Michael / Precious / The Youth

We have had so much fun lately with all of our guests, and have just received one more!  Erika Ressler from Colleen's home town has come to help out at the baby center for the next six weeks  One of their big projects will be getting a baby center website pulled together.  Please pray that we are able to find our rest in the Lord, that we make quality time for us as a couple, and that we can be influential for the Lord in our ministries. 

MICHAEL

You may have heard us talk about Michael, a 1+ year old boy who came to the Baby Center on January 7th.  Since he didn’t have a name when we arrived, Colleen called me from the blood test clinic, asking for name ideas… since it was my friend, Mike Ho’s birthday, I suggested Michael.  Little Michael was so skinny when he came and rarely smiled… but he is now gaining weight, is almost walking, and smiles and waves all the time.  HERE is an album of pictures of Michael from when he first came... check the most recent albums to see his progress!  We are so thankful for the transformation that we have seen in his life!  Below is a picture of Michael (doing is patented wave with Colleen's brother Brian) after being at the Baby Center for about a month – he’s doing so well!

PRECIOUS / CHEPTO

Two posts ago, we talked about going to see little Precious, the orphan who was adopted over Christmas.  She now lives near Tenwek Hospital in Bomet when her mother is the head nurse and her father is a pastor and local businessman.  They came to pick her up right before Christmas, and her mother was on leave for quite a few weeks, so they really got to bond.  Here's a few pictures of our visit with Precious/Chepto and her new family.  Seeing Precious (now called Chepto) get so excited when her father came home and run out for a hug almost brought tears to our eyes… We miss her, but we are so thankful that she is in a loving household.  

THE YOUTH
We have had some great few weeks with the youth group even amongst all of our busyness.  I (Cason), have started to play basketball with guys from the youth group and we eventually hope to put a basketball court in at the church.  Going to play at a local school has been really fun – even out a narrow court with pot holes, raucous spectators, and uneven rims.  This white boy can dunk on one end of the court (but not the other… I think the rims are about a foot different from one end to the other)!

Lately, our Saturday afternoon meetings have focused on spending quality time with the Lord outside of church… how to prioritize Him and what we can do to avoid distractions.  Having a daily quiet time is something that seems to be lost on many people (not so different from the US), so we have been encouraging the youth to do so and make their faith personal by communicating with God themselves.  For February, we are trying to read a chapter of Proverbs every day as a group, so please pray that all of us would have discipline to follow the Lord daily. 
One of the simplest but best things that we’ve done is create a facebook group for the youth group.  Even though many of them don’t have consistent internet access (except on their phones), they post on the group all the time and it is a great way to get out info/reminders about meetings or the daily readings. 
One thing that we’ve noticed here is that the education system is very much rote memorization/old-British.  In schools, discussion and questions are discouraged.  Because of that (and also probably because we aren’t fluent in Swahili), it is hard to encourage discussion in our Bible studies and get people to feel comfortable speaking up.  Please pray that the Lord would lead us in how to continue to have an impact in the lives of the Ngata youth and point them to a personal relationship with Christ. 
Thanks so much for reading… please feel free to email us at casonandcolleen@gmail.com or comment on our facebook albums – we really love to hear from you! 
Cason
PS - Here's a link to some photos of our time with Brian and Michelle (Colleen’s brother and sister-in-law)... we had such a good time with them and will put up more soon – Enjoy!