PRAYER FOR ENEMIES

We accept Jesus as Lord, but we have some problems doing all that He says. Many years ago Darlene invited Curt Cloninger to come to Redwood City where I preached to do his presentation of the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7. Darlene invited the community women whom she taught who were mothers of kids from the Preschool Bible Classes, several of whom were not involved in church life. The next day in their class Darlene asked what they thought of the drama. One of them said, "I liked the program, but I don't agree with everything he said." When Darlene told her he was quoting Jesus, she became very thoughtful.

If we are honest, there are times when we would want to say, "I don't agree with Jesus." One of those is when he says "Love your enemies...pray for your enemies." Because he meaning of that is deep and far-reaching. Love is for family and closeness...prayer is for God to use His power to bring benefit and joy and new hope. Give that to enemies?

In business it means that we pray that God will bless our competitors, giving them both profit and joy. In a community it means that we pray that God will bless our neighbors, even the one who builds a fence across the road and blocks access. In politics it means that we ask God to give long life and leadership ability to politicians who use their position to steal land and businesses.

We were treated to a great prayer at church in Kamulu Sunday. It was the prayer for the sadaka (the collection), and the young man praying was Titus Kioko. Anyone who has seen one of our MITS brochures has seen Titu

s, sitting on an old tire in front of our Eastleigh Center, under the influence of glue and drugs. He was that way all the time on the streets, and both Team members and visitors loved him and prayed for him.

So Sunday he prayed for the children of the church, that they might grow strong and be with God, and he prayed for the preacher, that his sermon might help us, and he prayed for the

leaders of Kenya, that

they might make Kenya a good place for people, and he prayed that God would bless

Waititu, the MP who led people to seize a portion of MITS land, and he prayed for Sudan and Somalia and America.

Here are two pics of Titus, the one when on the streets in 2007, and this year's school picture at MITS. And there are many who are glad to know him.

TEAM RETREAT

The Team of leaders of Made in the Streets enjoyed a retreat at Mountain Lodge near Mount Kenya. The weekend retreat was organized by Hollye and Larry Conway and led by Dan Spann of Knoxville, Tennessee. Here they are pictured having tea in the great outdoors, which they enjoyed very much, along with Dan's teaching and encouragement. The Team divided into two groups, with one going the first two nights. Then they were joined for one day by the second group, who stayed two nights also. They do this because MITS has the street kids in boarding 24/7/365, and there can never be time off for everyone. Darlene and Charles Coulston stayed with the kids for the day the Team groups overlapped.

The single moms from Eastleigh came out to Kamulu during the retreat so that all Eastleigh Team members could go on the retreat. One of the moms had her baby two days before the retreat, and little Yvonne (since renamed Hollye Wanjiru) did very well.

Milly and Kehl are shown here on the retreat in their matching T-shirts, which were given by South MacArthur Church during their "Camp Mtume" week with the students. The Coulstons have noted remarkable growth in Kehl in the past 2 months. Sue Dansby of Denton, Texas, is visiting with us now, and her expertise is child growth and nursery school. She is working with Kehl, with Milly and Jackton and with our kids in what we can do to help Kehl develop. We are so pleased that God blesses us with the people we need at the right time. Sue is also working with our single moms to teach them both child care and child development.

SINGLE MOMS PROJECT

Good News! Our single moms program now has the 10 that we wanted for our pilot project. We are excited that new girls with babies or who are ready to deliver entered our Eastleigh program last week. We would like to have sponsors for these girls, all of whom have been in hopeless situations until now. Someone for them to write to, someone who prays for them, someone who supports their growth at MITS -- this will help their confidence and desire to change their lives. Please write Charles Coulston at charles.coulston@made-in-the-streets.org if you wish to be a friend and sponsor to one of these girls with a baby.

There are six of them who need a sponsor. Here are pictures and information about two of them so you can see. If you write and ask for one of our girls with babies, we will immediately write you back and send a picture and additional info about how to be a sponsor.

Veronica Wambui grew up in a house with an alcoholic father who beat his children, including the third born Veronica, and then chased her from the house. One night when sh

e was chased she ended up in the house of a man who got her pregnant; she was 14 at the time. She came to Nairobi to be with her aunt, who chased her away when she found out she was pregnant. Later her mother came and found her, but the mother has been diagnosed HIV positive and no longer cares for Veronica. Veronica gave birth a few days after entering our program. At first the baby was called "Yvonne" but now she is Hollye Wanjiru (the Conways are dearly loved by the girls in the Eastleigh program). This picture was taken on her first visit to Kamulu; the girls come out every other weekend to be with our family at Kamulu. Her date of birth is September 2, 1993.

Cecilia Mwenza grew up in Mwingi, a small city East of Nairobi. A sister and brother have died, so she has one brother. She completed the 8th grade and took the KCPE exams. She got pregnant with a boy in her school class, but he had no way to care for her, and would not. She came to Nairobi to live with her mother, who is a barmaid in Huruma (next to Mathare Valley). Her mother came home drunk always, would abuse her and would give her no food, so she was left on her own with the baby. Her little boy is named Eric Mwedaka (birthday April 5, 2009). Cecilia's birthdate is June 3, 1994. She says she wants to be a dressmaker.

These are just two of the girls who need your help, encouragement and love. Sign up today!

Life at Kamulu with Street Kids

This report was recently written by Moses Okoth, who instructs skills students in computers and maintains our network and internet access.

"We are well, and the students are doing great, always with a lot of enthusiasm to learn something new in class and also out of class. The 4.30 classes are going on great. We have started a new unit 102 in the Business, Bible and Computer offerings. Irene alternates with Francis in the Bible course, and Joel still co-ordinates with Victor in the Business course. My classes in Computers are still a great challenge to both me and the kids. I still need some pointers on the curriculum for accounting on the business side. (note: anyone want to write some “computer business accounting for teens”? Just 20 forty-five minute lessons)

The electricity rationing is not all that bad. I have stuff to do with the skills students on these days...Monday. Wednesday and Friday. Mostly we go through the theory part, or just chat about successful people in the computer industry and make wishful stories of upcoming days. I have to say this group that are in computer skills training were really meant to be here. Imagine thay even want to know how animations are done, like in the movies Transformers and Ice Age. This makes me have to do more research and have something to tell them when they ask such questions. But all in all I am always enjoying it. As long as it’s computer related, that is me...

We used Coulston's little generator some during VBS, when there was no electricity. I must say that is one economical generator. We put in petrol on a Monday and it served us the whole week. If I could get something like that for the computers it really would be nice. So should I go ahead and enquire how much a generator costs? (note: anyone want to help with this, to serve the computer kids?)

We had a break-in at the café, losing plates and cups and utensils and sufurias (big cooking pots). It really make me feel like getting hold of the guys ad plucking their toe nails one at a time to represent the pain in all our hearts here at MITS. But better to suffer loss than to harm another.

I had a chance to visit Joseph Mburu at his place of work yesterday. I was in town with Hollye trying to network and get placements for our kids at different areas. Mburu is doing great; he now has a passion of going for further computer studies and wants to be doing that from next month. Joel and Francis will organise and maybe we can come up with something? What do you think about this? Now that he is earning, he can also take some responsibility in paying for things like his transport as he works and goes to school. Joel says he can start finding an apartment next year as funds are available. (note: does anyone want to help Joseph into further studies in computers? His job doesn’t provide enough to cover his expenses at this point, so his sponsor continues to care for his housing and food and transport needs, but he will need about $30 a month to go to school).

We have a volunteer called Victorine. She will be with us on the weekdays till Friday, then attends college in social work on Saturdays. After her classes she will head back here for the weekend with the girls. (note: since Moses wrote this, Victorine has become a regular with MITS at Kamulu, while continuing school in social work. She is with the girls and is teaching a literacy class on days she is available. Would anyone like to cover her salary while she is on probation with us, and afterwards assuming she stays? Cost is $100 a month)

Three of the single mothers are here at Kamulu now. We have tested them and put them in classes, after which they will do skills training. In the meantime Irene Mbithe and Victorine have been looking after the babies when they are not teaching. Jane Njeri, supervisor at Eastleigh, tells me she got another single mother.

Our boys’ dorm has been painted, for which we are grateful; now it looks nice. The gate has been expanded so the bus can pass through easily. We are planting more trees at the boys. We want it to look nice and be cool."

MITS Library and News

The following report is from Francis Mbuvi, giving an insight into one day at the Kamulu Campus of Made in the Streets. A few notes are included as explanation.

"Today we had a slow day because it was declared a public holiday.

We had Chapel at 10 AM and it was heavenly singing. Ken Owino shared with us and said we should take care of things as if they were ours. We had one hour in Library -- here are two pics of Jackline, Margaret and

Mwanahawa reading during that time.

(note: The Library is a special part of MITS. Each year when visitors come to work with us, we always ask them to bring some more books that are good for teenagers - to help them grow spiritually, to help them with English, to deepen their skills studies, and so on. We have almost 3,000 books now that the Coulstons have returned with a suitcase full.)

We also had our classes early. I talked with Akinyi and she said that the 4:30 classes were very nice. She said the students enjoyed them and that they learned much. She too said she learned a lot from the things she taught.

(note: Irene Akinyi is teaching the current Bible offering of the 4:30 Classes, which is Personal Counseling. We are teaching the kids how to recognize emotional and spiritual problems and how to develop themselves, with God's help, into secure and stable people. The 4:30 Classes are designed to help the students prepare themselves for life outside of MITS, in a job, in their own housing, in a new church)

We had some time in the afternoon to work in the farm. There was power

today so we had water."

(note: There is severe power rationing in Kenya because of the serious long-term drought the country has been facing. Many rivers can no longer support hydro-electric plants. When we have electricity, we have water, since we have a well that is 300 feet deep and has plenty of water for our purposes. We are grateful to friends in the USA who provided funds and expertise for our water supply.