Odds and Ends.

Is this Discipleship?

What does discipleship look like? In the first picture below our youth help build a home and in the second picture some local children watch The Lion King in our living room Is this discipleship?

Jesus had a couple of things to say about discipleship. He told us to "love one another" as He loved us and that by doing so, the world would know we were His disciples. He also said to "go make disciples of all nations.... teaching them everything He had commanded".

So it seems we are to both "be" disciples and "make" disciples. Relationship is a requirement for both and relationship simply requires love, giving of one's time, honesty, openness and a willingness to teach and be taught. You don't have to be a Pastor, have a degree or be super spiritual.

In the CML Ministry, we have formal discipleship sessions and teachings but we've found that the discipleship with the most impact is done in the midst of day-to-day life. How we live our lives, make decisions, share our resources and chose to spend our time teaches those watching more than words ever will.

Chicken Project and Garden

Our chicken project is growing daily and we have gone from the 2 chickens we started with (Fred & Ginger) to well over 100.

This Project will help feed the youth that visit the CML Center through out the year and is also being used to teach responsibility and basics principals of business and agricultural management. With most eggs in our area imported from some distance away, we have a dream of one day selling eggs on a large scale to help raise money for the ministry and kids in school.

Below, work begins on the new chicken house that we hope to have completed within the next few days.

Our garden is also growing. Weekly the youth weed, water and tend the garden and we are eating the fruit of our hand. We also thank God for a great maize harvest. Maize and sukumawiki are staple foods which we eat daily.

Here you can see the sukuma and a few banana trees and below some of our maize.

A well for CML

Water is an essential of life, and you can imagine how much we use when there are 30 or 50 kids staying with us bathing and washing cloths! Yet our compound has never had a permanent on-site source of water. Up to now we have caught rain water in tanks or gone some distance to a spring for water. All that is about to change.

Recently we started digging a well (by hand) and are excited to report that we've reached water at 35 feet! There is still a need to dig further, cement top and part of the inside and of course get a pump... but we're "well" on our way!

Youth Conference

Sunday night (Aug 3rd) we leave with 30+ kids for Nairobi to attend the 2nd Annual East African Youth Conference. Please pray for us and all the youth attending and also be in prayer for the staff at Clarence Matheny Ministries who host the event and the visiting mission team from Convergence Church in TX, who are facilitating and sponsoring the Conference.

Kennedy

Kennedy is 16 years old and has been battling chronic osteomyelitis since 2006. This re-occurring bone infection has left him with limited use of his left leg, stunted growth and caused him to miss much school. After taking him to Kisii hospital for test and X-ray's we were told that surgery to clean the bone and repair damage to his knee was the only way to save his leg. His mom, a widow, has no financial means to speak of and the cost was way beyond what our budget would allow. Non of this dampened his hope for the future however nor our belief that God could work a miracle.

That faith was rewarded this week when Kennedy was admitted to Nyabondo Rehabilitation Center, where he will receive the much needed surgery on Monday. Three times a year visiting surgeons travel to this remote area (Nyabondo is about 2 hours from us) to volunteer their time and services FREE to those with disabilities that are unable to afford medical treatment.

Lord we thank you for the love you have shown this young man and we thank you for those who serve you and help others through the giving of their time, skills and finances!

Library

The books are stamped and marked and the room is ready. More bookshelves are on the way and soon the unofficial library will become official!

New Granddaughter

And finally, we have to brag about our newest granddaughter, Addison Emilia Sharpe. Born July 30th, we think she is just beautiful! Congratulations Alex and Brittany!