Hello from Kenya! It was another good, although exhausting, day! We drove around alot today — meeting people and picking up some trees, bushes, and bags of corn. We also visited the home of a mother of 14 and grandmother of 5 — all of whom live with her. She is destitute – no land and no decent income to support her family since her husband left her. Pastor Steve and Mary have made sure two of the kids are in the Camp Brethren school and hope to take in some more next year. Right now all of their classes are full. This kind of story really shows the need for more classrooms at the school. David’s Hope has committed to raising the funds to build at least one new classroom a year until they are able to serve preschool – eighth grade. We have 4 more classrooms to go, but it is clear to me that we could build them all tomorrow and have them full the next day. The school is such a great refuge for these children to learn and get two meals a day. They also have a daily chapel service and learn about Christ. It really is giving these kids, and their families, the “hope” that David’s Hope was created to give.

As many of you know, last year David’s Hope furnished the maternity ward with beds, and babies in Eburru are now starting to be born outside their homes under medical supervision in a clean environment. This is a major step forward and reduces maternal and child mortality. In the last three months, there have been 17 deliveries. In May, three deliveries were a bit more complicated than medical workers at the clinic could handle and so the women were transported the 35 KM to a hospital in Naivasha for C-sections. If not for the medical personelle at the clinic, these women would have died. Unfortunately, the women had to be transported to the hospital by motorbike….at night….with no drugs…while in labor. As a result, one of the babies was stillborn. Camp Brethren was recently gifted with $7,000 to go toward the purchase of an ambulance. Initially, I did not understand the need for this gift, but now being here and hearing their stories I see what a blessing an ambulance could be. The total cost of an ambulance is $15,000, so we’re almost half-way there.

The ambulance is just one of the goals I discussed with Steve, Mary, Jonathan, and George. We had a marathon 3.5 hour meeting to discuss their strategy and vision for the ministries in Eburru. One of the short-term goals they are very excited about is furnishing a library with computers for the children. This will be a focus for David’s Hope in the coming months. It has the potential to impact not just the school children, but also the larger community as internet access is extremely rare. We laid out short-term, medium-term (2-5 yr), and long-term (5 yr +) goals for the school, orphanage, health clinic, and sustainability projects. There are so many potential ways to help impact the people of Eburru physically and spiritually. So we’re picking up that conversation again tomorrow. I have lots more to report, but I’ll save some of it for Sunday when I’ll be sharing about my trip at our David’s Hope meeting. It is open to anyone who wants to come hear about what God is doing and how we can help — Sunday, 2pm, 312 Wesmond Drive, Alexandria VA 22305.

Thank you all for your prayers! Please keep them coming — Pastor Steve and Mary are clearly not on their own power but on God’s!
Have a glorious day,
Scott