Our Life Ministry friends, Caroline and Paul, and their two litte girls, spent a couple of days with us in Meru. And
they accompanied us to Ripples Int’l, where Marilyn took photos of the 34 little children in New Start. All of
them would love to have a family that would love and care for them as Tehillah and Emunah are by their parents.
Meru, Kenya August 2019
 
We left early one morning on a day safari in Samburu Reserve. At this time of the year, several months after
the rains, there was very little green grass and we wondered what the animals ate. Elephants, it turns out, eat
just about anything, maybe even weaver bird nests?
Samburu Reserve, Kenya August 2019
Some of our young friends in Meru joined us on our last Sunday there for our farewell lunch at The Red Tomato.
Everyone enjoyed pizza baked in a wood burning brick oven - the only one we’ve seen anywhere in Kenya.
Meru, Kenya August 2019
We and two young friends walked the streets of Meru with lots of supporters of the often hidden children who have cerebral
palsy, autism, dyslexia and Downs Syndrome. This Wheel and Walk event was sponsored by
Furaha Day Care Centre
which offers quality day nursing care, play, meals, sensory integration and occupational therapy for these exceptional children.
Kenya July 2019
We visited a sponsored student at St. James Secondary School in Ruiri. It is an oasis in a semi-desert area. A borehole
was drilled there two years ago - and water has been flowing, without a pump, ever since. There are now bananas growing on
the school grounds, and lots of maize and beans in the surrounding shambas.
Kenya July 2019
The grandparents of another sponsored student now have electric lights in their home. “The Last Mile” of the Rural Electrification Program has
brought power to many people who have lived all their lives without it, on the small plots of land they were given after Kenya
won its Independence in 1964.
Kenya July 2019
We left Meru early one morning, before sunrise, and in less than two hours were at Sweetwaters Game Reserve, a 24,000 area private
ranch with a magnificent view of MT. Kenya. Sweetwaters includes Ol Pejeta Wildlife Sanctuary, where we said hello to Baraka, a blind
rhino, and the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, founded by Jane Goodall, where we met five chimps.
Kenya June 2019
After our game drive, we went to the MT. Kenya Safari Club, now a Fairmont Hotel, for lunch. It is 100 acres of beautifully
landscaped grounds. Founded in the 1950’s colonial era by William Holden, it was a private haven for him and other movie stars,
including Robert Redford. Remember him in “Out of Africa”?
Kenya June 2019
We attended the graduation ceremony at Kabuni Technical Training Institute. One of our young friends, whom we have known
since 2009 when she was in primary school, received her Diploma in Community Development. It was a colorful event as several
thousand parents and guests gathered there to celebrate with the five hundred and thirty graduates.
Kenya June 2019
We spent a week in Kitale where we visited 42 of the 50 students who are sponsored by St. John Church in Darien, CT. They are in seven
schools, so every day for four days we were on the roads. We also saw the remaining eight students at St. John Bosco Centre on Parents and Guardians
Day. And on Saturday, we visited the homes of three students.
Kenya June 2019
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We visited Vivian at the Law School in Karen, where she and 1500 others are preparing to write the Bar Exam in
November. Then in January, when she learns that she has passed, we pray, she wants to work with the Capital
Markets Authority or a law firm that deals with securities.
Kenya May 2019
We had pizza and ice cream with Caroline and Paul and Tehillah, which is Hebrew for praise, and Emunah, which is
faith in Hebrew. Caroline and Paul both have leadership roles with Life Ministry Kenya, which is part of CRU
(formerly Campus Crusade). Paul recently spent two weeks at a conference in Zimbabwe with LM leaders from many
other countries in Africa.
Kenya May 2019
And the day after we arrived in Meru, we attended church and had lunch with three of the five young people here
that we’ve known and helped to go to school since 2009. One is graduating from a Training Insitute next week,
one will finish a Business Management course in September, and the other one is looking for electrical installation
work.
Kenya May 2019
We also saw Joyce at her home and at
Rossholme Education Centre,
the school she started almost three years ago,
in Kiambiu slum in Nairobi. Marilyn took photos of 140 of the little students there - and Felister, a young nurse
from Nyeri that we’ve known since 2005 when we and she lived in Tumaini Children’s Home, weighed and measured
the students. Only one was at risk of being malnourished.
Kenya May 2019
Pope Francis said "Walking, always being on the way, means always communicating" -
and three of young friends (one from Meru and two from Nairobi) walked from one end
of Meru to the other end to show that they care about children with Cerebral Palsy
and Autism. Our new friend Mareck, who came from Poland 20 years ago, organized
the walk to promote the
Furaha Centre
in Meru, which he founded and directs.
Kenya August 2018 
Caroline and Paul, who are both with
Life Ministry Kenya,
visited us in Meru after spending some time with their three LMK colleagues in Isiolo. Having a vehicle has made trips like this
outside Nairobi possible for them and two little girls. They are so grateful for everyone who helped them to purchase their VW
last December.
Kenya July 2018 
We visited Benson who is in Form One at St. Bridget’s Secondary School for the Deaf, near Busia and the border of Uganda.
It opened in 2010 - and it’s the first of its kind, as a third of the students are from the surrounding community
and they are not deaf.
Kenya July 2018 
Destiny Shapers is a new creche and kindergarten in Meru. It was started by a friend who was with Ripples International
and whom we have known for the 10 years that we lived in Meru. What she did in three months to get her school up and
running is truly amazing.
Kenya July 2018 
We met her ten years when she was in nursery school and in the Chemichemi program of Ripples International. Her home has no TV
nd she hasn’t seen fashion magazines; but she likes to pose for photos and to take photos too of her family members.
The government’s “Last Mile” program has provided a pole in the family’s compound, but there’ll be no power ‘til her
mum can pay for the wiring and connection.
Kenya July 2018  
Going on safari in Meru National Park, where there are very few tourists, and staying in a banda, is almost liking going
back a hundred years. The landscape is the same - and so are the animals - only we aren’t Karen Blixen and Denis Fitch-Hatten.
We’ve gone safari many times - and have been to almost all the parks - and we have seen all animals. But every once in a while
we see something we’ve never seen before - like two bull elephants challenging each other for territory.
Kenya July 2018
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We have a new young friend in Meru. He’s from Kitali, and he’s studying medicine at KeMU (Kenya Methodist University).
Another young friend is studying at KIM (Kenya Institute of Management), and others are graduates in IT, Nutrition
and Community Development.
Kenya June 2018 
There was more rain in Kenya during the long rains season than there had been in 20 years - so there’s lots of
grass in Samburu Reserve for the elephants, and they have stayed together in large groups. While on a short
safari there, we were often surrounded by many elephants.
Kenya June 2018 
Our favorite home away from our Meru home is Simba room in Turaco Cottage at Rondo Retreat Centre in the Kakamega Rain
Forest. The forest is home to many birds - and Rondo is a quiet and peaceful place, where we can be still and know God.
Our friend, who plays the guitar and sings, really liked Rondo, and he wants his church group to go to there for their
retreat in December.
Kenya June 2018 
We spent four days at
The Nambale Magnet School
where there were 392 students in 12 classes, quite an increase from the 35 students that entered in 2009. All of
the students have prayer partners in the US, and they will get photos of the children that they’re praying for.
Kenya June 2018 
The Methodist Guest House, in the Lavington area of Nairobi, was our home away from home. We enjoyed living in the Bishop's Suite, with its
balcony above the swimming pool, where we saw the sun rise and heard birds in the morning. Our young Life Ministry friends and their two
beautiful daughters also enjoyed being there with us on Saturday morning - and then we all enjoyed having pizza for lunch.
Kenya May 2018 
On Sunday morning, we took a bus downtown, and met more young friends for mass at the Basilica - and then had lunch with them at Java House. We
have known some of these young people since 2005 and 2006 when we, and they, lived in Tumaini Children’s Home in Nyeri.
Kenya May 2018 
We spent two days at Rossholme Education Centre in Kiambiu slum. The Centre was started by our young friend, Joyce, and there are 100 preschoolers
there now. Marilyn took photos of all of them, and a nurse friend weighed the children and measured their upper arms to see if any of them
were mal-nourished. None were.
Kenya May 2018 
Five years ago, John walked Caroline down the aisle, as father of the bride, and now we are “grandparents” to two beautiful
little girls. Caroline and her husband Paul met at Life Ministry Kenya, where they both worked then - and where they still
work now.
Kenya August 2017 
We got to know Christopher in 2005 and 2006 when we lived at Tumaini Children’s Home in Nyeri. Now he manages a Hand-in-Hand
office in Nyahururu - and his sister, who was at St. Clare Girls School in Nchiru, near Meru, for her last five years of primary
school, is now in Form 3 at Maria Immaculate Girls Centre in Kiambu, just outside of Nairobi.
Kenya August 2017 
We have seen many mothers nursing their babies, even in church, but this was the first time for us to see a baby elephant at its
mother’s breast. We spent two days in Samburu Reserve, and there we saw many babies and youngsters, including those of lions,
cheetahs, zebras, impalas, monkeys and baboons.
Kenya August 2017 
We enjoyed lunch with our mother and daughter friends - and afterwards, they had fun posing for photos. Just last year, Makena
bounced on a trampoline - now she’s a beautiful, tall and very poised young lady. And her mother, who attended Kentucky University
a few years ago, is now the HR manager at Embu University.
Kenya August 2017
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