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. 

Busy Busy Busy!

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 a few picture of all of us getting pedicures... it was quite the experience for the men as you can see!   They really enjoyed their time with the kids (Click here to see more pictures of the kids, Marti, and Jon), although the road to get to the Baby Center was under construction the whole time so there was “vumbi kabisa” as we say here (dust everywhere!).   The toddler boys loved Cason's dad and he would gather them all on his lap and them dump them on the ground as they laughed.  Click here to see some more pictures.    The toddlers decided they didn’t want to call Cason’s dad Babu (grandpa) Jon, but instead Babu MIke.    I think they were too confused about two Babu John/Jons coming in one month so they renamed one of them.  They both loved the triplets, so we took lots of pictures with them - click here for a few.  Cason’s mom and sister, Marti and Corinn, and purchased a bunch of on-sale Halloween costumes to bring to the kids, so one evening we had dress up night.  Some of the pictures were so cute - click here to see them!

Just one more album to link to... here some some the Baby Center and also our time at Florence's (the Baby Center caregiver's) house.
After a few days in Nakuru we packed up and headed for Tenwek hospital on Sunday.  At Tenwek, we got to stop and visit Precious, one of the little girls who has recently been adopted.  It was incredible to see how much her family loves her and how quickly she had improved developmentally with just a month of being with her new mom and dad.  We’ll put up some pictures of Precious (now called Chepto) with her new family soon. 
After Tenwek Sunday we left for Massai Mara the next morning to go on a safari.  We had a wonderful time with Cason’s parents and got to see four lion cubs!  We watched them for over an hour, it was really incredible.  The relaxation of the Mara was balanced by the insane drive from the Mara to Nairobi.  It is not a fun road to try and drive but the Lord kept us safe and hopefully we won’t have to make that trek again for a while!  We’ll put up some albums from our time at the Mara soon. 
Brian and Michelle (my older brother and sister-in-law) came in the same night Marti and Jon flew out.  In fact, the plane his parents  got on was the one Brian and Michelle had just gotten off of and they waved to each other was they swapped places.  We have had a few days with my brother and sister-in-law and so far it has been really fun.  We have spent a lot of time at the baby center as well as Cason and Brian playing lots of soccer. 
Thanks so much for your prayers and support!  We’ll try to blog again soon so we don’t get so far behind. 
Love, Colleen

Entering 2010

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 Christmas with Corinn, including all of the sugary candy that Cason got from the States.  He was a happy camper!
On Boxing Day, we went to the Baby Center and got some great photos of the triplets - Lydia, Benjamin, and Caleb - as well as the other babies.  Click to see the album.

The Sunday that Corinn was in Kenya, we had a family from church over for Mexican food – we figured since we’ve been eating so many new things we’d have them try something new when they came to our house.  They are such a great family and we really enjoy the 4 boys to come to youth group - Click HERE to see a few photos of us with the Komens.

After Christmas weekend, we took Corinn to see Lake Baringo.  Even though it is typically like a desert, it rained much of the time we were there, which was great for the surrounding villages, but bad for our sightseeing boat ride.  It ended up being a good trip – after the rains stopped it turned into a beautiful day and we got to see hippos, eagles, a monitor lizzard, and many birds.  Click to see more pictures of Baringo with Corinn!

Finally done linking!  Read on for more about our new year plans and goals…

It’s the new year and Cas and I are starting it out with a bang!  After a few days of relaxing we discussed how we want this year to be different than last year.  We did the usual new years resolutions but we also sat down and talked through how we want our ministries to look differently this year than they were last year. 

Cason is finding ways of witnessing and drawing in the guys he plays soccer with.   Because of the language barrier it is very difficult to talk to the guys he plays with.  He can witness by lifestyle but eventually there must be some dialog.  Cason is hoping to foster a closer relationship with a few of the leaders on the team and encourage them to be able to talk to the others of a closer relationship with Christ.  We would also like to have the men to our home to watch a soccer match and include bible study as a part of that. 

For my ministry with the children I have decided to add some structure to their education and development.  I am evaluated each child to find out where they are developmentally and creating an action plan for improving their current state.  I will do monthly evaluations and work tri-weekly with each child in the hopes to get them caught up with where they need to be.  Many are behind and it has been sad realizing how much they need to accomplish to catch up to their peers.  I am very excited about adding structure to what I am already doing here and feel that it will greatly improve their progress.

We have a new baby at the baby center.  He is a little over a year old and needs to gain some weight fast!  Within hours of getting a bath and having some food he began to smile and interact with the kids and caregivers.  It was wonderful to see his drastic improvement after just a few small things like that.  We are excited to see him grow and develop.  He has already shown that he is quite smart and energetic.  We have named him after Mike Ho, one of Cason and my good friends because he came to us on Mike’s birthday.  So we welcome little Michael to the Baby Center and ask for prayers for his health to improve quickly.

Cason and I are going into this New Year excited about our ministries and eager to serve the Lord in new and fresh ways.  Thank you all for your prayers.  We are so blessed by all those supporting us!

Here is one last picture of Cason's sister, Corinn, spinning with her buddy Joshua who didn’t take off his Christmas wings for days after he received them.

Thanks so much for reading! Love, Colleen

The Holidays

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 pick up my sister from the airport.  We took her to the airport to fly home a few days ago after a fun whirlwind of a week.  It was sad to see her go, but so nice that she could be with us over Christmas!

We’re behind with our updates and our links to photo albums, so here is an attempt to get caught up…
As promised, HERE are some pictures from Day 2 of our time with Colleen's father, John, and her Uncle Jim on the Mara.  We got to see lions, hippos, hyenna, cheetah, lots of rain, and some amazing landscapes.
 
  Also, Here are the photos from Day 3 of our time on the Mara... we got to pet a baby rhino!  We had so much fun with Dad Ramsay and Uncle Jim on the Mara… especially when wearing the luxurious robes provided in our tents!
One of my friends from Taylor who coaches high school soccer collected a bunch of cleats for the guys on the football team that I play for.   John Ramsay brought the shoes and the guys love them - we haven’t lost a game since we received them! Thanks Kyle!  Here’s an album of some happy footballers and some kids from the Baby Center.  Check us out showing off our new boots!
Here some some photos from Corinn's first day in Kenya, including this smooch of Daisy the giraffe mere hours after she landed… we took her to the giraffe center since she loves giraffes so much. 
Probably the highlight of our time with Corinn was Christmas at the Baby Center – click for a link to the photo album.  We had so much fun passing out gifts to the kids and celebrating with the caregivers.  Some of the orphans who have been adopted came back to participate in the festivities, and Jim Vanderhoof (our esteemed field director)  dressed up as Santa Claus (or Father Christmas as he is known over here).  Corinn and Colleen played the part of Santa’s Helpers, and I was primarily the photographer of the chaos.  The kids were quite leery of Santa until they realized that he was passing our gifts… then he got swarmed by the mob!   See the picture at left of an exhausted Mr. Claus recovering from the madness… it captures the moment perfectly!


Thanks so much for reading.  Hope your families had wonderful holidays and are excited about all God will do in 2010!  We so appreciate your prayers and support… we’ve had an update letter in process for a while now, so hopefully we’ll get that out this week – we’ll send out an email, and put a link on the blog, so check back. 
Thanks again!