Redemption

There are no orphans in the Kingdom of God! Hallelujah!

Today I rocked our newest baby and wept over her beautiful life that was carelessly thrown away by the woman who birthed her. While I hugged her to me one of the volunteers began singing “Jesus loves you, this I know… little ones to HIM belong, they are weak and he is strong” with the toddlers outside. As childish as that song sometimes seems it made me think, if this precious life can bring me to tears how much more does God weep at the thought of someone throwing this little girl away like trash. Not only does God weep but also desires her redemption and healing and has chosen us to be His tools to see that she is raised as a valued and loved child of God.

Baby Precious was found in a pit latrine in a nearby town. We received her at 3 days old sick and worn out from her difficult beginning. I praise God for rescuing this girl and bringing her to us where she can be loved and cared for. Please be praying for her as she recovers and adjusts to life at the AGC Baby Centre.

Click HERE to see an update from the Baby Centre Director, Staci Keter, about Precious. 

This past Sunday Cason was invited to preach at a church about an hour away from our home. Our night guard, John, has planted 7 rural churches and has been wanting Cason to visit their head church. So Sunday we drove the dirt road back to a building with a tin roof, wood slats for sides and dirt floors.

We arrived for the service at ten, and we' had been told that we would be able to leave by 1pm so we could go meet with our youth group (from the church we regularly attend).  Here’s a picture of Cason and John before the service. 

When we first arrived, only the Sunday school children were there, so we were given a tour of the area, and then we went to a local home to drink tea and talk. The pastors from the other churches had been invited, so they slowly started to join us.  The service got going around 11:30am and the first 40 minutes was all people giving greetings and welcome speeches, followed by incredible acapella singing with drums.

Cason spoke to the congregation about The value of discernment and wisdom when listening to God’s word, and not focusing on the things of the world.  His main scripture was Colossians 2:8, which says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”

His message was translated into Kalenjin for congregation, and they listened attentively.  The other pastor’s especially took notes as he discussed the “deceptive philosophies” and “human traditions” that take us captive from the Lord. 

After being given some gifts of vegetables, we were excused early from the service.  Before we were released to go, however, we had to join John and some of the other pastors for a meeting, lunch, and chai.  We were also presented with a letter to bring with us to the States requesting help with a hospital, school, a bible college, and to send their children to the US for college. :)  We didn’t make any promises, but really enjoyed our time meeting with the pastors and the family of our host. 

Click HERE for to see a few more pictures of our time at the rural church.

 

We had 20-25 children peering into the hut while we ate lunch and when we would look at them they would all run and scream.  It was very cute but I wish they weren’t quite so afraid. It was a wonderful day and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to experience rural Kenya.  We are really hoping to continue to be involved with these churches and support them however we can. 

We left around 4pm… right on time! Needless to say, we missed youth group at our church, but we’re so glad that we stayed to spend time with the church and the pastors. : )  On our drive home, Cas and I discussed how it seems like people from the rural areas, especially the youth, feel inferior… something that we noticed even just spending a few hours there.  Hopefully on our next trip, we can try to share more about how we are all equal in God’s site and that our only true worth comes from Him.

As always, thanks so much for reading!

Colleen (and Cason)

PS – Click HERE for a recent album from Baby Center… there are some really good ones of the kids!

First one in a while…

Hello everyone! Sorry about the lack of posts lately… Tuesday was the first night in over two weeks that we’ve both been home with no guests or meetings. We’ve enjoyed being busy and having guests, but it is nice to relax just the two of us!

We are leaving to come back to the US for a quick three week trip a week from today, primarily for Colleen’s sister’s wedding. We’ll be in the States from June 21^st, - July 13^th in Ohio, Indy, and Chicago, and we’d love to see you all, so let us know if you’ll be around.

~ Football Tournament ~

In addition to staying busy with work in the office, I’ve been leading the youth group at church and organized a football tournament with my local club. I had told the guys on my football team that I would help organize a tournament before we go back to the US for a few weeks. So last weekend, we hosted some other local teams on our home ground.

Predictably, not everything went smoothly… we were supposed to have 6 teams, but only 5 showed up… the first game was supposed to be at 9am on Saturday, but didn’t start until almost noon… there were a few questionable calls and some unhappy spectators, but all in all it was a great time.

My team, Ngata, won the final on Sunday 3-1, which was attended by 150+ people. After the final game, one of the pastors at our church gave a brief talk and invited the guys to our church. We also prayed and handed out some prizes. It was a very Kenyan weekend, but I loved every minute and was glad that the church got to share with young men from the community. The local teams are excited about organizing more tournaments in August once I return – if you’d like to help sponsor one, let me know! I’ll also be collecting some soccer gear while I’m home, so if you have any goalie gloves, cleats, shin guards, or kits you’d like to donate, just shoot me an email.

I’d appreciate your prayers for how we can continue to be a witness to the Ngata football team and the other teams in the area.

~ Youth Group ~

A month or so ago, we switched the youth group meeting from Saturday to Sunday afternoon after the service since attendance on Saturdays had been sporadic.  We’ve been reading though 1 John with them and have been discussing how we need to make our faith our own – to really personalize it and sift through all the lies that the world puts out there.

One of the passages that we really dug into was 1 John 2:15-17, which says, “¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

We had some great conversations about what is the “world” for us… I inserted the “worldly things” that the youth put forward as tempting for them. So we read the passage as, “Do not love your cell phone, or anyone in your cell phone… Do not love the TV, or any show on TV… Do you not love your friends… Do not love your boyfriend…” We discussed how those things aren’t inherently bad, but they become detrimental when we prioritize them over our relationship with God. They seemed to enjoy my “paraphrasing” and I think it helped with driving the point home.  The thing that really clicked with the youth is when we discussed why God sets rules for us… the reason He doesn’t want us to fall in love with the things of the world. He is trying to protect us because He knows that it will all pass away, and the only thing that will matter in the end is our relationship with Him.

Please pray for the Ngata youth as they continue to seek out the things of the Lord and fight the temptations of this world. Also pray that God would give us (and the other leaders) wisdom in how we can connect with them and encourage them toward Christ.

~ The Baby Center ~

Colleen has been busy at the Baby Center organizing the volunteers to do daily physical therapy for the kids and helping with the extra babies – there are 40 right now! There are currently 4 additional volunteers working at the Baby Center, some of whom are helping Colleen with physical therapy and child development. A few weeks ago, a team of physical therapists from Nairobi came to the Baby Center to analyze the kids and help Colleen plan development programs – it was such a blessing to have them come, and the new plans and additional help has seem some drastic improvement in some of the kids.

Please keep praying for the kids of the Baby Center… It was a difficult last week for Colleen. She took three of the  babies to Tenwek hospital for check ups and spent a sleepless night with the sick children. Also, the Baby Center has received a new baby and said goodbye to others, which she will write about soon.

Sometimes the weight of the stories behind these children’s abandonments can be very difficult to put behind us and can make our hearts heavy with grief. We believe that God has a plan for all of these children, but sometimes it is hard to forget their difficult and at times cruel beginnings and see beyond to the redemption God has for them.  Please pray for Colleen as she continues to ministry to these precious little ones, that God would protect her heart, as well as the other workers at the Baby Center

Thanks so much for reading our blog!  Hope to see some of you in the US in a few weeks. 

God Bless,

Cason

PS – Isn’t Angela beautiful?  This was taken a few Sundays ago when 21 Baby Center babies were dedicated at church.  Click HERE to see Colleen’s album.