What a Week!

WHAT A WEEK!

John hard at work in the renovations

of the new Iftin classroom

All this week, Erica and the Fallingbrook Heights volunteers have been busy in Eastleigh with Laura, Nelius, Farhiya, Patrick and the Iftin ladies. Here are a few glimpses into the week:

Nelius and Farhiya moving the Iftin literacy classes

outdoors as the entire Eastleigh Community Centre

undergoes a much needed facelift!

The new Iftin Unity Garden

is taking shape!

Nelius helping one of the Iftin girls water some of the sack gardens infront of the new classroom. Already eight teams of refugee women have entered the urban gardening contest and are growing vegetables in sack gardens throughout Eastleigh. We are so excited to see the ladies are putting their gardening training into practice both in the community centre and in their own homes. We pray for great success!

Lila helping to lay out the hundreds of new Kenyan readers and story books for the Eastleigh Community Centre library.

Yesterday morning, they presented a mountain of new books and sports equipment to the staff and students of the primary school. It was an emotional day as the little library rarely receives new books, especially African readers. All of the books provided by Fallingbrook Heights were purchased in Kenya and are a part of the official Kenyan curriculum. A huge thanks to the generosity of the Fallingbrook Heights Baptist Church who raised the funds for the library. (On behalf of the team, we also want to thank the Nairobi Textbook Centre for their discount -- it is amazing how many books they were able to bring into the school!)

Erica and Don in the new workspace for Noor Creations.

The Renovations were completed late yesterday afternoon, thanks to the dedication of the team. On behalf of the members of Iftin and Noor, we want to share a BIG THANK YOU! The transformation is incredible!!!!

The team is off for a weekend break, but they will return to the community centre on Monday to lead two days of professional development workshops with the entire staff.

On a personal note, we are excited to be celebrating Ava's 5th Birthday this Saturday. She left for pre-school this morning with a big box of mommy's cookies to celebrate with her class.

We hope you all have a great weekend!

Moonlight VCT

Moonlight VCT

in Embu

The ACC&S Guardians of Hope in Embu, are working in partnership with the Kenyan government to help their community know their HIV status. While the church has been promoting voluntary counselling and testing for several years, they have recently discovered a strategy for overcoming the fear and stigma attached to attending a counselling and testing centre -- hold them at night!

"We want people to know their status," shares ACC&S GOH project officer Patrick Maina. "Church members and the community have long associated HIV and AIDS with immorality, but we are helping the community understand that there are other avenues that people contract the disease. Knowing your status is key if we are to stop the spread. But more than this, we need people to access counselling and testing in time rather than waiting until they are so far gone."

Embu's next moonlight VCT visit will be on October 9th. They are anticipating 360 people over the night long event, to come and receive counselling and testing. Counselling is important, as people need to be prepared to hear their results and know what options they have. Please be praying for this vital ministry of the church as they follow Jesus' example of being available to their community, even in the dark of the night.

To learn more about the Guardians of Hope program check out the Canadian Baptist Ministries webpage at www.cbmin.org

Eastleigh Makeover!

Pharis Nyaga introducing the Fallingbrook Heights team to the vocational training centre program at the Eastleigh Community Centre

Erica is leading the Fallingbrook Heights short term mission team in Eastleigh this week. Yesterday she brought them in for a quick tour and then they jumped in with both feet as the team began helping out with the literacy classes, and renovations to our work spaces. Don and John also began a series of workshops with the older students in the school, and Don and Joy went on a home visit in the community.

Joy Hepburn sharing some geography with the Iftin Women

The team teaching a class with Iftin:

they appreciated the openness of Nelius and Farhiya

who are sharing the morning classes with them this week.

Erica, Julie and Lila painting

the new Iftin literacy classroom

Along with the renovations to our new work spaces and offices, the entire community centre is getting a major makeover through the support of the European Union and other donors. Carpenters, tilers, painters and a host of volunteers are working throughout the centre. This Wednesday will be a huge clean up day with all of the students participating. The centre is a bee hive of activity!

John and Nick working on the renovations to the new Noor Creations' workshop

Erica was the first customer for the Peace Group SHG

who are using their savings to start

a scarf making micro enterprise

Erica introducing the Fallingbrook Heights

team to her favourite basket shop

Praying for Change

Children receiving vitamin supplements

at a CBM feeding project in

Northeastern Province, Kenya

In the past three months alone, approximately 30,000 children have died from malnutrition and preventable illness in the Horn of Africa. Canadian Baptist Ministries is partnering with the Sister's Maternity Hospital, in Garissa, to provide immunizations, medical services, and daily food and water to nine affected communities along the Tana River. This is an area where thousands of displaced people have come for help with small villages more than doubling in size from the influx.

Through the generous support of churches and individuals, we are working with partners in the local community to help vulnerable families survive. But more than survival, we are praying for change. The present relief efforts are only a first step, as Canadian Baptist Ministries works with communities eager to break a pattern that has held them in a feast and famine cycle for generations. Together with the local government, the Kenyan Red Cross and community elders, we are actively seeking sustainable change that will enable the communities we are serving to make better use of the waters of the Tana River to grow their own food and provide a rich economic benefit for the region.

Change is not easy. We all favour what we know over the unknown. Certainly, there will be a lot of learning, risk and failure on the journey ahead. But as we make this journey with local Kenyan churches and Muslim communities, we pray for deeper bonds of love, understanding and grace. God is a liberating God. Ultimately, we trust his Spirit at work in the lives of many to bring about healing, growth, and transformation!

Women and children lining up for water at a mobile clinic and feeding program of Canadian Baptist Ministries and the Sister's Maternity Hospital, near Garissa.

A Waliwana women participating in a small

women's farming cooperative near the

Tana River, in Northeastern Province.

Under the Acacia Tree

Erica and Diane Bannister speaking with Somali women

at a feeding clinic in Doloweyn,

Northeastern Province, Kenya

Children taking turns drinking from a large water container

at the Doloweyn feeding centre and clinic in NEP.