Signs...Signs...everywhere Signs...

As you walk through Kitale... you happen upon the most fascinating signage...many of my favorite are 'Butchery' shops with the coolest names...actually ANY  word, along with the word 'butchery' becomes strangely cool..

GET READY KITALE !!!!! CHRIS is BACK !!!

My first introduction to CHRIS WOHLERS was through Allison Hibbard...she invited him in '08 to work in Kenya with Oasis of Hope and Sister Freda and Discover to Recover and Purpose Driven Academy.

It now seems like I've known Chris most of my life...

He's on Jake's top 10 list of servant-hearted leaders...

Kyle, DIGS Chris' energy and humor...and

Caroline has now beaten Chris in 34,257 consecutive games of ping pong...

In our family...that's the TRIPLE CROWN.

Chris is the head of our SUMMER LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE in Kitale for the next 3 months...22 university-age Christians, living and serving Christ in the RIFT VALLEY of western Kenya.

drop-in centers...hospitals...schools...group homes...feeding centers...churches...prisons...
Chris has demonstrated the heart, the capacity, and the character to 'serve by example' this summer. It will be a challenge, for sure...these folks arrive from extremely different backgrounds and life goals...a sheriff, a nurse, a teacher, students from BIOLA and WESTMONT and CAL BAPTIST and CSUF...  
Chris just arrived on the Kitale campus...so glad to be through this semester...and so glad to see his Kenya colleagues.

PLEASE PRAY FOR CHRIS WOHLERS as he learns leadership while he practices it...it's a grand experiment and I can't wait to see the results.

follow Chris' team this summer at kitaleleadershipinstitute.blogspot.com

SCOUTS at OASIS of HOPE

Boy Scouting and Girl Scouting are ALIVE and THRIVING in OASIS OF HOPE...a program for the street kids of Kitale, Kenya.

These street kids are run-aways, stay-aways, and throw-aways from across the RIFT VALLEY ...from age 4 to 14... who live in a desperate world of hunger, glue fumes, illness and homelessness.

But programs like Oasis Scouting bring a deep sense of pride...of teamwork...of discipline...of accomplishment...to a big group of children who could really use an encouraging influence in their lives.

Under the watchful eyes of Joseph and Geoffrey...these kids are gaining social and interactive skills that are in sharp contrast to the skillset that comes from life on the streets of Kenya.

They also learn to work TOGETHER through projects, games, outings and exercises.
The contrast between their street attire...years old and never washed...and their crispy clean and ironed scouting outfits is a symbol of their contrasting worlds...

But that is what OASIS of HOPE is all about...bringing Christian LOVE and action together ...rather than just grieve for the plight of Kitale's 'glue boys' ....they actually reach out EVERY DAY with food and education and mentoring and HOPE... Jesus didn't say 'feel bad for your neighbor' ...he didn't say 'open your eyes' about your neighbors...He said LOVE your neighbors. 
When the life skills and values that are taught in SCOUTING catch hold in the life of an orphan from the mean-streets...the results are life changing...

doubt that?

Look at the pride in the face of this young scout ...
Susie Kissling, a friend of mine, made the simple CHOICE to become an ADVOCATE  for homeless street kids by investing her heart in scouting at OASIS...she's a real life hero.

 

REACHING BEYOND OURSELVES WITH THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD's LOVE.

Want to know more? 

E-mail Oasis founder Lydia Monroe at oasisofhope@mac.com

CANNONBALL !!!!!!

Among the rites of passage in American life...learning the 'cannonball' is as important as it gets...

Skip this key step of life development and you risk huge consequences that may play out in bizarre adult behavior...

The essence of the cannonball is the 'splash'...guys like John Candy, Will Farrell, and Chris Farley...all mastered the technique...you double up in a tuck and get as many people wet as you possibly can...

Some can do a cannonball...some simply can't...

Twiggy can't...

Mick Jagger never could...

Hilary Clinton...sorry...no way

Now some folks go through life with alternatives to the cannonball...

there's the 'swan dive' or the 'jack-knife'...I'm sure Adam from American Idol does a lovely swan dive...

and then there is the 'belly flop', which is a desperate attempt to cover the fact that a person just never learned to do the  cannonball...

But today, Luke Rutenbar (3 and a half) learned to do the cannonball in the Dove Canyon community pool...

Note the quality and symmetry of the splash...

Other things we are working on in swim lessons with grandpa are jumping and trust issues...
floating on our back...
Enjoying the water rather than fearing it...
and swimming to the side of the pool...climbing out and going again...and again...and again.
Of the things I've done in the spring of '09...many will never amount to anything...

But teaching Luke to do a proper cannonball...that is  something to hold on to.

SEWING 101

I've been in a lot of classes in my 56 years...

from Sunday School to Traffic School...

but never in a SEWING CLASS.

So my friends from African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM) took me to a sewing class to meet some new friends in Goma, Congo...

And you just never know who you are going to meet along the journey...

At the ALARM women's training center, young moms who have suffered through terror and personal abuse I cannot describe here, are being trained to sew and market dresses so they can feed and support their families. It is a way for these ladies to gain back some sense of control and dignity, that has been so savagely taken from them.
These are women who do NOT want to fall into a 'refugee' mindset...they want to take care of their babies...to see them thrive and someday go to school...and see those children break this generational curse of tribal clashes and so...here they are in class...babies in tow...learning to sew.
The head instructor is all of 4'8'' and trying her her very best to keep me from distracting her students and disrupting the lesson...this has been a lifelong struggle of mine...but this is a photo BEGGING to be taken.
If you'd like to know about the wonderful work ALARM is doing, inside Congo, go to their website...

visit    http://alarm-inc.org/

good Christian folks giving encouraging tools to local pastors and their church members...

 You don't have to sell your house and move to Congo to be an advocate for these ladies...you can pray...you can encourage...you can write...you can donate so they can buy some fabric...you can buy a sewing machine...you can be a voice in a thousand ways...

then again...if God is telling you to go...better do what He says...

A 4 YEAR OLD PRISONER...FREED !!

Meet Augustine...

He's 4 years old.

His mom is in a Kenyan prison for life.

She is a murderess.

Augustine was born in jail and has lived every day of his life in prison.

By Kenya law, a child of a female inmate may stay with his mother until age 4.

So Augustine has lived his entire life inside the walls of Kitale Prison.

Until a few weeks ago...when Augustine turned 4...everything in his world was women and prison.

It's all he has ever known...

The inmates...all women...

The guards...all women...

The staff...all women...

It's all he's ever known

Enter Jana O'Guin, a woman who has served faithfully in Kenya and Ukraine for many years, on many teams.

One day, as she was teaching a step group of Celebrate Recovery in the Kitale Prison, one of the inmates walked up to Jana and handed her child, baby Augustine, to her...

She wasn't saying, 'please hold my child' or 'please comfort my crying child', she was saying 'TAKE MY CHILD'
Through the last months, with alot of time and effort and concern, Jana has arranged for baby Augustine to live and be cared for and educated at Purpose Driven Academy...a ministry of Deliverance Church, in Kitale, Kenya...a school of 500+ kids run by Margaret Wanyonyi.

I had the wonderful opportunity to be at PD Academy with Margaret, the day that baby Augustine went from living behind bars and barbed-wire and brick walls...to living with nurturing and caring teachers and 500 new siblings...

As the transition was taking place, Augustine's lips were quivering...he was looking around the room for ONE familiar face...but there wasn't one...tears were welling up in his chocolate eyes.

But by the end of that day, Augustine was already settling into a new world...laughing and running and loving his new school uniform.

• Please pray for Augustine as he begins this new chapter in his life
• Please pray for his pre kindergarden teacher
• Please pray for the foster parents...Pastor Joel and his family...who have lovingly taken baby Augustine into their home
• Pray for more advocates like Jana O'Guin
• And please...please pray for a young mom,  sitting in a prison cell in Kenya, who is feeling very much alone tonight.