank it was written on. When we made the deposit we were not told about this. The lady helping us smiled and said, “Don’t ever accept a foreign check for an offering”.

Well I wish we would have know that but in Kenya experience is the ONLY teacher. People are not very good at helping us understand procedures. I think mainly because they don’t know either. Technology is coming faster than they can keep up with. So it’s trial and error with a lot of error.

From there we went to the curios shop to see if any of the ladies crafts had sold and to add to the inventory. We sold 6 shamparas. Shamparas are bracelets made with special beads and cording. They are very popular here and sell for 50 kenya shillings, which is about 60 cents.

It was a short walk to the Butcher shop so we picked up some meat for the freezer. You never know how long you will be gone from home so I have a cooler and ice packs to keep things fresh until we get home. We are frequent customers so we know the staff and have fun joking with them as we order. They always ask me, “Where are my body guards?” That would be Nikki and Suzie who were here with us last year. I always check the shelf for Hellman’s mayonnaise. Sometimes they have it and we enjoy a taste from home. Sorry, not this week.

So then we went to pick up Rose, who is the leader of the youth. She needed to talk. The young people get together after every Sunday gathering and are full of ideas. In all their planning there were communication problems to work out, between the young people and adults.

So we, Rose and I, met to try to bridge the gap and stop any division from coming in. We had a really good talk and I’m sure she will be able to help with communication problems.

While we were talking, David and James got together to discuss matters in the church. Things are growing a fast rate so they stay in close contact. James has contracted a job to build a roof for one of the local churches. People are really impressed with how good our building is looking.

Down the road from our church building location, someone even copied our style.  We hope this will become a good business for men in the church to be employed.

Then we headed home with a quick stop at Naivas, our local Walmart type supermarket, to get some milk; Home at last and writing this update;

Kids are playing in the yard;

Patrick is working on my herb garden located in the patio area outside my kitchen. I have parsley, basil, cilantro, lovage, and oregano so far. Tomatoes will be ready to harvest end of June; Spinach is growing well; Fresh eggs for breakfast, what more can you ask for? 

What more can we ask for? We want YOU!!! ….. we miss you all so much and think of you every day. Pray for us as we pray for you.

Much love and grace to you all!

 

 

Much love your friendly Kenyan missonaries.  David and Cynthia

Raising the Roof!

To all our beloved family and friends… Greetings from Africa!

I hope this post finds you in love with Life and prosperous in doing the will of the Lord. Though things are moving at warp speed here, we sure do miss all of you and hope to hear from you soon.

 This weekend will be our first Harambe (fund raiser) for chairs. We have been renting chairs and each Sunday we have more and more people coming. We simply don’t have enough chairs to accommodate them. Should you feel a desire to help us out… each chair cost about eight U.S. dollars apiece. If you can’t help financially, please pray this Sunday for a successful Harambe!

We have been very busy for the past 5 weeks working on our gathering place as we hope to show through the many pictures in this post. Our Father has been so faithful to supply just what we have needed and at exactly the time we needed to continue working each day.

So many things have been happening here in Nakuru, but we want the focus of this post to show the progress we’re making on our new meeting place. Every day there are people stopping by the job site to tell us how beautiful the compound looks. It is so encouraging and I think you will agree.

For those who would like a more detailed explanation and pictorial story of that progress and our humble beginnings… go to the pages above this post and follow the progression or check out the picture albums here.

First of all… thanks to the financial gifts of our brethren back home in the States and the hard work of our members here, we have been able to continue building for the last five weeks. We are almost finished with youth class room, caretaker’s room, and the roof of our forty by forty main building. We can retire our tent to use for evangelism later this year. More about that later! So here we go....

 

Here we are working on the youth classroom and just starting to put up the poles for the main sanctuary.

Remember… there are no electric or power tools being used of any kind on this project. Everything is done by hand. Here the brothers are punching holes in the iron straps to bind the poles together. All bent nails are straightened and used again.

After the poles are set in the ground, the top plate is attached so that the six 40 foot, three hundred pound trusses can support the iron sheet roof.

 

The most challenging part of the roof construction was structurally designing the first truss to support the weight of the iron sheet roof. Each truss weighed in access of three hundred pounds!

After completing all six trusses, we wrapped the joints with matted sisal rope, sanded and gave them a good coat of varnish.

Sometimes our boys came out and worked with us. This is Caleb and his father James behind him.

This is Lewis with his father Patrick beside him.

The next day while preparing to put up the trusses, I noticed a small puff of smoke behind the compound. I went to check it out and to my horror there was a full on brush fire blowing straight toward us.

We ran to the field and tried to put the fire out but it was moving too fast. We called out all the neighbors out and after forty minutes we finally got it under control. Thank you Lord!

Once the adrenaline dissipated from our fire fighting, we returned to the task of getting the three hundred pound trusses in place. The fifteen foot high gabled roof would serve three purposes. The first was to keep the heat from the sun on the iron roof up high enough to not be felt below. Second they only cost us about 15 American dollars each. Third … they look awesome!

That Sunday the church rejoiced at seeing the trusses up and the progress we had made that week.

Last week we began putting up the iron sheets thanks to some folks in California who lovingly gave enough for half the roof. California thank you so much.

That next Sunday we retired the tent and met for the first time under our new roof.

Yesterday we completely finished the roof… thanks to some folks in Tennessee who lovingly gave enough to cover the other half of our new roof. Tennessee thank you so much.

At the end of that day the first substantial rain came bringing in the much needed rainy season and answering our prayer to have the roof up before it rained. Lord Jesus… thank you so much.

May the Lord bless all of you who remember us in Kenya as we serve the church of our beloved Christ. Thank you for your prayers and offerings. Remember our chair Harambe (fundraiser) this Sunday. Much love and gratitude from us your sent ones to Kenya.

Dave and Cynthia