1st Proposal

Church below the Acacia tree. The men, women, and children take turns dancing and singing

We spent some time after church singing and praying with the
youth. The man on the right wants to start a boda boda service
(motor bike taxi)

Yesterday was a big day down in the camps. We enjoyed a wonderful time of worship below the acacia tree with some Kikuyu IDPs. Noah was asked to preach and he gave the congregation the story of creation and redemption. It was awesome! Afterwards, we met with the youth and sang songs with them and prayed together. Several of the youth are preparing for their enormous national exams that are coming up. We prayed for their exams and they prayed for wisdom for us for our projects.


These women make beautiful baskets. We are trying to help
them find a cost effective way of making them.



We met with Francis and Daniel after that and were surprised with a business proposal from them, neatly typed and prepared. We had been planning on asking them to start writing a business proposal  for review next week. It was awesome to see that they had already taken the initiative to prepare. Today we will be reviewing the proposal with the aide of some of our Kenyan friends here to see if we can trim down the size of the proposed peanut farm. We are learning that it is far bbeter to start small and let the people build their own projects then to invest a ton of money and see money go to waste. I think we are learning a great deal about efficiency. Please pray that we would have wisdom about this Peanut farm and that we would know how much is too much to invest into this project. There are also several other small businesses that have asked us for help. We need you prayers as we meet and discuss and plan. We will let you know what happens soon. Thanks--Henry

Big Changes



Nathan with Daniel and the village chairman



We have been met with several major changes since we arrived in Kijabe and have visited the IDP camps. The first thing we noticed last week was that the majority of IDPs are now living in cinderblock houses built by the Habitat for Humanity. That was very exciting. The second thing we noticed is that the IDPs have planted maize everywhere possible on the 20 something acres of land that the 1700 people acquired in the last 2 years. However, the land is incredibly dry even during this rainy season so most of the crops have already died or are well on their way. We were blessed this week to walk 2 hours down the side of the Great Rift Valley to the IDP camps wher we found a nice acacia tree to sit under outside the Eldoret camp. As we waited we prayed that God would bring along the right man or woman to lead us into the camps to meet and pray with individuals. God answered our prayers and we were lead in by a man named Daniel who brought us to the camp's chairman who welcomed us warmly. Some of the things that we have learned from him and some of the other IDPs we have met is that water is, by far, the greatest need for the people. This is something that we are beginning to pray specifically to pray about. Water would provide the needed irrigation  for the dry ground and would open many other doors for businesses. However, we havent yet felt called to focus on the water issue. Instead we have been listening to the locals ideas about businesses they would like to start. As we went house to house on Tuesday we were able to sit and pray with 4 different families about their situations. Noah, with his strong grasp on Swahili, has been a lifesaver for us in our dealings with the IDPs. We are meeting today with a missionary to discuss some of the things we have learned and hope to do. Praise God for the ways He is providing for the IDPs here.

Alright..now I've gotta get some photos uploaded for you. Thank you for your prayers.

Henry and Noah with some fundis (handymen) rebuilding a house for an older woman.

In Kenya

It feels so good to say we are back in Nairobi, Kenya. What a blessing! We ate at the Dukas (market) for lunch today and had some Yoma Choma (Goat meat with veggies). We are buying up just a few supplies before we head out tomorrow morning for Kijabe where we will be staying until we have found a spot in the camps to live.
We will post some photos ASAP!

We leave tomorrow

Hey Guys,
 We leave tomorrow morning and fly intto Nairobi on Wednesday afternoon. Cant Wait! Please continue to pray and I will keep you updated with photos and posts. Thanks

Just a Couple Weeks Left

Our departure day is June 7th and we are counting down the days untill we go. We are wrapping up a few things. Noah M. is down in Texas un till Wednesday and then he is heading out to Kenya ahead of us. Nate and I will follow after we finish the last couple days of work in Iowa, and spend a week in Boone, NC hiking with our cousin. I called John Njane the other day and we talked out about the chicken farm and sewing business. Im so excited for what God has in store. We would appreciate your prayers as we make the last minute preparations for travel and packing. I'll send out one more post before we leave and then keep you posted from Kijabe, Kenya.

Chicken Farms and Leadership Conferences

A veterinarian at my church hooked me up with some literature on chicken farming. I spent the day taking notes and reading up on chicken breeds and chicken runs and houses. Its getting me excited for the small chicken farm we are planning on starting in one of the camps this summer. This month I also had the opportunity of participating in the annual missions conference at Boone United Methodist. I met the President of the ILI (International Leadership Institution) which trains Christians to be leaders world wide. He got my into contact with the East African director and we are now in the process of planning a leadership conference for the IDPs in the camps. FREE OF CHARGE! Praise God. Be Praying for this whole process and for the small businesses planned. Thanks

Micro Loans for IDPs

I recently received some information that there is an NGO called Opportunity International that provides financing through micro loans to men and women all over the world (including Kenya). The requirement for a person in need to recieve a loan is that they have to first have a small business started. Praise God, if these small development projects we have planned take off, then the IDPs involved will be apply to apply for further assistance from Opportunity International. Please pray for this! If you get a chance, check out their website for yourself at: http://www.opportunity.org/ .