So Lost

Hello again! Sorry I have "been so lost," as my Kenyan friends would say.

Yep, it has been a LONG time. I will do my best to catch you up and hopefully you will see WHY I got behind. And, as is my nature, I can't just jump in without filling in the blanks. As the blanks got bigger, the task seemed insurmountable! I have finally taken the plunge and decided to get back on track. So, here is my attempt at a quick summary of the past few months. But if you know me, you know there is no such things as a "quick" update. In as much of a nutshell as I can make it, here it is...

MARCH - As I was working with various orphanages, mainly haven on the Hill and Flomina, God began to reveal some things to me. While working with Flomina and seeing the desperate living conditions that the babies were in, we began to discuss ways to improve the situation. in researching and looking for better places for these babies to be transferred to, I discovered how few places are available for babies. Through there are hundreds of children's homes, very few of them accept children under the age of 3. So, along with several of the people I work with, I began to develop the idea of opening a place that would house these little ones from Flomina until they were old enough and well enough to transition back to the home. This plan would also allow the largest burden to be lifted from Flomina while they took time to get back on their feet and be prepared to take the babies back into their care.

During this time, I had also begun training the staff at Haven on the Hill to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on myself, as was the ultimate goal of that ministry. I LOVE those boys and love being a part of Haven, but it a very long, hard drive my home to there. The drive time is equivalent to driving from Houston to San Antonio, but it is a much more difficult drive - bad traffic, horrible roads. Anyway, Naomi, one of the caretakers, was taking on more responsibility in preparation for me going back to America for a few weeks. it seems God was also doing this as a means of freeing me up to move into other ministry areas He was opening up.


APRIL - I returned home to America to share the story of what God had been doing through His Cherished Ones and the the vision for where I felt the Lord leading in the future of HCO. I shared the idea of the baby house with the baord of HCO and some of our ministry partners. They were all very supportive of the idea and willing to participate.

Meanwhile, as I began to explore the idea it became even more clear to me that this was the direction the Lord was leading. Considering the huge number of orphaned and abandoned children in Kenya, it is appalling that there are not more homes for small babies. The visitation began to solidify and God began to lay out the specific plan for this ministry. (I will write more about that later.)

MAY - I returned to Kenya to begin the process of starting the home. I also had to work out a plan to do this while still meeting the commitment needs and involvement in Haven on the Hill, Heshima and Flomina.

The first step in starting the baby house was to find a house. You have to have a physical location of a house in order to begin the process of registering the home with the Kenyan government. Finding a house in Kenya is not as easy as it sounds. I will have to tell the story of how God led me to the house later. It is definitely a God-story! I found the house the last day of May.

JUNE - I signed the lease for the new house on June 1st. The rest of June was filled with....
* beginning the tedious registration process and learning the ins-and-outs of official Kenyan business,
* overseeing the renovations of the new house and preparation for moving in,
* working with the donors and boards members of Flomina Children's Home to resolve issued of the management of the home and devising a plan to rescue the children there (and that was a serious roller-coaster ride!!),
* hosting a constant stream of guests coming from the States to visit and serve with HCO. (I have had people with me every day since June 2nd and will have through August 3rd.) Busy times!

JULY - We moved into the baby house on July 1st. There were two guests here with me at that time. Lisa came mid-June and been working with me to help set up the home. It has been such a blessing to not have to do everything alone! Just having someone alongside me as I go to government offices, buy furniture, set up the house, making registration decisions, etc. is a huge help. Jackie was also here. She came the end of June and will be in Kenya for four months. She was with us for the first week to help with the moving transition and is now spending the month at Haven on the Hill.

This month has been filled with the tasks of getting a huge home ready for babies, hiring, setting up living quarters and organizing a staff to be ready to serve the babies, working with guests, and going through the daunting, chaotic, ever-changing, unpredictable registration process while dealing with a corrupt government hat holds no standards, except that of trying to get as much out of the people as possible and trying to delay their progress so that their actual work load is not increased. Needless to Say, it has been a bit of a stressful time.

But, God is faithful and His timing is perfect. it may not be what we want or expect, but He is sovereign and His ways are good.

The house and the staff are here and ready to go. We are eagerly awaiting the approval to accept babies into our home! There are so many out there that need a safe, clean, loving place to live!

As of Friday afternoon, we are finally seeing hope in the process. Our District Children's Officer told us that if we have specific babies identified and have another Children's Officer that will write a letter saying they want to place babies in our care, he will then release a letter giving us permission to accept them. This is a crazy way of getting things done and is unlike any other story I have heard. In fact, the majority of homes simply start taking in children without any official documentation. As I said, this is a crazy and unpredictable government.

Please pray for us as we wait upon the Lord and trust His timing in all things.