A Busy Couple of Weeks

Jesse Aaron

    We have been blessed with three new additions at the Baby Centre.  Two of the children were abandoned at a local hospital, the third child was at the police station.  All three of the children were about 7-8 days old when we received them.  And all three of them are doing very, very well, and have been getting much love and care from all our staff as well as the current VIA's we have with us.  We are up to 24 infants in Wing A!  That is a lot of diapers to change and mouths to feed!  Our caregivers have their hands full and are doing a wonderful job.

Sapphira Ruth

Simon Levi

     We have also had 6 adoptions just this week, and there are more coming up very soon.  These children and their parents were all so happy and we were so blessed to be able to celebrate this special occasion with them.

Angel Jerusha

April Jewel

Hadassah Rose

Joseph Daniel

Noah Jordan

Sanchez

     We have some great VIA's that we have the pleasure of having here.  They have been a great help to us already in so many different areas.  Shelley Anderson is here until the end of April.  She comes from Northern Ireland.  Pam Gerardot and her daughters, Tabitha and Stacia, are from close to our hometown.  They live in Ft. Wayne, IN.  Pam and Tabitha have been with us for about a month, and Stacia just arrived at the same time Shelley did.  Pam heads home next week, Tabitha and Stacia stay with us until the first part of April.

Shelley Anderson

Tabitha, Pam & Stacia Gerardot

     We also have done some re-arranging of our office staff.  Many of you know that Catherine Habib left the Baby Centre in January to work at AGC Central Church office in Nairobi.  Taking Cate's place is Betty Rop as Outreach Ministries Manager, and Gideon Kerich as Financial/Business Manager.  Everlyn Korir has been with us for some time and is now fully into her role at Baby Centre as Early Childhood Development Coordinator.  She has some wonderful ideas and works with our children to make sure that they are developing as they should and will also work diligently with our special needs children.

Betty Rop -- Outreach Ministries Manager

Everlyn Korir -- Early Childhood Development Coordinator

Gideon Kerich -- Finance/Business Manager

     We also wanted to show everyone a picture of Joshua with his new prosthetic.  He was leery of it at first, but once he became use to it and understood what it was all about he quickly started practicing walking with it.  He is doing very well and progressing very nicely.

Joshua & Dan when he arrived back at Baby Centre from getting his prosthetic.

Joshua practicing walking.

     We are sorry for the long time frame between updates, we seem to get very little time to set and collect our thoughts. We have flown by the 300th baby mark, we now set at 304 and we are now at 140 adoptions, the Lord has opened the flood gates. The word continues to spread about the need for adoptive parents. We praise God for His provision of wonderful parents for our kids.

    Please continue to remember our special needs children and the new laws that are hampering efforts to find loving families for the special children.

    As always we thank you for your love and support to us, the staff and the babies at the Baby Centre.

Blessings,

D&D

Thursday Staff Devotions

Tabitha

Pam

     We had staff devotions in Wing A this last Thursday.  We go into each Wing usually once a month on Thursday and hold and pray for the babies by name.  We pray for the Holy Spirits presence in their lives and
that each child is released from any hold their past may have on them.
     We currently have two new VIA's with us, Pam & Tabitha Gerardot, serving at the Baby Centre.  They are a joy to work with and are so very helpful to us. We are very blessed to have them here with us these next few weeks.

     As we said, this month was our turn in wing A.  It is really special to be able to go into the Wing, hold a baby, and pray for that child specifically. As the staff is their temporary parents, we know that along with feeding, bathing and clothing the babies, we need to show them through prayer how much their heavenly Father loves them.

Dan with Liam and Victoria

Dana with Victoria

     We have also received our 300th baby this month!  Three hundred little souls rescued!
     Keep our 300th baby, Joel, in your prayers as he is at Tenwek Hospital.  It was discovered that Joel has sickle cell anemia. He is a very special boy (as they all are :) ). We pray that he will return to us soon, and we can shower him with love.

Blessings,
D&D

7th Feb. 2015

     Greetings!  Well, we are beginning to get into our very busy time here at the Baby Centre with VIA's arriving and teams coming.

     We just had a team come and visit that was from Nebraska.  They were a great group and we had wished they could have stayed longer than just one night.  But they had many places to go in the short time that they were here in Kenya.  This team donated enough money to the Baby Centre for a whole month of formula!

Nebraska Team

     We also have had our second fish round-up.  The boys ended up catching about 17 good sized tilapia.  There are more bigs ones down there, they are just very good at escaping the net.

     We've also had a farewell party for one of our employees, Cate Habib.  Cate and her family have moved to Nairobi, to Central Church Office.  She has taken the job as Financial Manager there.  They are hoping that since that is where Rev. Meshack is working out of that they will be able to spend more time together as a family.  It was a bittersweet day for sure.

Rev. Meshack, Cate and Shekaniah

     Two years ago on the 4th of February our little Hope had her open heart surgery to repair the hole in her heart (PDA).  We had a celebration for this two-year anniversary as Hope is doing wonderful.  We told her about what had taken place two years ago and tried to explain it to her.  Then we told her we were going to celebrate!  Dana asked her what kind of cake she wanted for the celebration and she told her, "yellow pink".  So that's what she got.  We had a good time celebrating and thanking God for Hope.

4th Feb. 2015--2 years post op

4th Feb. 2013--minutes before surgery

Hope and her yellow pink cake

Hope enjoying her cake

     We also want to say "thank you so much" to those who have stepped up and began supporting us and those of you who have increased your support due to knowing our increased need in order to stay on the field until the end of 2015.
     Please keep our family in your prayers as we have many big life events happening this year.  We have Talia graduating from college, two of our children are getting married this summer, Carson is planning on spending the summer in Indiana.  Thank you for your on-going prayers and on-going financial support.  It continues to be a blessing to us.
     If you do not currently support us financially and would like to, please see our page on the WGM website (www.WGM.org) under missionaries, or send your support to our home church, Nappanee Missionary Church in Nappanee, IN.  Be sure to mark it for Dan & Dana Jacobs' ministry.

Blessings,

D&D

A New Year Begins...

     Wow!  We can't believe that 2014 is over and we are almost a whole month into 2015!

     We have so many things to be thankful for during this past year!  God has once again proven himself faithful over and over.

     The Baby Centre is continuing God's plan of rescuing babies.  We now have 62 babies!  A lot of these babies are in Wing A, the Wing for the youngest and smallest children.  Needless to say all our staff are keeping pretty busy.

     With all those babies comes the need for more formula and diapers.  These are the most expensive things that Baby Centre has to buy.  At this point we are beginning to fall short in finances making it difficult to keep up our supply of these items.  We have also been having difficulty having enough in order to pay the Baby Centre staff.  We are asking for prayer specifically for this.  If you'd like to make a donation please see our website to find out how:  www.agcbabycenter.org.

     While we were in the states for the 3 weeks we received 6 new babies at the Baby Centre!  All in Wing A!

     Dana was due to have her medical tests done this January so we made a trip back to Indiana as a family.  You can imagine what a difficult trip it was with a 2-½ year old!  It was great though to reconnect with our children and the rest of our families.

     We also had opportunity to do some speaking engagements.  We were home 3 weeks and spoke 7 different times.  We were so pleased to be able to speak in small churches at our home church, Nappanee Missionary Church, and also at a new church we had never spoken at before, South Milford Church of Christ.  We want to thank everyone that allowed us to come and share about this ministry.  It was wonderful seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

South Milford group

     Dana received wonderful news regarding her tests.  The PET scans was very, very good.  And there is no disease activity at all!!  Praise the Lord!!  She will still stay on her same regiment of medication/supplements everyday, and injection every 3 months. Dana will now get a PET scan once a year and a bone scan at the six month interval.  We will still travel to the US in 6 months in order for her to have a bone scan (which was prescribed by her Doctor).  Our God is definitely a miracle working God!

     As we mentioned in a previous post, our oldest son Nathan is engaged to be married May 9, 2015!  We are very, very happy for him and his fiancé Tiffany Lilly.  Here is an "official" engagement photo:

     Also, our middle daughter Talia will graduate from Bethel College on May 2, 2015.  She will have a degree in International Medicine with a minor in Biology.  When we were home we began wedding shopping for another wedding that will take place August 22, 2015.  Talia and her fiancé Bryson Bauer will be wed.  Here is one of their "official" engagement photos:

     As you can see we have a very big year this year in our family with lots of wonderful, important life events happening.  We had such a wonderful time with our children and grandchildren while we were home.  That is one thing that never gets easier, leaving your children and family members.  As a matter-of-fact, it seems as though it gets more difficult each time we have to do it.

Our kids:  Nathan, Tiffany, Bryson, Talia, Carson, Andrea

Our daughter Hope, and granddaughters Audrey and Elisabeth

     We also had the opportunity to spend some time with Dan's brother Steve.  Steve is scheduled for major surgery on January 23rd.  We would love it if you could please add him to your prayer list for the surgery, the doctors, and his recovery process.

Steve & Dan

     As we have mentioned previously, our time on field has been extended till the end of 2015.  We don't know what the Lord has planned for us this year or the the next.  Because of the extension of a whole year we need to raise more support for our ministry.  Please be in prayer about this and the part the Lord may be asking you to play.

     Thank you so much for reading and keeping up with what is going on in the Jacobs' family and the ministry here at the AGC Baby Centre.

Blessings,

D&D

Greetings from very warm Kenya!!
   It is very hard for us to imagine it is only a few days until Christmas. This season we have been looking at the miracle of the virgin birth, and along with that  the meaning of the family make-up of Jesus. What a man Joseph was to "adopt" Jesus for his own son. What a picture that is for us. When I look at Hope, I see our third daughter. I do not see and abandoned or orphaned child. I love her as I love all of our children, no difference.
   I have to think that this is the way God looks at each one of us, there is no difference, He just loves us and wants us in His family. I pray that this Christmas season would be special in the fact that each of us realize that we have a Savior that loved us so much, He came to be with us. He came to live with an adoptive father. We have a Father in heaven that looks at each one of us as precious, unique and worthy of loving and fighting for.
   We are looking forward to getting back to the States for a few weeks and connecting with family and friends. We will be speaking at several venues, we hope to see many of you there. We will be at NMC on the 28th of December. We have many things to share, it has been a very busy year, and next year looks to be even better.
   Before we leave for the States at the end of the week, we will have 4 adoptions take place. What a wonderful end to the year to have four of our kids get forever families. Who could ask for a greater Christmas gift?
   We will be posting those events in the coming days
Be blessed, have a blessed Christmas!!

Dan, Dana, Carson, and Hope

Speaking Engagements and More

     We have been keeping pretty busy here at the Baby Centre.  We've had about 20 children join us within the last 2 months.  All of them are adjusting very well.

Joshua

     Joshua continues to heal from his surgery and has such a wonderful attitude!  He is such a happy little guy and he's been through so much.

Dan speaking at Good Shepherd AGC

Catherine speaking at Good Shepherd AGC

     This past weekend we went to speak at Good Shepherd Church in Nairobi.  It was a good time of fellowship and of updating the church on the Baby Centre and it's current needs.  Many of the packets were taken and donations pledged.

  

Emmanuel speaking at Good Shepherd AGC

Hope also had to have her turn at Good Shepherd AGC.
But she choose to practice with the Worship Team.
She was singing "Jesus Loves Me."

     We love going and speaking about the Baby Centre and everything that is happening here.   We will be heading to multiple locations the first week of December to speak at all the AGC Regional Meetings.  This is a great time to connect with many people at one time.  

     Our 2015 Baby Centre Calendar is in the process of being printed at this moment.  We hope to have it completed within a few weeks.  If you are interested in a calendar please let us know and we will tell you how you can get one.  We also plan to bring with us a new Baby Centre brochure.  We've needed an informative brochure for a long time and will be glad to finally have this tool that we can use to inform people all over about the AGC Baby Centre and it's purpose.

     We will be traveling to the states in late December and will be available for speaking engagements.  If you are interested in having us come and update your church/class, or would like to hear about the Baby Centre for the first time we loved to come and share.  We will not be back in the states for long so let us know early enough that we can schedule you in.

     Dana will have a PET scan and Dr. appt. when we are there.  That is actually the reason for our trip back.   But we love to take advantage of the time to see as many of you as we can.

Blessings,

D&D

What's on the Horizon??

     Greetings from Kenya!  In August we passed our two year mark here in country at the Baby Centre.  It has been a very eventful two years.  We wanted to update you on what God has done and is continuing to do in our lives and all those connected to the Baby Centre.  We can never stop praising God for His miraculous touch in Dana's life.  We have had front row seats as it were to a modern day miracle.  We believe that this is an affirmation that we are not yet done with our mission here.

Hope

     The original timeline was that we were to come in August, 2012, and return to the states in August, 2014.  Also, most everyone knows Hope's story in that through a set of what we believe to be God-directed circumstances we were blessed to become Hope's guardians on our way to becoming her parents.  As with many things here in Kenya, that path has not been a clear or straight one.  Because of changes in Kenya law and in the interpretation of requirements, we are not exactly sure of the date that we can actually finalize Hope's paperwork.  Some would say we can begin by the 1st of March, while others would say wait until August to begin.  We will continue to monitor this with our contacts in the government and with the Adoption Society.

Emmanuel & Millicent will be married
in December of this year.

     The current plan is sometime early next year we will seek the Baby Centre Board's permission to install Emmanuel as Director of the Baby Centre.  When that happens, Dan will assume Emmanuel's current position as Business Manager in order to train a replacement for this position, and that way will still be here in order to consult Emmanuel in the Director position until he gets acclimated.  Dana will continue with her role as Hospitality Coordinator and begin to look at who would be best suited for this position in order to train and hand it over to the correct person.  Our hope is that these things, as well as Hope's adoption, will be completed before the end of 2015.
     With all of this said, there are things that need to take place in order for us to continue our work here.  As of January 1, 2015, we will be moved up to Career Missionary status with WGM and no longer be Missionary Disciples.  This requires us to raise more support.  Plus, we have also had to raise additional support for Dana's medical trips (every 6 months) for her PET scans.  When we originally left the states in 2012 our support was pledged at 100%.  We have had many very faithful team members that have supported us very well.  Unfortunately, as is common with many ministries, about 20% of those that had pledged have had to decline to give towards that pledge.
  We need to raise a considerable amount of new support to keep us on the field for 12 more months, pay for two return trips to the USA for Dana's PET scans and clear the current deficit in our account that has resulted from the shortfall in giving.  This amount is in addition to those who are currently giving monthly.  We trust in God for everything, He has been so very gracious to us and has provided everything we have needed through many generous people who are a part of this ministry.  We are very privileged and honored to be a part of a ministry that has not only greatly impacted the lives of almost 300 babies now, but it has impacted a community and even a country in showing Christ's love through caring for the children that had been looked over in the past.
     Thank you for your prayers, your time and your financial support for this ministry and our family.  We can never adequately convey the impact that the Baby Centre has had and the part that each one of you have played.  I don't believe any of us will get to see all of the fruits of this ministry until we are with Jesus.

Blessings and many, many thanks!

D&D & family