Praises for Education!

Hello All,
We have a praise to tell you about.  Last week,  I wrote about Patrick and his desire to help 2 teenage girls stay in school.  I had said that we needed about $680 to keep them in school for the first year (Jan - Dec).  Well, very quickly we had some generous donors give what came to $670!  God is good at what he does!  We have about another $200 so grand total is $870 to date.  Thank you all so much.  It is amazing what information and the internet can do.  Patrick was so thankful and amazed.  He is working on his blog and you can see it at www.inhisfootprint.blogspot.com
Understanding that English is his 5th language, I think he does really well!  Here is his story in a nutshell:

I was born and raised among the Maasai and Samburu nomadic tribe of Kenya in East Africa. At the age of 14 years I moved from the village to the city in search for better opportunities I met a Kenyan couple who offered to give me a menial job-my goal was to take care of cows. 

However God used this bold step of faith to call and prepare me for a lifelong ministry of follow the footprints of his son among the nomads.As a Pastor and Missionary am already walking deep in the bush, under the scorching sun and in beautiful Savannah land. Am courageously finding the footprints that Jesus Christ left 2,000 years ago and in turn ask others to joyfully come to him- who is able to do more that we can expect or ask.

We toured the Bethany Kids Wing with some people yesterday including Mercy (the BK Chaplain).  It was the first time she had seen her "space."  It includes a storage room, a playroom with a skylight above, and an office.  And she is right in the middle of the building and wards so that she can be in touch with everyone.  She was so excited.  We are scheduling a grand opening for July 9th.  We don't expect it to be ready to receive patients by this time but it will look pretty enough!  This leads me to the quilt project.  I just got in touch with most of the people that signed up and some are sent, some are complete, some are in the finishing stage.  We have some already here and can't wait to receive the rest.  We were standing in front of the unfinished ward space yesterday envisioning the 8 beds in each ward covered with one of these beautiful quilts!  Here are a few recent pictures:

Thanks to Delleen and all the kids!

Thanks Donna S!

Thanks Sharon M!

Jim has had a time trying to get hot water to the apartment building where we first lived.  Our resident neurosurgeon and his wife have had constant struggles with this issue.  The company finally came last week to install a new tank.  Here they are on the roof:

I won't go into the details because it would be a play at least an hour long just like a Comedy of Errors, but after 3 days they got it done.  They now have the best hot water that they have had since moving here over 3 years ago!  Praise God!

I was thinking today about need (looking at Patrick's story). Sometimes us missionaries come to a place and think we can fill the need - Not so!  You can never complete the task, you can never fill the need.  There is just too much of it.  But, as Westerners, our perspective is skewed.  We see the need around us and think that it is desperate.  If you haven't been to a Developing Nation, then you haven't seen what need really is.  It is hard to balance.  We see a US family who's house burnt down in Dec and the community rallied to get the kids Christmas presents (I saw this on Go Fund Me).  From my perspective, I do not see the need.  I see the need for shelter and food, but gifts?  We see the need here all the time, but usually it comes in the form of life threatening:  No water, no food, medical issues, shelter in the form of a mud hut that leaks.   And then there is the need for education.  There are no student loans, high school costs a lot of money to them (which is about $120 per term x 3 per year for a lesser school).  People make about $4-5 per day, so how can they pay this for education?  And without education, they can not get ahead.  The need is never ending.  But Colossians 3:23 says,  Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 
It is hard to continue working when you feel like you are spinning your wheels.  But, the joy is in the work and knowing that you are doing what He commands.  As we trudge on with the work knowing that it will never end, we find joy in the daily doing of it!  Living here has given us a different perspective.  I will never again see gifts as a "need."

This past week I drove Ernest and Rose and a few others up the hill.  Ernest has just taken the Care of Creation class (I have mentioned it before) and has collected a lot of grass clippings (Taka-Taka) for his garden.  That is a lot of grass on my car!

The Senior Class had their own Sunday service last week.  I think it is so cool that a whole class can get together that way.  It is a unique opportunity that we have here at RVA.  Trevor helped in the worship team.  He played bass (who knew that he could do this?  Not his parents!) and trumpet.  

Trevor and the trumpet line

Trevor playing bass with the team

It was a great service and really refreshing.

We had a site inspection for our RVA Art Center project this week.  The architect is trying to figure out how the stone should be cut for the exterior of the building.  We are leaning towards a rough cut for the bottom and smoother finish for the top.  He asked the stone cutter to give us an example.  This man (in the white shirt) cut this stone in about 3 minutes!  He is good at what he does (with no shoes, nor glasses and chips flying)!

We went down to Esther's house this week to see the progress on her house.  The fundi has put on a roof and doors and is working on the windows.  He has some things to finish, but is very close. 

The baby goat of the neighbor

Me and Esther at the back door (small!)

Getting to Esther's having to fight the traffic!

The Engineering team at the hospital had a goat roast to celebrate the finish of the ENT building.  I saw the goats go by in the morning and Jim came home with this picture!  They enjoyed it and had speeches and a very African lunch!

Hope you have a good week and be sure to do everything as if you are working for God, not for men!  (But sometimes working for men can be good because there is usually a paycheck at the end)!

In His Hands,
Jullie T