Momo has a family!

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 of goodbyes and wanted to go home with his new Mommy and Daddy! It is such a tremendous blessing and many tears were shed as we all said our goodbyes to Momo. Please be praying for all the other toddlers as well. It was very difficult for some to say goodbye and we need to pray that they all find as wonderful homes as Momo has – especially some of the older ones. Momo has been at the Baby Centre for most of his life and all the children and staff are going to miss him so much. 

Working at this Baby Center often leaves me with bitter sweet joy. I am so happy for these children when they can go to a home and have a loving family of their own, but saying goodbye to the kids that you have so much love for can be so difficult at times. The Lord is so good in allowing me to have a small part in the lives of these beautiful children!

Thank you so much for your prayers for us and for the kids! 

Colleen

New Babies / Links

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!

Hope just came yesterday from a orphanage in Nairobi that is having trouble caring for all of their younger orphans.  She was quite overwhelmed upon arrival, so pray that she feels comfortable quickly. 

Here are some links to our photo albums from recently…

We took Brian and Michelle (Colleen's brother and sister-in-law) up to The Crater just up from our house while they were here…

We also went to Thompson's falls and Gregory's (our weekend guard's) house to see his new baby, Darius.

Here are a few of Brian and Michelle's last days at the Baby Centre, including some of the new babies (Joshua, Seth, and James).

We also went to Lake Nakuru Park on safari while Brian and Michelle were here… we saw a leopard for the first time, but only for a brief moment before it disappeared into the woods.

And finally, here is an album from Lately at the Baby Centre.  There are some of the newest babies (Brandon and Hope) as well as the volunteer who is staying with us right now, Erika Ressler.

Enjoy! 

4 Adopted! / Pray for Momo

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 that they all have new homes!

Here’s Jesse with his new mom!

Owiti was at the Baby Centre when I visited in June 2007… and now he has a new home! 

Ronny… such a sweet boy! 

Jeremiah now has a mom and dad - Colleen has been doing so much physical therapy with him lately and his mobility has improved so much. 

Momo needs a family!

Please pray for Momo, the oldest child at the Baby Centre.  He is almost 4 years old (we think) and desperately needs a family.  Seeing so many of his friends go to families has been difficult for him – he really understands that he needs a family and that his friends are leaving to be with their moms and dads.  We were talking with one of the caregivers this week, and she said that he’s been asking where is mommy is and why she hasn’t come for him yet!  How do you answer that question?!?  It breaks our hearts! 

We know that God loves him and has a plan for his life – it is so incredible to think that God already knows who his family is going to be and everything else about him.  Please join us in prayer that a loving, Christian family would come for Momo soon!  Thanks so much! 

Thanks so much for reading!  Email us, facebook us, skype us, etc.  We’d love to hear from you!

Cason

New Babies

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 is very fussy, but so cute!
And finally baby James, who was 5 days old when we got him and is very tiny – he’s still less than 5 lbs!  He is a precious little bundle. 
Erika Ressler (my friend from high school) has finally arrived too!  After quite an adventure she is safely in Nakuru.  On our way to pick her up, the clutch went out completely on our car, so we were stuck along the side of the road for a few hours!  Fortunately, another missionary was able to pick Erika up and we were rescued by a tow truck.  We’ve had a great few days with her in Nakuru, especially spending time at the Baby Centre… unfortunately, we are still car-less!  You can read about Erika’s experiences on her blog at http://nakuru-kenya.blogspot.com/. She has taken some pretty incredible photos in her short time here!

We are also very excited to welcome home Staci Keter, the Baby Centre director, along with her family!  It has been wonderful to have her back – we pray the Keters gets settled in quickly! 
Please pray for our new babies! 

Love,
Colleen

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! 

Masai Mara

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… he was so regal looking, but so enormous! 

Click HERE for some more photos from our safari

 

We spent quite a bit of time with this elephant mom and baby… the little one followed the mom everywhere and wouldn’t get more than a few feet away. 

HERE is an album of pictures of the lion cubs... we took so many that they got their own album!

Momma lion checking out the tourists… aren’t her eyes incredibly piercing?

The whole family

Crown crested cranes

We watched the cubs for hours because they were so cute and playful (as you can see above…). 

Thanks so much for checking out the blog!  Hope you enjoy our pictures of the safari… we’ll post again soon about some of the kids at the Baby Center, other ministries, and our time with Brian and Michelle. 

Cason

Michelle’s take

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 Michelle Ramsay (Colleen's sister-in-law) with a guest post!  Brian and I have just left Kenya, and we're already missing it!  Here's a summary of our stay:

Our trip to Kenya has been very memorable, to say the least!  We spent hours with the beautiful children at the baby center (see picture of Brian with Malachi and Ronny); going on walks to the nearby farm, letting babies drool all over us, watching kids color themselves with sidewalk chalk, helping babies walk, and just loving on the kids as if they were our own!

We also experienced the Kenyan life, in a way.  Brian played soccer with the Ngata soccer group.  I tried learning the beautiful Kiswahili language, and became an expert on how to count to ten.  We visited an average home, a primary school (see picture of the beautiful children singing us a song), two church services, and even Sunday School.

Visits to Lake Nakuru National Park, Thompson Falls, the Crater, and hiking Mount Logonot satisfied the explorer in us (see picture below of us overlooking Mt Longonot crater).  This is especially true for Brian and Cason, who practically hiked into the waterfall at Thompson Falls!  If you are a mother to either one of these two, please don't look at those pictures when they are posted.

Differences between Kenyan life and American life?  It seems that Kenyans dress their babies in many more layers than we do.  There are few traffic lights or stop signs outside of Nairobi; just roundabouts.  The soccer fields and streets are a little rougher, and the homes smaller. The kids almost always wear uniforms to go to school here.

But overall, there are many more similarities than I expected between Kenyan and American life.  Everyone gathers to watch the big game. There will always be crazy drivers.  The babies still have that delicious baby smell.  Everyone has a cell phone.  Children in Sunday school sing "Father Abraham".  Although for some reason, Father Abraham and driving are much more fun here in Kenya :)

Thanks be to God for giving us this great experience, and may God continue to bless Cason and Colleen's efforts here in Kenya.”

Thanks Michelle!

We’ll post again tomorrow since we’ve finally got some time this weekend… Cason is looking forward to watching the Colts in the Superbowl, even though it is on at 2am here! 

We may be on Skype during the Superbowl (depending on electricity and internet availability… this is Africa after all…) so look us up at casonandcolleen while the geriatric Who are rocking at halftime. 

Special thanks to Michelle for her guest post. 

Cason

PS – We’ll put up some facebook albums soon and link to all of the pictures.