Wow! It’s been long since I did an update
for everyone.
I can’t believe that it’s almost the
end of 2012. And no, not the end of the world, just the end of 2012. :-)
So much is going on at In Step. We have 121 children now and we have three
major building projects: dorm, school and clinic.
The
In Step Children
A few weeks ago, we were at 120
children but went down to 119 children. One of our younger children, Larry, was
fostered out through the children’s office by a Kenyan couple who couldn’t have
children. From what we know, they are a
nice couple and totally fell in love with Larry.
Just a few days after Larry left, we
got a call from the children’s office that there was a two-week old baby that
had been found on the side of the road in a village. Carla went and picked him
up and he was named Nathan, after our visitor Nate who had been staying here.
A week later, we got another call
that there was a two-day old baby at the CPU (children’s protection unit –
through the local police station). Sean and I picked the baby up that evening
from CPU and kept him overnight at our house.
His name is Raymond, also named after a guy staying at In Step right
now.
Baby Raymond was SO tiny. He didn’t
have a diaper on and so his pajamas were completely soaked through with urine.
That was all I could smell when I picked him up. I put a diaper on him (even the newborn size
diapers were too big for him), put a onesie on him, wrapped him in a new
blanket and brought him home. Sean and I
gave him a bath as he still smelled like urine.
He slept a lot and only woke up to be fed. He did not like having his
diaper changed as it meant you had to move him from his comfortable, fetal
position. J He was a pretty easy baby for that one night;
he had his last feeding before 11:00 pm and didn’t wake up until 6:00am. We
were impressed, especially with him being just two days old.
The next day was ladies’ bible study
at our house and all the ladies were lovin’ on him. Sean was not happy with
having to share Raymond with all the ladies. I don’t think Sean ever wanted to
let him go but he had to as Carla was taking Raymond to In Step with her after
bible study.
So, we sit at 121 kids right now.
Who knows what the number will be next week. :-)
Our school age kids are also off of
school. They completed their school year last week and are off until the second
week of January. We, the staff, have put
together a chore rooster/schedule for them. When you have 26 children off of
school and needing things to do (to stop boredom and trouble from finding
them!), we knew we had to keep them somehow busy. We’ve divided them into
teams, assigning a team leader and two kids to that leader. The leader is to make sure that their team is
in their appropriate station and helping to work for the time frame.
The chores include: cutting the
grass, helping in laundry, helping in the kitchen, looking after the cows and
cleaning/sweeping up the compound. They do the chores in the morning until
lunch time and after lunch; we have fun-time planned with them.
Some of the things they are doing in
the afternoon are: having separate girl/boy time with us, learning to
needlepoint, playing soccer, having bible study, sitting under a tree and
reading and having movie appreciation time where they watch a movie and then
questions are asked, lessons learned, etc (you all know who’s leading that
one!).
The
Building Projects
The dorm just had its second floor
cement laid and right now it’s curing (strengthening – I don’t know) for the
next month. We still need major funding
for it to be completed. This is also the future home of Sean and me.
The school is being built classroom by
classroom. We had about $8,500 raised toward the school from various people,
including The Piano Studio in Newmarket, ON and so we’ve been able to build two
good size classrooms thus far.
The clinic is ALMOST complete. We
just need about $20,000 more to finish it.
It’s just the little stuff now: tile, paint, bathroom fixtures,
electrical, etc.
The
Kenya Election
Most of you may not know but the
Kenya presidential election is to be held on March 4th, 2013. As
many of you do know, the previous Kenyan elections did not go very well and it
was made known all over the world.
We ask everyone for prayer. It’s a sensitive time for the country,
starting now. There are changes that the
government has made and most of the Kenyan people aren’t even aware of it.
Also, the presidential candidates
have to register on December 4th (subject to change as nothing ever
really seems to stick to the original plan when it comes to the government) and
two of the probable candidates are on trial with the ICC currently (due to 2007
election violence). The High Court in Kenya has to rule if the two are going to
be eligible to run in the elections due to them being on the ICC trial. This
decision has to be made by the end of this month. If it is ruled that these two possible
candidates can’t run, we could see some issues arise as they are two very
popular people to be running for the presidential seat.
We don’t know how the 2013 elections
will be but we have been advised by our embassies (US/Canada, etc.) to be
cautious and take all necessary precautions.
We hear different sides: 1) no, there won’t be violence because the
Kenyan people learned their lesson from the 2007 elections to 2) of course
there will be violence; nothing was fixed after the previous elections.
We are preparing here at In Step as
well as personally for the possibility of things not running entirely smoothly.
We are beginning to stock up on things that we’ll all need, especially in case
of road closures and us not having access to things being delivered into our
town (groceries, fuel, phone and internet credit, propane, etc.).
As the US Embassy said, “Prepare for
the worst, hope for the best.”
Prayer
Requests
Here is a list of things that you
all can pray for:
- Funding for the school, dorm and clinic to be completed. These are all necessities.
- Sponsoring of the kids. You can sponsor a child for as little as $10 per month. Please visit the website (www.rehemainstep.com) for pictures and stories of the kids.
- Wisdom for the Kenyan High Court as they make their decision and do what is best for the people and the country.
- Wisdom for the Kenyan people to express their frustration with the elections (and whatever it may come to be) in a healthy way and not a repeat of the 2007/2008 violence.
- Safety and wisdom for all of us missionaries on the ground and for our homes and projects during this tension filled time (this is especially important over the next few months).
- Prices not to escalate too high (or at all – since it’s already expensive) so that we can all stock up on necessities in preparation.
- That the right president will come into place in Kenya and that he will be a president who is for the people and this country and not for the corruption and self-fulfillment that has hindered here for so long.
Much Love,
Meredith
