2023 June Newsletter – From Go Ye Ministries and Horizons Foundation, by Cara Lottes
Good news and lots of good works happening in Kendu Bay, Kenya!
· August trip in planning stages – volunteers welcome!
· The young girl, G., and her baby that YOU are saving
· Kids are attending the 2nd term of school, funded by your donations
· Sewing training, the soap making and convenience store ventures
· Miracle pond and farm updates
· Food, medicine, daily/ongoing needs
· Did we save the best for last … read to find out … EXCITING NEW PLANS
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Ø August/Sept. trip in planning stages – volunteers welcomed!
Do you feel the knock on the door of your heart to join the team travelling to Kenya? Please pray for those planning to go and pray for more to go! Core team including Avis, Fred, and Betty may stay in Kenya from August through September or October, so scheduling is flexible for those only able to go a shorter time. Send an email reply for info!
Ø The young girl, G., and her baby that YOU are saving
The orphanage had been caring for G., age 13, and her infant baby boy conceived due to rape. G and her baby recently attempted to reunite with G’s mother and stepfather and live with them. It was later learned the baby boy was near death due to starvation in what is believed to be neglect/abuse by G’s mother who was caring for the boy while G attended 8th grade.
You may recall the orphanage director is Bishop Washington Ayugi, and as he learned of the situation and spoke with Betty with Go Ye about it, he went to get the baby to a hospital to see if he could be nursed back to health (this involved moving to different hospitals, paying the hospital up front, and in Kenya you must bring in and provide food and medicines as they direct). This has all been done and now the baby boy is much better!
G, a 13-year-old girl, has just been through practically unimaginable trauma. Raped at age 12, impregnated, abandoned, a mother who basically left her baby for dead. She, G., is now back at the orphanage and caring for her baby boy. She will receive help there and be enabled to finish the 8th grade. So, G shows an example why the orphanage supports both orphaned and abandoned children, as there is no other way without God helping through people. Please pray for G and this baby boy who YOU are saving by supporting this orphanage. Without these recent efforts, it is unlikely that baby boy would be alive today.
Ø Kids are attending the 2nd term of school, from your donations!
The kids of school age at the orphanage were able to have books, uniforms, required supplies, and school fees to attend the 2nd school term, which started in May! Kenya has no free public school, so without your donations, there isn’t money for these kids to attend school. Their school year is set up as 3 terms per year; and the next starts late August, when about another $4000 will be needed. It is a great blessing to enable their learning.
Ø Sewing training, soap making and convenience, gas store ventures
The goal is to give the kids a “hand up” to become self-sufficient over time, not a never ending “hand out”; and so multiple businesses are continuing to progress that will help make the orphanage bring in funds and teach the kids trades for their future.
Sewing training is an important skill and someone was coming to the orphanage to teach at a cost of $60 per week. This was paused awaiting more funds. Would anyone reading like to donate $360 (or a part) to enable 6 more weeks of training? We believe that would be a good stopping point for some basic skills.
The soap making venture continues and the training is complete and formulas ready. A new batch of bar soap would be the next great step. Would anyone donate towards the raw materials to enable a next batch of bar soaps (both to sell and for the kids to use)?
The convenience store continues to operate and sells mostly sodas and snacks. This has been a success! This is at the site of the nearly completed gas pump which is nearly at the stage of permitting and filling with gas. All profits from these ventures are kept by the orphanage, to help the kids!
Ø Miracle pond and farm updates
The last newsletter described the miraculous creation of a pond on the property. The pond has continued to retain water and is a wonderful help. This rainy season has been a strong one and in fact much of the crops were flooded. They have now been replanted. This effort continues, and we pray success is just around the corner! Plans to dig the pond deeper and line it with rubber pond liner in dry season are still in place for the coming months.
Ø Food, medicine, daily/ongoing needs
The price of daily needs such as food and medicines (like malaria medicine) continue to rise. There are also ongoing needs, such as, in the past month we replaced many of the broken plastic wash basins each child has (for hand washing their clothes). See the photo!
Ø Did we save the best for last … read to find out … EXCITING NEW PLANS
As you may recall from prior newsletters, Horizons Foundation and Go Ye Ministries support – through your donations – New Life Covenant & Power Ministries (the charitable entity created in Kenya, I will abbreviate as NLCPM) which owns and operates the orphanage, which is called Bartholomew Childrens Family. That is a mouthful! But it is very important to be clear NLCPM, a legal Kenyan charity, is the owner of things like the convenience store/gas station, the farmland, etc., and not any individual person owns it.
EXCITING NEW PLANS … NLCPM now has ownership of 9 acres total and is going to be able to start building permanent orphanage structures out of brick – thanks to a recent LARGE donation for new buildings! The current living structures of wood poles and sheet metal technically sit on an individual’s adjacent land and were always considered temporary for housing the kids. See images at end of letter. All materials from these structures will be salvaged/moved to the NLCPM land and used, to every extent possible. What a blessing this will be!
Part of this donation toward building permanent housing structures will be used to set in the 7 electrical poles and electrical line (a project mentioned in the last newsletter). We are getting estimates for building. More funds will be needed as we work towards permanent housing for the 67 orphaned and abandoned children at the orphanage now, plus future growth!
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100 % of donations sent will be used for the work in Kenya:
· Go Ye Ministries at PO Box 736, Prairie Grove AR 72753
· Horizons Foundation at PO Box 596, St. Peters MO 63376
· PayPal to Horizons Foundation:
Reach us: Horizons4kids@gmail.com – https://horizons4kids.com/