| DickersonMissions.com Newsletter | | | Christ Compassion Rehabilitation Center | April 2007 | | | | | | | | | Blessings from Visitors We have been extremely blessed by the Lord for the 410 Bridge's (www.410bridge.org) help in getting our center on it's way to becoming self-sufficient. They just spent the last week in Kenya doing heavy concrete work - the back-breaking kind with shovels and wheel-barrows - in finishing the floor for our "BigStuf House", a ministry out of North Point Community Church, and a covered sidewalk out side the building. AND, because they provided so much labor, our Center Director, John Mutahi, was able to buy enough concrete to even finish the floors of the children's rooms! May the Lord bless you 410 Bridge Team! They also raised enough money from American churches to sink a water borehole, one that will even provide enough water for the whole community of Musulele (where the CCRC is located) and Joska, the nearest market for our future farm. We won't sink it yet, because we're still waiting on the title deed for our plot, just in case! They are now raising money for another 2 acres next to CCRC, so we can begin planting corn, beans, tomatoes, onions, etc. Also, thanks to the Potter's Class at Trinity on the Hill UMC who gave a sizable donation toward our 2 acres. May God bless you! And now we have a pastor!!! Mutahi and one of our Board members had asked me to be the pastor, so we all fasted and prayed about it. I was honored they asked me, but the Lord Jesus clearly told me no; I was not to be the pastor. He had someone else in mind. So Mary Mugo or Mama Winnie, a CCRC Board member, is now our "Pastor Mary". We have had six Sundays worshipping in the storage room next to the kitchen. Easter Sunday, our seventh Sunday, was our first worship service in the "BigStuf House". I was honored to preach that day to our 37 kids and maybe 15-20 visitors from the surrounding community. Pamela, our "mum" at CCRC, led the Sunday School for the youngest children at 9, then the church service began - from 10 am to 2 pm! Every Sunday, someone new to our church stands and testifies they've been praying that the Lord would begin a church in their community. Then, as a special treat, Connie Cheren's group from Georgia took the children on a field trip to "Lost Paradise", although don't know what that is | Four days and Three nights I really felt led that the Lord wanted me to spend some days at CCRC, to discover what their actual day-to-day life is like. What I found was very enlightening. Pamela, our "mum" at CCRC, gets up at 5:30 am every morning and begins knocking on the doors to wake the children. She begins a wood fire to cook uji (OO-gee), a type of porridge, and then everyone goes to a small room for devotions at about 6 am. They sing, pray, give testimonies, then Pamela gives a short devotion, they sing again, and end with prayer. One morning they had no flour to make uji so they only had tea - half milk, half water, tea leaves, and sugar. The children didn't complain; they all understood that we didn't have enough food. Then they walk to the public school next door to begin class at 6:30 am. The older children who finished the free public education (up to 8th grade) and the smallest children remain at CCRC and do chores. We currently don't have the money to send the older ones to high school, but that's our goal. Someone cleans the two toilets (concrete holes in the ground inside an "out-house"), some wash the dishes (one morning we had no soap, so they had to wash with water), some sweep the kitchen using a handful of grass from the field, then mop using an old sweater, and Pamela heats water over the fire and washes the youngest children. Some mornings are for washing clothes. Two of the oldest boys take some jerry cans in wheelbarrows to a neighbors' borehole to bring water back to CCRC. It takes about 1 hour before they come back. And they'll have to go again in the evening. It's a job nobody likes to do, but they know if there's no water, then Pamela can't cook! Around 1 pm, the school children come back for lunch, which Pamela has already prepared. They have about 30 minutes to eat, and then return to school. They won't be back to CCRC until 6:30 at night. Talk about a long school day! Then, the routine begins again- washing lunchtime utensils, plates, cups, pots, etc. The young boys and girls love to help in the kitchen, even not wanting to take turns on who gets to wash the dishes! Some of the youngest go outside and play. Everyone watches out for them. When chores are finished, all the children have free time. Then about 5 or 6 pm, Pamela starts the fire again, and begins cutting the vegetables for dinner with help from some children. Some nights the vegetables were collard greens, called sukuma (sue-KOO-ma), or beans with either rice or ugali (oo-GAH-lee), sort of like very thick grits - delicious! Then washing dishes again, heating water for those wanting a bath, and then devotions again about 9 pm. By this time, many of the school children are falling asleep. | | Here's what I discovered It's cold at night! I slept with a sweater, pants, and 2 blankets and was still chilly! And I found out that the youngest boys, seven of them, don't have a blanket at all! Four of the youngest girls share one blanket, and the fifth girl has no blanket. Pamela also has only one blanket and she's SO thin! She's also cold at night. I left my two blankets - one for Pamela, and one for the other girl. Now, I admit, I'm getting older and perhaps too pampered, but my hip bones ached after a night on those thin spongy foam mattresses. (Titus, our teacher and tutor at CCRC, let me use his room while I stayed there.) The children I spoke to think their beds are absolutely great and comfortable so thank you Jesus and may He bless whoever bought those beds for the children!!! Pamela, however, confided in me that her bones also ache in the night. She's the same age I am. Most of the children don't have a Bible. When I bring mine for Sunday services, I never see it, because it's being passed around and shared. All of the clothes the children have are donated, but they have no place to put them, only plastic grocery bags hanging on a nail, or stuffed under the beds. And, let me tell you, boys in Kenya are the same as boys in America -they clean up by just stuffing things back in the bag! It really is amazing and somehow comfortingly familiar that my boys and the CCRC boys are so much alike. Can you imagine being a parent to 37 of them?! And then there are just the little things that would make day-to-day life a little easier - a bigger cooking pot and cooking stick, a metal box (called a jiko (GEE-ko)) to cook on so our sawdust and firewood would last longer, plastic basins to wash clothes in (we have only one and it's cracked - the kids use the wheelbarrows we recently mixed concrete in to wash their clothes) and to wash our bodies. (I found out that the first set of basins was broken by the boys sitting inside them - but now we have a "mum", Pamela, to watch out for such things!) There is no first-aid kit. We all know that with that many boys, you need a box of bandages and antibiotic ointment! Also, it'd be good to have a thermometer and some children's ibuprofen and Tylenol for those middle-of-the-night fevers. Or even some regular Tylenol or Advil for adult-sized headaches! We need a little metal stand and basin just outside the toilets to wash our hands. Unfortunately, I didn't see anyone washing their hands, but when you have only a small piece of soap left and no money to get more, washing the dishes is probably the priority. And a broom! Having a broom would make quick work of sweeping the kitchen rather than a handful of grass! Here's how much these things would cost: 1. Blankets for 7 small boys ($12 each) $ 84 2. Dense foam mattresses for Pamela and Titus ($110 each) $220 3. 15 NIrV (New Int'l Reader's Version) Bibles ($12 each) $180 4. 30 Metal boxes for clothes; small kids can share ($4 each) $120 5. Giant cooking pot and cooking stick $ 32 6. Sawdust jiko (metal box) $ 70 7. 6 plastic basins for taking baths & washing clothes ($4 each) $ 24 8. 1st-aid kit (bandages, ointment, ibuprofen, acetaminophen.) $ 25 9. Thermometer $ 15 10. Metal stand, basin, and jerry can to wash hands $ 35 11. Broom $ 3 TOTAL $808 Individually, these things are pretty cheap. If you all could get a Sunday School class or Bible study or Prayer group together and help with just one thing, we'd appreciate it! Send checks to The Mission Society, PO Box 922637, Norcross, GA 30010-9804. Please put "GOA - CCRC" on the "for" line so that it will get to the right place. 100% of your donation, minus 10% tithe to GOA, Glory Outreach Assembly, will go to this project. (I've already added 10% to each item so we'll have enough to purchase these things.) | | | Some help from The Mission Society One thing that I'm worried about is the pouring of money into a very poor rural community. We all know money means power, but here in this community, money means great power! Even if a spouse has more money than the other (regardless of being male or female), he or she has the decision-making force in the family. The other spouse must acquiesce. Then, when Americans, who are seen as having an unlimited source of money, bring such resources into a community, the power structure can become unbalanced. It now becomes very important to be friends with the Americans so that one has a better chance to have access to the power. The normal ways of gaining power, such as community politicking, have been turned over. Now, for example, if you speak English well, you now will have better access to power in this community, than if you don't. Most in this community are new-comers, here less than 2-3 years, and learned English in Nairobi. And just because you speak English, doesn't mean you would be the best leader! Many in the local tribe, Akamba, have sold their land to the new-comers and now are becoming jealous that the new-comers are developing "their" land. I've heard stories from the locals of the same kind of development by various tribes in a different community, and the Akamba raided and re-claimed "their" land, boreholes and all. The clash was violent and the new-comers were chased away. However, some tried to reassure me that that can't happen here because we have title deeds - although CCRC is still waiting for ours from the government. Thankfully, the 410 Bridge and the Mission Society are sensitive to this and want to help develop this community without causing hurt feelings, jealousies, and other damage. I will be taking notes and interviewing many, many people in an effort to understand what is "usual" in living here, everything from interviewing the Chief, who I've been told lives in the mountains, the "headmen" who decide matters in the community, and interviewing the newcomers and the Akamba. Dr. Darryl Whiteman, an anthropologist and missiologist with The Mission Society, has agreed to help. Unfortunately, his suggestions may be only as good as my notes so please pray that I get the right kind of info and I don't leave out something critical!!! | | Thanks again and again for standing with us in prayer. We could not have the strength to do this if it were not for your prayers. | | Sincerely,
Laura Dickerson
DickersonMissions.com | | | |
