Birthdays and more Birthdays!

Hello All,
I am sorry I got this going late today.  It has been a busy week end!  Sallie and Trevor had their birthdays yesterday (Friday) and we usually celebrate pretty much all week end! Also, we ran out of Internet time on Friday and could not get it restored until today.  Things are just not as easy to deal with here.

We had a horrible tragedy happen this week here in Kijabe.  A Kenyan woman's house burned down with her 2 youngest children inside.  They were home alone and could not get out when the fire started.  Our good friend Njoki is very close to her and has had a very difficult week.  This happen last Monday night and the funerals were yesterday (Friday).  Her name is Mama Grace (her oldest daughter is Grace) and she could use prayer.  She is so distraught that she can not function.  I read Psalms 34:18 yesterday, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."  There is nothing else to say.

We have had some down time with the projects around here lately.  Jim is involved with the water committee (long and short term solutions for our lack of supply water), but we are waiting on our architect to send us tender documents so that they can be reviewed and then we can send them out to contractors for bid.  Most of the other projects that I was involved in at the hospital are now being taken care of by the hospital.  Once our pediatric wing gets going, things will pick up tremendously, but for now I am able to read and study and only spend a few hours a day working for the projects.  I have told myself to enjoy this time as it will be very busy later, and that is what I am trying to do!  We had a major step of success this past week with some negotiations with the hospital on money matters.  This is a big relief and we hope that we can now move forward with the projects and not have to worry about how Bethany Kids and the Hospital will work out the money matters.  We are grateful to all involved!

Here are a few pictures of our Bethany Kids fundraiser from last week:

Amanda and Erik Hansen with us at the table

Ambassador Gration and Jim

It seems to have turned out to be a success according to the people that arranged it, so they were all very pleased.

So, we started with Birthday celebrations yesterday at 7am!  That was present time (the day was fully orchestrated down to the minute)!  I made this cake for Sallie that I took up to her class at 2:00.  The kids all had blue, or orange or red mouths when they were finished:

Sallie and her Horse of a different color cake!

Sallie and her class on her birthday

Jim and Timothys' blue tongues after eating blue icing!

We had some of Trevor's friends here for Pizza last night and cake, then we headed up to the school to watch some presentation from the Junior and Senior classes.  They were presenting clips from their interim trips.  Every year the juniors and seniors go on "Interim," which is a week long trip somewhere.  They all go to different venues.  Some went to Uganda, some on an aviation learning experience, some scuba diving, some climbed Mt. Kenya, etc.  Trevor gets to go next year, so we wanted to get a feel for what they would be doing.  It was fun to watch.  Birthdays continued today with taking Sallie shopping and to lunch with some birthday money that was burning a hole in her pocket!  Getting to town is quite an adventure here and it is at least a 1/2 day experience.  And the roads are getting terrible because of all the rains we have had lately.  Six months ago, this one road was decent, now it is riddled with potholes.  It is amazing how fast the roads go bad.  Tonight we have Sallie's birthday dinner planned and tomorrow will be Trevor's.  I will be glad when Monday comes and I can eat just vegetables!

We are making progress on the Palliative Care building.  They poured the slab last week.  Here are a few pictures:

Tonight we are getting together with the food committee for the sophomore class to make pizza crusts for the restaurant on June 9th.  We are making 100 crusts and will freeze them.  They have a huge mixer (picture a kitchen aid on steroids) at the cafeteria and we will mix all the dough in that. 

I have to go to make dinner for Sallie and then head up to the cafo.  Love you lots and please keep us in your prayers.

In His Hands,
Jullie T.