Newsletter from Stephanie
What is the news at TGD Kenya? Wonderful things are happening. We were blessed yesterday with a visitor who prayed blessings over the current work and the future work. We are thankful to God that we are able to participate with Him in His Work.
Henry is our accountant and he has been doing a fine job. His salary is low (we raised him from 10,000 ksh or $130 from 3,000ksh or $39) but he works as if he is highly paid and very enthusiastic. He definitely needs another raise. His wife is Eunice, my favorite Cornerstone preschool teacher who has been diligent from the beginning. They have a son in the school, Ian. They also have a daughter in elementary named Linda. Eunice urges us to add to the children’s diet. In the morning they get gruel (just flour and water)and she says even an addition of sugar and especially milk would be appreciated. In the afternoon, they may have only rice, but some days they get beans—a very important protein. Some of these children have very poor diets at home. The parents are relying on the school to give the children meals. There are 130 children attending right now. I enjoy seeing them and waving at them each day. Today I will go over and give them each a “sweet,” which is a piece of candy. I purchased eggs for $13 so they can each have one egg for a meal. I asked about the purchase of corn to add to the beans—it would be $26. I cannot remember the price of the beans, but it was maybe $65 …working out to about $13 dollars each week to add another day of beans. It was not TGD money, but my money. We are going to have to cut the TGD offering to the preschool. We give them $400 a month but we need it for salaries. However, I am concerned that it could compromise preschool teacher salaries or the children’s food.
Henry Juma is now our foreman over the construction. He is a builder by trade. He is doing a great job. We have limited funds. I’ve asked him to even cut back the workers if I see them slack in work. We have not had all the materials we needed. Steve has bailed us out and sent more money; Praise the Lord for Dell jobs!
Anita did a lot of work in Illinois sharing with others about the great need here. She represents the church aspect of TGD. We have helpful projects under our umbrella of services. She collected amazing amounts for the work thanks to the generosity of her friends and family in Christ. We were able to purchase $300 worth of mosquito nets, 15 bikes for pastors, so many Swahili bibles and several sewing machines for women. She also fixed Titus’ car and other things I will need her to write about! She visited churches and has been teaching about marriage. Due to traditional customs here, many people are not schooled in biblical marriage and Anita has been doing a great work among the people that has encouraged their hearts and strengthened the families. The culture is truly transforming and people are hungry for the truth and the skills to improve their foundational relationships and their character.
Medine really ministered powerfully in her last days here and surely the Lord will bring her back again. People were healed and delivered and blessed and comforted. She also brought practical help in the form of eye glasses, Christian jewelry for sharing salvation messages, and she repaired the home of one precious pastor who suffered from the rains and the floods. His wife and children were displaced until repairs could be made. One entire wall and a portion of the roof washed away. Mud huts and floods don’t mix. Both Medine and Anita will have to write a letter to the general TGD family so that we can hear their own testimony of all that God was doing and all they were able to give. I loved ministering to the body of Christ with these beloved sisters of mine! What a tremendous joy! Here we were 20 years later in Africa together! God is so good!
There has been so much legal work here. I am busy making decisions all day long. I don’t think I could have managed even five years ago. And I praise God for the training God gave me in applying to graduate school and working towards that goal. Creating, writing and presenting research has been a good preparation for many things I am doing now. Even the decisiveness required was something I struggled with a decade ago. How good God is to prepare us for great things! I am amazed at the work God does through me. It is truly impossible. I know my character. I can be so weak. Yet God is so powerful here and I go to bed at night and I say, “Wow! Was that me? Thanks, God!” You would think I am used to being an executive like Steve. I am proud that I have always stayed keyed into all that Steve is required to do and know because even supporting him through many challenges of the past seems to have prepared me to face them. I do not mean to boast in myself. For heaven’s sake, YOU GUYS KNOW ME! I have little to boast of! But I can boast in the amazing work of God and I declare that He can do it through you, too. If I can do this stuff, anyone can. It is so challenging and always changing—but I do love that! I am not one for boring. This is all anything but mundane and boring.
But there are challenges, like the waiting and the never ending lack. Things don’t work. There are barriers to everything you try. You cannot expect anything to be sure. It can wear you down. Still, this sort of ambiguity is truly something God built in me to tolerate. And God sent someone to do my dishes and my laundry. Ha ha!! Thank you, Jesus! So I have to really sacrifice here due to heat, food, bathroom facilities, technology—these are nothing. Now the roaches really threw me for a day or two—but I am back on track and fearless! Gas prices are obnoxious as well and roads are unpleasant. The roads don’t bother me much but I know Anita finds them challenging, yet Medine didn’t mind the heat one bit. Each of us has our own priorities for comfort, but this is not a place for comfort. The flesh suffers, but the soul soars! The work here is so plainly good and Godly that you lay down at night with joy and peace. Such a satisfaction that is amazing. Like when you have put your crying baby to sleep peacefully; you lay down with joy and sleep soundly as well. Like when you have finished a large project, not just with excellence, but on time and under budget. Pleasure of the soul! It is worth a life of good food and a/c in a castle. It is like being loved fully.
I have worked to make many videos and pictures. I have done so many that I am tired of working them. They definitely interfere with relationships. Very uncool. But important, and so I do it. I have a great video of our employee Catherine who is a great model of what God is doing here. I have a great video of our foreman, Pastor Henry Juma who also oversees three churches. One of the workers is named Clement and he had no job but now he is so grateful to be feeding his family. He has been able to invest in tools for future jobs. I have people come to me interested in working for us. I pray I can employ them. I am relying on you. We need funds over here to pay for the equipment, supplies, and workers. The blessings here spill out onto families so that if you could see each worker go home at night, you would see how many he has gathered around his table. His salary may feed 10 people each night since the ones without work come to family members who are able to feed them. Even though what we give him is meager in our eyes, we multiply it greatly. They live on such a low standard that their costs are low. The staple foods are ugali, rice, or chapti. Even one orphan, Gladys, would have sweet potatoes in the morning with her tea. I asked one house girl what she ate in the morning. She said she liked to have tea when she could afford it. She has three children, 12, 8, and 6. She is 30 years old and makes $26 a month working 7 days a week for 12 hours a day. She scrubs the entire floor of Titus’ house daily with a rag. I bought her a sponge mop. It did not agree with her. I bought her a string mop (whatever you call it.) and she likes that one. She was using a rag and bending over wiping. It makes me cringe. I bought them something like a Lysol equivalent. She loves it! She cleaned the whole kitchen and even was going into closets to get old stains off walls. They were amazed when I showed them how well windex works on mirrors since they clean them with plain water. I was buying cleaners so that I could see what I would use in the hospital and in a house where I live with orphans (God willing and I believe He is!)
Okay, so I thought I would do a newsletter and this is just really a blog, right?! I am here with no other natural English speaker. I usually need to blab for an hour at least every third day. There is no blabbing here. Who would understand me? I have to phrase my sentences differently because of the order of their sentences. I must speak slowly and distinctly. It is best if I can use an English sort of accent and pronounce the second to the last syllable on every word. (I say aLARM, they say ALarm) They describe things differently here. I will think of an example conversation and write one later. I often speak differently when preaching. I sort of wish I had a video of my preaching, but then I would have to look at myself (loathsome!) and would end up with criticism rather than trust. I know God uses me. I know I speak His Word. That is all I need to know. Even my video on YouTube from my first day in Western Kenya is a video showing the trees and you can hear some drums beating. I had met Titus and was already using my slow clear language for clarity. It cracks me up. But it also is challenging to speak carefully all day every day and know that people still may not fully understand what you said.
There is so much I want to tell. Too much. One of our orphans is a girl of 12. Her grandmother makes her go find men to give her money so the grandmother can buy alcohol. We know what that means. The girl is asking the pastors to help her. She is ashamed. I wish I could save them all. I hope I can provide her a home here where she goes to school and is CARED FOR rather than being used.
Our projects are mainly: The building, the hospital/clinic, and the computer lab. The computer lab is almost here. What seemed impossible is now soon to be here. Now the hospital and orphan home seem impossible—Let them come! The building is not on time and under budget—it is way way over budget. I think it will end up 125,000 instead of 75,000. We had already adjusted to 100,000 but the timber is more and the metal is more. There is still a long way to go before we can get that first floor operational but we need TWO operational floors. I need an autoclave. Frank found a 15 liter one for $500 and there is a 40 liter ($7000) and a 75 liter ($11,000.) I must have an autoclave. We need more diagnostic equipment but I am so excited that they really have several programs in place here to help. Thank you, Bill Gates, Thank You, USAID, Thank You World Vision, Thank You to so many generous donors who see the critical need here on this continent and are rising to the challenge of dispensing aid and care. We have come to provide jobs as well because not everyone wants a handout. Our people are diligent! They work so hard! They have great dreams and visions.
I think God may do a miracle and send us the money we need—and perhaps the building will get done miraculously in record time. But even if God does not do a miracle, He has given me peace that the work will be completed. The building will get done, the shipment will come, and we will open the building at some point. If we cannot get support for a hospital, we will just use the materials we have until we run out. I hope that you will think it is important enough to invest in. I just got the good news that we can use a 2nd septic system to dispose of placentas and other biohazardous waste. Hooray! We did not want to put it in the ground near water wells!
I also got the bad news that the plot we wanted to purchase for the TGD Services (FOR profit consulting to fund our projects) is half owned by a church that purchased the land rather than having leased it. They do not want to give up their land (understandable.) The remaining plot is too small. We will need to look for another place to put the building. It is discouraging because we have spent so much time looking in various areas. But I know it will work out over time.
Each day I work with various people here. Pastor Joseph investigated the orphans and has identified 22 children that he feels are in great need and at great risk. Even now, he and Catherine are in the office with me working through all the profiles I have made. I have tried to get a picture and a video of each child, plus general information on their age, who they live with, what they want to do when older. I met so many just trying to get a feel for their circumstances. It is hard work. Very hard on the heart. I cannot save everyone, yet I want to help them so much. I worked with Gladys for her health and for Cynthia. Mary has been a favorite –Laura is supporting her. Pastor Joseph told me today that he saw her yesterday after she’s had a few days treatment of the medicine I purchased for her (we have no orphan fund so I am just buying these things myself.) She was much improved, happy, and she had gone back to school. He said she looked like a different person.
So right now Catherine and Joseph are working on my computer (I am on Walter’s) and making a computer record of the notes I made and creating the profile out of the notes. They are matching the photos and videos to the profiles. That way Frank can create orphan pages on the website. It’s hard work. There are many pieces to organize and put together. How satisfied I will be when I see people called to serve these helpless ones! All this work will pay off, I am sure.
Pastor Steve is working on hospital administration, so each day I have given him tasks as we prepare for something we’ve never done. We’ve made hospital visits and spoken with doctors. We’ve spoken with government officials in health. We are working to keep the building up to code for a clinic. I have him checking with the head medical guy to try to get us a government funded doctor and two nurses. They offered partial funding. Anything is welcome! I can’t imagine paying those salaries myself!!
Pastor Stanley created the schedule (along with Pastors Steve and Joseph) for a ministry itinerary for Anita, Medine, and me. I have had to cancel most of them since Medine left in order to be available to the TGD workers and direct the work. Frank, Walter, Joseph (not Pastor Joseph) and Catherine teach classes twice a day. Henry is our accountant and he manages much of the work for the building. Again, he is a great blessing and easy to work with. He is very diligent.
Frank, Walter, and Joseph are designing changes for the website, too. I’ve told them anything is welcome! Caribu! (“welcome!” –an all purpose word in swahili, here meaning, “Come and do it, Yes!)
Pastor Henry Juma is in charge of the building itself and he is often seen on top of the building. I am so eager to see them pour that concrete for the second floor! We’ve got to close in that first floor for storage. If the worst happens, we can always use upstairs church offices for the stuff. There were four workers when our funds were low. There are 12 workers right now. When the concrete pouring comes, there will be 30+ workers, even 60? It is very laborious manual work and we will need many day laborers. I wish I could easily load photos, but it is too slow here. I have to wait maybe one minute for a page to load. It sure makes you loathe to click something! Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait more. Start to get impatient. Remind yourself to stop it. Wait more. Wait. Here is comes…..YES! okay, now click again. Wait wait. Wait. You get the picture. That is why I am writing this on a Word Document so I can just select all and paste it into the blog. Just getting to the blog takes forever, posting takes forever. And sometimes we run out of electricity here.
One really cool thing is that the Apostle (or Bishop) who came yesterday spoke that anyone who stole anything from me would suffer. Money would run away from them. Ruin would come to them. He told me he doesn’t believe in thieves. I love that! It is scary seeing all your money going into something that people just carry off. Like all of our wood. It is so expensive! But they cook by fire here. There is the never ending chore of daily water collection and daily firewood collection. That is on top of laundry, cooking, dishes, working, homework, etc. It’s a hard life. But this is how man has lived for centuries. The work is not the hard part. It is the sickness. It is the broken families. AIDS just kills so many people here. So many families without their primary caregivers. Men get jobs away from home to send money home—and this puts them at risk for HIV behaviors. The terrible thing is how easily HIV transmits between man and woman here. This could destroy even the USA. I think the globe has caught onto that and so they come here to try to stop the transmission—but preaching condoms doesn’t work. They need abstinence preaching. Condoms still allow body fluid transmission. They break. Another thing is that the ignorant will reuse their condoms over and over. Even when they are broken, cracked, ripped, etc. Because they have been taught the condom protects them—and that is a lie. And it is NO HELP in the way they are using it. Men bring it home and infect their wives. Parents die. Even so many high school girls have sex and get pregnant. They leave that baby with a grandma. They may die from AIDS because they are sexually active. Several of these orphans lost a parent to AIDS. Some mothers have abandoned them. Some have their mothers but there is no one helping an unemployed woman to make ends meet. Some are abused. Some are loved. Gladys is loved! But her mother never took her to the doctor and she could have died from infection. She was near the septic stage. Gladys has her natural mother and her mother loves her very much. You can see how much Gladys loves her mother and hangs on her proudly. Still, Gladys does not get washed. She sleeps on the dirt floor. Any aid to her will go to the mother or the other siblings who are older and stronger. Yes her mother loves her, but the care is not good.
It has been fun speaking with the computer students. They are so encouraged and hopeful. They are so thankful that we give them free education. They do not have jobs. They are investing their time here and hopeful for the future. Some of them clearly have potential. I am believing great things for them!
The lawyer is horrible. We paid him $2000 for nothing. Now he wanted another 500 but he is lying.
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