I (Meredith) was hoping that I would be able to blog every day on this thing but the past few months have been busy with moving, TI stuff and not having internet at our new home. Thankfully, we do now!
Veronica Home
The first big exciting news is that we opened up our Veronica Home on April 30th of this year. The Veronica Home was named after our sweet little Veronica Bahati that passed away on July 14th, 2009 from HIV/AIDS. The Veronica Home is mainly for children that are HIV+. We currently have eight children in the home; some are not HIV+ but have been moved there from another home. We do have three children that are positive; they are: our sweet little Martin, whom you all (or at least those who have read past blogs) know about, our newest girl, Lillian and Lina.
The children have wonderful house parents that TI has been working alongside with for almost two years; we have a new aunt who the kids have immediately loved and new watchmen that are taking good care of watching over our kids.
It’s a wonderful place; the area is beautiful and it has a gorgeous view of Mount Elgon.
Stewart Home
Sean and I moved in to our new house on May 2nd. We decided that we needed to have our home, being newly married (almost a year and a half now!). It is such the perfect place for us. It’s a four bedroom, three bathroom home that sits on a cute little compound with flowers and banana trees everywhere. We have this huge cabana made of a grass roof and straw and bamboo sides. We have a cool carport....that is empty. We hope to at least put a motorcycle in it in the future.
There is a bedroom and bathroom off to one side of the house that has its own entrance. That is where James sleeps. James used to live at Kaibeiyo Children’s Home (through Symbios), the home that Daniel and I used to work at in Eldoret a few years ago. We’ve hired him on to be our daytime watchman/gardener; it’s a job that will help him to save money for his schooling of agriculture in the next year or so.
The other side of the house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. One room we’ve made into an office; the second room is a guest room for our friends like Nicole Jeffs (who’s coming in July) and the Stawskis...who I know will be back again soon. The third bedroom is Sean’s and mine. It has an ensuite bathroom with a nice bathtub. Yes, I love it!
It’s a new chapter in our life, having a home of our own now. It’s expensive but it’s quiet, clean and ours to come to every night.
Busy Summer
We have a crazy busy summer this year. There are four teams of people from New York State who will be housing and eating at TI. They are building a children’s home for a friend of ours over the next eight weeks. Danel, Daniel’s mom, is here to help the TI Staff with the teams.
The first team of 13 arrives this coming Saturday (26th), then as they leave on the 10th of July, the next group of 10 will be arriving. Then two weeks after that, team two will be leaving and team three of 17 people will be arriving. And then as team three leaves, team four of 9 people will be arriving. This team rotation all ends on August 21st. Also during the second week of July, we have a team of 9 coming, who are with TI, for 10 days. It’s going to be a crazy few weeks during that time.
Internship Program for 2010
After the teams leave on August 21st, we have about two weeks to relax and prepare for our 2010 Fall Interns. We have seven interns, all female, who will be a part of the three-month internship program. We have three from Ontario, Canada and the other four are from various parts of the US. We’re really excited to have these young ladies here in the fall, especially Danel and I as we get to spend time with them, grow with them, learn with them, etc. I’m really excited about it.
Ladies Bible Study
I, Meredith, am part of a weekly bible study with other missionary ladies in the Kitale area. It’s been such a wonderful time for all of us ladies. We get together each week and it’s become one of my favourite days of the week, to be around other women, sharing in our passions, our struggles, and our praises. We’ve already done two bible studies, both by Beth Moore (whom we all thoroughly enjoy) and will be starting our third Beth Moore study soon.
Man’s Nights
Sean and a group of other men in our community, get together every few weeks and a have a night together. They usually cook up some meat (and that’s all!) on the BBQ, sit back and enjoy each other’s company. It’s really been a great time for him too; it’s so important to have those times together.
Rachael
On Friday, I (Meredith) went to the hospital to check up on a seven year old girl, Rachael that TI has been assisting for the past few months. Rachael was visiting the section of the hospital for HIV+ people. Rachael got HIV from her parents, whom have both since died and she was being raised by her grandmother.
Rachael was a sickly girl; the “typical” girl that you would see as the poster child for starving African children on the infomercials. I’ve never seen her smile; until Friday. I was getting ready to leave and I walked over to her and told her in Swahili that she was such a beautiful girl and she did good work today here at the hospital and that I was very happy. And as she was strapped to her grandmother’s back, I leaned over and gave her a big kiss and told her that I loved her. It was then that a little smile appeared, on the corner of her mouth. I couldn’t help but beam back; Rachael had smiled.
We had made arrangements for Rachael to move in to the Veronica Home this week. I was so excited to get her there, for her to have a swarm of brothers and sisters around her who would share things with her, make her laugh. For her to have a mother and father who would take care of her and love her instantly. For her to have a full happy belly and a warm bed to sleep in.
This is what I wanted for Rachael. But it wasn’t what God wanted....
Rachael went to be with Jesus yesterday afternoon.
So she now has a swarm of people, like Veronica, who are making her laugh; she has a Father who loves her more than any mother or father on earth could love her. And she is healthy, whole and loving every minute of it.
I guess this is what I wanted for Rachael....it just came in a different form.
We are saddened by her death but live in the comfort that she is not in pain anymore and that she is with our Father. Death has been such a close to home thing lately, for us, for some of you back home....but I trust in God’s peace; His love and His absolute comfort. His ways are far beyond our understanding at times but I choose to seek more of Him, to desire Him and to have faith in Him.
And so it continues....
I am hoping to become more disciplined on writing updates. Life is never boring, especially after the runaway tuk-tuk story.....which I’ll save for another blog.
Until next time,
Meredith
1 comments:
yay for blog updates! i know i know, i see you often but since you have so much going on, sometimes it helps to just see it written out. im in tears reading about rachel. you have such a tender and beautiful heart in how you tell stories. love you!
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