Joyful July 2,3,4,5,6,7!
Posted on behalf of Stephanie Bys from Facebook
Joyful July 2nd, 3rd and 4th because Nairobi was busy for us! After living in Kenya for a short while you learn you can make plans all you want, but the likelihood of them all happening on your timeline is slim to none. But in Nairobi we were able to get so much done!
Joyful July 2nd-Our immigration check-in was a complete BREEZE! We had all of our paperwork and all of our paperwork was all REAL so in about 20 minutes we were completely done and that includes waiting in line because we arrived early!
Joyful July 3rd-We were able to meet up with a Kenyan pastor/missionary that Jeff met at a conference in Nairobi in May and he took us to Mully Children's Family! Wow, it was such an honor to be there and we were invited back for a more in-depth tour so we can lean more. If you haven't seen the Mully movie I would encourage you to watch it. What Mully has been doing for the last 25+ years is our dream on a much smaller scale (our dream is on a much smaller scale than what he currently has.). It is neat to get to be with like minded people...you don't feel so crazy in those moments! ;) Also yesterday we got to eat TACOS 🌮 🌮 and I was able to find some gluten free products that we can't get in Bungoma! God was so good to us yesterday (and every day)!
Joyful July 4th-We are on our way home to see our kiddos! While I know we had things we had to go and do I always hate leaving them. So far it sounds like the children have behaved themselves better than some of the adults!😂So far our travel back hasn't been too bad, just not as fast as I would like for it to be.
And I'm terrible at taking pictures, sorry!!
#joyfuljuly #aboutfacemissions #mercychildrenshome #kenya #bungoma#james127
Joyful July #5
Growth! It is such a JOY to get to be a part of the growth happening here at Mercy Home. We cant always snap a picture of the growth, but this one was too cute not to share. All of our children are growing daily whether it is physically, academically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally or in the area of responsibility. Children are amazing and thrive when given food, love, good shelter and a bit of structure.
If you support us in any way you are changing lives like Minnie's in Kenya. Thank you, thank you for helping these children, thank you for allowing us to be the "boots on the ground", thank you for joining in on the joy in our JOurneY.
#aboutfacemissions #mercychildrenshome#bungoma #kenya #changingtheirstory #growth#james127 #thankyou #joyfuljuly
(Current picture taken today while she has malaria...she's not letting it phase her one bit💜)
Joyful July day 6
The family plus 2 of their Granddaughters. 2 of their children have sickle cell anemia.
Today we started the project of building a new home for a family of 9. Currently they are sleeping in 2 8x8ish huts, children in one and adults and youngest child in the other. As you can see the rooves are made of straw and they are old so when it rains water comes in and the floors get wet. A wet floor isn't too big of a deal unless that is where you sleep without a mattress and that's exactly where this family sleeps. 😞 But God! He is so good and we had afamily donate $500 to build them a new home. Today we met with the "fundi" (worker) who will set and build the frame and roof of the home. Tomorrow we will go into town and purchase materials for the home. Monday is build day, they will now have 2 bedrooms and a sitting room (living room) all under one DRY roof! We are still seeking additional donations to cover beds, mattresses, sheets, blankets, mosquito nets and additional iron sheets so we can enclose the "toilet" for this family. If you would like to donate to meet these needs please mark it for "Dishon family".
There's something about people loving on people they've never met that makes me all "heart eyed" 😍😍😍. To see someone love the people God loves thousands of miles away, to see someone impact so many lives they've never met, to watch someone care for others children...it brings me so much JOY. Our JOurneY is full of JOY here in Kenya.
Thank you for being JOY makers. When you support our mission here you are not only supporting our children, but you are supporting other families in our community as well. From the local shops in our area, to our staff of 19, from the lady we buy sukuma (collard greens) from daily, to the family that provides us fresh milk daily for the children's porridge and even the extra driver's we require daily...you are helping to support so many families.
#joyfuljuly #aboutfacemissions #mercychildrenshome #nonprofit #james127#kenya #bungoma #changingtheirstory
Joyful July day 7
We have bunnies! For me bunnies bring so much joy. I look at rabbits as pets and pets only, but we (Karson and the boys) have delved into raising rabbits for meat. As you are probably aware our home is ever growing, in order to be able to afford to continue taking in children we have to find ways to produce some of our food. While I highly doubt I will ever eat rabbit I know that the children will benefit greatly from this little project, both in their bellies and knowledge wise. Currently we have 7 does, 1 buck and 6 bunnies. Best we can tell all 7 does are pregnant so soon we will have lots of bunnies. We will butcher at around 12 weeks and as fast as rabbits have bunnies we should have a steady supply for the children. Being able to feed our children better (more meat/protein) bring me SO much joy!
In addition to providing food for MCH we are hoping to use some of the rabbits to help others do this same sort of thing. This would allow them to sell the rabbits and also provide some food for their family. Rabbits are basically free to raise here because the children go and gather fresh weeds/greens for them daily, pluse we eat cabbage, sukuma (collard greens) and carrots on a regular basis so there is plenty of food here for them and they do not eat pellets. Currently we have our rabbits set up in a colony setting and they are doing great.
In about 8-10 weeks we should have our first rabbit stew. And now the boys are asking to start raising birds 😒, I just don't like birds. I was hoping that we would focus on goats (we have 1 female) or chickens (we have about 6) next, but birds seem to be much cheaper to start up (about $1 per bird) so it looks like they may just win again.
Thank you for following along, your prayer and your support!
