Crowd Funding

Hello All,
We have had another good week thank God!  Can't believe there are only 3 weeks left before we head home for a visit.  The seniors at the school are getting pretty anxious and restless as seniors do!  This coming week will be finals week and then the last one will be the typical nothing week.  Trevor had a big paper due yesterday that he has been working on for the whole term.  Glad that is over!

Many people are leaving at the end of the term either for good or for a year or so.  But, with all the commotion going on, it is hard to find proper time to stop and visit with these people and say goodbye.  We had a pot luck dinner last night to do just such a thing.  We are losing our radiologist that came here 2 years ago.  He and his wife are very nice people and they live in Waterloo Canada, near Michigan, so at least we will get to see them again.  Joshua Tjong was the person responsible for getting the CT Scanner project going.  He had found a used one and some people to donate to the cause and got the whole thing started.  There were many bumps along the way and it is still not operational (we are waiting on a piece of electrical gear), but as people here say, "In a years time from now we will have an operational CT and no one (except Jim) will remember that we were late by 6 months or so!"  They don't really say the "but Jim" part, but I do.  We will miss the Tjongs.  One good note out of it though, looks like we will be babysitting the dog that they are babysitting until the real owners come back in Jan or so. Here is a picture of the Tjongs from the potluck last night:

Felicia and Joshua Tjong

Here are a few other pictures from the get together (only because my mother demands that I add pictures - even if they are not great ones!)

The Teenage section

Good friends - Sue Bird, Tom Bouve and Thomas Renner

Sallie and her friend Miller

Have you ever heard of "Crowd Funding?"  I guess it is the wave of the future for small start ups and other organizations looking to raise money. It is using the social media aspect of our lives to reach lots of people and raise needy funds. I guess Social Media is even an educational degree you can get now days!  There is a pediatrician here that just raised over $6000 for some CPAP machines that are needed to be able to ventilate the new borns!  They put out a call on their blog and within 24 hours had enough money for not just one (which was what they wanted $2000) but 3 machines!  You can visit their blog and read about it at www.steeres.com  We have also seen this at work but would not have had the same name for it.  We put out the call last year to help Yvonne with her school fees and within a few days we had enough money to get her started and continue for 3 years!  And, when and orphanage in Naivasha needed a new cow, we had a donor very quickly.  I have seen that there are many people in the west that have extra money and want to donate, but have trouble finding the cause and the assurity that it is worthy or legitimate.  We are going to try a Crowd Funding campaign with the Sanitation Project through the doctors and other missionaries at the hospital.  We are moving forward with the project, but funds are a problem.  They have some money, but not all to complete it.  It will be interesting to see how that turns out!  We (the sanitation project team) took a long walk this week down the valley to see the out flow of our sanitation (or lack there of) system.  We did not see any snakes, Mungu Asante (Thank God!) but we did find that things are running amuk down there!  It was good to walk it with the whole team so that we are all on board with the why and some of the how of getting it fixed.

I mentioned earlier that we are going to babysit Pepper the dog for a while.  We are already babysitting another named Toby.  He is a great dog and we enjoy having him around.  This kind of things happens a lot around here as people come and go all the time.  We have decided that babysitting needy dogs is better then having one of our own!  This way, we get a variety!  Here is a picture of Timothy and Toby:

Timothy and Toby Dog

Last week, the Titchies (elementry school) had a talent night.  Timothy's whole class did a song and dance presentation.  If you would like to see it, you can go to this link at you tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EimueQ9jhZM
He and his friend also did the song "There's a hole in my bucket, Dear Liza, Liza" and it was great!  Jim has a video of that one too, but it is not on you tube yet.  Timothy has a wonderful voice that he is just discovering.

We were reading in Luke this week about the parable of the ten minas (Luke 19:11-27).  It seems that when your relationship is right with God, and he has given you so much, that you need to do something with what he has given you and not just sit around with it in your own world or because you are afraid.  This theme has kept coming up with me in the last few months.  Looks like I need to get up and do something for God!

Thanks so much for all you do!  We love you all and can't wait to see those of you who are in Michigan this summer.

In His Hands,
Jullie T and the rest of the family:

Timothy, Jim, Trevor, Jullie and Sallie

The Joy of Leftovers!

Hello All,

Hurray for leftovers!!  Remember I wrote a few weeks ago about the Sophomore restaurant that we put on?  Well, we had one of the sponsors of the class that was in the states till early June bring back banana peppers for the salad bar and one pizza.  But, in the end, there were some left over!  The day after cleanup revealed a box with 6 jars in it!  We were overjoyed when they were offered for sale at their $1.60 Wal-Mart price.  We have actually been searching for these for a while here and you just can't find them.  I have some sun-dried tomatoes and the combination of the 2 on a pizza is to die for!  So, for the last 2 Fridays, we have had a sun-dried tomato and pepperoncino (banana pepper) pizza.  Try it sometime and you will be pleased.  Oh, the joy of leftovers! 

We also were down to our last 1/2 bag of chocolate chips yesterday when the man coming for dinner brought a small gift of a bag!  God's timing even in chocolate chip delivery is amazing!  We should have enough to last the 1 more month before we head home.

Last night, we had 2 extra kids, our Masi friend and a Dr. friend over for pizza.  The Dr. friend is a neurosurgeon that had just finished performing a surgery that has never been done in Kenya before.  These men and women that come here to serve this mission hospital are amazing, not only in their willingness to serve but also in their skills.  Jim and I feel like round blocks trying to fit into a square hole when we are with them all at gatherings.  But, there is a place for all of us and hopefully, we are making things better for them to be able to do their jobs.

Jim took a hike up to the eMI spring this week.  It is one of our sources of water.  This is the one that was gone for a while because of the landslides taking out portions of the piping.  They repaired the sections that were broken, but you can see in the pictures how challenging it is.  And, due to the deforestation that continues, the ground is terribly unstable.  The team is considering options to protect the piping from vandalism and landslides, but it is a challenge. 

People will go up there at night and cut out sections of the piping in order to sell it.  It is hard to judge these people because they are not stealing to become rich, they are stealing to feed their family for the day.  We had a conversation about this earlier this week thinking about how much theft there is here. But, on that note, we think we are safer here than our family back in Michigan.  Jim read a news story this week about Flint being the number one city in the country for crime rate!  And Detroit was a close number 2.  So, we are worried about you all being there.  Please come to Kenya and be safe!

We had a meeting this past week to open the bids from the seven contractors for the Pediatric wing.  It was very exciting to actually see the numbers.  We had 6 in hand, and all were higher than the estimate we got from the Quantity Surveyor.  Then, one came in late, and was the lowest and slightly under the estimate!  This is a problem as the process for opening bids is very formal and above the table for all involved.  Corruption here is a common thing, so the process is very rigid to keep it above board as it should be.  But, the QS is going to go through all the information in the next 2 weeks and digest it all so that we can actually negotiate with people.  By the middle of July we should have a contractor selected.  That will be a huge step in the process for us!

Timothy has talent night tonight.  He is going to sing "There's a hole in my Bucket.." with a friend.  It should be very amusing.

Please continue to pray for our sanitation project.  It is at the top of the list right now and we are working hard to get things lined up.  I have been studying and using Microsoft Project to map out the process.  Jim actually brought a book about the program with him, so I at least have a resource to go to. It has actually been fun!  Next year, Trevor's class has a big event that they have to put on in February and we will be planning it from September on.  I think I will be able to use this program to get us organized!

I was talking with a Kenyan friend this week and he wants to get a soccer league started with the local kids.  He was having trouble figuring out what to do to get started.  I think he talked to the right person!  Looks like I might get my hands involved in starting something for the local children.  I haven't told Jim yet, so after he reads this I am sure he will want to talk about how little time I have to do things like that - O well!

Take Care and Thank you again for all you do for us!  We are privileged to have you all as supporters!

In His Hands,
Jullie T.

Faith - Work Required - Huh??

Hello All,
We have had another great week! That is 2 in a row with actual good outcomes.

Sophomore restaurant:  Last Saturday, we were finished serving over 200 people and all cleaned up by about 10:30 that night!  We thought we would be there till 1 in the morning, so we were very happy.  The kids were great and did all their jobs wonderfully.  Some have realized that they never want to work in a restaurant.  The salad bar girl was in a panic most of the night and vowed to never work in the food service industry!  It was very funny.  Here are a few pictures:

The main dining hall

The fountain

Us serving up pies at a frantic pace

More Pies!

At another venue, we set up something for the little guys, serving bread sticks and marinara sauce with coke floats.  The kids were very happy!

The little guys were a wild mob and that was Jim's area!

At the end of the day, most people were pleased with the food and the service.  There were some issues, like the servers that were serving pizza, would go to their friends first and forget the adults sitting toward the back!  Lesson learned; brief the kids better and keep a better eye on them!

Something funny happened with Thursday night's dinner:  I was making pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans) using Nonna's recipe (from LaMaddelena).  We were so busy that day dealing with 2 important issues that, after dinner was eaten, I was cleaning and found the bag of pasta that I was going to use in the pasta e fagioli!  So, it was bean soup instead.  Just goes to show that when you get old, you forget things!

At the ladies bible study, we have been going through David Platt's series on Faith.  You can access the material at:
http://www.radical.net/media/series/series_list/?id=59
He is very challenging.  We are looking at the book of James.  James talks about having faith but doing deeds along with it.  What?  Romans 3:28 says, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."  and in James 2:24 it says, "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone."  Being saved in Christ is not a matter of doing things to get you there.  It is a free gift.  But, (here comes the hard part) once you get there, James is saying that you should work for His sake.  James 2:14-17
14 Dear brothers, what's the use of saying that you have faith and are Christians if you aren't proving it by helping others? Will that kind of faith save anyone? 15 If you have a friend who is in need of food and clothing, 16 and you say to him, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat hearty," and then don't give him clothes or food, what good does that do?
17 So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. You must also do good to prove that you have it. Faith that doesn't show itself by good works is no faith at all-it is dead and useless.
We have had some great discussions about this topic, but it really convicts us that we can't hide under the wing of God's mercy.  We can rest there, but there are things that need to be done and sometimes they are not so easy.  Moving out of your comfort zone to get those things done for Him is not always easy, but there is joy on the other side.  We watched a short video this past week called, "Mama Heidi."  It is about a family's missionary journey to Mozambique.  You can access their web site at: http://www.irismin.org/
It just struck us as awesome people doing an amazing work.

We are still moving forward with the sanitation project.  Things have happened this week (slowly) but none the less, have happened.  Jim and I are going to have established roles in the process that will actually allow us to have a say and enforce it.  The Engineering and Facilities Department here is doing a great job and we are all going to work together on this thing to get a properly working sewage system.  Have you ever know someone who gets so excited about sewage?!

Here is a picture of Sallie and her friend Janelle.  They are both ADHD and so much fun to have around together!

Thanks so much for all of your support.  We will be heading home in Aug for a short visit and will be happy to see as many people as we can.  We will also be sending a letter in July or so explaining our situation and asking for support (the money kind) so that we can remain to finish the project.  We will need only about $20,000 for the next 2 years, but that is still daunting enough that we are putting that one in God's Hands!

In His Hands,
Jullie T.

Banner Weeks to be Grateful for!

Hello All,
We have had a calm but busy week.  I can't believe it is June already!  While most of our friends from North America are getting out of school and starting a warm summer, our kids are heading back to school after a short mid term break and we are just starting the cold season.  Last year (our first one here), at this time of the year, it was unseasonable warm, so we just didn't know.  But now, we feel the cold.  We have even had a fire in the fireplace a few days to get the edge off!  The cold season here is June, July and August.  But what that really means is a sort of wet and cold that just gets in your bones!  We have just finished the "long rainy" season which was long and not really finished, but we thought the fall rainy season was pretty long too, so who knows?  But, when it continues to rain, the run off does a lot of damage to roads and makes it extremely slippery and muddy.  Thank God for 4 W Drive!

We had a banner week with work at the hospital.  There was one day even that 3 things went right and Jim was smiling!  Some were little things, but good none the less.  We finally got our Environmental Impact Assessment moving forward (almost finished) which will impact when we can start on the pediatric wing.  This has been a worry (Wasi-Wasi in Swahili) and we are so thankful that the company that was hired to do it is communicating and getting it done.  We also were able to schedule a meeting that had 4-5 parties involved (getting everyone to come together at one time has been nearly impossible!) that needed to talk and settle on things before replacing the roof on the Bethany Kids Apartment building.  That is where we lived when we first arrived here.  The roof leaked severely from the very first rain that hit it March of 2011, and we are finally getting a contractor here to get it replaced.  The meeting took place on Friday and all came out of it in agreement!  Yea!  They are looking at starting the job next Friday so we will have some work to do to move some people out of the top 2 apartments, but we are thankful.  We also had some information about the UPS that is required for the CT scanner hook up.  Any information has been good, so we are grateful for that.  But, the big news is the sanitation project.  We are moving forward with it now and with full support of the hospital.  We have been dancing around this one for a year now, and we now have the green light and money to go forward!  We have a plan and there are many things to be done in order to pull it off, but, we are confident and will start to work on it in earnest.  We are happy to be dealing with the "Poop" issue again!

Tonight is a big night for Trevor's sophomore class.  We are putting on a restaurant and our title is "La Trattoria."  We are serving pizza, salad, bruschetta and some "to die for" desserts.  It has been months in planning (serving over 200 people), but it will all come together tonight.  I can't imagine running a restaurant, but I would assume that when you do it all the time, it is much easier!  We had a 3 hour meeting last Tues night (I had over 6 hours of meetings that day!) and we worked in the kitchen about 3 1/2 hours last night and will start today at 9:30 and probably not end till about 10:30 tonight when all is cleaned up - Yuk!!  Please pray that it will all go smoothly and will taste yummy!  If I have the energy tomorrow, I will post some pictures of the event, But, I think tomorrow will be a "do nothing" kind of day!

Trevor is up taking an ACT test as we speak.  I think he was ready and more importantly, he thinks he was ready!  I sure hope he does well.

Please pray that we have another good week this coming week.  Here is a picture that was posted on a friends blog.  She and her husband are doctors here and they do amazing work.  Her blog is listed on my side bar.  It is paradoxuganda.blogspot.com  She is an amazing writer and gives a doctors persective on what is going on here.  I think they took this while on vaction.  It is an amazing rainbow -

Have a great week!
In His Hands,
Jullie T.

It's Here! It's Here!

Hello All,
We have a CT Scanner in the room that was made for it!  It finally came this week on Wednesday.  It was very exciting.  We had to wait one more day to off load it because we had a forklift coming from Nairobi, but all worked out well.  There were many medical items on the truck that many are grateful to have.  We  want to thank everyone involved for all their effort.  You are appreciated beyond measure!  Here is a video link to the movie that Jim put together of the truck making a U turn in a very tight spot (truck drivers are amazing!), backing up in front of the Mother Child Health Building and the forklift unloading the scanner:

"Lord, we thank you for the arrival of the scanner.  We pray that it will be a blessing to many people that need it.  Thank you for all the people that were involved in getting it here and just know that we are grateful for it all."
And, we thank everyone that added their prayers to this effort!

Last week, I told you that I had gone with the band on Band Tour 2012 for a short time.  Trevor got home late Sunday night and said it finished well.  The last school they played at was an all girls Catholic school.  These girls don't get to interact with boys very much.  Trevor said it was like a mini rock concert!  The girls were screaming and had their hands in the air waving to the songs, especially when the mostly boy trumpet line played some cool parts in the song Pirates of the Caribbean!  They had a good ending to the week end. 

I came home on Saturday and got a short nap then was back up at the school helping to make 60 pizza crusts and another 240 bread sticks!  We got it all done and were home by 9:30.  The first time we did it, we didn't finish till about 10:45 so we must be getting better at it.  Here are a few pictures of me and the other sponsors of the class:

This is one of the monster mixer they have at the Cafeteria.  It is so much fun to use!

Carolyn and I working with a giant blob of pizza dough.

Kylie, Carolyn, Becky, Mark (from left to right) are other sponsors.  Great people to work with.

Yesterday (Friday) was the Kenyan Independence Day - Madaraka Day.  It marks the 49th year of the day of internal Independence from Great Britain.  It was a national holiday, so the hospital was closed - hence we got the day off too!  It really did feel like a holiday as the kids also got out of school at 11:30 to start the mid-term break.  They will go back on Tuesday and have 6 more weeks till the end of the term.  Many of the Seniors are feeling the disparity of their peers back home!  Most HS Seniors in the states are graduated by now and having celebrations and summer jobs!  The kids here will graduate on July 14.  Then they travel back to the states to get ready for college which usually starts mid to late Aug.  It doesn't give them much time to adjust and get settled, but I guess that is life.  We will be facing this dilemma with Trevor in 2 years (Mungu Akupenda! - God Willing!)  But, I don't feel too sorry for them as they all left yesterday early for the coast to spend a week at a posh hotel!  I am sure the chaperones will have their hands full with 90 something 18 year olds getting ready to graduate!

We finally got our tender documents for the peds wing and 5 of the 7 contractors that we had screened have picked them up.  We expect that in 3 weeks we will have these back and start to evaluate who will be our contractor.  We are very excited to be at this point and it will be a long 3 weeks of waiting!

The Bethany Kid's Board is meeting this week end.  Please pray that they will have unity and clarity as they move forward with all that is on their plate!

Thank you all so much for your support.  Please write as you can.  We so much enjoy hearing from you.
jimjulliet@AHC123.com

In His Hands,
Jullie T.

We are Not Home Yet

Hello All,
I am back from a day and a half on tour with the band.  The RVA band goes out into Nairobi each year for 3 days and plays from 5-6 concerts at different venues.  This year they are doing 5 concerts.  We left yesterday morning (Friday) with 73 kids and 3 chaperone's to The School of the Nations.  It is a small school with about 100 kids from K - 8th grade.  They really enjoyed seeing a real High School band playing.  We had a bit of rain so had to move around some (those woodwind instruments can be a little picky about water!) but all turned out well.  After the performance, we had a wonderful Kenyan lunch (stew, rice and cabbage) and headed to the next venue at Africa International University.

Getting ready at The School of the Nations (notice the dark sky!)

Mr Taylor is a great band director

The trumpet section (yes, that is Trevor)

The kids from the school

The kids love to sing!

We got to AIU with plenty of time to spare and had another great concert, this time indoors!  The acoustics in the chapel where we were set up were wonderful.

Setting up at AIU

All set up and ready to go!

The theme of this year's band tour is "We are not Home yet."  One of the kids had a great quote (from somewhere else, she could not remember where), "As Christians, we are not citizens of this earth trying to find heaven, we are citizens of heaven enduring this life on earth."  I loved that!  What we call "Home," can be lost here in an instant or even not exist.  Another kid gave a devotional along those lines.  He is Korean and has lived in Africa many years.  When he was little, he was the only Korean kid at RVA (now the Koreans number about 17%).  One of his "friends" told him he did not belong there and he should go home.  As time passed, his family went back to Korea on furlough.  He was so excited to get to go to a Korean public school.  Once the kids there found out that he was from Africa, they told him he didn't belong and that he should go back.  He was not accepted anywhere.  This is common among MKs (Missionary Kids) because they don't fit into the culture their parents are ministering to, and they don't really know their "home" culture.  Once this Korean boy thought about it, he was comforted to know that he belongs to God and his home is really not here on this earth at all.  1 Peter 2:11-12 says,

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
NIV

Even though we live here, life is just a breath, and will be over in an instant.  We are here to do the works He set out for us and then "go Home."

Our CT Scanner is set to come on Monday.  And the crowd cheers!  It will come on a 40 ft container truck and hopefully fit into the parking lot.  The truck also has wheelchairs and microscopes (5ft ones) and other sundry things.  many people will be happy that it is here.  The room is almost ready to receive the scanner, but we still don't have the electrical gear that we need.  It will be another 3 months or so before we can hook it up and test it out.  This is a shame because the man who was behind it all is leaving in July and will not be here to see it operational.  But, he will leave a legacy here and we are very grateful for that!

The kids at RVA are constantly busy with things.   Today, the little kids had an outreach.  They all go to different venues and do whatever.  Timothy's group stayed at RVA and the children of some of the Moffat Bible College students came up to play.  They were little kids and they had a ball.  Timothy said he was kind of bored, but he realized that he wasn't there for himself, he was there for the kids.

Next week we are going out for tender with the Bill of Quantities for the pediatric wing.  Once we get the bids back from contractors we will know whether or not the BK board will be able to afford it!  Please pray that this final process of picking a contractor will go well.

We are not Home Yet, but we will be coming "back to our Michigan home" in August.  We are looking forward to the visit and getting some shopping done (especially for chocolate chips as I am at the low level alarm)! 

In His Hands,
Jullie T.

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.