August '08 | September '08 | October '08 | November '08 | December '08 |
With Sabina and Anne, both with the Friends Church in Nairobi , we did a day trip to Bissill to meet the ten
Masai teen girls whom we hope will complete primary school in four years instead of eight, with the extra help they’re getting
from their new tutor/teacher.And with Evalyn and Sabina, we did a day trip to Nyumbani Village in Kitui, home for 263 children and 29 grandparents. Thank you Sister Mary for arranging our visit. What has been accomplished here in three and half years is truly amazing – a miracle really. Please see www.nyumbani.org.
We had lunch with eight young women, formerly of Tumaini Children’s Home in Nyeri. Four are at universities (Daystar, Mount Kenya and Kenya Methodist), and four have finished tourism and catering courses and are hoping to start jobs soon. We also toured Kuiru College where Evalyn (one of Marilyn’s assistants from previous years) is taking photo journalism courses.
We spent a weekend in Nyeri with the kids in Tumaini. Marilyn took photos of 80 of the 173 of them, and they wrote thank you notes
and letters to their prayer partners, with the help of Charity (an Economics student at Edgerton University in Nakuru) and Hellen
(a nursery school assistant and ECD student in Thika).There are some new children who do not have a prayer partner, and they would
like very much to have one, so please let Marilyn know if you’d like to be one –
parkerma@juno.com.
With lots of help from Tanja (Ripples volunteer from Toronto) and Bud and Sue (missionaries from Detroit), we settled into our
humble but adequate home in Meru and into our work with Ripples International. Marilyn is doing her photo project and leading the
“Path of Jesus” study with ten girls in Tumaini (Hope) Centre – and at New Start, she took photos of 30 babies who need foster or
adoptive parents. John was out in the field, helping to distribute bags of maize for 5,000 children in the surrounding area.
Thank you USAID. Marilyn went to the field to take photos and was shown how to wear a leso. The biggest challenges to helping
the neediest of the needy here (in addition to finding donors) are the poor roads and the numerous languages. For more about
all the great work being done by Ripples International, please see
www.ripplesintl.org.We celebrated Can Am Days on the slopes of Mount Kenya – with some ex pats, three from the US (John from CT & Ohio, Bud & Sue from Detroit), five from Canada (Tanja from Toronto, Norman from Ottawa, Sheila from Newfoundland, Fr. Joe from Saskatoon and Marilyn from Alberta), and a Kenyan (also Fr. Joe) who studied in Ottawa and then worked in Newfoundland before returning to Kenya. Both Frs. are Oblate Missionaries.
At the end of the month, we journeyed to Kitali to visit St. John Bosco Rehabilitation Centre, where Marilyn took photos of the children, including the four students sponsored by St. John Church in Darien. To make a donation or to sponsor a student, please see www.boscokenya.org.
We also visited Rev. Evalyn Wakhusama's project, Nambale Magnet School in Western Kenya, and we were very impressed with the
progress; the roof was almost completed. To help finish this school so that it can open in January, 2009, please see
www.wiks.org.We’re saying this prayer before breakfast every morning – and we hope that you will too. Thank you Fr. Cleary and Maryknoll.
help us build our lives
on rock-like foundations
of faith in our Crucified and Risen Lord.
Fill us with zeal for spreading the Good News.
We embrace Your Word as a two-edged sword
to afflict the comfortable and
comfort the afflicted.
Give us the courage to admit our mistakes
and to learn from our failures
and to never tire of trying new ways
to minister to our brothers and sisters.
Give us missioners’ hearts
to celebrate God's love
at all times and in all places
and among all peoples.
Amen.
Sabina and Masai Girls
Hellen Helping Tumaini Kids
Marilyn and Friends in Lesos
Nambale Magnet School