Greeting everyone!!!

So sorry for the silence. It certainly isn’t because we don’t think or pray for you often. The truth of it is we have been so swamped with work and many other issues. There is so much to tell these days.

First, the best news is that we have FINALLY been accepted by the Government as a Charitable Children’s Institution (CCI). Thank God!! Also, we are in the process of adding three more beautiful children. The first is named Norman and he is 6 years old. Norman does not have a foot and also his right hand does not move. We are praying with God’s guidance and our love, we can help this precious one and perhaps even take him to the necessary Doctors for evaluation. The next little boy is named Isaac and he is 2 years old. Yesterday when we were in the slums  and we came across this little guy. His Mum died immediately after giving birth to him. We don’t even know who is taking care of him because he was simply left alone sitting without any clothes on the dirt. The neighbors say he is left there every day and he cries once in awhile because he is hungry. He appeared to be quite listless, severely malnourished and extremely under developed. He looks to be about 6 months old and he is two! He cannot even walk and just sits in the dirt all day long. Please pray God will open the door for us to help this sweet little boy. The third is a boy of 3 years, named Haran whom we are expected to meet today. The plan is that the children will first come to the home of the Thompson’s and stay with us until they improve before going to Neema home with the other children. We had done this with the twins, Peter and Jennifer and it seems to have worked well.  Neema house will then be full with 4 boys and 6 girls! The house couple, Morris and Josephine are doing so well. We truly thank God for them and their servant hearts.

In the end of April we had a children’s day on our property. We were expecting approximately 50-100 children from the Community to come. As it was we had just shy of 200 that day!  Our dear friend, Miss Kathy came with her puppet Timmy the Turtle and many other children’s games and activities. We planned on feeding them lunch of boiled eggs, bread, juice and fruit. Needless to say we were praying for the Loaves and Fishes Miracle as we knew we would have a shortage! All in all it was a very successful day and the children really seemed to enjoy themselves. Now when we drive through the community, we are met with so many smiling faces and waving hands! We plan on doing something like this every Holiday. We thank God that we were able to learn how to be more prepared next time!

We had to postpone our Mama’s meeting until the rains stop and the Mama’s were no longer out in their fields planting maize! They are so excited that we want to meet with them. We thought we would just introduce ourselves first and find out what areas we can help them with. We have thoughts of teaching, nutrition, first aid, AIDS awareness, etc. Josephine has a degree in Home Economics and is eager to put her skills to use by assisting the women in the Community.

A few weeks back we had a terrible scare. Brenda, our 11 year old fell backwards onto the cement.  She really banged her head and we believe she had a concussion for a few days. We monitored her carefully and prayed fervently for her. We had visitors here and they helped us with prayer and keeping a close watch on her. After about 5 days she was back to being Brenda again, happy and helpful! We thank God for being there through that difficult time.

We had a team from South Africa come and stay with us. They were such a huge blessing. All our children were so taken by them and we could just see and feel the special anointing that they were under. We had wonderful times of prayer and worship and even prophetic words were spoken. It was very hard and sad to see them leave. I think they will remain in our hearts and prayers which is comforting for us.

Mwikali turned 21 in April. We took her to Nairobi and then she and Moira stayed on alone to have a “girl’s night” out with a movie and dinner. They both were so blessed by that special bonding time.

We are happy to announce that the water tanks are up, the electricity is on and we have just been told that our water is totally safe for human consumption. We are very thankful to our supporter who was so generous to see that our children and animals have safe water to drink. We have enough availability of water that even when we expand, it will still be plenty!

A church in Belgium donated funds for us to “fix up” our pond and begin a fish project. We had the digger come in after it had gotten stuck in the mud! We now have made the pond deeper and shorter as well as cleared out some of the trees and flattened the ground.  We will try to raise 600 fish per year which will give the children a healthy source of protein and Omega 3.

Our Nephew, Nate has come to visit us and we have been having a great time with him. He and his wife, Danielle are hoping to come back and serve with Hope Homes for approximately one year. They are most welcome!

We cannot thank you enough for all your prayers and support. We have had many tough times since we returned in Dec. but through it all we continue to see God’s hand and mercy upon our lives. Please continue to pray for us for our health, finances and of course a new vehicle which we so desperately need. May God richly bless you.