The Library at MITS - Kamulu

We love our library.  We now have 2,868 books.  In the recent container sent from Tennessee we received 573 reading books for the kids, 501 Bible books, a box of board books for babies and some of the National Geographics that we did not have.  Thanks to a Bible professor at David Lipscomb, to the Otter Creek Church library, to someone in Irving, Texas, for the NGs, and to those kind people from Otter Creek who collected and boxed the books at Healing Hands!  Darlene and visitors from Pepperdine have categorized and taped books and typed titles into a computer file.  

The library is going to be of great help as we are upgrading our literacy training and our Bible, business and computer offerings.  In addition to the 13 "fast track" students who are preparing themselves for the 8th Grade Exit Exam in December, we are beginning a new class called 4.30 in which we will give our skills students (34 of them beginning June 1) additional knowledge in Bible (especially morality in the marketplace, but also in regard to marriage and friendships), Business (getting a job, keeping a job, starting a business, relationships on the job) and Computers (personal accounting, accounting for a small business, using the internet wisely and efficiently and advanced English studies).  That's a long sentence; hope you can make it out. 

A unique organization By Jessica Barnes

   I came to MITS almost a month ago to serve in the catering department, building ovens and teaching lessons. As I left my friends, family, and newly received degree behind, I thought I was escaping from everything in America. However, I quickly received new friends and family here and, much to my surprise, my education in organizational communication followed me here as well. I have quietly and sometimes obtrusively, through interviews, studied this organization. My conclusion has left me captivated. I am enthralled by the the stories of strife, love for the unloved and continual encouragement that this place provides all who come into contact with it. 

   I have heard about the body of Christ for many years and in countless sermons, and even though I thought I fully understood the concept it was hard to see it in practice. Yet, the iconic picture of the body of Christ is so deeply manifested in this sacred place that it almost knocked me off of my feet. "Finally," I thought, "this is what Jesus meant about the body of Christ." Each staff member here has a unique gift that is used to serve others and in turn, serve the Lord. As each person uses their gift they uniformly create a unifying place of love expressed through service. In a sense, this place is a utopia; everyone uses their gift to benefit the whole. Let me explain. I see Nzioka building the furniture for the kids to use, while close by Jackton works to make school uniforms for the kids and also to sell them in the MITS shop. Laurent teaches catering and the students all take turns at their dorms preparing the nightly food for one another. The food is gathered from the farm where Ben quietly works early in the morning and into the evening collecting eggs, milk, corn, and other vegetables to be used in the dorms and in the cafeteria. The food and well water that is sold funds continual planting which ensures the future nourishment of the precious children living here. 

   As I have conducted two organizational communication workshops with the team I have left each time in awe of how clearly God hand-picked this staff. This staff cares for each other more than most families I know back home. MITS is such a unique place where the staff use their gifts to serve the Lord daily. This is so much more than a job. I think of a job as a place to make a living and when you clock out at the end of the day you are finished. The job here is never finished. Most of the staff here also live on the premises and their influence on the students does not have a time card. The staff here are a constant encouragement and influence on these students and even under the student's watchful eyes there are no slip ups... only love and compassion expressed in more ways than words would say. I was told to always work like you don't need the money and I finally know what that looks like. I wish others who squander their gifts in jobs unfit for them would not be drowned out by the world telling them that a job is just a job. I wish that everyone had a chance to see what the soul fully alive looks like, and maybe then their lives would reflect the beauty of our Lord. My prayer as I leave this place is for the staff here to know how precious they are and how planned their lives were for this place. Yesterday, as a group prayed for the food we were eating, I was holding Jackton's hand. I was overcome with humility and honor knowing that I had the privilege to know someone whom God is especially close with. My fear is that I will never find a place that expresses the body of Christ so wonderfully again and that my experience with MITS has created expectations for an organization that may never be replicated. 

Thank you for letting me be a part of the place. 

(Note:  Jessica came for a month to MITS as part of a team from Pepperdine University who have taught cooking (primarily baking) and outdoor oven-building to staff and students.  We at MITS are happy with the relationship we sustain with Pepperdine.  This year our administrator Francis Mbuvi taught a class at Pepperdine Lectures and was honored with a service award at the Men's Fellowship Dinner.)

MITS NEEDS YOUR HELP WITH PRACTICAL CURRICULA

  Yes, we need your help.  Unlike more formal schools, Made in the Streets from time to time changes its schedule, curricula and focus in order to best meet the needs of our students from the streets.  Since most of them were denied the opportunity to attend primary school, we have to help them have motivation to catch up fast, since they are usually in our literacy program no more than two years.  Then we have to focus on skills training for two years in order to get them ready for the job market, which is more difficult than ever in Kenya.  And this month we have 6 students turning 16, the age at which we start skills training.  This means that we now have most of our students in skills training (38) rather than literacy (14).  In this pic are the students who need business, ethics, counseling and accounting skills to prepare them for the future.

  So we have revamped our schedule, and we have added a 4:30 PM class daily that lasts 45 minutes.  We want to teach the students in 3 major areas that will help them be ready for whatever job they seek when they leave us.  The 3 areas are Business, Bible and Computers.  Bible will have 5 units, Business 4 units and Computers 4 units.  Each of the units will have 20 lessons and will last exactly one month.  WE WANT YOU TO WRITE CURRICULA FOR US -- simple lesson plans, each one focusing on a specific learning task, each one with suggested teaching methods, each one with an objective, each one with specific assignments that can be done overnight...if you teach, you know the routine.  And if you don't teach, but you know the material, give us all you can and let us fill in.  Here are the Units and our desired objectives.

Bible

Unit One:  Work ethics, morality in the marketplace, general morality -- in these 20 lesson plans we want a Scripture, an objective, and all the rest.  We want to begin with Scripture.

Unit Two:  Conflict resolution and relationships (good to have a basic Scripture here also)

Unit Three:  Using your job to serve -- all the elements from Ephesians 6, the service mentality in the workplace, practical lessons for different job types.

Unit Four:  Dating and Marriage -- the kids will meet people at work, near where they live, where they eat, etc.  They need Biblical guidance for finding the love of one's life, courting, preparing the heart, staying pure...

Unit Five:  Personal counseling -- how to take care of their own hearts, how to overcome struggle and past pain, Biblical guidance, how to seek out someone who can help...

Business

Unit One:  Resume writing, preparing documents that show what you can do, interviewing -- classes with role playing, writing exercises, 

Unit Two:  Job descriptions and how to fulfill what is required, including the attitude and motivation required, how to get and keep a job, dealing with conflict on the job...

Unit Three:  Accounting and budgeting -- this 20 lesson course should be done on paper -- learning double-entry and ledger work, keeping a cash book, setting up personal and business budget, cash transfer...

Unit Four:  Marketing, setting up a business, promoting products and services

Computers

Unit One:  Accounting for personal use using computer programs

Unit Two:  Accounting for a business on specific computer programs (or how to use Excel or OpenOffice Spreadsheet for this)

Unit Three:  Appropriate and effective, efficient use of Email, Facebook, how to find what you want to know, etc.

Unit Four:  English studied -- computer learning in more advanced English studies beyond grade 4 or 5.  

Please use our expertise and develop what you think is good without worrying about culture or what we will think of it or anything else -- just pitch in and send me whatever you come up with.  Please don't send high-level space-eating graphics, since our email is slow.  Send me what you can at  charles.coulston@made-in-the-streets.org   

And thanks -- we need all the help we can get -- we are not experts at anything, we just have a job to do on behalf of street kids.  and be blessed in your preparation - peace, charles

WHY PEOPLE COME by Darlene

   We are curious at times as to why people come to Kamulu Church of Christ; we got some answers this past week.  Our women's prayer group was at our house Thursday.  There is always chai (Kenya tea) to drink, and cake at our home (other homes, they serve bread with margarine). We began talking about how they came to this church.  All but Maureen and one other came because of their children enjoying our Sunday school.  The other woman came because the women came to her when she moved in and invited her.  What a valuable asset our children's program is!  Here is a picture of one of our Sunday school classes. 

  The women also talked about Mbuvi's preaching.  They all agree that "Mbuvi preaches to your heart."  

  These women have dedicated 

themselves to pray and act so that the community will know about the church and the street ministry and dispel rumors.  And they hope in talking to their neighbors they will also gain people coming to church.  So this Sunday there were 3 visitors - the one family I talked with came because of Sunday school.  They are new to the area and the man asked about Made in the Streets - Charles talked with him and he is really interested and pleased.  He said, "I have been to several churches looking, and here the preaching is quite different and good. I like it here."  He had his three children with him, and his wife joined the women after church for prayer.  

Birthdays at Made in the Streets

  Each month we have a birthday party for all our kids and Team with a birthday since the last party.  We had 7 today -- 1 Team member, 4 students from Kamulu and 2 of our young moms from the Eastleigh Center.  It was also a different day from normal for us, since almost all of our Team went to Eastleigh in the early morning to spend the day working on the streets.  Joel was stuck at a roundabout with a leaky radiator; he had taken our visitors to the pickup point for their safari.  Francis Mbuvi, fresh back from the States and on jet lag, Milly Omondi, Darlene and I had the kids.  

  They sang and read library books and played games and drew pictures -- Darlene is the master at activities for teenagers!-- and late in the day, Ken Owino walked up to me and said, "We really had fun today!"  Seven of the kids went away from the building when I had said "5 minute break, and when I say it, I don't mean 15" and were gone 15, so I got some help moving rocks and pulling goatheads out of the Learning Center lawn for 20 minutes.  We also went up to the boys' property in the afternoon to play basketball and soccer, but the only two balls we had wouldn't hold air, so Francis and I decided the kids wouldn't mind moving rocks and cleaning up trash in the boys' compound.  It look a lot better when we were through.

    

  Then it was birthday time.  After games, there were two big circles of about 25 kids each, plus Team members, each with 3 birthday kids in the middle, and they pass around a balloon, and when it stops, the person gets a chance to say something good about one of the birthday people.  This is a wonderful time that blesses kids who never had a birthday party before and who have seldom in their young lives heard good things about themselves.  

  And...today the catering school kids, under Laurent's leadership, baked the cakes for the party -- 6 of them.  They had fun, learned something, and made our day better.  Next time they will have a class in cake decorating from Darlene and we'll have even better cakes.  

  One of the special events was that Shannon Jack is here from California, and she and her mom are sponsors of Millie, the mom from the Eastleigh Center whose birthday is this week.  So she got to celebrate Millie's birthday with her.  

  These teenagers have such a good time together.  We are so proud of them and the way they act.  And so proud of many of you, who help us do this ministry.  We are all doing something very special together, making a new life for homeless and hopeless kids.  Have a Happy Birthday when it's your turn.

Happy Day, Moms

   At the Kamulu Church of Christ and at Made in the Streets, we honor mothers.  We have young moms from the streets living in the Eastleigh Center.  Now we have our own moms on the MITS Team - Renee, Maureen, Milly.  On Mother's Day we took pictures after worship of our Mothers with their children or grandchildren.  Tomorrow we will give each mother a framed picture.  It's a way to give honor and a gift they will enjoy.  Here is a picture of Celine and her kids.  

  Darlene has not been with her daughter on Mother's Day for the last 6 years, and before that another 8 years.  So, she gathered some of our Kenyan family around her for her picture.  We feel as if our Team and the street kids are ours, and it is a joy to spend any day that we have with them.  

   The memory of Mother's Day tomorrow will be a happy one for our moms.  May your memories be full of happiness that stays with you each day.  

  I am always so proud of our Team at Made in the Streets.  They make good decisions and act to protect and encourage our students from the streets, and they are committed to the ministry of the church.  Today was another example.

  Darlene and I discovered at about 3:30 pm that our container which sits on a piece of land of ours had disappeared and our land plowed up.  Uh-oh!  It happened from about noon on: a large group of rough-looking people arrived on a couple of mini-buses; they had been hired by a neighbor who covets the land.  It was obvious as they began moving the container that they were expecting a fight.  So our Team got all the kids inside the Learning Center and locked the gate, shutting them off from what was outside.  Good decision. 

  After we got back home with our fleas (you can read about that on my blog site  

www.charles-coulston.blogspot.com), and got cleaned up, the Team finished their Team-building exercises with the Pepperdine University group and came over to our house.  They came to express some fear, and they needed some clarity about our land problem with the 20 acres and about this new problem with the moving container.  It was a good time together.  For one thing, it is really good to have a room big enough for all the team.  For another, it was good fellowship, and it was needed.  I showed them our lease certificate from the Department of Lands so they would know we really do have the right to the 20 acres (some of the people who invaded the land have told neighbors that it is public land and we have no right to it).  John Wambu assured them that we have gone the right way on all the land, that we have paid no bribes at all, that we have not tried to shortcut any of the legal process.  And I assured them that they are more important than the land, and I would rather give up the land and go back to a limited ministry of work on the streets than see them hurt.  But if we can use the courts and the police to settle the land issue and end the conflict, then I want to do that.  

  Jackton asked a very good question:  What extraordinary thing can we do that will bring this community together, make friends for ourselves and encourage people to do the right thing?  And the consensus of the Team is that we should seek God's way, seek God's intervention, seek God's clarity and wisdom -- so we have committed ourselves to prayer.  

  I think they all went back to the dorms and their homes with more assurance and hope, and with less fear in their hearts.  Clarity always helps, and we hadn't given them enough information up to now.  They are a wonderful Team, and they do wonderful work with young people from the streets.  We prayed together at the end for courage, for clarity, for God to come and do His work, which we cannot do.  

Passover is True

We celebrated Passover at Made in the Streets!  We did a Christian Seder Service, exactly one full moon after the real Passover date.  The kids and Team loved it, a great experience for us all.  These kids from the streets know they were in Egypt and that God redeemed them with his might hand.  When we did the "dayenu" (where the people of God, who formerly grumbled and complained, decide that God has done enough, that we are content -- it means "it's enough"), many of the students wanted to share.  We state it as "If God had only _______, it would have been enough."  The classic statements are "If God had only called Abraham..."  or "If God had only redeemed us from Egypt..." or "If God had only sent the prophets..." and in the Christian Seder, "If God had only sent His Son..." or "If God had only sent out the apostles.."  For our kids, it went like this:

  Moses Mwangi said, "If God had only provided food every day...and I'm at Made in the Streets"

  George Mwenda said, "If God had only given me  sponsor, and food every day, and life, and getting baptized."

  Abdi Isaac said, "If God had only given me these people (and he included us all in his circle), my family here."

  Anastacis Njoki said, "My life now is prosperous and pleasant."

  Joseph Mburu said, "I can eat every day."

  Several said such things as "I am living at MITS" and "I am not living on the streets."

  Sara Aono said, "I don't have to live on the streets and I am safe from evil things."

  Augustina (one of our staff at Eastleigh) said, "If God had only given us Charles and Darlene back." (they do know how to make us feel good).  

There is much that God has done....and IT IS ENOUGH! 

Rejoicing in Faith (again)

Greetings on a fine day in May.  It rained in Kamulu yesterday, and today the sun is growing crops and fruit and flowers.  The rain may blow in a little more rain.  We wore our gumboots this morning to chapel.  

We rejoice in the work done by our street ministers -- Kennedy and Anthony and Ann and Larry and Hollye -- and also Jane and Augustina, who work with them.  There were 55 street Moms at the program Monday (a few of these have gotten off the streets through faith and sometimes with our help), and they had a great time.  A woman named Jane, who is a member of the Kamulu Church, goes in on Mondays with Maureen Mbuvi and a couple of other Team members.  Some go to the streets and some work with the mothers.  Jane has begun to teach, and the report is that she is wonderful!!  And she's a happy volunteer! 

There were two baptisms on Monday. The young woman with the red scarf is Jessica, and the one in brown is Esther.  Hollye wrote this about our new sisters

"Jessica - has been coming to the program for a long time...she came to the girls program for several years... has a beautiful singing voice and all are blessed every time we hear her... her husband is presently in jail ... she has a baby about 3 months old...she h

as been on the brink of going back to living on the street, but we have assisted her some to keep her and the baby off the street.

                                                                                   

Esther - used to work near Made in the Streets as a house girl for a family...she gave birth to a healthy baby and did not have money or any family to pay the hospital bill...she stayed in the hospital a month until social workers helped release her...the people who had employed her before the birth told her she could not live there after the baby came...Esther had nowhere to go and so she came to MITS knowing we assisted people in desperation...we have helped get her on her feet and she has been coming to the program on a regular basis...we rejoice with the angels as we bring them into God's family"

A nice week's work for the Eastleigh Team.  

The 20 Acre Saga

"God is not finished with me yet."  Quite a number of people have used this quote to describe their lives.  Sometimes it is a joyful statement and sometimes resignation to difficulties.  But it is always an expression of faith.  

And so we believe -- that He who raised Jesus from the dead is the Holder of both power and goodness and does not fail those who trust in him.  

We are continuing to pursue a just settlement to the land issue.  The people who invaded have built a structure and opened it for use.  We have now written letters to all the relevant ministries in the government, and we are seeking an order for eviction.  We are also ready to re-fence the property, and the police have stated that they would protect our right to fence our property if we will leave out the part where the building sits until the case is settled.  

We have no doubt that God loves the street children and wills their good.  We also know that we have a great Team working on the kids' behalf.  So we are not afraid of what will happen.  It just takes a long time to accomplish.  We should remember how long it often takes when a person has done what is wrong and fallen into bad habits.  It may take years to get out of the problem.  So it is with land issues when someone has done wrong; getting them out and getting everything under control takes a while.  

And this is a very small issue in the eyes of everyone. It involves about an acre of land.  Great areas of land are under dispute in Kenya, where many people do not have land but desire it very much.  And those who have land often want as much more as they can get.  This will be a problem for the society for a long time to come, since the population continues to grow.  Our problem is small beside that of many others. 

So let us not feel bad about what we struggle over and might lose in the end.  Let us rejoice in what we have and in what we can do.  And let us remember that the end result does not lie in the land and power and cash, but in the Spirit, and in such matters as goodness and faith and love.

peace to you, charles

Presenting and Praising

  At Made in the Streets we are always looking for a teaching opportunity.  There is so much we want our kids from the streets to learn so they can know how to have good relationships, how to hold a job, how to serve God in the world and all the things they need to know to feel confident and strong.  And we want our kids to have the "tools of the trade" so they have what they need to a job when they get one.  So we were very happy when Anastacia, our best student in the government's 8th Grade Exit Exams, was admitted to a journalism course at Universal College in Nairobi.  It gave us an opportunity to impress on all the kids what it takes for them to succeed and what we want to do for each one of them as they prepare to leave us.

  Darren Wilson of the South MacArthur Church of Christ in Irving, Texas, provided a good digital camera, and he set up a laptop that came from Healing Hands in Nashville, Tennessee.  We brought it over when we came, and we planned a time to make a presentation.

  On Sunday afternoons our students have practical Bible classes, which follow the text of Scripture and also have practice principles for the students to do during the week.  These days we have the boys and girls separate.  Anastacia was at Kamulu for the weekend, so we gathered all the students together, and Charles spent time talking to them about all the things that we at MITS want for the kids.  He talked about what they will need to do to make it reality.  Then he told them how much we love them and how much we want them to have what they need to work at a job.  

  He called Anastacia to the front and talked about what she needs when she becomes a journalist, and that she needs some things now while in school.  Then he presented the gifts from South MacArthur Church, Healing Hands and Darren Wilson.  He then praised Anastacia for what she has done to prepare herself for the future.  All the kids were very happy with her for the gift, and now more of them are looking forward to the time when they will get what they need and be ready to face the world.