Visitors at MITS

We said goodbye to visitors Matt and Nikki Wallace from the Denver area yesterday. Matt was with us in Nairobi 10 years ago with WorldWide Youth Camps (now YouthReach), and he brought a few pics with him this time. This one he took when here, and a couple of these young guys have been in our program.

Matt and Nikki work with Dry Bones Denver, which seeks out young people on the streets. They are now in Ethiopia working on the adoption of a baby boy named Kai.

Matt spoke one day to our Team for about 25 minutes and had an uplifting and encouraging message for them. He told them how being at MITS in 2000 changed his life. It was the inspiration for doing Dry Bones Denver. It led to their thinking of adopting an African baby. All through the years he has told Nikki about MITS, and she also wanted to come and see what meant so much to him.

So...thanks WWYC and its leaders, thanks to supporters of Matt and Nikki - he has returned the good that he received in his excellent message to our Team.

Talented Street Youth

Worship and Street Bases

This morning we drove in to Eastleigh to attend worship at the new church at our Center there. With us were Samuel Mburu, member at Kamulu and WBS student, who was on his way to Southwest Kenya with Larry Conway and Jerry Drennan (from Abilene) to officially open Sam's Place, an orphanage for deaf children sponsored by the church. Also our two former Aggies for Christ interns, Jessica and Laquita, and Phillip, our lead teacher at MITS who was to preach at Eastleigh. Traffic was already heavy with matatus and vans carrying people to church and to other Sunday activities. Dust on the roads and a really bumpy 2nd Avenue in Eastleigh.

As we came in, we were enthusiastically greeted by our guard Isaiah, and Larry Conway, whom we had not seen for two months. We were happily surprised to see not only quite a number of youth from the streets but also several families, including some refugees staying in Eastleigh. On the front row was Jane Njeri, one of our very first students at MITS in 1996, when we started at the Eastleigh Church, which is down the street from our current center. She lives in a small "village" of very poor people in Eastleigh.

Phillip had a great message. One of things he talked about was a visit he had made to a base a couple of weeks ago. The base was located not far from a police post, and recently the police had killed a few street youth at the base. There are women there with small children, and they are worried about their children, talking about how they could protect the kids and continue to care for them. Young women forced to sleep on the streets are as concerned about their kids as the rest of us.

And Phillip applied it to Jesus, as he prayed in John 17. He said that Jesus is like those women, that he cares for us, that he prays for us, that he will not leave us alone, that he will protect us and use even the troubles of our lives to bring blessing to us. And we can trust him and know him.

Now isn't that a good message for all of us today?

Mountain View Adventure

Last Saturday John Wambu, our property manager at Made in the Streets, and I drove up to the Mountain View properties. MITS has 40 acres there, which is now mostly scrub brush and small trees and lots of rock and sand. John says it has great potential as a source of sand and rock for construction in Nairobi. As we bought the plots over time, we have been dreaming of a place for a MITS Camp, where we can bring street kids and which church groups can use for youth retreats and camps. We have our own stone and sand for buildings, and it gives a wonderful view of the area.

We walked all the way around the 40 acres, over rocks and through thorn bushes. On the way we heard the distinctive sound of a hyena, which means he had seen us. The picture shows the hillside on the east side of our property, where hyenas gather at night and have a

den. We also found where someone had put in a fake boundary marker, trying to sell our land to some unsuspecting buyer, so we destroyed their marker.

We have a project now to build a stone fence all the way around the property. Today the government surveyor is putting in boundary markers where a few of the originals were removed. We have 8 men working on the property, breaking out stone and collecting sand for the building. They are also building a house for themselves, so they can live on the property while they work.

One of the most amazing discoveries about the property is that John found a waterhole, a spring, on the property, where everyone thinks there is no water except when there is rain. This picture shows the spring. We will eventually dig it out and enclose it in concrete, providing clean and safe water for those who will eventually use the property.

While there we met a man and his wife who were looking at properties there, planning to get a bank loan and buy 5 acres there. Someone was trying to sell him one of our 5 acre plots. Amazingly, they were asking him for 1.5 million shillings (a little less than $20,000 at current exchange rates). Considering we bought the plot for about $2,500, counting our registration and title fees, the land has grown tremendously in value. We are happy that we met him and could ward off that future problem. Now we need God's help and the protective stone fence around the properties to secure them for the future.

And we did not see the big python that lives under a tree above our property. But we did see Thompson gazelles and one giraffe.

Needed for Street Ministry

We have a few needs at Made in the Streets that are not covered in the budget. If your heart is stirred up to help even more in the ministry, then please feel free to send support for one or more of these items to Made in the Streets, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027. Or make your donation online - see the web site www.madeinthestreets.blogspot.com

Please email Charles Coulston at charles.coulston@made-in-the-streets.org after you make your donation and inform him of what you are funding and the amount. Also write if you wish more information.

1. Holiday Events in December -

$400 Family Day - we invite any relatives of our street kids to spend the day with us

$600 The New Narnia movie - we'd like to take all the kids and Team to this movie

$400 Soccer tournament for street kids/youth in the Mathare slum

$600 Staff Retreat -- recreation and growth time for our Team working with street kids

$500 Home visits -- Team members will take some of the students to visit relatives

$600 Christmas parties for street kids in Eastleigh

$550 Christmas parties for students and Team in boarding program

$600 Trip to the water park for students and Team

2. Construction

$3,500 Building a small house on one of the MITS properties for a Team member to live

Also serves the purpose of property security from invaders and thieves

And serves the purpose of a training program for our young men to learn masonry

If you wish to do this, we will "name" the home after anyone you wish.

3 houses have already been funded - we want to build 2 more.

$5,000 Constructing a security fence on the Mountain View property - 40 acres

$2,000 Constructing security fence around the Children's Center property (3 acres)

Also training for our young men learning masonry.

3. Intake

Our plan is to increase our capacity to provide a home for 100 street youth.

Cost of intake is approximately $100 per person.

We will need to intake up to 50 street kids in the next year.

Total cost $5,000

Medical Needs and Street Kids

The streets have many hazards for young people -- spiritual, social and physical. The street sub-culture encourages kids to steal and lie, to satisfy sexual appetites, to use drugs. And there are many ways to be hurt physically as well. Dennis Baraza was hurt in an accident, his hand broken in two places, and the bones displaced. And he never went to a clinic or doctor. So it "healed" badly. Dennis is too old to come and live at Made in the Streets, but not too old for us to care.

A friend in Colleyville, Texas, supplied the funding, and our supervisor at Eastleigh, Jane Njeri, found Dennis and took her to the hospital. Initial surgery has been done, and it will be completed soon.

There are even hazards out at Kamulu, just as there are hazards in any home anywhere. One of our babies of a street mom, Hollye, swallowed a substance on Saturday. The Team members who were there trust Charles and Darlene, so they called them. Because we did not know what she swallowed, we encouraged something to drink so it would dilute or maybe she would throw up if she needed to. After a bit, she did throw up, and soon was walking around and had lunch and something to drink. Now we are engaged in an effort to make sure that the moms and all the team will feel confident about what to do and whether to do something when something happens to the kids. We need detailed steps to take, without people having to "fill in the blanks" on what to do. So we are at work on that now. Pray for our kids, that they will be protected from hazards, and that street kids will be blessed in the midst of hazards.

Street Moms Update from Mauryn

Subject: Mothers' Monday Programme on the 27th Sept 2010

The attendance was 15 mothers, and the class started at around 10 am with Jane Abuti. They sang choruses and we arrived at 10:30 am and started with games. We played three games of police case, my mother and Kabuti. We found three winners who were very excited and happy.

Sharing came from the book of Luke, a story about Zachaeus who was a tax collector and made many people sad, and his behaviors were not pleasing to God. His behavior is like us, but Jesus told him "today I'll go with you to your house and salvation has come to your house." Jesus is ready to save us with our family and give us a new life like Zachaeus who paid back four times to people he had taken things from them and also gave half of his wealth to poor people. When Jesus comes to our lives we will be completely changed for the better. Encouragement that there's no sin that Jesus cannot forgive and cleanse. We also read from Psalm 113 that God lifts poor people and also Jeremiah 17:5 not to put our trust in people but in God.

Then we ended with a word of prayer and served a hot meal - their favorite, ugali and beans. And their children had a cup of milk.

God is good.