2015 Kenya

Our Kenya team consist of Duane & Sandy Oplinger, Kenny & Annette Shadday and Greg & Tamra Dozer. They left today (Thursday, June 18th) at 10:20 a.m. Please pray for travel safety and as they work with the Children of Promise in Kenya. We will keep you updated as we hear from them. They will return on Thursday, July 2nd at 5:15 p.m. via British Airways Flight BA289 at the international arrival in terminal 4. You are encouraged to go the airport and welcome them home.

We received an email that the team made it safe to Kenya but are missing 5 pieces of luggage mostly the VBS materials!

Barb.

Some communication difficulties with Cox so I loaded up the old gmail account. I am now on line and will send updates from here. Here is the first one.

Our trip started off smoothly with no real problems, at least ones we knew of. We arrived in Chicago and the British Airways people were excited to see us. They told us they had been looking for us and that the team needed to get checked in. We I thought is was Judy again and we were going to have to upgrade to the First Class sleeping births. Well, as it turned out they needed to re-check our baggage slips and passports. Kenny and Annette had checked 5 bags instead of 4 and they also needed to confirm that they had paid for the extra bag. The rest of the trip sailed through quickly and we arrived in Nairobi on-time. At least most of us. Kenny and Annette’s baggage were no shows at the airport. We met Faraj, our drive, that became of friend of ours during our last trip.

We finally got to the NEGST housing around 11:30 pm Nairobi time. We still had work to do to prepare for the talks on Saturday but we slept well until 6:30am. We had breakfast and devotions and met the other missionaries that were here. Kenny’s devotion was on the Heart and recalled our first visit 10 years ago. Satan is always trying to get in our way of giving our heart wholly to GOD so this time he took our bags. The good news is that Annette and Tamra are close enough in size to make things a little more comfortable for Annette. Kenny is on his own.

Rick and Diana Wilson both say hello to our Church Family. We traveled out to the School on a new highway that routed us by Daggeretti. It was smooth and fast. You all will not believe how much work has been done on the School property. We met old friends such as James the Headmaster of the School who was here in 2008 and 2010. Mwange and Simon are here also as well as Kamal, the person who has helped us with transportation. Kamal is a real friend over here. We also met friends that we only know over the internet, including Lydia, the Kenya coordinator for the Children of Promise. She was just married a year ago, has a baby daughter and organizes all the Children of Promise children.

Duane and Greg started the teaching on Financial Health using the SALT (Seven Areas of Life Training) program provided by Victorious Christian Living. We first taught the lesson entitled “I AM NOT GOD”. Afterwards we included the first segment on Marriage “TWO BECOME ONE”. The Kenyan problems are much the same as ours when it regards marriage. They have a really problem with infidelity, homosexuality and generally the breakdown of GOD’s design for us. This progam went over very well and some laughter. Duane finished it up today with the first Chapter in Financial Freedom. We had 58 people registered for the class, most of which were women and teachers. Lunch was exceptionally good. They cooked rice, beans, beef, and cabbage and it was great.

We were so blessed by the comments regarding the class. Most of the registrants indicated that they will be back next week for the final segment. There were questions afterwards and we gave them homework to start a budget. Most have not seen a budget in work so James and I am preparing a form that is specifically tailored to the Kenyan people. Attached is a picture of our students and James, the headmaster.

It looks like we will be doing a new concrete walkway for the school and completing “punch list” items for the school. Kenny was really looking forward to doing the picnic tables but it appears that will not be in our future at this point. We were able to visit the Nakumat (the Kenyan version of Wall Mart) and got all those precious items that we remembered from previous trips (red plum Jam, coffee, Imperial Leather soap). Tomorrow we are going to the Karen Church for a church service and then will prepare ourselves for the next three days of construction and VBS.

We feel your prayers every minute of the day. We ask that you pray for the luggage with some (most) of the VBS supplies to come in tomorrow. Please pray for the Kenyan people and the kids. Not much has changed over here since 2010 with lots of corruption, infidelity in marriages, breakdown of the families, alcohol and drugs. Please pray for Steve Haig and his health. He was on the first trip to Kenya for our Church.

We will update you every so often. Have a blessed day at Church. I have tried to send the picture but Windows 8.1 is blocking because it is out of country.

God Bless

NVBC 2015 Kenya Team

Hello Church Family!!!

First pour of concrete was done today for a wheelchair ramp to and from the cafeteria...Kenyan Style!!! Very hard workers!!! They hope to get the remaining pours done by this Saturday. We love you and miss you!!! Feeling your prayers every moment of every day!!! P.S. We will be checking on our bag again tomorrow!

Blessings to our church family!!! What was once lost is now found!!! After many attempts to call on my bag, we finally found out that it was at the Nairobi Airport under a different tag number!!!

As soon as the VBS Class ended today, Kenneth, Greg and myself raced (actually our driver drove)

1 1/2 hours to the airport to claim my bag! They wouldn't let Kenneth go in with me, which caused him to start praying!!! God was in control and two of the nicest and most helpful ladies guided me through where I needed to go. I was the only one there to claim a bag, so no line. She told me to find my bag and had me sign for it. I rolled my bag out of the door in all of about five minutes!!! Kenneth was waiting for me on the outside with the biggest relief on his face! All looks well in the suitcase and I now am prepared to go to the game park tomorrow for a much needed breathe of God's mercy and grace showing up in His creation!!! Thank you to my Brothers and Sisters in Christ for your love and your devotion to prayer!!!

We love and miss you all!!!

Annette

Your prayers are greatly appreciated here in Kenya. We let the Teachers and the kids at the school know that you were praying for them and our team. The last few days have been a real blessing. Since the last main update, Kenny and his construction team lead by Robert Mwungi have almost completed the wheel chair ramp. It will be legal in Kenyan terms but looks more like a skateboard ramp in our terms. Annette, Sandy and Tamra have been working with the kids teaching proverbs. These kids are just looking to learn at every chance they get. Their attitude is so good it is a pleasure being with them. Duane and I finished up the Financial Freedom class yesterday. We had another 40 local people and teachers attend. The response was exciting. We had some business people that attended and they really liked the plan that was laid out to them. Duane and I revised a budget planning sheet and debt tracking sheet to be better fit for the local people. James (the headmaster) and Lydia (the leader) were also involved with the development of the form. The students were excited to have something to start with. We will need to continue to pray that they follow through. Most were just happy that they may be able to find out where they spend their money and who owes them money.

We also made our Trip to Maasai Mara to take a break and observe God’s creation. All I have to say about that is found in Genesis Chapter 1. You will see what we saw when we get back.

Today we have Church and an outing with the kids that we support. We will be taking Mariam (Tom and Kathy Hill), Willie (Greg and Tamra), Lucy (Duane and Sandy) and Juliette (Kenny and Annette). The blessing is that Juliette is on leave from College and we were able to get hold of her to come on the trip. It is not like we just pick up the phone and call here.

Please continue to pray for us as we pray for you in the US. We heard about the Supreme Court decision and spoke about it with our friends here. Their opinion is that the US is heading in the wrong direction. When there used to be excitement for our President here in Kenya, there is now concern and apathy.

We will send another update out before we leave for home this Wednesday.

Kenya 2015 Team

The team arrived home safely. Here are some pictures taken while in Kenya: