This week, the new Rescue Center, aka Technical School, officially opened in Ol’Gululuie.  The nine girls we rescued in the middle of the night from M’Takooja are the first students. They also brought four more girls with them.  We recognize that the need for a safe place for these girls is so great.  If we had room for one hundred, there would be two hundred with even greater needs.   It has been a busy time for the ministry in both Kenya and Tanzania.  

We face the same government regulations as in M’Takooja.  We built the new dorm very large, thinking we would temporarily use half of it for a workroom for the girls, but the government said no. 

For now, we are ignoring them and have put up a temporary wall anyway, so we could open right away.  Even before we left for Africa last year, we were feeling an urgency to get this project done.  

Currently, we have a temporary kitchen with some staff housing, and the toilet/shower block is nearly finished.  Funding has miraculously continued to come in, so we can keep building.  Even the temporary buildings we have are far better than anything these girls have ever known. 

We currently have six bunk beds, sewing machines, tables, and chairs.  There is a long list of requirements the government demands to run these schools.  Cutting tables, a tiny dressing room, storage cabinets, adjustable dress forms, and on and on.  We still haven’t met all the needs in M’Takooja yet.  Oh, and a computer lab, they think we have one, but it consisted of one computer for the three hundred primary kids, the Bible School, and the Technical School.

With the opening of this new program in Kenya comes a monthly budget for staff, certified teachers, curriculum, food/firewood, and all the needs of the girls.  We have seen supernatural finances to accomplish all of this in the last eight months. 

We have also been able to purchase a commercial printer.  We had been paying about $600 per term for five terms of printing for the Bible Schools and the Primary School.  This printer will soon pay for itself. It is centrally located in our office in Namong, so it easily meets the needs of all our schools.

Another step forward for us was sending Esther to Tailoring School in Nairobi.  Years ago, she received some training, but her records were destroyed in a fire.  Now she is in a two-year program and will be certified upon graduation.  She felt left out because the rest of us had degrees, but she had none.  Her tuition is $250 a month if any of you are interested in supporting her. 

The six satellite schools are all so excited and on fire for the Lord.  More about them later.

This week, we received great news: Gerad and Claire have a new baby girl, Esther.  How we wish we were there to celebrate her birth with them. 

M’Takooja is notorious for its relentless winds.  This week, the solar panels on the Multi-Purpose build were rippend of the roof. There is always something to fix when you own property.

For an update on Kathy, at seven weeks into her knee replacement surgery, her body said, “Enough .”  She had to research medication she didn’t think she should have taken, but her doctor said to, she found it was causing all the swelling, nerve pain, and more that was hindering her healing.  She was still sleeping upside down in the loveseat with her toes higher than her nose and the ice pump. She should have been back to normal at six weeks, and now she is trying to play catch-up.  Office work has been on hold for her, but she is back to it now.  Thank you for your patience. 

We are so excited to be a part of what God is doing in East Africa!!! 

Harry & Kathy