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.

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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!

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!

Let's talk about the children!

Baby Joy

Joy is one of our new babies that arrived in late 2009. Her name fits her personality perfectly. We have never experienced a child that was so content, happy and peaceful in any circumstance.

Joy always smiles and goes on with her life as though nothing will harm her and no one will leave or dissapoint her.

This is like the "inexpressible joy" that we should have "as a natural by product of our faith in Jesus Christ.

Ruthie

Thanks to the many prayers and medical financial support, Ruthie is again healthy and happy.

She was full of your usual beautiful smile that rarely leaves her face.

We are lucky that she is doing so well!

Caren

We are so proud of this young lady. Recently, Caren received the results of her national exams. These are taken by students to determine what high school they can attend. She received the highest score in her school, which qualified her for going to the most prestigious schools in Kenya.

Praise God, she was invited to the best girls school in the whole nation. We are so proud of her and excited to see how God is going to use her in her future! It is a very expensive school to attend, but we are believing that the Lord will provide for this young lady as well as Nelson to proceed with these exceptional schools.

Eunice

Kijabe Girl's School has invited her to attend their excellent school that is nearby. Some of you will recognize the name if you have been to Kenya.

This is the village where we take our children to Kijabe Hospital and also the place we stayed during the riots of 2007.

We love our children very much and are blessed by their presence!

We'd like to recognize our IAA volunteers

Jenn Joshua

Our new volunteer who arrived this past week and will serve at IAA for the next two months.

Jenn is from Virginia and has a gift of writing, so I hope to have some news from her soon.

Ashley Boughner

This is Ashley's 5th month at IAA. She has been extremely busy teaching and spending her time with the toddlers. She will be missed when she leaves in April.

Bob Ratliff

A retired Baptist Pastor from West Virginia who volunteered his time at IAA for two weeks in February.

Steve and Rene Tyo

A couple from West Virginia that are spending 1 1/2 months volunteering at IAA. Steve has been a blessing in doing very much needed repair work as well as implementing new ideas for safety and energy saving at the site. Rene is a licensed ordained minister and is having a good time putting that to use with our church and spending quality time with the children counseling and teaching.

A special thank you to all of the volunteers who devote their time and love to IAA, we are extremely grateful for all of you!!

Livestock and garden growing and growing!

The garden is doing very well and we are sharing our abundance with another orphanage. Gordon is sending over more seeds to plant a variety of vegetables.

We are very excited to have recently welcomed a new baby lamb! Our chickens have grown and are now laying lots and lots of eggs.

We have approximately 94 chickens, 2 goats, 3 sheep and three cows.

Update on our new land purchase

Letter from the IAA founder:

During my last visit to Kenya the Lord provided an opportunity to purchase a piece of land across the road from IAA. This is not the land we first thought we would be purchasing, but as always the Lord guides our steps and guides us to His plan that turns out to be the better plan.

We are praying that this is where our vision of a medical clinic will some day be a reality. The lady we are dealing with has not completely committed, so please pray for the Lord to direct her heart.

This land would be better in that it is separate from the children and would provide more safety for public use. If you or someone you know in the medical field would like to be involved in this project please let us know.

We believe this is a God given vision and want to see it fulfilled. This will be a huge impact on the community and another opportunity to share the love of Christ to those in need.

Medical mission team traveled to IAA

The picture above is of people in the IAA community waiting to be seen by the doctors and health care workers.

Gordon Clark lead a team to Kenya a few weeks ago. We are praising God for what this team has brought to the community and the other village they served.

Here is Gordon's report:

• We had 5 doctors,6 team support staff, 8 Kenyan health care workers, IAA staff, and more.


• We saw over 1500 patients in 4 days- 2 days at the orphanage and 2 days in Koinange town.


• We distributed over $5000 worth of medicines and tested 700 people for blood sugar levels.

Above: Dr. Dale Meyer diagnosing a child in the community.



Front left to right: Gordon Clark, Paul (our driver), Elena Meyer
Middle: Dr. Esther Lu, Dr. Phil Pryjma
Back row: Dr. Don Lundgren, Dr. Dale Meyer, Dr. Joy Meyer, Dan Haessig, Eric Meyer, Pat Greco

Current needs of the orphanage - an easy way to help

Letter from Jane, IAA founder:

I've been directed to bring clothes and shoes to the children, but with little time to collect donations. Thank you to those that gave some things while I was briefly in Texas, but there are many things I need to still purchase to take.

I have a resale shop that has monthly specials and next week is children's clothes. I get them 1/2 of their ticketed price. So, for little money I can take good quality clothes and shoes to the children.

If you feel lead to give towards this, please send your checks to the address below. Please designate for children's clothes and I'll be sure and get them bought and packed to go in time.

Into Abba's Arms Foundation
PO Box 130846
Spring, TX 77393
832.928.1298

Thank you so much for your help, any amount helps! If you'd like to pay another way, please email us at intoabbasarms@gmail.com and we'll let you know about other options.

Why Angelina Can't Adopt Our Children

This is a sample post that will be removed when we begin writing content.

Angelina is wonderful and her work at the UN and in the adoption community across the globe is admirable, people often expect that an orphanage is filled with children that are up for adoption.

That is not the case at Into Abba's Arms where we nurture our children through their school years and help them become productive members of the local communities in Kenya. The theory is like a technology incubator that nurtures companies in a way that keeps talent local.

When children grow to be of age and spread their wings, they are educated and loved in ways that help them turn around and care for the local community... although they are all so precious we don't ever want to let any of them go!

The image above is of Josephat, read about him here.