The following is our end of the year letter that we sent out.
Choosing
to TRUST
I
married a visionary man. God has given him many visions and great plans! He has
equipped him to trust fully in God’s Great Visions. I, on the other
hand, like to think realistically… not too far
out there…. stay in the comfort zone. I want to know what
everything will look like in the future and how it will all work out, and
hopefully it will be all happily ever after with minimal bumps and
obstacles on the way. My man challenges me daily to get out there and
trust in our GREAT GOD. Let me give you a few examples of how David has been
such a great leader in trusting God and His visions.
A year into being married to my man, we went for a month to
Kenya at the end of 2009. Before departing for Kenya, we had talked
about our heart for orphans and needy children and our desire to
start an orphanage. David had told me that he would like to get the
orphanage started before God took away our vision and gave it to someone else.
I was terrified at the thought of starting an orphanage and having such a big
responsibility of so many children. In high school, I thought I wanted to
be a foster Mom to HIV babies here in the States. The Lord had greater
things planned for me (and David). Within the month of being in Kenya,
God had already orchestrated all of the people to help us, places for children
to stay, and 13 dear sweet children who needed help and needed to
hear about Jesus and His saving grace. God and His wondrous ways blew me
away! All the children God has brought to us have tested negative for
HIV…we thank the Lord for their good health.
When God set in David’s heart that it was time to buy 5 acres of land to build
a permanent home for the children in early 2011, I was there thinking, “How can
we come up with enough money to buy and build something for the children? How
can we raise money to do all of this? This is too big!” God again showed
me that He had networked the people already to donate enough money to
buy the land set aside for us. He also already had the Medlin family
(missionaries to Kenya for a year in end of 2011-2012) and their home church
GraceLife and many other donors ready to step up to fund the building of the
big house for the children! God is so awesome!
When God
moved the Medlin’s onto another mission, God gave David the vision to move
our family to Kenya to live and work at the orphanage. I, on the other hand,
kept fighting God’s nudges, not wanting to leave my comfort zone of
America. I had moved many times when I was growing up, but I never had to
be the grown-up moving and making such big decisions! I could not fathom being
comfortable moving with our two young ones (Lily – almost 3 at the time and
Levi - 1 ½ at the time) to such an exotic place. Well, in June 2013, God had us take
a leap of faith to Kenya to trust Him and to love on the children He had
brought us! What an adventure full of spiritual growth!
Within
the first month of living in Kenya, while we were shopping in Eldoret, we
got a call from the police. They told us of an abandoned newborn baby boy (with
his umbilical cord still attached!) and asked if were we willing to take
him in and to care for him (June 29th, 2013). The village elders had
tried to locate the baby’s mother but no one in his village or the surrounding
ones knew of anyone having a newborn baby boy. It didn’t take David or me
long to think about what we should do. We both knew God was telling us to take
care of this child and to name him Moses. Here is where I see that my faith and
trust in God had grown. David and I both knew God would take care of all
this newborn’s needs! Moses is now a healthy little 2 ½ year old boy so full
life! We love how God works and provides!
I wanted to write all of this out so you can get a glimpse of how God has
worked in and through the Grace of God Children’s Project. I love to think
about God’s power and how He continually asked me to trust Him and David
throughout all of these times. So now I am choosing to TRUST in David’s vision
of having a school on the property of Grace of God Children’s Centre in
Kaptagat, Kenya. I know that God has His people networked and ready to complete
the fundraising of $5,650! Will you consider joining us and choosing
to TRUST GOD to complete the building of this school so it can
open its doors January 2016 for the new school year? Just think how
your end-of-the-year tax deductible giving could go toward helping
Grace family and the children in the community get
quality faith-based education!
Laurel Cheromei for Grace Family
(David, Hillary, Christine, Sharon,
Levi, Ian, Vincent, Dennis, Brenda, Winnie K., Lucy,
Victor, Moses, Kipchumba,
Mercy, Lily, Gideon, Winnie A., Timothy, Derick)
I am still confident of this: I will
see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for
the Lord. Psalm 27:13-14
May God be praised for what He has done in
2015 for Grace Family through your involvement!
Mission 2015
February 2015- what a great blessing again to have Tom, Jay and
Pat to visit Grace family! They built a sawmill shed at GOGCC, played with the children,
reached out to the community and shared the love of Jesus!
It was great to have Liberty University
mission trip 2015.The team achieved the following through your support and
prayers for His glory:
•
Started to build the outer walls of 3 classrooms at GOGCC (Grace
of God Children’s Centre) for a school we hope to start in January 2016!
•
Organized a sustainable agriculture workshop at GOGCC and helped
with some farm work
•
Track construction where it was measured out to be a 200 meters
track with 4 lanes
•
Sports ministry at GOGCC which was a week long track camp to
prepare for a track meet at the end of the week
•
Free Medical clinic in 4 locations (Kaptagat, Pokot, Kapsigot and
Maasai Mara)
•
Distribution of food to the needy families in Pokot
•
Washed feet as a sign of God’s love and provided them with shoes
in Pokot
•
Distribution of clothing to the needy families in Pokot,
Kaptagat, Kapsigot and Maasai Mara
•
Witnessed to various people during revival and evangelism
meetings
•
Constructed two water towers at GOGCC for reliable water source
•
Visited schools and played with children and spent time in the
classrooms
•
Played games with Grace family and showed them great love and
attention
•
Built 2 houses for the needy out of timber and corrugated iron
sheets
Other Praises
•
January 2015- The Harambee Foundation team visited again to help
some local students have scholarships to attend high school, played with Grace
family, held running races for the local community.
· Thank you,
God! Electricity is now available at Grace of God Children’s Centre (GOGCC). We
have been praying and waiting for the electricity for the last four years
· Container
full of various donated items including a tractor is already on his way to the
orphanage (Grace of God Children’s Centre). We currently trust the Lord on all
the details of the container clearing and delivery to the orphanage in Kenya
· We raised
$911 to help stop Jiggers in Kenya. This
will be enough to treat 60 or more children currently with Jiggers. We would
like to thank everyone who donated!
· Addition of
2 Goats to GOGCC through the support from our friends from Harambee Foundation
and the Grand Valley State Cross Country Team. One of the goats is named Laker
after the XC team name!
· 11 people - mission team will be heading to
GOGCC in January to start the construction of the second story in the big
house. This will enable us to add more orphans to our family. They will also
open the new school if it is God’s will.
· Two of our
children (Sharon Jelagat and Christine Tsindori) at Grace Family did their
Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE), results will be out in late
January 2016.
2016 prayer needs:
· Volunteers
to teach or tutor Mathematics and English at the Centre’s school.
· We are
praying for 100 people to donate $50
towards building .The construction of the school (3 class rooms) is going on
well, though we are running out of funds at this point. We are praying and
hoping that we will finish the school construction before the end of this year
so we can open the three classrooms in January. Please help us complete
classrooms (plastering-$600, concrete-$1,200, windows and doors $600,
Furniture and blackboard-$1,750, Labor $1,500, Estimated total still needed=$5,650)
· Funds to
finish up construction work the at Centre to enable us to accommodate more
children
· Child
sponsorship, we are praying for people to help sponsor a child in need
· We need gently
used or new Bibles towards our Bible ministry
· We also have at least 2 mission
trips scheduled for 2016. We are praying for God to provide a medical team to
tackle with various medical needs in Kenya.
· Money to help Container-clearing and delivery by December 27, 2015
Thanks
again for your generous support to Grace of God Children’s Project in 2015. God
is good; he has achieved many things through YOU for His glory at GOGCP. The
goal of GOGCP is to continue to make a difference in the lives of children who
need help. With the help of donations from supporters such as you, we will
continue to see more and more orphans and poor children succeed in life! We will
also continue to see many lives impacted for Christ in many communities. We
pray that you will be again part of God’s blessing at GOGCP in 2016! God bless
and thanks again.
Sincerely,
David Cheromei for Grace Family
President/Founder, Grace of God Children’s
Project
