The Eastminster Team goes to Chuka

-From Chuka with Love,
Written by:  Drew Scholtens

For those of you who don't know the Eastminster Team broke off and headed to Chuka to visit the Kenyan Connection Kids Ministry.  We left early Wednesday and headed thru Karatina on our way to Chuka.  Naturally the first two ATM's didn't work, so we walked the 2nd largest open air market in all of Africa looking for a working ATM.  We found an ATM and a few other "necessary" items.  I was the only man in all off Karatina in shorts...Thanks Tim for pointing that out.

We eventually made it to Thutci Lodge which we were going to use as our base camp for a  day.  We met up with Humphrey Kanga and headed to his house, then the Kids home. 

The Kenyan Connection Home is an awesome place.  It is a totally different model than Tumaini, and while we try not to compare the two, it is difficult not too.  Both do what they are designed to do in the God's Plan.  They focus on the Family element in the Kenyan Connection model.  The kids live in a house, each house has a "mama" who is for all intensive purposes...the mama...  There is also a full-time helper who does not live on the property who is an "auntie" and a Social Worker who is an Uncle.  In conjunction with the 17 kids in the home there is also 100+ kids living out in the community who are "sponsor" children. 

The Kenyan Connection is also a much newer ministry which is still trying to get roots down, and has a lot of building ahead of it.  A second house has been completed and soon a second mama will be hired and another batch of children will move in.  They operate at capacity since their numbers are so low. 

The Team is well.  Mark's beard is filling in nicely.  Soon we will not be able to distinquish him from the safari animials.  Leslie is totally going with the flow.  Several times today her response was "We'll just go with it".  Planning is for people who are worried, not Leslie.  Dick DuBose  has reviewed 50% of water refining operations in East Africa, and gave a rousing talk today on greenhouse gases to Humphrey.  Kathy DuBose and Jan Conkright did a great job on the crafts with the kids today.  Imagine explaining to kids whose primary language is Tribal, whose second language is Swaheli, and whose third language is English how to make a box out of paper and glue stuff to it...its not as easy as it sounds.  Tim is good, though without Abigale sometimes he looks lost.  He has been trying hard to get something named after himself that would rival his toilets in Kokuyu.  So far he has failed.  But tomorrow is a new day, and Tim is a persistent man.  Tom and I are great. Just sittin back, sipping on Tea, playing with children...you know the heavy lifting and what not. 

Tomorrow we do some work in the morning before heading North to drive back to Nyeri.  Tonight we are on home visits and loving it.  We are however looking forward to re-uniting with the Meadows group.  Its odd how quickly you begin to miss team-mates, and cheeseburgers buts that for another blog entry...