Appleseed Updates

School's Progress: Children's Lives Changing & Land Found

The school director, John, a Kenyan, asked me if we could stop by a villager’s home before returning to our hotel.  The home belonged to six children whom the school has been sponsoring.  John seemed to know that things may not be going well.  Sure enough, the absent step-father who was an alcoholic was, indeed, absent.  Further, the mother had become ill so the oldest daughter had taken her to the grandmother’s home and was nursing the mom there.  This left six children abandoned at home for days with the oldest boy only 10 years old.  It was easy to see how desperate the situation was just by looking at the palid, thin face of the youngest child: a two-year-old. “How have you been eating?”  John asked the older boy.  “I go to my neighbors and beg for a little flour and then make a porridge with it for my brothers and sisters,” he replied.  John went into action to make sure that the neighbors were given a little money to buy and prepare a real meal and look after these children for the next few days. These are the types of children that the school in Bikeke is not only looking after but providing a quality education for! To continue serving these needs, the school must have five acres of permanent land. We are currently looking at possible sites!

Posted via email from Roger Thoman's Posterous

Divine Safety Through Prayer

Nearly two years ago Brooks and I found ourselves surrounded by a gang of thirty angry, armed men in an African refugee camp.

We were visiting this Kenyan camp late in the day and had not realized that we had completely trapped ourselves in an enclosed, fenced-off area.  These were desperate, needy people and we were their targets: white people who probably had something of value that they could take.

Yet the crime (which normally results in severe bodily harm) never materialized.

There is no real explanation for how we walked through that crowd, escorted by our Kenyan friend, while her husband engaged the angry men in dialogue.

Truly, there is NO explanation for how they allowed us to walk away from them without pursuit… except the power of God through prayer.  Only later as our bodies and emotions were shaking did we realize that we had somehow been divinely escorted to safety.

I share this with you as a reminder that prayer matters.  The one thing we knew, beyond a doubt, was that this trip and our lives had been continually covered in prayer by our friends back home.  And as we return to Africa this month, we want to remain mindful that prayer matters—praying for one another matters—whether we are at home or in another country.

Please share your prayer requests with us also.  We take it seriously!

Our Prayer Requests for this Trip:

• For the safety of our team (three others will join us from the States to help with the training) and national leaders.
• For the Holy Spirit’s presence and leadership in all of the events taking place.
• Wisdom for the women’s center and the school/orphanage.

Your Prayers Needed Now

As we plan for our next trip to Africa, your prayers are the foundation that all of this work is built on!

We will be in Kenya supporting the work of the Women's Vocational Training Center.

We will be breaking new ground with leaders in Tanzania to equip these leaders to start new churches in this poor country.

We will be planning for an East Africa church planter's conference that will accelerate the training of leaders in the entire region.

Thank you for standing with us!

Hope Changes Everything

Just a little over six months ago in a tiny, rented room in Kitale town in western Kenya, a women’s vocational training center (Dorcas Hands) was started.  We opened with a few sewing machines, a couple of volunteer teachers, some materials and three students.  Today we have a professional tailoring teacher, a larger three-room facility in order to accommodate five new students, as well as the knitting machine, more sewing machines, and an overlock machine.  Christine, one of the first three students, is just about to graduate.  Elizabeth, the director of the school, reports that students “are celebrating and thanking me every day for coming up with Dorcas.”  She says the women are literally transforming before her not only physically, but spiritually and emotionally as well. 

Hope is a powerful weapon!  Christine (pictured) came to the school discouraged, worn out and with barely enough energy to eek out the strength to try to find a way to exist one more day for herself and her son.  At 35 years old, she was not only physically ill, but her husband had abandoned her, leaving her nothing.  She and her young son lived a marginal existence in a small room in someone else’s home, hoping to be able to obtain food in one way or another.   Little did she know how much God loved her or how much women on the other side of the world who had never even met her cared about her. 

Elizabeth reached out to her and asked if she wanted to learn the skill of sewing at a new school in town, Dorcas Hands.  Even though covered in shame and timidity, she responded to this outreach of love.  So with all of the courage she could muster and walking miles to get to the school, Christine showed up the first day and has never quit.  Day-by-day she has gotten healthier and stronger. 

Today she is a completely different woman than she was that first day.  She is learning who she is as a woman - independent, courageous and strong - glowing with health and vibrant with hope and faith for her future—yesterday she didn’t know if she would live through the day.  Today she is alive with her dreams about her future. 

You made it possible. 

Last Year's Miracle: an Orphaned Healed

An eight-year-old orphan in the village of Bikeke, Kenya needed a miracle.  Open sores had broken out on her body and were not healing.  Besides the pain from the disease, no local school would allow her to attend.  A neighbor offered to sponsor her to attend a private school, still she was shunned and refused  admittance.

Finally, she was brought to the school we partner with in this rural village.  They took her in, allowed her to attend classes, and daily the teachers and principal gathered to pray over this beautiful girl.  Within weeks the sores began to heal.  Within months her skin was nearly restored to normal.  Further, she has proven to be one of the top students of her class academically and is an example in her study habits to other students.  Her healing and progress has touched so many in that area.

God is good!

School / Orphanage Still in Our Prayers

We continue to pray about building the school/orphanage in the village of Bikeke, Kenya.  We are drawn to this project for some key reasons:

• The local church leaders and villagers have already started this project with no outside funding whatsoever. This demonstrates their commitment to this school/orphanage.
• They have a holistic vision to see their village and community transformed by the kingdom.
• We have developed real trust in the leaders involved.

When we came to visit the school/orphanage again in October, the students were prepared for our arrival with the songs they are singing in the following video!

ALSO: They shared with us a stunning testimony of an eight-year-old girl who was sent away from the public schools because her body was covered with open sores.  No one was able to diagnose the source of this problem that was so serious that no other school would allow her to attend.  They brought her to this school/orphanage where the teachers prayed over her every day.  Not only has her sores almost completely healed up, but she has proven to be the top student in her class!  

Women and Families: the Foundation for Church Planting

Elizabeth, one of our team leaders in Kenya, writes of the progress she has seen among women-leaders since Brooks was there in March sharing on marriage and family:

The married women continue to discuss their relationships with their husbands and how to effectively minister to their man.  The big question is how to meet his needs if you don’t even know what they are??  Thus, the last lessons we had with you on listening is really giving us so much wisdom as we practice really listening to our husbands and children.

The issues people face in developing healthy relationships with God and family are the same around the world.  Elizabeth writes:

"We also looked together at how to have a quiet time when its never quiet at our house.  In addition, we have been looking at our relationship with God and the issue of trust--am I learning how to trust.  Am I willing to let go of whatever is preventing me from trusting God completely and learning to simply obey."

These women understand well that healthy disciples and churches come from a life rooted deeply in God: "We recognize that founding our homes on God’s word is key to how He wants to work through us to reach and disciple others."

Read more here about the struggles of women, particularly widows, in Africa.

FIRST REPORT

When a Widow Dies -- the In-Laws Take All

It is not uncommon for a widow to have everything stripped from her by in-laws who have legal rights to all that she owns when her husband dies.

Here is a typical African story illustrating the need for providing special training for women in need:

"Joan is a single mother, raising her kids alone; her husband died 5 years ago. Whatever her husband left her, the brothers-in-law came and took. Everything that had belonged to Joan and her husband was removed. They left her only a bed. The inheritance laws allow this to happen.

Joan has struggled on her own trying to support her children. Her desire is to learn tailoring and dress making which she believes will be a great skill for her.  This will allow her to get a job and begin to support her family. She desires to go to any school where she could learn a skill but, to this point, has been unable to afford to. "

We are working with Kenyan leaders right now who are putting together their proposal for a Women's Vocational Center that will provide widows like Joan with a skill and the opportunity to care for her family.

Your prayers are so appreciated right now for wisdom in setting up an effective and sustainable plan as well as for the needed resources!

Read more here about the Women's Vocational Training Center Project: Download WVTC_Overview

Local Leaders Reproducing Leaders

How can we see more people reached and lives transformed with the grace and power of Jesus Christ? Multiply disciples, churches, and leaders.

After we left Kenya, Dawson (Kenyan) began inviting groups of church planters from other countries to his home for several days of training.  They will return to their county and begin planting simple churches.  Dawson is following the same leadership-training pattern he saw us do when we invited a team from the Congo to his home in Kenya for training.  Just recently Dawson hosted a group of eight leaders from Uganda and he hopes to provide this type same of training monthly to others.

Steven, from the Congo (pictured), is following a similar pattern.  He has people coming to his home town from three different areas for several days of training.  He expects each of them to return and begin reaching disciples and starting churches.

It is gratifying to see these young men, with hearts for the nations, enlarge upon the vision given to them.

You have helped us hand off this vision, and we are seeing wonderful things happen as God breathes life on it.

Liberty School in Kenya--Pray With Us

“An orphan, who has lost both parents to AIDS or post-election violence, is able to be cared for and receive a quality education that will lead to college.” 

This is the vision of Liberty School in Bekeke, a small, poor village in Northern Kenya. Because this school was started by church planters whom we have developed a relationship with, we are praying about helping this school’s vision become a reality.  Your prayers are needed as we take the initial steps of researching, setting up communication/accountability strategies, and discerning God’s purposes.

Here is a picture of the one-room school with some of its students:

How Can an Orphanage Be Self-Sustaining?

When a private school can provide an excellent education, then paying students can provide enough income to support the school including the cost of educating and caring for orphans.  This requires a decent facility, well-trained staff, good curriculum, and an effective administrator.  Once these elements are in place, the school/orphanage can be viable.  In addition, the support of the orphans can be augmented by a well-chosen piece of land that can produce regular crops.

Why We Are Excited About This Particular School in This Location?

We were very encouraged by the development of our leadership team in Kenya.  We want to see leaders who are demonstrating both character and ministry fruitfulness before working with them in these types of need-meeting projects.  We were not disappointed.  We spent quite a lot of time with one particular church-planter who is struggling to begin a school in Bekeke (a small village outside of Kitale).  We became very excited about this project for a number of reasons:

1. They started it with almost no resources—just their own heart, faith, and guts.
2. The school (and associated church) cares for and educates orphans (over 1/3 of the student body).
3. We have confidence in the leadership team
4. We believe that with a well-thought-out investment, the school can become both exceptional and self-sustaining.

This is the type of project and leadership team that we look for, thus our excitement.