empowering lives

Photo of the Day

Portrait of one of our successful chicken farmers in Tanzania. (photo: Micah Albert)

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Prayer for Secondary School Ambassadors from KK Children’s Home

Yesterday we had a wonderful evening devotion held in the Matekwa family gazebo. We gathered to pray for the ten children who will soon leave to join high school.

Felix, Brian, Festus, Charity, Bilha, Carolyne, Esther, Ebby and Sharon were prayed over by their parents, brothers and sisters. We thank God for seeing them through their primary education and enabling them to do well on their national exams in November 2011.

Babu (grandfather), Gogo (grandmother), and all the house parents gathered with the kids from the children’s home. Praise and worship songs were sung with intensity and spirit, followed by a devotion about being successful for Christ. Each of the house parents were given an opportunity to give advice on how each student could be an ambassador for Christ while away at boarding school and how they might represent Kipkaren Children’s Home for those yet to know Jesus.

Before closing Babu prayed and anointed each student. We really felt the Holy Spirit’s power moving in a mighty way. Let the name of the Lord be praised as our beloved children are sent to be Christ’s ambassadors at high schools!

By Edna Kemei, Kipkaren House Parent

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Love with Creativity

We love it when people catch God’s heart for caring for orphans and vulnerable children. It’s even more exciting when they incorporate that love in something as sacred as a wedding. In October 2011, Steve and Jenni were married and instead of purchasing wedding favors for each guest, they donated the money they would have spent to ELI’s Kipkaren Children’s Home. They incorporated some of the children in our home into the labeling of their table seating. It was such a creative idea and a huge gift to the orphans in our Home!

Ronny's profile is displayed on the table

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The Difference Five Cents Can Make

Hillside pre-schoolers giving their offering.

As the Community Engagement Coordinator for ELI, I have the privilege of encouraging others to play a part of God’s Kingdom work around the world. It is so beautiful to see the body of Christ at work, sharing each other’s burdens, and working to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  This past Fall I was able to share the story of a child at our ELI school in the Democratic Republic of Congo with the preschoolers at Hillside Community Church in Rancho Cucamonga.

With pictures and stories, the kids and I journeyed through a day-in-the-life of Aganze Babike, as he walked to the ELI school, ate his lunch, played during PE, did his chores at home, and helped take care of his siblings. The Hillside kids learned that Aganze, like many children in the slum community in Bukavu, DR Congo, often suffer from malnutrition, as their parents have a hard time providing consistent food. A majority of them receive their only meal of the day at the ELI school.  According to our ELI DR Congo director, it costs five cents for each meal we serve to the kids. I encouraged these precious preschool children to know that even though they live far away from Africa, they can still make a genuine difference in the lives of children in DR Congo! I passed out cups, and invited them to collect change to support their friends like Aganze. Three months later, I was blown away to find that the preschool children at Hillside raised almost $1,000! Wow!

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KK Children’s Home Outreach

We are so grateful to Almighty God for the wonderful outreach we had today. We were invited by an AIC church(African Inland Church) in the Moiben, about a 3 hour drive from Kipkaren. The church knew about us through the Pastors Empowerment Programme that has been taking place at the Kipkaren Training Centre. It was their pastor that invited us to come worship with them.

Thirteen children went from the KK Children’s Home to offer songs, dancing and testimony of God’s work in their lives. While Sharon Jepleting was leading the children people were touched by the songs and began shedding tears. After a time of preaching by the pastor the congregation was led to give an offering in support of the Children’s Home. Four thousand shilllings (about $50 USD), a large bag of maize, vegetables, millet, pumpkins, and clothing were donated. We thank Jesus for the way lives were touched at this service!

Written by Joseph Simatwo, Kipkaren Children’s Home House Parent

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From South Sudan

Recently we asked some of the children in the South Sudan community of Kolmarek how ELI has impacted their lives. Here is what they said:

“Now I have rivers of joy and peace in my heart since I joined ELI South Sudan School. I was a helpless child before but now I can see myself as a nation builder, regardless of having no parents. I will succeed in life.”

- Jacob Jok Matiop, Grade 7

“I want to be a doctor to help the sick people in the future.  My grandmother does fall sick yet we don’t have a doctor nearby to treat her.  My brother was very sick for one week without eating, but I thank God he healed him.  Being a doctor, I would be able to help my family members when I know how drugs are prescribed and dosages.  I would build my own pharmacy.”

- Grace Athieng Kuol Lueth, Grade 4

The orphans and vulnerable children who attend our school have hope and dreams for their futures, despite the hardships they have endured. Attending our school has offered them opportunities that many children never receive.

Sponsorship and generous donations are not only educating children and preparing them for the future, but it is teaching them about the love of Jesus and they in turn are showing others His love. One day, one of our students excitedly returned home after school to her ill grandmother. For several days, this young girls’ grandmother was getting progressively sick. No one knew what was wrong with her health. During school that day, this young girl learned about Jesus who is Healer and who healed many who were sick.

Excited, she returned home that afternoon and shared with her grandmother this great news about Jesus. She then prayed for her grandmother in Jesus’ name. The next day, her grandmother was feeling much better and was well enough to get out of bed and walk to our school to meet our staff and thank them for teaching her granddaughter about Jesus. What a wonderful example of God’s love. And you are a part of sharing God’s love!

Thank you so much for the impact that you are making on these precious children’s lives. You are making the world of a difference in the lives of orphans in South Sudan.

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Photo of the Day

A nice photo from Micah Albert taken in South Sudan, in honor of National Handwriting Day.

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Baking In The Garden

The Ukweli Training Center in Ilula, Kenya has agreed to partner with the AIC Missionary College to provide a three-month training program to their missionary students. The course will instruct the students in areas of agriculture, personal hygiene and in the culinary arts. The hope is to empower these students with the necessary skills and knowledge to survive in hardship areas of the world.

This week, the students learned how to build a wood-burning oven, using bricks, mud and a steel drum, which was built in the Training Center’s demonstration garden. Later in the week when the mud had dried, Mrs. Mary Chepsat, a trained chef and one of the mothers at the Ilula Children’s Home, taught the students how to make bread and to properly bake it in the homemade oven. In about fifteen minutes, the bread was done to perfection. The day ended with a warm slice of bread, a true testament to the students’ hard work.

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Photo of the Day

Our Communications Director, Micah Albert in the Kerio Valley in Kenya, terribly missing the target with a traditional bow and arrow. (Photo: Don Rogers)

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Photo of the Day

Cathy Lessig gives the devotion in the Kipkaren Children’s Home. (Photo: Micah Albert)

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