June 10, 2010

Highlighting our IAA volunteers in Kenya and America

Donna Campbell


Our #1 volunteer in Kenya is Donna Campbell. She has been with us for 6 years now. We are so blessed by her heart to serve our Lord at IAA.

Donna has recently adjusted her ministry from caring for the two youngest babies to: -working with all the children in planning
-implementing new teaching and organization of activities
-communication and financial bookkeeping reports to the US
-helping with other various chores and day to day activities

Please always remember to pray for Donna. We love her so much and want to keep her as long as she will stay.

Jamie and Seth Rainwater


What a blessing to have this talented couple come to IAA after being given a donation and praying about where God would send them to use their talents and gifts in photography and video.

We have beautiful new pictures of all the children as well as a DVD for the ministry in the making. (something we have prayed for and wanted a very long time.) Thank you Lord for sending not only a talented couple, but a couple that has a heart for you, your children and Kenya.

Steve and Rene' Tyo


After reading an article about IAA in the alumni magazine of the University I attended, Rene felt lead to contact me. We communicated several months and then I met up with them in WV on my way to visit other friends.

They traveled to IAA for a month in January. When they got back I received a list of things Steve had done at the site in the way of repairs and installations. Oh my, what a blessing! There were way too many to mention.

Rene was also a huge blessing with teaching in the church, teaching and spending time with the older girls, as well as spending lots of time tutoring the children in their school work. We are all praying they get back and stay longer really soon.

Jen Joshua


Jen went to IAA to volunteer in Feb. and was to stay until April, but after being there a month she has decided she wants to stay until August.

This is good news for the teams and visitors because they have a good cook and will not have to eat UGALI. She is truly a blessing to us who don't care for the Kenyan food as much.

I usually lose weight when I'm there, but Jen made the food too good for that this time. Jen is also spending time teaching some of the older girls how to cook. She and Hope (our youngest) have become inseparable.

Ashley


Ashley volunteered at IAA for 6 months and has just returned to the US.

She was a blessing to the children, especially the toddlers that she spent so much time with in Nursery School and helping with them day to day.

OUR VOLUNTEERS IN AMERICA:


Jodi Goodell


My friend since Junior High School.

Jodie picks up all your donations at our PO Box, makes the deposits, records them and sends the report to Beth, Gina and myself.

She also takes care of getting our wires to Kenya every month. Since I don't live in Texas this is a huge blessing for the ministry.

Jodi and her family will be traveling to IAA this summer.

Beth Calvert


Beth designs, writes and mails all your receipts to you every month.

Beth is also my counselor, advisor and confidant. She comes up with a lot of great ideas for me to TRY to implement.

She is a Christian counselor by profession, so I call her for advice often. Beth traveled to IAA a few years ago.

Gina Booth


Gina takes all of Jodi's reports, my reports, all the receipts and financial things, records them in the books and keeps up with all our financial matters.

This is a huge blessing and a LOT of hard work.

Mary Norton


Mary takes all of Gina's information from the accounting and prepares our IRS report annually.

This is a huge and stressful job that we are most grateful to have a competent and trustworthy person to handle.

Pat Reagan


Pat is our travel agent and also serves on our Advisory Board of Directors.

She works hard with all our airline ticketing and travel to find us the best deals for all our visitors going to Kenya.

Pat and I have been friends for many years now. She is a huge blessing and has traveled to IAA herself.

Gordon Clark


Gordon visited IAA several times and was there to help with the final stages of the new dorm; installed an irrigation system; helped with the septic system; and is presently helping in coordinating other building projects and plans for the site.

He is also helping to coordinate mission teams going to Kenya.

What about YOU?


Do you feel called to volunteer your talent in America or in Kenya? We're always looking for additional help, feel free to email intoabbasarms(at)aol.com. We would be honored to have you!

Our visit to the Internally Displaced People camp

Recently, we visited the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp just down the road approximately 30 miles from us. These people were displaced due to tribal clashes in 1992 - 1999. The government then provided them an area in the forest to live. These makeshift huts of sticks are now their permanent homes.

The government has allowed them to "prune" the branches from the forest to sell the wood to the local villages as their only means of income. They are also given a small ration of food from the government, but not allowed to grow their own gardens in the forest.

On our first visit with volunteers Ashley, Jamie, Seth, Jen and I, we pooled our money and purchased a large amount of food and supplies to give to the camp. Gad, the leader at the camp, informed us that he couldn't give out the food as it wouldn't be enough for everyone. Therefore he would have to store it until more food came so that everyone would be blessed.

I thought that was very wise of him as he wanted all his people to be blessed and not just certain ones. Praise God we heard later that another group came by and left food that made enough for everyone.

We are excited that our teams visiting IAA this summer will be ministering and providing for these people with a medical clinic, an eye clinic and prayerfully a lot of shoes for the children.

Thank you for reading and continuing to support our mission and others in our area, please check out the pictures of the IDP below.






Ongoing work & future plans

Our ongoing work


The Nursery School is a huge success with 35 children attending regularly.

The garden is growing and expanding as well as our livestock.

The chickens are now bringing income as we are selling eggs regularly. Christine is anxious to add an additional 100 chickens.

Our future plans


Going forward, we plan on building a new kitchen/dinning hall as well as purchase 5 acres of land across the street and expand our agriculture--animals and garden.

We thank you for your prayers and ask you to consider helping us to achieve our goals by clicking "About Us" or "Donate" to the right. Thank you!

June 2, 2010

Into Abba's Arms featured in The Observer

Reporter Kevin Koloian of the Spring Observer has written an in depth piece about Into Abba's Arms which successfully describes our mission and a bit more about our history.

We invite you to click here to read the article in its entirety and invite you to share it with friends.

Our mission may feel far away for those of you in the States, but to us, it is mission critical for the children we serve every day with God's help. Thank you for continuing to read this blog to learn about our lives in Kenya and helping us financially- your support means the world to us and to the children!