Staying Busy

   This has been another busy week for us. There are so many things going on, it would be very hard to put it all down. We have completed our second week of language school. It is going great, but is very time consuming. We continue to work into our rolls her at that Baby Centre. Dana is working with several teams that are already signed up for next year as well as continuing with Carson in doing double duty keeping home-schooling going on with language school.
   I am continuing with getting to know the staff and getting a feel for the operations side of the BC. I have been meeting with Staci and the staff getting a feel for how we proceed from here to maximize our staff and give the babies the best care we can. We continue to work on several projects and are close to having numbers to present to the board. We need to move the dairy cows to the BC as soon as we can, this will help operations on many levels.
  We continue to see adoptions going very well. We have several pending right now. Once we are out of language school, Dana will be able to get information out on the latest adoptions.
   We attended the opening of the Irongo Africa Gospel Church today. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive. Jim Vanderhoof was the guest speaker. Jim, Alice, April, Dana, Carson and myself went. It was a great time, however very tiring as most in country trips are. We were very warmly greeted and were invited to one of the pastors' home for chakula cha mchana (lunch).
  Please pray this week for the following:
  -  Soft minds for learning Kiswahili
  -  Strength and health for the long days
  -  Continued transition issues (missing family)
  -  Wisdom for many decisions to be made
   We thank God for showing Himself to us daily. Apart from Him we can do nothing. He is our strength and our Shield. We are so thankful for safe travel today on the Kenyan roads. We are also thankful for a large group of Baby Centre staff that see their role here as much more than a job, they see it as their mission also.

Blessings

D&D

What's New at the AGC Baby Centre

     Hi friends!!  We have had a very busy week here in Ngata.  We began our Swahili language study this past Monday and that has kept us very busy all week.  We are thankful that we are able to have our language helper here at the Baby Centre with us.  We have class from 8:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. then we are off for the afternoon until the evening around 7:00 p.m. when we continue with class until 9:00 p.m.  In between those times Dan is able to get some of his work here at the Baby Centre squeezed in and Carson and I get his schooling taken care of.  So, we really have no down time during the day.  Needless to say we all fall into bed at night exhausted.
     Language is going well, but it is very difficult.  Carson is catching on very well and is learning a lot more quickly than Dan and I.  Young minds are wonderful!  However, Dan and I are doing better and learning a lot.  We will continue for two more weeks with language study then we will have a break until January.  So we will be utilizing all the staff here at the Baby Centre to help us learn to speak Swahili. We told them that on certain days they are only to speak to us in Swahili.  Those will probably be some confusing days for us all until we learn a lot more!!
     We have gotten some new faces at the Baby Centre this week.  Siblings were brought by the police,  Muhoro, who is around 3 yrs. old and Wanjiru who is about 12-15 months.

Blessed

     Another little one came just yesterday.  Her name is Blessed and she looks to be about 1 year old or so.  Look at her precious, sweet eyes!  Isn't she just beautiful!
     We know God has a wonderful purpose for these little ones and we are blessed to be here to love them for such a time as this.

Blessed loved to touch Babu Dan's beard.

  













     We wanted to introduce you to another staff member at the Baby Centre.  Some of you may already know Irene, the Baby Centre’s Social Worker.  She has been employed here for a little over 4 years now.  She lives in Nakuru and holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Family and Consumer Science.

Irene

    Irene states that the Baby Centre is “a ministry that impacts the life of innocent babies who had no hope of survival because of being abandoned.  Seeing the life of these babies being transformed from a person with no hope to a person with hope and a future since God blesses them with a family.  Many lives are transformed especially families that had no hope of having children, this happens through adoption.  Please pray for all the babies here to be placed with families.  Pray for all the staff here, we need God’s grace to continue serving in this ministry.  It is not an easy job.”

     Thank you Irene for all the work you do helping to find home for these children. You are a valuable part of this ministry.

     Please remember to pray for Irene and the staff here at the Baby Centre as well as all the children.

    I also wanted to share these pictures I took this morning showing what Dan and Carson like to do on their down time.  Here they are playing "soccer" with the toddlers.  They loved it, and the kids loved it too!




     We are very blessed that God has allowed us to play a small part of what He is doing at the AGC Baby Centre!

Blessings,

D&D

Harvest Update

                                                                               

     We wanted to let you know what is going on at our farm that is close to the AGC Baby Centre. This first picture is of the silage being made for the cows and for sale to other farmers. It has been a great harvest, God has been so good to us. What they are doing in the picture is mounding up the corn cuttings and adding molasses and microbes to create a high energy feed for the dairy cows. It will be covered and allowed to "cook" for three weeks then we will bag it. We are getting some guidance from a farmer who does zero grazing with dairy cows in Nakuru. He has been helpful in our future planning for our cows.

    This picture is of the actual cutting up of the corn stalks. The machine was brought from a farm in Nakuru. All of the corn was cut by hand and was hand carried to six piles in a six acre field. It only took three days for the entire process.
    The picture below is a close-up of the process.  The man that you will meet below, Emmanuel, was in charge of the process.  He pours himself into his work.  We are very thankful for him.





 















     A staff member we would like to introduce you to is Emmanuel ("Manu").  Manu is the Operations Manager at the Baby Centre.  He has been employed here for 7 months and holds a Diploma in Human Resources and a Degree in Finance and Banking.

Manu -- Operations Manager at the AGC Baby Centre

     Manu says "I love working here because it's an opportunity that God has given me to reach out and serve the less privileged in our society by showing them love and giving them a sense of family they have never had.  I find satisfaction when the kids smile back at me and also when they embrace me, this really breaks my heart."
     He goes above and beyond what is expected of him and is a huge asset to the Baby Centre staff.
    Thank you Manu for all that you do for the babies and for us.
     Please remember to pray for Manu and his role here at the Baby Centre.








   We thank you so much for keeping updated with us, and keeping us all in your prayers. God has been so good to us and we are thankful for His mercies new each morning.
   There is a lot more to come over the next two weeks, stay in touch.

Blessings,

D & D

Busy Days at the B.C.

    We had a very busy week last week. We continue to get used to our new environment and get settled in at the Africa Gospel Church Baby Centre.  Dana and I started working in the office Monday, getting to know the staff better and how things work in Kenya.  The staff are doing a very good job.  We are here to help them with better tools to do their jobs, and get more efficency out of what we have.  Self-sustainability is being used each day as a teaching tool.  The staff seem to be very open to the new ideas, it will take months to get some of the items implemented.  We are very encouraged.
    Dana has started working with a couple of teams already for next year.  We are excited to see so much interest in teams coming.  I have continued on working with getting project proposals together for the October Board Meeting.  I am excited to see the buy-in from the staff on getting these ideas off the ground.  We are currently working on fish farming, zero-grazing for our milk cows, and goats for meat. Please pray for wisdom in all of these areas.
    We also don't want to forget why we are here, the babies.  We currently have not posted much as we are still getting a feel for the rules of posting.  However we can say that things are very fluid here. There are many adoptions in progress, and we have taken in one infant, and we know of some more that will be coming shortly.  In the next several weeks Dana will be getting up to speed on where we are at with all of these situations.  We can say that God is moving in the lives of these babies and bringing the right people to us at the right time.
    This past weekend we were at Tenwek for the September Field Meeting.  This was our first Field Meeting since being on the field.  It was great to get to meet all of the other missionaries that we knew of but have never met in person.

     We are so blessed at the AGC Baby Centre with a wonderful administration staff and we wanted to make sure all of you knew who some of these people are.  So, in the next few blog posts, we are going to introduce you to them.   This way too you can pray specifically for our staff by name.

     Robert is one of the nurses at the Baby Centre.  He and his wife, Leah, live in Maai Mahiu, along with their three children, Joshua, 7 years, Esther, 5-1/2 years, and Ruth, 2 years.

Robert -- Nurse at AGC Baby Centre

     Robert has worked at the Baby Centre full-time for 9 months, but has been part of our community as a substitute nurse for nearly 2 years.  He retains a higher diploma in Pediatric Nursing.  He enjoys working at the Baby Centre and says “It’s a service, a calling, a ministry doing what it takes to achieve institutional goals with an aim of making tomorrow better than yesterday to God’s Glory.”

     We are very thankful to have Robert on staff and appreciate all he does to keep the babies and all of us healthy. 

    With all of the good news there are some things that you can be praying for:
     -  God's direction and wisdom in the next steps.
     -  God's hand in everything we do.
     -  Language school that we begin on Monday.
     -  Time to rest and to daily spend time with God.
     -  Health for us and all at the Baby Centre, and those family members we left back at home.
     -  Continued provision of prayer supporters and financial supporters.
     -  More volunteers and teams that want to come to the Baby Centre.
     -  Carson has started school so pray for him as he is in 9th grade this year and the day is much,
        much longer for him and there is a lot more work involved.
      We thank our dear children and families that have scarified so much by our being so far away from home and away from them.  And we thank all of our friends and supporters for their many sacrifices as well that allow us to be here.  Most of all we thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for all He has done in our lives and the lives of everyone here.

Blessings,
D&D

Settling in

   Well, we are finishing up two weeks here and we are starting to feel normal sleep wise and eating wise. We have all been in good health and we do thank God for that. We are also so thankful for all of the prayers lifted up on our behalf, that are felt each day. We had services at AGC Ngata today and we were able to greet the congregation there. It was a great time of fellowship, and we had several familiar faces to greet us.
   Carson was in a table tennis tournament with the youth at the Ngata church yesterday. It was a singles tournament, and he won the tournament. He is a champion on two continents now! It was a great way for him to meet guys and girls his own age.
   We had a very busy week.  On Tuesday, I traveled to Nairobi to drop off paperwork for the water truck that we are trying to get shipped over the the Baby Centre for the water business. I was also able to pick up our personal vehicle and drive it back to Ngata. 
   On Thursday I visited an urban farm where cows are kept in a zero grazing pen, and they also collected their excrement to create bio-gas. It is a great set-up and we look forward to getting some proposals together to see if we can move forward with this at the Baby Centre. I will be traveling back there on Tuesday for more research. We also visited a Tilapia pond and learned about how to get started with fish farming. We will be working on that proposal also.
   Dana attended a women's prayer breakfast on Saturday, it lasted over 6 hours. She said they had a great time. Carson and I went to the farm at Salgaa and helped in harvesting the butternut squash. It was a great harvest. It was the second harvest, and this time we collected over 200 squash.
   Also on Saturday I was told that a cow was giving birth at the farm so I went down to be a part of the event. Things did not turn out as we had hoped and the calf was still-born. It was very sad.
   So, we are very thankful to God for strength for the week. As we look forward to this week we look to a very busy schedule. Carson starts school tomorrow. Dana and I will start picking up our responsibilities in the office at the Baby Centre. We will also have a crew this week starting on the finishes on our home. On Friday we will travel to Tenwek Hospital for our field meeting.
   Please pray for Carson as he starts his new year. Pray for Dana and I as we start in earnest our new responsibilities. Pray for the Baby Centre as we work through all of these staff changes. We are very grateful for our new guards and guard dog, they make us feel very safe. Please pray for the Ngata area as they are still experiencing break-ins in the area. Please also pray for safety in travel, as many of you know the roads are one of the most dangerous places to be.
   Thank you for standing with us. Thank you for your prayers and your support.

   Blessings,
   D & D