Kathy Delhbom (my good friend from Fountain of Life Church in Springfield, MO) and I will be off to Africa April 17- May 2. Anita Currier is not traveling with us this time, but is sure with us in spirit. The packing and preparations are progressing. It takes a couple of months to get things ready!
(Davison and his wife) PS – His wife is having a baby this week.
The trip is a short two weeks including travel to Mt. Elgon to visit Pastors Davidson, Titus and Margaret. Each of these pastors have a work of farming or churches/schools for children in their respective areas. We are looking for affordable, available land to start another Children Are People Site on the mountain. The small children have to walk too far to school. If we can’t find land to begin this year, we will consider 2019.
After Mt. Elgon and Bungoma visits, we travel to Moi’s Bridge to our main CAP site in Kenya. We have a full week planned. Since the children have no school in April, we will have a lot of time to spend with them. With the help of Pastor John’s team including older children, we will have VBS each morning and soccer (they call it football) tournaments each afternoon. There could be a few hundred children present. We will need to buy supplies over there for the VBS (no room in suitcase). Craft supplies, cookies or bread, candy and soda will bust our budget if we have hundreds of children. John’s group alone is 100 children. I am hoping to end the week showing the “Jesus Film.” Pray we can feed them spiritually, emotionally and physically.
While in Moi’s Bridge we will be looking (no decision made until I return with report) at more land for sale next to the what we already own. The CAP location now has the water well and tanks, the CAP school, the 400 seat church, bathroom facility with 16 stalls, the children’s home we built in 2009-10 and the new dining/cafeteria. We are about to run out of space for the children to have recess and PE. Pray for favor with the land owner!
The dining/cafeteria building is still coming along slowly with plumbing and wiring yet to do. When electricity is complete, the older children can use it as a library/study room in the evenings. The houses have little children running here and there so studying can be difficult. I really like to two-fold purpose for the building.
When the Sudanese children under Pastor John’s care and passport graduated from high school, they cannot stay in Kenya unless they are in a university or trade school. It is nearly impossible to get a job with just high school diploma so the grads have to return to South Sudan where war continues, or go to refugee camps. We had 9 graduates last school year; 5 are in computer school and 4 went to Juba, South Sudan. If you want to help with graduates, please indicate when you give.
Note: The children holding books are showing all of new texts books we had to buy this January because Kenya changed curriculum in every class!
