Hairdressing Skills

Titus Musyoki is being shown how to style hair. He is the only boy
who has taken our hairdressing course and is doing very well. Both Terry and
Phyllis are doing a good job in teaching and supervision.

Together Terry and Phyllis both operate the MITS Salon and teach hairdressing in our skills training center. The students are able to receive training, then work in our shop to gain experience.

Susan Wambui, who finished her hairdressing training a few months ago, has been volunteering at the Eastleigh Center while she waits for her national identity card. We found her there cutting hair for a street girl on Monday. Some local people at Kamulu have been asking about Susan coming back to Kamulu because they are her clients. She is the best at braiding that we have known. Hopefully Titus will also make us happy with the skills he learns.

Happy April Birthday

Often Made in the Streets celebrates a birthday with a teenager for the first time in his or her life. Each month at Kamulu we honor those with birthdays. Here is Francis Mbuvi's report on last Friday's party.

"While part of the team went to Eastleigh, the rest of us spent time in the library, played some games and watched a movie. We later had a birthday celebration for Mwanahawa, Mary Muthoni, baby Eric and Mercy Mugure. Wonderful things were said about how hard they work and how they are loved."

Rejoice with these young people as they learn to celebrate and have fun at Made in the Streets.

The Streets & World Bible School

Yes, yes, I know - it's the same picture as last time, but there is a new reason for showing it.

Sorry it has been so long since the last update - the Coulstons have been "on tour" with Jackton Omondi and Irene Akinyi in California, Texas, Iowa and Tennessee. Now we are all back in Nairobi. We had a great visit with congregations and friends who love us, with Rotary clubs and with family. Funds were raised for ministry and for building to house girls, boys and girls with babies.

The reason for this picture now is to point out the cooperation and mutual blessing Made in the Streets has with World Bible School. Of course our administrator, Francis Mbuvi, is married to Maureen, who is coordinator of a large World Bible School effort sponsored by the Golf Course Road Church in Midland, Texas. And we have had many World Bible School teachers visit us and help MITS while at the same time contacting students. One teacher, Linda Randall, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Central Church, has a student named Evans Ouma, who was baptized at MITS about 3 years ago.

Evans has become a staff member of MITS; he works on the farm, drives for the ministry, and, like all of the staff, he goes to the streets and teaches. The young man on the upper left in the picture with the brown striped shirt is Evans, sitting at Redeemed Base talking with and teaching some of the older guys who sleep there.

We are grateful for the relationship MITS has with WBS; may it continue forever. It is good news to WBS teachers that about 1/2 of the churches of Christ in Kenya were started by WBS students. Evans also serves in the church, often leading prayer or the Lord's Supper.

Street Visits by Larry Conway

God has blessed Nairobi with lots of rain recently. We are so thankful after suffering with such a terrible drought for so long. Last night's rain was 2 inches! While the rain is very wonderful it does create challenges for those who live on the streets. The nights are cold and wet and some don’t have any decent shelter so they stay awake most of the night moving from place to place trying to stay warm and dry. They may stay for a while under an awning or under a parked 18-wheeler. This means that when we are visiting them during the mornings they are very tired. They do appreciate our visits and we do our best to encourage them and share the word of God with them. Today we preached about the resurrection and reminded them that Jesus is alive and risen.

We didn’t find many street kids at the Mlango Kubwa base today. Usually the place is full of kids hanging out. Today, there were only a few. The police had been there this morning arresting street kids so many others were hiding from the police. Also, there was a rumor floating around that a notorious glue seller has recently been arrested. We hope so, because she is a real troublemaker but claims to be helping street kids.

Peter Ngotho used to live on the streets but rededicated his life to the Lord about 2 months ago. He has volunteered to walk the streets with us recently. He knows lots of people and has a great testimony since many people know about his former life. Apparently, he lived quite a dangerous life as a gangster. He has visited the bases with us yesterday and today and will also attend the fellowship this afternoon.

This afternoon we will start a mid week service /fellowship. Our goal is to give the new Christians and others from Eastleigh a place to come and worship during the mid –week.

Thanks to all of you who help the ministry to succeed. God bless, Larry

Live for Christ on the Streets

We believe that God changes lives of people. We rejoice and are glad when street youth or some of our students give their lives to Christ. I think one of the hard things to do for street youth is to accept Christ while still on the streets because of the myriads of temptations they face, especially glue. It is even harder for street girls who are always easy prey for guys.

It was yesterday when I went to Eastleigh and was able to visit the 12th Street base. While there I learned that the boys have had night fights and some of them got badly injured. I gave them some advice on how to avoid more fights by asking them to report to Police and telling them how.

When I got back to the Center, Larry and the other team members asked me to baptize one of the street girls who had come for the Wednesday program. As i talked to her, I could smell the breath of glue from her, but she was ready to start a new life. During our prayer, I asked God to help her to remain faithful as she tries to live a good life in a bad area. Margaret Wanjiru is now a changed person in heart. The challenges on the streets remain and we hope she commits to live for Christ - no matter what. Please pray for power for her to continue in faith and a faithful life.

from Francis Mbuvi

BUY "WAVE OF GRACE" - Benefit MITS

Dear Friends,

Greetings from MITS! We have a unique opportunity this month to accomplish two good things at once -- share the beautiful richness of a cappella hymns and raise some much-needed funds for the MITS ministry.

How? Friends of MITS have offered to donate all of the proceeds from the sales of the Wave of Grace Collection. The Wave of Grace Collection is a boxed set of three CDs that contains 50 of the best-loved a cappella hymns. Whether you listen to bring back memories or to pass these hymns on to the next generation, the Wave of Grace Collection has captured the timeless harmonies of pure congregational singing.

For a penny less than $40 -- all of which goes to MITS -- you can own or gift fifty hymns while helping our ministry continue its work. Our goal is to raise at least $2000 during the month of March.

Join more than 1000 of your brothers and sisters who have supported missions and enjoyed listening to the Wave of Grace Collection. If you would like to listen to samples, visit www.ACappellaHymns.com and then click to buy at Amazon.com. Your order will be shipped promptly — and shipping is free!

To buy now at Amazon.com, click here:

www.TrueLift.com

To listen to samples before buying, click here:

www.ACappellaHymns.com

Thank you for your continued prayers, encouragement, and support for MITS. We are grateful for each of you.

Sincerely,

Charles and Darlene Coulston

Preparing for Legacy Fundraiser

Jackton and Irene and the Coulstons had lunch today with the ministry team at Legacy Church - the preacher, the youth ministers and the secretaries, along with a senior retired minister. Matt Steidl, who visited Kenya with Dr. John Bailey three years ago, was also present. Lunch was fish and beef tacos, beans, rice and crisps (that's Kenyan English for chips).

Afterwards Mark Hooper, who works with Mission Resource Network, went over the fundraising schedule for Saturday with us. All plans are ready -- Jackton and Irene will do their street kid impressions, we will sell craft items made by the students at MITS, and the church will raise funds for MITS through a silent auction and generous donations.