Lime or Lime??

Hello All,
It has been a week!  We are packing and sorting and working and (sometimes) feeding kids (and not just our own)!  We had a garage sale the Kenyan way this morning.  You have to picture the doors opening, the people rushing in, the pulling and arguing and mad rush to get stuff and the bargaining.  And then there is the "picking" that goes on.  We are sure many things walked away, but we are glad it is over and there is something left in the pocket!  I wish I had a picture but it was too crazy to stop and take one!

We started emptying septic tanks according to the new plan this week up at the school.  The plan was to add lime to the septage in the truck to get the pH up in order to "kill" it enough so that it is not attractive to vectors that would come and carry it away.  So, when we ordered 1800 kg (over a ton) of lime we thought that would do it.  I didn't realize that we had to specify that we wanted calcium hydroxide with a pH of about 14!  What we got was crushed limestone (at a pH of about 8).  When we added twice the amount figured, and still didn't raise the pH much, we started to question it.  I took a sample to our science lab and (thank goodness for chemistry teachers!) was able to determine that what we had was not what we wanted. 

We contacted the supplier and were able to change it for what we needed (at a higher cost of course)! But, we now have real lime and will start again on Monday.  This is just one more thing that needs to get done in the next week.

We poured the 3rd deck on the Art Center building this week.  It is great to see it done and the columns going up for the roof!  

 How we haul the concrete up

After the first day

The second day

 We are starting on the walling for the ground floor too.  It looks so good!

Looks like our relief person will show up this week.  Just glad we have tickets that don't let us leave till the 22nd so that Jim doesn't just say, "Tag, your it" and go!  We are so grateful for Tony and his wife Judith that are coming to finish up things here.  We will look forward to seeing them this week and starting the hand over process.

Jim went out to Thika this week to see a place called Joy town.  I mentioned it a few weeks ago when the RVA band went there for a concert.  Bethany Kids is connected with them because of their surgical needs.  They are one of 3 schools for the disabled here in Kenya.  Jim was reviewing the new bathroom design to better help these kids of which most are in a wheelchair. 

Jim Greeting the kids with Francesco in the background

Jim meeting Virginia and Rose

A typical girls bathroom which supports a girl with spina bifida or other condition that requires catheterization

A typical boarding room for the kids in Joy Town.  The staff at joy town, in concert with Bethany Kids, is doing a great job of SIGNIFICANTLY improving the lives of these kids.

They had a great visit and were able to stop by another potential supporter's house and encourage him with what Bethany Kid's is doing.

Kijabe Hospital is doing a great job with the little that they have.  They have been working like this for many years.  We talk to short term doctors or nurses that come and they are always amazed at how things get done without all the modern equipment.  But, they are really striving to give the best care they can.  The resource mobilization department has come such a long way.  They have a web site where they list the needs and how much they cost.  You can see what the most urgent needs are and donate to a specific thing (and the money really goes to that item).  You can access their list here:  Kijabe Hospital Urgent Needs

It is great how they are breaking it down now to individual items and the specifics for them.  I know this month the need is for

• 2 X Electrocautery Machines: Total Cost: US$9,800 ($4,900 each)

• 2 X LED Surgery Lights: Total Cost: US$17,400 ($8,700 each)

You can read about these on that link above and if you feel led to donate, they now have a paypal account that makes it very easy.  The needs are never ending, we just do what we can as we feel led!

There has been more violence in Kenya this week at the coastal areas.  Please know that we are OK and we are praying for the people affected.  It is horrendous what is happening (people being dragged from their homes), and we need to pray that they will get the security that they need and soon.

We bought a truck this past week!  Jim continues to think of home and "nesting" to get things ready for us.  We were able to find a nice used, inexpensive truck that my father in law tried out for us and bought.  "Check," one more thing off of Jim's list!

As we roll into July, and realize that our time is very short, we have mixed feelings (as with every move).  Feelings of sadness at leaving good friends and feelings of joy at returning to good friends!  Please continue to pray for our transition and for the patients that are being served here in Kijabe.

Timothy with a cat!  We call her an opportunist extraordinaire!

Thank you all for sticking with us!

In His Hands,

Jullie T

Caretakers of Grace

Hello All,
This has been a crazy week, but I guess most of them are!  It started last Saturday with a final walk-through of the Upendo Village project.  It is wonderful to see that building practically finished and it was on time and on budget!  How does that happen?  Hence we hired him to work on the RVA project!

Front of the building with Sister Florence looking on

First meeting in the new board room!

Handing over the keys

Opening the doors!

We will miss working with the sisters!

The Art Center at RVA is moving along again.  They are just about ready to pour the concrete for the third floor.  They are also working on walls on the lower level.  This project should have been done last February.  Now with the new contract, looks like it will be about November of this year.  We are anxious to get it done but looks like it will move at its own pace as everything here does!

Ever work most of the day on your computer and find out later that all the work you've done is gone?  That happened to me this week!  How frustrating!  There is so little time left to do everything that needs to be done and then to find out you've lost a 1/2 days worth of material.  I tried to rewrite the next day and got about 60% there, but it will take some more doing.

We have so much going on between the kids doing their things and the projects we are involved with, that we often walk right by the hospital and forget what is going on inside those walls.  When I run into my doctor friends or read their blogs, it reminds me that there are struggles going on everyday that make my problems, like losing a document to the ether-land, pale in comparison. Here is what a friend wrote on her blog quoting one of her colleagues,
"We don't need to be another private hospital for Kenyans with jobs, he said.  Those people can afford the upscale institutions in the city.  Kijabe should be known instead as a place where any person, no matter how poor, can come for care.  Yes, we will talk to you and work around constraints on your resources and ours.  But, no one will be turned away.  That is the way Jesus would work in our world, and this is how our world now sees Jesus."
I love this and to be reminded that is the whole point of why we do what we do.  You can read her whole blog at http://www.paradoxuganda.blogspot.com/  Thank you Jennifer!

Last week the pastor spoke about having a helper.  We need help in this life, just like you need a tool to remove a screw, we need a helper to do the work of Christ.  We know this for sure as we are so drained at times and just have to call on Him to help us through.  1 Peter 4:10 "Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God."  We are caretakers of the grace of God!  God sent the Holy Spirit to help us.  We are each blessed with gifts that we can use to glorify God and building up others.  Here is a link to a great article by John Piper:  http://www.desiringgod.org/sermons/spiritual-gifts
At the end, he says the following:

"And there is nothing more thrilling, more joyful, more meaningful, more satisfying than to find our niche in the eternal unfolding of God's glory.  Our gift may look small, but as a part of the revelation of God's infinite glory it takes on stupendous proportions."

This is the point in life where you really are content, serving others, including your family and the world around you.  It is our goal to get to this point, being the caretakers of God's grace and giving that to others all around us!

We are down to 4.5 weeks before we leave.  We are a bit overwhelmed with the details of it all.  Today will be spent going through items and sorting for each of the kids.  The weather is turning cold now and we have had a fire in the fireplace the last few days.  It feels like fall in Michigan.  I am afraid we will get home at the end of July and it will feel like 2 seconds before the fall in Michigan really does arrive and we will have to face a winter there!  I need to buy hats!

In His Hands,
Jullie T

There and Back Again

Hello All,
We are back from the coast!  After 13.5 hours on the road we were back in cold Kijabe.  These kids were amazing.  We orchestrated a 45 minute evolution of getting everyone down to the lobby with luggage, eating breakfast, bathroom necessities, and on the bus ready to go.  They were ready 2 minutes early!  What a great group!  Here are some more pictures of our trip:

We don't take it lightly that travels were safe.  It is not a given, so we thanks God for all His provision for this trip!

Our Art Center project up at RVA is going again.  They are pouring a reinforced concrete wall that has been needing to be done for 6 months and setting the steel for what will be the 3rd floor.  It is great to see the site all cleaned up and men working on it again.

The Bethany Kids wing is moving forward (not fast, but moving)!  We came here 3.5 years ago thinking that we would get some things done.  Over that time, we have realized that it is really not about the "doing" it is more about how you do and the relationships that develop along the way.  We have definitely seen some changes here, but not due just to us.  Many people were involved.  I love walking through the hospital lately and seeing people that I know.  I can walk from the front to the back and shake 3-4 people's hands and ask how their family is doing.  I love that!  Jim wrote a while back how on a trip up the hill to help a sick man get home, he had to stop so many times to greet people that he knew and give rides to others.  We will miss this town and the friendships that we have found.  The top picture is a rendering that was done before the building started.  The bottom is where we are today.

It's getting there!

We are heading out to Upendo Village in just a few minutes to have our last site meeting.  This is what they call the final walk through.  I will post of picture or 2 of this beautiful admin block that has been built over the last year.  It was so much fun to work with the sisters there.  We will miss that one!

The kids had the HS talent night last night.  Trevor played Carnival of Venice on the flugel horn. It was amazing!  Love to listen to that boy play.

We have a busy week coming up.  It is time to do some more sorting of items to sell, write some procedures and get some other work items finalized.  We both hope to be done mostly by the end of June (and it's already the 14th)!  Please pray that we can keep going and finish well!

In His Hands,

Jullie T

PS - Some more quilts are on their way!

A Little Mud - stop us - No Way!

Hello All,
Well, we made it!  I am here at the Baobab resort in Diani beach with 71 "kids" and 9 other adults for the Senior class Safari.  Things here in Africa happen in their own time no matter how hard you try to control it!  We had planned for 2 buses to be at RVA on Thurs night around 6pm so that we could load up and get the drivers a nice rest before a 5am departure for our 12 hour drive to Mombassa.  Well, that did not happen due to a huge rainstorm in the afternoon and early evening.  We have not had significant rain in about 2 months, during the rainy season, but we had it Thursday.  So, this made one road that we had planned for the buses to use impassable and the other one trepidatious!  So, we chose the trepidatious one.  Well, one out of 2 buses getting stuck is not so bad is it?  They tried to come up about 6:30pm and by 6:45 we had gotten the call.  One was in the ditch.  To make a long story shorter, they tried till about midnight to get it out, were successful once, only to have it sink into the other side!  We stopped at that time thinking that some sleep, hopefully dry weather and some daylight would make it easier, which turned out to be the case.  The guys (thanks Mark and Alan) were down there by about 6am and by 7:30 we had the buses in the parking lot.  We loaded up and by 8:30 were off by the same road but this time heading down and gravity works, right?  We encountered our next "blockage" but it wasn't our fault!  Every year the Junior class tries to delay the Senior trip by tradition.  Well, this year they succeeded but by no effort of their own.  They had blocked the roads by the gates with some little rocks.  Our guys had those moved very quickly, but we headed down the hill only to be stopped by another truck stuck on the same road!  It was loaded with about 20 tons of sand.  So, what did the kids do?  They all got out, some shoveled and a bunch pushed and off goes the truck!

After this truck moved, we were off for good.  Twelve and a half hours later we arrived.  It was 9:05pm when we got here.  The hotel had called me about 7:30 and was trying to warn me of someone that might stop us.  I could not understand what she was saying.  We found out later that the government has prohibited bus traffic after 9pm!  We got here just in time, but now our buses were stuck here.  The drivers and conductors ended up sleeping in the buses to avoid being stopped on the road.  What is so great about this kind of adventure here is the flexibility of everyone involved.  We were able to work in 2 bathroom breaks and we had pre-planned packed lunches on the buses so we just went.  It is a pleasure to be with such a group!

Don't play tether ball - it is a dangerous sport!  Sallie beat me (literally) the other day.  Not really, but I can claim that she did.  We were playing and clumsy me fell off the platform and sprained my foot.  I had an x-ray, nothing broken, just very swollen and purple at this point.  Good thing there is a beach chair and a swimming pool for the next few days!

I have to tell you a bit about Band Tour last week end.  It is an annual tradition where the band goes for 3 days and plays 2 concerts a day at schools around the area.  I have been able to go with them for the last 3 years.  It is such a joy to listen to them play, hear some of the kids' testimonies and watch them work together.  We go with 85 kids and about 6 adults.  The Taylors (band director and his wife) have been doing this for about 20 years now!  They have the system down, but there are always unknowns - this is Africa after all!  One of the schools we played for was called Joy Town.  It is a school in Thika for disabled kids.  It is one of 3 for the disabled in the country.  It is amazing to see these kids struggling but still filled with hope and joy.  They don't have the "stuff" that you picture a good school should have, yet they do well.  When they take their national exams at the end of their Senior year, even if they have to write it with their feet because they don't have hands, they don't get any additional time.  So, they are learning to do what they have to do, but (some for the first time) are doing it with others that are like them.  The disabled here in Kenya are very shunned.  It is a blight on the family and a drain of precious resources (not just of the family but of the community).  They come to Joy Town to learn, not just school work, but how to live and love.  They can do this because they are taught that God loved them first even though they are not "perfect."  The theme for band tour this year was "God is a God of the broken but also a God that redeems."  We are all broken in one way or another.  But, because God loves us so much, He redeems us.  Psalms 103:3-5 He is the one who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases, who delivers your life from the Pit, who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion, who satisfies your life with good things, so your youth is renewed like an eagle's."  I am overwhelmed sometimes by the brokenness of this world, but Jesus came to give life and give it in plenty.  That sounds like a cure for brokenness to me!  Here are some pictures from last week end:

some of the kids from Joy town played for us!

 eating beans at Joy Town with the students

talking with the kids from Joy town

 A meal of beans and rice and cabbage with the boys from Alliance School - those ladies in there cook for 1500 people!

After a performance at church - great looking boys!

 The ride to the last school was an "African Adventure"

 One of our students sitting among 500 girls - Doesn't he look like he fits in?

The kids get to talk to the students - that is their favorite part!

Interacting with the girls from Precious Blood school - Love this place!

Jim mentioned last week that I had a good week with my "water guy extraordinaire."  I was so grateful that he could come from Oregon to spend a week with us and help us sort out the water system at RVA.  Now all I have to do is write up procedures for them to use to operate the system.  I think all those years in the Nuclear Navy using and writing procedures will help!

Our Upendo Village project is essentially done, just the final walk through to finish.  It will be sad to finish this one in a way because it was such a joy working with the nuns out there.  But, one down and 2 to go.  One out of 3 finished is not so bad, is it?   The contractor there is the one who is now on the RVA Art Center project.  They showed up this week, cleaning up the site and getting re-bar in for the pour of the next floor.  It is nice to be moving again on that one!

Jim is having his usual issues with the Bethany Kid's project.  It is draining on him.  He has started moving home in mind and on E-bay though to relieve the stress!  My mother and father-in-law know for sure we are coming home because the closet is filling up!  Jim has started ordering things that are essential to life there (computers, sound systems, fencing material).  He is now researching cell phones and internet service.  This is a complicated thing!  Here in Kenya it is so easy.  You get a SIM card for your phone (which costs about $1), have it registered and then just buy airtime in scratch off cards.  Why can't it be like that everywhere?  To have to buy a "plan" in 2 year chucks is daunting to me.  Crossing cultures is difficult no matter if you are going to one that is not your own or returning back to your home culture.  The younger kids just had "re-entry" seminars at school.  Hopefully it has prepared them in a small way to say good-by well and to expect the stages that will come with changing life (grief, anger, sadness, lonesomeness as well as joy and seeing the old familiar).  All these things come at different times for each of us.  Please pray as we start (no continue) this process!

The Lala Salama quilt project is continuing.  Quilts are coming in from all over.  Here are a few by Jo L.  Wow!

Thank you all so much for caring enough to read this and think about us.  We are so blessed!  Please pray as we continue finishing up here and getting home (logistics are not an easy process)!  Also, for safety in getting home from the beach and for the kids here to have a great time in their last big time together as a class.

In His Hands,
Jullie T

PS - Do you have to worry about monkeys on your porch?  Just had one come in the room.  I had better keep the door closed!