July 2008
We have much to be thankful for as we’ve seen God bless, opening doors for us. To start with…we have our first children! This marks a major milestone for us and we thank you so much for your prayers and support. The Leister family has become “foster parents” to four babies ages eight weeks to 1+ year old. This allows the Leister’s to provide care to children prior to our becoming a recognized Children’s Home in Eldoret. It is an exciting first step for us and it also allows us to build a relationship with the officials in the area who are in charge of child services. Building trust and support with the local officials as we begin the Children’s Home is certainly a blessing. A picture of each of the four children is included in this newsletter and we’d ask for your prayers for these babies. If you have interest in monthly child sponsorship, there is a form included.
As we reported in our last newsletter, because of the recent violence in Kenya after the elections, we are planning to purchase a home in a “safe area” right in Eldoret, rather than building on the land that is approximately 12 miles outside the city. The Leister’s searched for an appropriate home and we are currently in the process of buying a house which is in much better condition than some of the others that the Leister’s have looked at. Shari Seagren just returned from a visit to Kenya a few weeks ago, and she had the opportunity to see this house as well as spend time with these four wonderful children. The house we are in the process of purchasing sits on about one acre of land and we’ll build additional housing, as soon as we have the resources, for the initial 20 children. One of the exciting things about this house is that it is a Christian family who is selling the house and we heard they had an offer significantly higher than our offer, but they accepted our offer instead, as they felt God leading them to sell the house to us to establish the Children’s Home!
This house and land will cost approximately $164,000 including fees, taxes, etc. and we have been blessed with generous donations that have brought our current total resources to about $135,000 – PRAISE GOD! So we’ve seen God provide in great ways since our last newsletter. I had written that we were asking for prayer for $25,000 to be raised in the next two months. God has since provided much more than that…in about three months, we’ve seen the Lord provide over $60,000!
We are so blessed to have Horace and Phyllis Leister there in Eldoret coordinating our efforts and caring for the children. Horace’s building background will also be a wonderful asset as we move into building plans.
There also has been progress on the land in Jua Kali. The perimeter of the property now has been fenced and we are planting fruit trees as well as Bluegum trees which will be a wonderful long term asset as a “cash crop”. Lumber is scarce in Kenya and the missionary advising us has indicated that these trees will provide a great income generator in the years to come.
Thank you so much for your ongoing prayers and support of Children With Hope. We’ll keep you posted as we see God continue to work. The best is yet to come!
For Children With Hope,
Thom Seagren
Children With Hope
627 24 ½ Road, Suite D
Grand Junction, CO 81505
970-256-1610
childrenwithhope.org
