Tuesday, October 14, 2014

The Journey

Hello dear ones!
God has brought us through a lot. He has helped us through this process of change as we have been in America for almost 2 months now. David started work at Liberty right away while the 2 little ones and Laurel headed down to her parents in SC for a month while David found a car, house, etc in Lynchburg.
There are a few things we would like to clarify as we have had some questions from a few people. We are very much a part of Grace family as we still live in America. We moved back to America because of a variety of personal family reasons, for one that we have our third child on the way. Laurel did not feel comfortable having a child in Kenya and that is one of the reasons that brought us back here. We are still a large part of Grace family, which we founded by the Lord's help back in 2009 (http://www.graceofgodchildren.org/). Since we moved back to America our goal is to raise more support for Grace of God Children's Centre by finding more sponsors, families, churches, etc. that will help us. David is planning with his track and cross country team from Liberty University to have mission teams head over there to help in Summer 2015. We also have other teams scheduled throughout 2015 to come serve and help as the Lord leads. Let us know if you would like to go! We love our Grace family and did not abandon them. We are all working together to help raise awareness and support for the Lord's work in Kenya.
God has set a good foundation for Grace family and they are in good hands.
Our manager, David Koros, is heading up the family. It is good to have him back! He will be helping with many of our outreach programs and assisting mission teams with their projects when they come to visit. He is a God fearing person and we fully trust him.
Keep us in your prayers as the following projects are on our hearts to work on to help make the centre more efficient and effective.
-       Playground
o   Fix the swing chains
o   Roofing the playground tower where slides run off from
-       Water tower
o   Add Larger container
-       The Big House
o   Add a second story to the big house for classes/study area
o   Rectify the outside plumbing/waste pipes
o   Fix roofing leaks
o   Add ceiling to each room in boys and girls dorms
o   Add one more toilet to both girls and boys side
o   Couches/comfy chairs
o   Tiling for Shower, toilets, kitchen
o   Fascia board around the roof to put up gutters for catching rain
o   Put 6 inch slab around the whole outside of the house to help with water splashing
-       Chicken coop
-       Dog house
o   Get more dogs for security
-       Underground concrete tank for water storage
-       Build a church
-       Create a shed for the portable sawmill
-       Bees on a Mission house
o   Fascia board and gutters
o   Tiling for kitchen
o   Bedroom floors need tiling
o   Build shelving for kitchen
OTHER ITEMS to sustain the home and generate income:
  • Buy more milking cows
  • Buy more chickens for eggs
  • Rent land for plantation
  • Buy trees for timber making
  • Agriculture education
  • Canteen to sell small items and for children to learn business skills

It is very hard on our hearts but we are so happy that we have you all beside us through this journey. We would love to hear from you or get together sometime and share more.
“May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.” Ruth 2:12 (NLT)


Prayers for Mercy


We are in need of your prayers and ideas during this time. Mercy Jerop, the sweet little girl who was abandoned near our property is now up for a court date this week to see where she will stay/who will have custody of her. Here is her story of how she arrived: http://www.beesinkenya.blogspot.com/2014/03/mercy-jerop.html.

Our worry is that Mercy might be put back with her mother since the police report was changed (summary of the real story: her mother brought her on a motor bike and dropped her off near our property at around 5am)
We have had 2 court dates already and they are just looking at the paperwork (which has been corrupted and changed) and not asking for witnesses or the real facts.
We found out that someone changed the police report saying that the father (who not yet confirmed to be the real father) was the one who abandoned Mercy. So according this corrupted information, the court could order Mercy to go back to live with her mother since her mother would be innocent according to the corrupted report.  This would be a bad scenario for Mercy since she has already been abandoned once and will be put in danger from the home life she previously had with her mother.
As a children’s home/orphanage we have very limited say in this court case. We are just there to help if they will let us speak up on Mercy’s behalf. We want to help Mercy and anyone the Lord brings our way. This breaks our heart and this is a very difficult situation to be in.

Please keep Grace family and Mercy Jerop in your prayers. We want the best for her life and may the Lord have His way. We are in love with her and through your help we have made a big impact on her life beyond our expectations. May He show mercy to Jerop and give everyone wisdom concerning this case.