Kenya Short Term Mission Trip Summary March –
April 2009
Matthew 13:3-9
3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed.
4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places,
where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants
were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.
8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has
ears, let him hear." NIV
This summary is about our seeds falling
on good soil. This trip produced some very important long lasting programs. It was great
to see the hand of the LORD working with BB&S again.
This trip was a total of 24 days
in total. I spent 2 days and 3 nights in Nairobi and the rest of the time was spent just outside of Mombasa.
In Nairobi I had the opportunity to speak to a member of the president’s cabinet.
She was not helpful but she did allow me to come and see her. I also had the chance to meet with
people from Population Services International – Kenya (PSI). They were very helpful.
They deal with health issues in all of Kenya. We talked about Safe Water, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and
community health issues. After our talk they promised to meet with our group in Mombasa. They
have a staff that does the work on the coast. They want to help.
We
went to Dr. Stephen Muhudhia’s office. He is located in the doctor’s offices at Nairobi General
hospital. He is willing to do what he can to continue the help BB&S.
I also met with Pastor Bwala and Pastor Gitan.
This made up our Nairobi team.
I stayed at the guesthouse of St. Mary’s Hospital.
I went
to Mombasa and stayed at the Kahama hotel. The room was about $40.00 per night. The
room was very nice but on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday they play very loud music in the bar restaurant until 1:00
am. This made it very hard to sleep after some very long days.
Most of the travel was done by Matatu. Most
of the time I was alone on the Matatu rides.
I met with the leaders if Glorious Victory Academy (GVA). The most important
thing we talked about was that GVA must improve their academic standings with the Kenya Certified Primary Education (KCPE)
system. As of the end of 2008 GVA ranked 21 out to a total of 48 schools in the system. There
were a lot of public schools that ranked higher than GVA. This should not be the case because of the requirements
to attend a private school. After some very long and hard talks the management of the school agreed that
there would have to be some very hard and necessary changes. They agreed and told me that they will start
immediately to make these changes. BB&S received $30.00 payment for our part in the well project.
We talked the parents of the children
sponsored by Bibles Book and Shovels, Inc. I told them with the exception of three parents BB&S was
very disappointed in the performance of the parents with school participation. Each visit they promise
to be involved with school activities and they have not keep their promises. I told them that this was
not going to continue business as usual. I was very stern and did not listen to any excuses.
I told them to go home because I did not want to talk to them anymore. They were all very surprised
and just stayed in their chairs. They didn’t leave so I left the room and did not talk to them anymore.
Through Rose they said the got the message and if given one more chance they would uphold their promises.
There is only one way these children can be supported by BB&S and that the parents must keep their promises.
Before I left I saw some definite improvements. We will be getting reports to see if this continues.
If it does not changes will have to be made in order to keep the integrity of our program. We did
meet with a few of the parents of the sponsored children in their homes. We also made a few minor repairs
to a member’s house. She was so happy it was hard for her to contain herself. It
was glad that I could witness such joy.
We had a meeting with all of the school parents. Again they want us to expand our support
program. We had some conversation on what they would do to help facilitate the needed changes at GVA.
This was also a hard discussion but I feel progress was made. I told them that we were planning
to expand the medical clinics at GVA and needed their help. Most agreed to help and was very glad for what
we had done and what we were doing.
We talked to people from the office of government health
in Vipingo, a little town North of GVA. This turned out to be most productive. They
were very willing to take charge of our medical clinics at GVA. The will provide all of the needed staff,
drugs, and follow-up in order to keep as many people in our area healthy. This will all be done at no cost
to anyone. We have scheduled this clinic up to be done on a monthly basis at GVA. Out
first clinic is scheduled for Tuesday April 7, 2009. Because of the rush to get our first clinic BB&S will have to supply some drugs that will be needed for this first clinic that the Vipingo
clinic did not have.
We met with the people from Nairobi and Mombasa PSI. This was
also a very productive time. The PSI people, Ezra, Rose, and myself went to a school in Kilifi to see a
demonstration of a group of seventh graders that have a club called, “Chill Club.” These are
children that have agreed to abstain from sex until marriage and after marriage have one partner. This
group was lead by two great volunteers from PSI and this was a great experience.
The only cost to have this at GVA would be the cost to transport the group leaders from their home base t GVA.
Ezra was very impressed and wants to start this program next school term. We also traveled a long
way to see PSI put on a water demonstration and use of bed betting. This again was very impressive to see.
PSI has made plans to come to GVA on Tuesday at clinic time when a lot of people will be waiting to get to see the
doctors. They will put on this demonstration for the people at GVA. This should prove
to be very helpful.
We went to Dr. Chula’s village with some food for very hungry people. This
village is small and the extended drought had had a very bad toll on these people. One woman we met had
not eaten a good meal in four days. She was trying to breastfeed a child but had nothing in her breast.
This was very sad.
We
purchased and sat up a rental agreement for students in the 8th grade that needed required textbooks.
This program will help with the academic standards of GVA. If this program works it could be used
for any class that needed help with textbooks.
On Tuesday April 8,2009 we held the first Glorious Victory Academy Outreach clinic.
We served 88 clients and filled 88 prescriptions. There were 15 HIV screenings with 2 coming up
positive. The Vipingo clinic did the counseling and will continue the follow-up. PSI
did come to demonstrate the safe water and mosquito nets.
We all thanked the LORD
for His working through our group and we prayed that we will continue to do His will.
Mike Minor
President / CEO
Bibles Books and Shovel, Inc.
April 11, 2009
