Archive - Sara RSS Feed

The School

The school is located in the slum of Laki Sama outside of Nairobi.  It is in the Victory Christian Centre (which is a church).  There are 120 students from nursery through class 4.  Many are orphans and have come from abusive situations or off the streets.  There are 8 teachers who are volunteer, so they do not usually stay for long.  The children are very eager to learn and are very bright.  They learn Swahili, English, science, maths, social studies, and CRE (Christian studies).  As we have mentioned before, there is much need in the school.  Most of the kids do not have decent shoes to wear and the inside needs repaired and painting.  The church is allowing them to build a second story to add classrooms so they can use the space they have now for dormitories; they need only to provide the construction and funds.  For the feeding program, they provide one meal a day which is very small and lacking in nutrition.  For most kids, this is probably the only meal they receive.  The conditions of the school are very unsanitary.  Each day there are many sick children suffering from malnutrition and fever, and to us this is not acceptable.

Recently we have been joined by two friends from Poland who have been a great help in the school.  They’re working to purchase goats and chickens as well as a shed to hold them.  Today they gave the school trash cans and we taught them how to recycle and clean up.

Please join us in praying for improvement in the schools and lives of these children!  We’re hoping to purchase more shoes while we are here (as you can see in the pictures many have been donated but about half of the kids still need some).  Each pair of school shoes is about $5.  You can also sponsor a child for $40 a month.  The organization does not make any profit; all money goes straight to providing for the child.  If you feel led to donate to this, or another project, e-mail sara.branson3@yahoo.com.  You can find out more about the Christian Community Youth Network (CCYN) on facebook.

We know it seems like a drop in the sea, but if you make a difference in the life of one child it is totally worth it.  We gave one boy a pair of flipflops, and he said it is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for him.  What we see as small and insignificant really means the world to these children.  They do not expect anything from us and are so grateful for what we are doing here.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40

 

Our family

The American Dream

We introduced our host family to some American things. Firstly…Uno! And they love it!!! We lose sleep because we can’t stop playing. Then we introduced them to two American meals–macaroni and cheese, and peanut butter, banana, honey sandwiches. They loved it almost as much as Uno.

Finally Arrived!

Jambo! We have safely arrived in Kenya after a 20 hour flight. We had an awesome church service this morning worshiping with the locals here in Nairobi. Tomorrow we will meet all of the children at school. Thank you so much for all of your prayers! Please continue praying for us as we begin our work here in Kenya.

God Bless,

Cara, Daidra, and Sara

Getting Ready

One week from today we’ll be on our way to Kenya. I’ve been ready for this day since I left Kenya last summer. I’m very excited to see how things are going at the CCYN and Maisha. Many things have taken place since my visit last June, some really great and some very hard. But I’m so ready to see what God has in store for this trip! Thanks to everyone who has donated to make this possible. I ask that you all will saturate this mission in prayer daily. I hope you all will follow us on this journey and also be blessed by the work going on with our brothers and sisters in Kenya.

Love in Christ,

Sara