cason & colleen

Happy Christmas/New Year/2012!

2012-01-16T21:01:00.003-05:00

So friends, we’ve failed. We had the best intentions of keeping up our blog, but we haven’t posted since April… and our last post was presented as “part 1 of 2.” Not the best on our part. Quite a bit has happened since then, so we’ll give you a quick rundown of the highlights... and promise to post more often than every 9 months in the future. Can’t believe it has been over a year

Air/Road Trip - California

2011-04-08T16:42:00.001-04:00

In our last post, I mentioned that we're taking some time to visit friends and family while we're trying to figure out where we want to live and what we want to do next. We left Wooster on the 25th, and have been traveling around ever since - we've been in Indianapolis, Southern California, and Atlanta so far, and our currently in Marco Island (Florida). Next week we'll go to Fort Lauderdale

Marah

2011-03-28T11:00:00.003-04:00

What we've been doing... It’s been a while since we posted, but we wanted to update people on what we’ve been doing and what our plans are for the future. Since our last entry from two months ago, we’ve remained living in Wooster with Colleen’s parents. We’ve been fortunate to go on quite a few trips, including to Chicago, Indiana, Texas, and Kentucky to see friends and family. We also were

It’s so cold here!

2011-01-26T14:40:00.001-05:00

Hi Friends! We are still enjoying being in the US, even with all the cold weather! Cason has been working hard continuing his treasurer duties and I have been in puppyland here in Wooster with all the golden doodles. It has been really good for us to be in one place and "settle down" a bit with all of the traveling we did after arriving from Kenya. Being able to live in Ohio with my parents

Back in the frigid US of A

2011-01-04T11:31:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It is hard to believe that we’ve already been in the US for two weeks already! We were supposed to fly out of Nairobi on December 19th, but all of the flights through London were cancelled because of the weather. People were getting pushed back 5+ days, so we weren’t even sure that we’d be scheduled to make it back by Christmas… so I decided to just pay the

Four days until we fly!

2010-12-15T07:46:00.001-05:00

Sorry that we haven’t updated sooner! Cason and I have been so busy with everything else going on that it seems crazy that we fly home in 4 days! We have been listening to Christmas music, packing, and saying or farewells this week. We are excited to be going home but it will be incredibly hard to leave all of our friends and the beautiful children at the Baby Centre. As we process everything

Update on removed post

2010-11-23T16:34:00.001-05:00

Friends, As you may have seen in the previous post, we had put up a blog about some of our struggles over the last few months, specifically with potentially adopting triplets. We were asked to remove it since there was too much sensitive information about the children, their family, and the system, to be in the public domain. We were told the post could be edited and reposted, but we felt that

Post removed – hopefully to be reposted soon

2010-11-22T02:50:00.001-05:00

We recently posted an update about what had been going on with us over the last few months, and some struggles that we’ve gone through. However, we’ve been asked to take it down and edit some of the content. Hopefully we’ll be able to resolve these issues and repost soon. Thanks for your patience. Cason & Colleen

Oriya’s Funeral

2010-11-03T09:28:00.001-04:00

You may have seen on facebook, that one of the players of my football team passed away a few weeks ago. He was riding on the back of a motorcycle, which is a common mode of public transportation, when the driver turned in front of a truck. The driver was killed instantly, and Oriya died on the way to the hospital a short time later. He was 30 years old, and had a wife and 2 year old daughter.

Good Samaritan

2010-10-24T09:54:00.001-04:00

“Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’” – Matthew 19:13-14 Last week, Colleen and I had the privilege of helping our friend Robyn Moore, a WGM missionary and

Salgaa Clean-up

2010-10-11T01:31:00.001-04:00

We’ve written before about the ministry that our church, Ngata AGC, has to the women of Salgaa and the local Internally Displaced Persons Camp. Today we had the opportunity to go to Salgaa with our youth group and students from Kabarak University to help clean up the streets. Salgaa is located right along the main road from Nakuru to western Kenya, and is a popular truck stop. Because of

Andrew and Malachi come back for a visit

2010-09-21T06:47:00.001-04:00

Cason and I were so blessed by a return visit from our two most recent children to leave the Baby Centre. Andrew and Malachi came back for their three month visit. Cason and I pulled up to the Baby Centre to the sound of swahili yelling "that's Colleen's car!" and as I climbed out of the car I was immediately tackled by the boys. They were so incredibly happy! After I was tackled the

Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp

2010-09-20T13:48:00.001-04:00

The past month or so, I (Cason) have had the privilege of helping our church, Ngata AGC, with their ministry at a local Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp. The camp, which is about 10km from the church, was initially set up after the violence following the December 2007 elections – so most of the people have been living there for almost 3 years. According to one mze (older man) at the

Church Events

2010-09-14T08:41:00.001-04:00

PART I A few weeks ago, we took our youth group on a day trip to Lake Bagoria, just a few kilometers north of the equator. Seventeen of us packed into a matatu (van) and headed out for the lake, early-ish Saturday morning. Lake Bagoria is known for having hot springs and an abundance of flamingos. There is a geyser that shoots water 20-30 feet into the air, and in some places the water is

Links/Pictures

2010-09-10T04:31:00.001-04:00

We haven’t put up any links to our facebook alums in a while, so this post is just our favorite pictures from the last few weeks and links to the albums… Over a month ago we posted about Andrew and Malachi’s adoptions, but we never posted a link to the full album. Here it is… Andrew and Malachi's adoption day. Colleen also posted a while back about going to visit kids who have been adopted in

Rural Church Youth Meeting

2010-09-08T16:08:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to go to a rural church at the invitation of our night guard, John. He is the leader/organizer of 8 small churches in the rural area towards the Mau forest. We spoke at the same church a few weeks before coming back to the US in June, and we were invited back to share at their Saturday youth meeting. The photo above is Colleen with John and 4 of his 6

Home visits

2010-08-27T17:17:00.001-04:00

Precious (now called Angela Chepto) is growing up so fast! This picture was taken last week in her new home: Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to visit 8 of the children that have been adopted from the Baby Centre in the last year or so. It was an incredible experience to see them in their new homes and to see how drastically they had all improved since getting parents. So

Ngata United FC

2010-08-09T12:21:00.001-04:00

A few weeks before Colleen and I went home in June, I looked up my old soccer club (South Central Select from Greenwood, Indiana, now called South Central Soccer Academy) on the internet and emailed the marketing director to see if they’d be interested in donating anything to my team in Ngata. Jeremy Neely, VP and marketing director of SCSA wrote me back and was amazingly receptive to the

Andrew & Malachi have families!

2010-07-31T17:22:00.001-04:00

Our God is a God who hears our cries and answers our prayers! When we left for the US last month I wept on the flight home because I was leaving behind two precious little boys who desperately needed families. Malachi and Andrew are two of the oldest toddlers and have grown up together. They are the last of the original group of toddlers who were at the Baby Center when we arrived last

Quick Baby Center Update

2010-07-28T17:19:00.000-04:00

Friends, We have been back in Kenya for a few weeks now and have pretty much readjusted to life. It has been interesting to discover what was easy and what was more difficult to readjust to. We quickly remembered how to drive of the left side of the road, how to arrive quite late for events. We forgot the long lines and sometimes ridiculous inefficiency that occurs in government offices.

Three weeks in the USA

2010-07-16T11:35:00.000-04:00

Can’t believe it has been a month since our last post! Our three weeks in the US flew by and we are now back in Kenya. We were blessed with so much great time with our friends and family during our time in Wooster, Chicago, and Greenwood. Colleen’s sister Adrienne (with her husband, Matt, in the photo at left) got married the first Saturday that we were in the States, and it was so good to

Redemption

2010-06-16T16:28:00.001-04:00

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

First one in a while…

2010-06-13T16:36:00.001-04:00

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

Baby School / New Babies

2010-05-23T16:00:00.001-04:00

So much has happened in 400the last few weeks! Four of the beautiful Baby Centre kids now go to baby class, which is the equivalent of preschool or kindergarten. I got to help do the"back to school" shopping for Andrew, Malachi, Angela, and Wycliffe, and they were THRILLED to have their own backpacks and uniforms. I was a nervous wreck on their first day, and after I dropped them off I

More new babies! + Cas at the Baby Centre

2010-04-29T08:22:00.001-04:00

We have another New baby! Teresia left for court to be adopted yesterday morning at 6:30am, which opened up room for another little one! We welcomed 7 month old Shadrack to the Baby Center. He is very light skinned, we think from lack of sun exposure and has a few health issues that will hopefully be cleared up soon! He is a beautiful little boy and will improve quickly now that he is in a

Baby Center Update

2010-04-26T17:04:00.001-04:00

The Baby Center has recently opened its doors to two more babies, and we are now busting at the seams with more kids than we have ever had before! We welcomed 6 week old baby Mercy last week and only a few days ago brought Sammy home, a little boy who is about 18 months old. Here’s Baby Mercy sleeping in her crib: Little Mercy is adjusting quickly and easily, but poor Sammy is struggling

Links to photos

2010-04-23T06:20:00.002-04:00

Michael and those enormous eyes: We’ve haven’t posted links to our photo albums in a long time, so here are the links as well as some of our favorites below. Enjoy! Some from the Baby Center Lake Nakuru with Erika Some great ones of flamingoes More from the Baby Center: Baby Moses and some great ones of Michael Youth group overnighter at our house A Sunday in

Retreat + Flying Ants + A new puppy

2010-04-22T15:30:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! Sorry about the lack of posts lately! Cason and I recently returned from our missionary retreat in Malindi on the coast. It was a wonderful time of respite and relaxation... but I have never experienced heat like that in my life. It was very humid and at night never got below 80 F at night so you can imagine the days! It had everything a good vacation should have,

First one in a while

2010-04-01T10:02:00.001-04:00

Friends and Family, We apologize for not writing more often. Life has been so hectic lately but we will try to catch you all up. Erika Ressler left for the states last week and arrived home to a fresh blanket of snow. The kids miss her a lot and we are hoping that she’ll come back soon to visit! We have three new babies at the Baby Center James, Rose, and Moses. James came to us at 5 days

More adoptions

2010-03-09T15:26:00.004-05:00

Dear Friends! As usual, life here is busy and hectic lately. We have been so blessed to have Staci back to the Baby Center as the director and there have been some great changes made, including bringing in many more babies! After Brandon and Hope arrived (see post from February 18th), we welcomed Angela, Johnny, Nicolas, Rebecca, Michael, and Wycliffe about a week later! They have all adapted

Momo has a family!

2010-02-24T15:45:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends, I have Wonderful news! Momo was adopted by a wonderful family today. So many people have been praying for him to find parents and God has answered our prayers abundantly! It can take a few days for the child to be comfortable with their new parents but with Momo after only a few hours he was proudly showing his parents around the Baby Center and after a few more hours was tired

New Babies / Links

2010-02-18T05:43:00.004-05:00

There are two new babies at the Baby Centre, and potentially five more on the way on Monday! Please pray for these new kids as they adjust to their new lives, especially since most are over 6 months old. This is Brandon, who came from another orphanage close to Nakuru. He is such a sweet little guy who smiles all the time and he has fit right in with the older toddler group. Brandon and me!

4 Adopted! / Pray for Momo

2010-02-16T16:40:00.001-05:00

Four Adoptions We have had four kids from the Baby Centre adopted in the last few weeks! Jesse was adopted on January 28th, and Colleen was there when his new mom came to get him. Then last Friday, (when our car was being repaired so she couldn’t get to the Baby Centre) Daniel Owiti, Ronny, and Jeremiah were all adopted! Colleen is so sad she wasn’t there for the adoptions, but we are happy

New Babies

2010-02-13T11:18:00.003-05:00

Dear Friends Life is slowly getting back to normal after two months of traveling and visitors. We have really enjoyed our time with family and are already looking forward to seeing them again in June when we go home for my little sister Adrienne's wedding. In other news… there are three new babies at the Baby Centre!: Joshua who is a one year old sweetheart! Seth is only 3 months old and

Michael / Precious / The Youth

2010-02-11T00:44:00.005-05:00

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

Masai Mara

2010-02-07T16:13:00.001-05:00

A few posts ago, we talked about our time on the Mara with my (Cason’s) mom and dad. We had some great safaris and got to see so many animals including lion cubs, cheetah, lions, an elephant family, etc. Here are some links to our photo albums as well as some of our favorite photos… enjoy!: Click HERE for an album of pictures from our first day. The picture above is of the cubs’ father

Michelle’s take

2010-02-06T10:06:00.000-05:00

In our last post we spoke briefly about how Colleen’s brother and sister-in-law, Brian and Michelle Ramsay, had just arrived to visit us. Our two weeks with them have flown by, and we just took them to the airport to fly home! Here’s a picture of Michelle, Brian, and Colleen on their first day. Michelle, our sister-in-law, wrote up a blog post about their experiences here: “This is

Busy Busy Busy!

2010-01-27T06:05:00.002-05:00

Cason and I have been running full speed into the new year and have hardly had time to slow down. Cason’s parents arrived on Jan 11th and were here for about ten days. Click HERE to see some pictures of their first day in Kenya, including our time at the elephant orphanage. We took them to all of our favorite spots in Nakuru, and even convinced Cason’s dad to get a pedicure! Click HERE to see

Entering 2010

2010-01-08T10:47:00.003-05:00

First some photo albums we’ve neglected to link to… On Christmas Eve (my birthday!), we went to Lake Nakuru Park with Cason’s sister, Corinn. It was really nice, but it rained quite a bit in the afternoon. We did see rhinos, hyenna (including a den of pups!), and two male lions feasting on a cape buffalo. Click HERE to see more pictures! Click HERE to see a few photos of our

The Holidays

2010-01-03T08:16:00.005-05:00

This picture is of Daniel Owiti from our Christmas at the Baby Center... no, we didn't do anything mean to make him cry. I think he was either afraid of Santa or upset because someone else was playing with the toy he wanted. Either way, he is pretty cute. See the link a ways down the page for more from our Christmas day. Time is just flying by… when we last posted, we were in Nairobi to

Dad and Uncle Jim come to Kenya!

2009-12-21T09:18:00.001-05:00

Last Monday we left Dad and Uncle Jim in Nairobi to fly back home. it seems like yesterday we were picking them up! Click HERE for some pictures of Dad’s first day in Kenya when we took him to the giraffe center! Dad spent over a week in Nakuru with us and we loved being able to show off the kids and our lives over here. It was wonderful to be able to take him to the baby center and

Links… with more to come!

2009-12-13T11:33:00.001-05:00

We’ve been having a great time with Colleen’s father John and her Uncle Jim the last few weeks. We were just at the Masai Mara in southern Kenya for a few days going on safari and staying at the nicest “hotel” in Africa… it was awesome. We saw lion, giraffe, cheetah, rhino, elephant, hippo, and so many more… all except leopard : ( . We’ll put up pictures as we have time… we are getting really

Some kids and Lake Baringo

2009-12-03T05:44:00.001-05:00

In the past week and a half, we’ve camped with hippos and boated with crocodiles at Lake Baringo, seen giraffes, lions, and rhinos at Lake Nakuru, housed our friends from Taylor for some nights, eaten a wonderful Thankgiving dinner at the Vanderhoofs, kissed a giraffe, and been to/from Nairobi to pick up Colleen’s dad and uncle. It has been so busy, but so much fun! We’ll get up pictures

A mzungu plays football

2009-11-26T05:15:00.001-05:00

“Mzungu” is a friendly swahili term for white person, and it is what we get called all of the time by strangers and kids. I am especially called mzungu when I am playing in away soccer matches with my team, Ngata FC. The other players use it and especially kids that come to watch yell my name and try to get my attention. Two weeks ago, Colleen joined me for one of the matches so she could

We’ve been busy…

2009-11-22T04:23:00.001-05:00

Last Monday, after the youth group sleepover at our house over the weekend (see previous post), we attended the missionary fellowship in Nakuru. It is hosted by Danish missionaries in town, and is attended by any missionaries who want to join that live in the Nakuru area. We have people from Germany, Faroe Islands, Denmark, Scotland, America, Ireland, Ethiopia... all over. We have really

Youth Group Overnighter

2009-11-16T01:14:00.002-05:00

We’re started the help out with the youth group at Ngata AGC where we go to church, and we’ve really enjoyed it. The youth were planning some overnighters and asked if they could come to our home for one. There was going to be another overnighter before ours, so we figured it would be OK since we’d be able to see how it went before we hosted one. Well, that Sunday at church, the people who

Links to photos!

2009-11-12T02:24:00.001-05:00

It’s getting cold at the Baby center because of the rainy season, and all the kids are getting bundled up due to the weather. Even though it will only get to be in the lower 60s/upper 50s the kids are dressed in snow suits with mittens and hats and aren’t allowed outdoors. : ) We had a full week of cold and rain so the children had to be indoors for a week straight! Needless to say they got

News on the New Babies

2009-11-10T06:33:00.007-05:00

Friends, We cannot believe we have been here for over 2 months now! The time is flying by and we are getting more and more acclimated into the culture. We have started getting more involved now that we have somewhat scheduled and normal lives. Cason has been playing soccer more often and is working on finding ways to witness to the guys and I have been trying to find ways of incorporating

Links to pictures of cute kids

2009-11-03T01:10:00.001-05:00

We’ve been so busy lately, we haven’t had time to write about all of our goings on! Here are some links to phtoto albums, mostly of the Baby Center kids. On the Baby Center Porch - Last week when the NMC team was here, we spent an afternoon playing with the toddler aged kids while the older kids had nap time. Dress Up Day - One of the last days the NMC team was here, they let the kids

From Colleen, with love

2009-10-28T12:20:00.003-04:00

Friends and Family! We are creeping up on our two month mark here and are getting more and more acclimated to the culture. There are many things that we love about the culture and many things we are realizing could cause some barriers and frustrations. For instance: I go to buy eggs from a little shop on my way to the baby center, each time I go I am greeted with kisses and hugs and am asked to

Dinner with Friends / Microfinance / Greenlees

2009-10-22T03:35:00.000-04:00

Hey, sorry for the lack of posts this week. We’ve been busy and then on the road for meetings. Click HERE for a hilarious album of pictures of a few of the Baby Center kids playing with sidewalk chalk - more chalk made it onto the kids than the sidewalk! Here’s a few highlights from recently: Last week we had dinner at the home of some Kenyan friends, the Muchiras, from church which was

Weekend in Nairobi - Part Two (see below for Part One)

2009-10-14T08:54:00.009-04:00

I (Colleen) finally got to see some wildlife! On the drive to Nairobi we saw Zebras grazing beside the road, warthogs rooting around and baboons hanging out around signposts. It killed me that we were driving and I couldn’t get out and take a closer look at them all! Cason locked the door and told the Vanderhoofs to floor it so I couldn’t try and get out ; ) The real excitement

Weekend in Nairobi - Part One

2009-10-13T16:24:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week or so... We've been busy! Last week, there was a prayer team in Nakuru for a few days and the Kenya field pastors, Frank and Sharon Martin (see hilarious picture of Frank and Precious), stayed with us for a few nights. It was great having the prayer team here, and we shared some wonderful evenings with them, eating, telling stories, and praying.

A few from this week

2009-10-04T07:58:00.001-04:00

We can't believe how the weeks are flying by! We will try to post more soon, but here are some photo albums from last week or so. Get together at the Vanderhoofs - The Ngata church council came to the Vanderhoofs after church and we had a great time interacting... and watching them play croquet! Isaac and Elizabeth get adopted! - Three of the kids from the Baby Center were adopted this week,

The Kingdom of Heaven is Near

2009-09-29T15:32:00.004-04:00

We have had a wonderful weekend and are plowing ahead into the week. We had some kids from the Baby Centre over to the house again this Saturday and Sunday met with the Ngata AGC church council. It is amazing how missions minded the church is and how much compassion they have on their community. We really enjoyed meeting them all and hearing about their vision for the church. After the

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

2009-09-24T15:39:00.002-04:00

then this is a long post. Here are some albums from the last week. This album is of us working with the kids at the learning center and a few of the scenery around our house - Click HERE. And HERE are a few more of the kids from the Baby Centre, including a few of Isaiah who was just adopted - Praise the Lord! Please be praying that he has a smooth adjustment to his new family. The

Great Weekend

2009-09-23T04:36:00.003-04:00

What a great weekend! Saturday morning, I (Cason) worked a little bit and Colleen went to the Baby Centre to get some kids - we thought it would be fun to get them out of the orphanage for a bit, so Owiti, Precious, and Timo came over for a few hours. It was so much fun, and neat to see the kids outside of their normal environment.