Danger Areas

Many of our friends will have seen the news that a fuel pipeline explosion occurred in Nairobi. The pipeline is gasoline, and the line burst with the fuel running downward into local streams. Many people were attempting to fill containers with fuel when the explosion occurred. Also people had built small houses on the pipeline land over the fuel line. So there was chaos and people severely burned, and many lost their lives.

We have two girls living with us at Kamulu who came from that area. They both have relatives at the local "base" where street kids gather at night. We do not yet have information on whether any of the relatives were hurt.

This area is along one of the roads on the East side of Nairobi that runs north to south to the airport. We do not go that way to the airport, since the Eastern Bypass was opened on the other side of the airport. It is possible to get around Nairobi without having to go through that area. We are very sad for all the people who have been hurt or suffered loss. It is another of the consequences of living in a city and especially of living with poverty. May our God be comfort to all, and may the work of the church bring about a better world, and a world where people take care of one another.

Jump for Joy

Made in the Streets has assets! And our most precious asset is the Kenyans who serve street kids with their love, their time, their strengths.

This picture was taken the day Tony Mauldin, an old and dear friend, visited us with a group from Southern Hills Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas. They did a great job of teaching our Team about business, about youth ministry and about writing, as well as having some inspirational singing time with all of the MITS family.

Here Joel Njue, who has served in street ministry since 1999, jumps for joy. Joel provide inspirational and steady leadership. He loves to learn, and he is in a business studies program at United States International University, and he passes on what he learns to our students. He is very happy when one of our students achieves an internship or a job, when they find housing and have any success, as he is joyful over his own achievements. He helps all of MITS keep our lives in context, by reminding us often of where we have come from, of our history, of the things we have learned, and of what our objectives are. He has a strong desire for young people to grow up in good things, to be restored to Christ, to confidence, to a good direction for their lives. And he treats all the students with equal kindness - he wants to include all of them in MITS' plans for a good future.

We are proud of the strengths Joel has to offer street ministry, the Team and the students. We think he is in exactly the right place to effect God's wonderful plan for our ministry.

We are grateful for the support of friends of street kids who enable our Team to continue their work. By way of reminder, you can buy the book of street kid stories from the web site www.made-in-the-streets.org . And when God has enabled you to jump for joy and you want to support this work of Christ, look at the web site for details. Be joyful!

Student News and Challenge Grant

Student News

Brenda Adhiambo is interning at New Life, a place that cares for babies born HIV positive. She loves little ones, so this fits her.

Edward Muhea moved with other older boys into a new dorm at the skills center. In his room by his bed we found together a book he was reading, a Bible and a picture of his sponsors, the Necessary family.

Jacky Imam Ibab is a new student from the Turkana region, near Somalia, center of an extreme drought including Ethiopia and Kenya. 12 million people are affected. It’s in the Kenyan news every night - Jackie was watching last week and saw her relatives on TV. Somehow MITS will help, including taking Jackie up there - about an 11 hour drive. She was herding goats and had never been to school when she ran away, came to Nairobi, and ended up in MITS. As she goes back, she will take the Good News of Jesus to her family. If you want to help in this, send funds to Made in the Streets, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027 and email me at charles.coulston@made-in-the-streets.org

Visitors

We are grateful for people who come and help us. Thanks to Iris Welch and her group (Molly, Shelly, Sarah, Jan), who were over the top. Favorite activities were Molly’s science experiments (blowing up things!) and the Living Museum of Bible characters. They also set up some peer counseling activities, tutored students and spent lots of time with the girls in the dorms. If you want to put together a group and visit us in Nairobi in 2012, let me know at the email above.

Challenge Grant

The Kamulu Church (150 people) has been meeting outside 9 years. A friend has given MITS a challenge grant of $30,000. In faith we have begun a chapel (an octagon) plus toilets and a kitchen. Matching funds will provide classrooms and finish the chapel. The church has been saving for years and will buy plastic chairs, Bibles and songbooks. MITS will have daily chapel there, and the church will use the chapel on Sundays. It’s a great time for you to help MITS -- double your money! Please email us if you can and send your funds to Made in the Streets, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027. Include a note saying the gift is for “the challenge grant.”

CHALLENGE GRANT

Made in the Streets has been blessed with a challenge grant of $30,000. We need another $30,000 to fulfill the challenge. When we receive from friends the funds, we will also finish the funds needed for our building projects at Kamulu. We will then have full facilities for housing our optimum number of 100 teenagers from the streets of Nairobi. We are grateful for the great support MITS has been given. The Team at Eastleigh serve faithfully, going to the streets every day to find the new kids who have left or lost their homes. The Team at Kamulu love and teach the young people who live with us - literacy education, job skills, life in the student housing - every day. And every day our friends around the world pray for the kids and the Team. And our friends give every month to make it all possible. Thank you! And thank you in advance for helping with the CHALLENGE GRANT. Whatever you desire to give, send it to

Made in the Streets

409 Franklin Road

Brentwood, TN 37027

Then please send an email to crc@swiftkenya.com so we will know what gifts have come. Be blessed. The picture is a recent one of a young man on an Eastleigh alleyway in Nairobi - just one of the many we want to rescue for a new life.

Bread for the Streets

Every other Friday the MITS Team from Kamulu goes to Eastleigh to work on the streets for the day. It is a great experience - the Team stays in touch with our key work, and kids on the streets know that MITS cares about them, and that there is a loving God who knows them.

Our catering school does practical cooking each week, and the day before the Friday visit, they bake bread. The rolls smell wonderful, and they are large and tasty.

Here is Florence Moraa, one of our older students, with the bread for this week. How exciting, to bring such pleasure to the kids on the streets. It's a way for our kids to "pay back." And it creates good will.

May you find your own way to create good will for Jesus today.

BASE REPORT by Mbuvi

The MITS team went out to several bases (a base is a place where street kids gather at night and sleep) telling of God's great love for street youth and his desire that they will one day stay away from sin and follow him.

We know this is a daily struggle, and they are under attack from Satan, but a struggle we will not and should not give up on.

Evans Ouma has become a darling for many and has good stories to encourage them. We are blessed to have such a team visiting bases with Jesus' love everyday. Please keep praying for strength for all.
This was at "Deliverance Base."

GREAT GOOD NEWS

We are very happy at Made in the Streets. Charles Kimani, who is pictured here as he learns in the wood-working shop, recently flew to Malindi on the Kenyan Coast for surgery. The surgery clinic was organized by BandS Ministries, under the leadership of Dr. John Bailey. Dr. Jerry Smith performed the surgery on a mass under the shoulder that had been revealed in an X-ray after Charles began to suffer pain. Apparently the mass had been there since childhood, but has grown larger lately. The surgeon found the mass to be inoperable, as the mass was interconnected to the scapula, the blood vessels and the muscles. It was also obvious to the doctors that the mass was cancerous, so they took a sample to be analyzed in a lab in Nairobi, since good facilities were not available in Malindi. When Charles returned, we took the sample to the Shah Lab, where we have undergone tests before. Also John Wambu's daughter Mary flew to Malindi with Charles and had surgery, so we took a sample of her tissue in to the lab as well.

When we received the news from the doctors, and before Charles returned, we shared the news with the street kids and the MITS Team, and we all began to pray. We asked for God's help, since this was something the doctors could not do. And we asked for healing. The street kids pray simply and directly and are not afraid to ask God for anything.

Today we received the pathology report -- AND THERE IS NO CANCER - NOW! The diagnosis is angiolipoma with adipose tissue. You can look up lipoma and angiolipoma in Wikipedia - lipomas are generally painless, but angiolipoma are usually quite painful, because of the vascular structure and the interconnectedness.

So Charles will have to live with pain, unless God is willing to take that away too. The kids will be asking for that. But already we are very grateful. And Mary was also free of cancer and should have no residual problems other than not being able to bear children.

Thanks for praying, and for loving our kids. I have always told the kids that I believe God hears the prayers of street kids.