Sunday on the Athi Plains

Cody Bannister letting Emma

have a seat on his piki piki

(The Swahili word for a motor bike)

On Sunday, we enjoyed a great day with our friends and colleagues Tim & Diane Bannister at their home on the Athi Plains near Machakos. The Bannister's son Cody is back for a visit during his summer break from the University of Toronto. Ava was very interested in his piki piki, but not so interested as to accept his invitation to sit on it with him. Emma was very brave, but without a helmet she didn't go for a ride.

Diane brought us down to Acacia Camp for the East African Women's League bazaar. It was very fun to rummage through the sale and meet many of the British residents of Machakos. We enjoyed a great pork roast barbecue and of course tea and sweets. The ladies had a lot of fun joking around: One of the women wore a pink feather tiara all day, and at the close of the afternoon three men dressed in women's bathing suits put on a dry land synchronized swimming demonstration -- we all had a good laugh!

Back at home this morning, the girls were playing house as we got ready for work. Ava had her baby...

... and Emma had hers!

Daddy and Ava going to brush up!

In Prayer:

* Please keep our friends from Middleton Baptist Church in your prayers as they prepare to join us in Eastleigh at the beginning of July.

* Please remember the the Iftin women on Thursday and Friday of this week as they will be taking part in community health seminars. On Thursday our colleague Tim Bannister will be demonstrating the benefits and use of vertical gardening in an urban setting. Together with the women, he will be creating a vertical garden. On Friday, the students from the advanced English class will be sharing with the women of the community a presentation of HIV/AIDS and TB. Please pray for them as they take this courageous step in public speaking. They are being very brave as they will speak about a subject seldom spoken about in this community. We are very gratiful to Diane Bannister who initially taught on this subject with Iftin back in March. Much of the information that the women will be sharing was learned from Diane.

Water Filters

Today, we held two information sessions on the importance of clean drinking water and the use of ceramic water filters. Thanks to the generous contribution of First Baptist Church, Charlottetown, we were able to distribute 30 water filters to the women of Iftin. We will be doing another distribution once the next batch of filters are ready in July.

Erica explaining how the filters work to separate bacteria and

harmful particles from the tap water.

Aaron passing out filters to the members of the second Iftin class. The ladies were delighted and so thankful for this generous gift. Many of them said that they would be bringing their neighbors over for some clean drinking water!

Tristan and Emma joined us today in Eastleigh and were a

great help in passing out the filters.

The ladies recognize the importance of clean water, not just for themselves but for the young children in their families. Water-borne illnesses are responsible for high mortality rates among children under 5 years old.

Patrick heads up the water filter production. He joined us today to show the ladies how to care for and clean their water filters.

Meanwhile, in the jewelry project, the ladies are hard at work preparing to glaze more beads. Tomorrow we will spend the whole day glazing beads to be used in upcoming sales. While the women are working we have been talking together about what to call our group. We'll let you know what the final decision is.

The girls working on new bead designs

Erica and James preparing the girls for their upcoming exam which will be on Tuesday. The ceramic bead training has been provided under the name of the Vocational Training Centre (VTC). The ladies will receive their certificates through the VTC and their training will be recognized throughout the country.

Thanks for supporting and keeping these

ministries in your prayers

Soko Soko

Pottery and ceramic jewelry at this weekend's craft sale

Soko Soko is an annual venue for Kenyan artisans to sell and showcase their creations. This was the first official sale of jewelry made from the Eastleigh beads. The show is held at the Nairobi Holiday Inn all weekend. Erica and the Iftin ladies will be back at beading this Monday as they prepare a number of new bead designs to be glazed and fired.

In Prayer:

1. We are praising God as we received Ava's adoption order on Friday! The final paper work and official adoption certificate should be ready this week. We are praying that the process of securing travel documents will go smoothly.

2. Please keep the Iftin women in your prayers. Many are struggling with the rising cost of living. We pray especially for the success of the jewelry project for the sake of providing a regular income for the women participating in the project.

3. Please remember the team from Middleton, Nova Scotia, that is preparing to join us in serving at the Eastleigh Community Centre. Twelve volunteers will be coming from July 2nd to 14th to help in the ESL program, the jewelry project, classroom renovations, and assisting in the annual youth entrepreneurship conference. We pray for their health and any anxiety as they prepare for this journey.

Birthday Boy!

Tristan getting some help blowing

out the candle on his birthday pie!

Tristan turned 10 today! We began our celebration with an early "Birthday Breakfast"out at Java House. Today was the last day of school, so after breakfast the kids collected their report cards and participated in the closing assembly at Rosslyn Academy. Since it was only a half day, we picked Tristan and Emma up at noon and surprised them with an afternoon at the cinema where we took in a matinee of "Night at the Museum 2". As he already had a cake at his party, Tristan asked mommy for a birthday pie on his real birthday. We enjoyed mommy's fabulous apple pie tonight with our friends Mel and Kerrry.

Tristan and Daddy awaiting our Java breakfast
Tristan had some surprise hugs...

and birthday kisses from our good friends

Melanie and Kerry

Gotta love those birthday smooches TK!!