April 15th - 22nd, 2017

Team Report from April 2017:

Team members:  Jamie and Jolinda Lengacher

Team goals:  Jamie - Board meeting, missionary and staff support
                     Jolinda - Sponsorship pictures, missionary and staff support

Jamie - I was able to spend each morning with my good friend, Dan Jacobs, WGM missionary serving at the Baby Centre.  Dan recently returned to the field after losing his wife unexpectedly in January.  Each morning we shared coffee and talked about life and the Baby Centre.  Dan and Dana's daughter, Hope, often joined in on the conversation.  Or just crawled up on my lap to sit awhile.

I was also able to spend time with the director, Manu.  He will be installed "officially" as the director in July.  But he has been serving as director during Dan's absence from the field to now.  We discussed some of the issues he was having and tried to come up with solutions.  I mainly tried to encourage him that we were behind him and would help him in any way necessary for him to be successful.

The board meeting was long, but the outcome of the decisions made I think will be good.

Jolinda - I spent most of everyday either in the nurseries or out in the play yards.  There were 70 babies residing there, so it took quite a bit of time to make sure I took a good photo of each to put on their sponsor cards.  I tried to take time to hold, cuddle and play with the kids for at least a little bit each day.  I brought a 5.7 group photo from the 10 year Anniversary in October 2016 for the staff.  If they were there, I also had a photo of each caregiver or staff member with their gift bags. They seemed to enjoy them and were very thankful.  I told each of them again, how much we appreciate the work they do there.  I also tried to ask questions about each baby and their development.
It rained every afternoon, so that made it a little more of a challenge to get outdoor pictures.  Very few videos were taken this time as we had so few days there, and limited time to take pictures.  I do believe I was successful in getting some good sponsor card pictures.

The first morning, I spent time in the infant nursery.  While there I was able to hold Priscilla, although I couldn't really tell I was holding her! The nurse came in to check on her and weigh her.  I was able to go back and observe and the report was good - she had gained .2 kg.  That may not seem like much, but she came in at 1.8 kg!  This made her current weight 4.4 lbs.!  She is a fighter and we pray her health continues to improve each day.

I spent one morning with Millie and her daughter Melinda.  Melinda was just starting to pull herself up and walk around things.  She really liked Millie to take her hands and walk her around the room. We talked about life and she helped me identify some of the little ones in my pictures.

On Wednesday, while Jamie was in the board meeting, I heard that Brian David was going to go home with his new family that day.  It was raining quite heavily and I never did find his parents.  I think they were in one of the offices or something.  I finally did see Brian with the nurse, Joyce.  I asked him if he was going home with his momma and daddy today.  He said "yes" and wore the biggest smile I have ever seen.  He acted very grown up and mature about the whole situation.  When I talked to Irene, the social worker, the next day, she told me that as soon as his mom and dad came he went up to them and said "Ok dad, let's go home!"  After finalizing details and praying over them, they did go home.  They called back the next morning to let Irene know that Brian had slept really well and had woken up very happy to be "home".

On Our Way!

2015 10 Kenya Team

An expectant group of 15 headed out to the Africa Gospel Church Baby Centre today.  We are expecting God to show up as we trust Him for our every need.  We are first of all expecting to have a wonderful time at the Baby Centre playing and interacting with the 60 babies that are currently at the Centre.  The one-on-one attention the team is able to give them helps relieve the caregivers for the week, but also stimulates development in the children.

Gifts given to the Baby Centre

May 6, 2015

We all know babies are expensive. And 60 babies are very expensive! We also know without a shadow of a doubt that God will provide for their every need. This week the Baby Centre was blessed with a gift by an anonymous donor. They hoped the gift would help with the cost of formula. It reminded me of Jesus' words in Matthew "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink..." Thank you and may God bless you richly for your generous gift!

The Great Rift Valley

It was so good to wake up this morning on solid ground after being in the air for two days!  We enjoyed a delicious buffet breakfast at our hotel called Grace House.  After exchanging our dollars for shillings at the Ya Ya Center, we were finally on our way!  The journey takes about 2 1/2 hours.  Just outside of Nairobi, we travel along a mountainside that drops into the Great Rift Valley.  It is gorgeous and a little scary!  I have read that the rift which extends through several countries, can be seen from space.  The awesome beauty of this place was an excellent reminder of the awesomeness of God.

......Still on our way!!

Traveling to Kenya can be quite an ordeal.  It is generally two 8 hour flights with a layover somewhere in Europe.  This team flew from Chicago to Detroit and then on to Amsterdam. Easy Peasy - no problem - right?!  Well, except it was only a 45 minute layover in Detroit.  And the plane from Chicago left 20 minutes late.  Still no problem, we could make it to the gate in 25 minutes!  Then we were ready to head off on the runway when we circled back.  The captain came on to let us know that a plane had possibly lost a tire while landing and the debris on the runway prevented us from leaving.  So after waiting another 20 minutes we were finally on our way.  Now we only had 5 minutes - probably not enough time to disembark and make it to our gate!  If this was going to happen God was going to have to work it out!  When we landed in Detroit the captain made an announcement that they were holding the Amsterdam flight for us!  Praise God!  We walked onto a plane loaded with seated passengers.  Their glances at us were not completely friendly, but we were singing hallelujah!!  We were sure we would have smooth sailing from here!  But when we approached Amsterdam, the captain announced we were not being cleared for landing because of the heavy fog.  So.....we circled!!  After about 20 minutes, the captain announced that although the weather wasn't much better, we had been ok'd for landing so he THOUGHT we would be ok and he was going to "GIVE IT A SHOT"!  Not exactly the confidence we wanted to hear!  When we finally landed, we were left with just a little over an hour until our next flight was to leave. Luckily for us, that flight was delayed by about 20 minutes so we were able to freshen up and walk a bit before taking the last leg of our trip!  The Nairobi airport was still rebuilding after a huge fire in July.  But the new part they took us to was very nice and very organized!  We were sure our luggage could not have possibly made the plane with the almost nonexistant layover in Detroit.  And again we thought, if it's going to happen, God is going to have to do it!  Then to our surprise we started seeing bags on the luggage carrousel with big yellow circle Global Impact Team tags.  We sailed through customs, found our driver, Francis, and headed to the van to load up.  We brought a lot of supplies for the baby centre, so we had a lot of bags.  We were seated in the van and luggage was piled all around us.  But again, we weren't the slightest bit uptight as we were now in KENYA!!!!  Only one more day and we would get to see, hold and love the precious little ones at the Baby Centre! 

We are on our way!

This team of 5 ladies led by Jamie and Jolinda Lengacher are excited to be headed to the baby centre! They will serve God in a variety of ways with the main focus being on loving and assisting in the care of the little ones currently residing there.  Please pray for safe travel throughout their trip. As well as their willingness for God to work in them and through them. 

*love the excellent "photo bombing" done by Pastor Don!!

Where the babies live...Crawler Fence and Toddler Playground

Posted on Missionary April Hershberger's blog today:

     Last week we had a group here who did an amazing job on putting up a fence for our Wing B kids. It is a beautiful area for the kids to play in, and is now even more safe since so many of the kids are walking and crawling all over the place. We are so thankful for the teams' hard work on getting this project finished.

 The group also helped to repaint some of the children's outdoor playground equipment. They painted their slide, the swing sets and the monkey bars that were put in a few months ago.

 

2012 04 Team Picture

October 2011 Team Picture

Update from Kenya Team

Things are going well here in Kenya. We are enjoying our time with the kids. As always, they are such a joy to be around. We have 9.75 beds built and boards for shelves are cut and painted. We are hoping to have the shelves put together tomorrow...or I guess I should say Floyd is hoping to have the shelves put together tomorrow.
We went to Salgaa today. We visited several homes. Such a meaningful time! We listened to their stories, laughed, cried, and prayed. Awesome! Then we went to the group meeting. The meeting started with singing by the Kenyan women....very cool to listen to! Then I shared and then Judy gave her testimony. Several of the Kenyan women shared afterwards how Judy's testimony ministered to them. A few of the women have started making jewelry, baskets, decorated gourds, beaded doilies, etc so we had a chance to purchase their things. On our way home, we stopped at the Baby Centre well and farm to take a look around. A great day for us!

We have arrived!

We made it! Our flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi was delayed by 2 hours, but other than that everything went well. All of our luggage arrived, too. They dedicated 36 babies at Ngata AGC this morning so we were able to be a part of that. Was awesome! Everyone is doing well...a little tired...but very excited to be here. We'll try to post pictures tomorrow.