Christmas at IAA

Here is a special video with pictures from the Christmas play and Christmas day at IAA. Click on the link below to watch it:

Christmas at IAA Video

Christmas Day: Many of you read Donna's story about Christmas at IAA. Lots of food, fun, and gifts for each child. Here's a cute story shared by April, our intern missionary from the Missions Society:

"When I had gone out and was talking to the boys on Christmas, all of a sudden, Joseph asked me if I had gotten anything for Christmas. I told him that I had not, but had gotten the cards from the girls and gifts at home. Well, he got up and said he was going to get me a gift. I, of course, thought he was just being silly, but he came back and had the bag that his gift had come in, in his hand. He handed it to me and inside, was some candy and a necklace made of seashells. I asked him where he got it and he told me he had bought it on a school trip he had taken to the beach in Mombasa. I asked if he was sure he wanted to give it to me, and his reply was something along the lines of, "Why in the world would I have brought it to you if I didn't want to give it to you?" Then he said we were equal because we had both gotten gifts. It was such a sweet gesture... and from a 14 year old boy. What a special Christmas gift!"

Christmas Play: The IAA children presented the Christmas play before 500 families in the Internally Displaced Camp. After the play, Christine took the children to a small bamboo shack to meet Josephine, one of the residents. Josephine is a mother of six that has suffered deep emotional and physical pain. She lost some of her fingers and toes due to a disease and her body is scarred from severe burns. She is also unable to cook food and cannot get out of bed on her own, so she has to depend on others. Her two older children do not come to visit her and her husband abandoned her for another woman because he couldn't tolerate her sickness. Christine wrote,

"I cannot imagine that some people have so much problems and then still thank GOD. Our children were able to see the conditions at which some people live. They did not want to go to their choos (bathrooms). I told them not to take anything that the Lord has given them for granted. Caren was almost moved to tears when looking at this woman when she was asking God to bless our children, thanking God for their lives. You can imagine in her distressed situation, asking God to help others and forgetting her inner feeling that she needs help from God more than anybody else in this world. When I visited the camp we became friends."

Christmas Play Costumes: What a blessing it was for our children to present our play and bless many others. Our new costumes were a big hit and we want to thank our special donors who contributed towards them. The children presented the play during their praise and worship, in the IAA Children's church, and then at the IDP camp. We want to add to our costumes every year to make it an annual blessing event for others to hear the story of Jesus.

LeTourneau University Team: A group from this university was at IAA this Christmas. They were a blessing to both our children and staff. Here is a group picture of them:

Holiday Giving

This holiday season, consider giving a meaningful donation to IAA. Your gift will be an answered prayer, provide hope, and be a gift that keeps on giving.

Life-Changing Gifts:

Education: Getting a good education can mean the world to a child in Kenya. We want our children at IAA to get the best possible education. Your donation will help fund the cost for sending our children to private school. We believe sending our children to private school gives them the best opportunity to succeed because the public schools in Kenya are very overcrowded and understaffed. Education is taken very seriously in Kenya because the scores and grades children get prior to high school determines their future, including what schools they can attend. 

Price: $15,000 per year

Abba's Wall: Our goal is to construct a wall around the three acres of the IAA site. We pray it will be finished by the end of next year and prior to the new presidential elections in December 2011 so that we will have added security in case of another upheaval. We will build as we receive funds and trust the Lord for his provision in this project. Your donation will help fund the construction of part of the wall. Donors giving $200.00 or more will have the opportunity to select one of the names of God for their section of the wall. Donations between $5.00 to $200.00 will join in a section of the wall with the name "Adonai."

Price: $20,000

Temporary Kitchen

Marking the new kitchen layout

Kitchen & Dining Hall: We are blessed to have engineering students from Syracuse University working alongside our project director, Gordon Clark, and other architects, to plan and implement the building of a new kitchen and dining hall for our children. Since IAA first opened, we have been working out of a temporary kitchen and crowding all of our children into the boys dorm to eat. The students from Syracuse have raised the funds for this project and their goal is to start construction in January 2011. As partners with this team, we are requested to raise 10% of the costs. Your donation will help us raise this 10% cost.

Price: $20, 000

Greenhouse: We want to empower IAA to become self-sufficient. By adding a greenhouse to the site, we we will be able to grow our own tomatoes, peas, and various other vegetables. The company that will install the greenhouse will also buy back some of our vegetables. Selling vegetables will result in a profit for our monthly support. Your donation will help fund the construction of a greenhouse.

Price: $2, 500

Your gift will help meet needs and give joy. Thank you for helping make a difference in the lives of the children and staff at IAA. 

To get to our donation page, please click on the following link:

Donation Page

From all of the children at IAA, thank you for your continual support, and have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

November 2010 Update

Church:  It is so precious to see the toddlers participating in the Sunday services at IAA. They sing their praises and give testimony of God's work in their lives. Some testimonies given include: "Today I was able to get up and take tea." "I am saved and I love Jesus." Lydia and Newton have become great leaders with the toddlers by teaching and directing them in learning songs and dances for their praise and worship time. 

Nursery School: The nursery school is always busy and Joyce is such a blessing. She teaches the children their ABC's, numbers, scripture, and how to speak English.

Visiting Nelson: Christine and I took a 48 hour journey to Western Kenya to spend one night with her family and to see Nelson. Going into the trip, I knew there were many bumps and holes in the roads, but I had never felt them so intensely until our grueling 13 hour ride in the back seats of a public bus. We surprised Nelson, but we were only allowed to spend 15 minutes with him. He is doing so well and becoming such a wonderful young man. It was also a blessing to get to know Christine's family (mostly widows and children). 

IAA was very blessed to have such wonderful volunteers who helped with the babies, toddlers and younger children. They helped with bathing and feeding the children, and played with them as well. Time was also spent gardening and planting new plants around the church. They assisted with shopping, Bible teaching, homework, and building and fixing all of the broken things at IAA (that's a never ending battle). Thank you all!

Doug and Gerry Gifford: They came to IAA for one month. Doug built the children a new wood workshop where they learned how to build a birdhouse and other projects of wood working. Thank you Doug and Gerry!

 

April Lingle: April is our new 11 month intern from the Missions Society. She is such a blessing to the children and staff. April is leading the children's Bible Study on Saturdays, helping with babies and toddlers during the week, and also helping to write our new orientation program for our mission volunteers. April graduated from Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts with a Psychology Major and Family Studies Minor. We are very excited to have April in our family.

Ann: Joan, Ann's new baby girl, has fun while Mom watches close by. Ann comes to IAA every morning to wash clothes.

Auntie Donna: It was time to have the Bible Scripture memorizing contest again for the community and IAA children. Donna wanted to make it harder this time, so she announced they would have to memorize all of Psalm 23. They would be judged on who not only presented the scripture correctly, but also who held their head high and spoke clear and good English. The winner would receive a new bicycle. Our own Maggie was the winner. I insisted she had to do it again for me since I was not at the site the day they had the contest. Click on the link to see Maggie recite Psalm 23.

Maggie Reciting Psalm 23

Auntie Donna and Mum Jane working in the kitchen

Chicken House: We've made a new addition to the chicken house. We now have about 200 chickens (laying chickens and broiler chickens). We not only have chickens to eat, but we have an abundance of eggs to eat and sell. Twice per week the eggs are sold to various local businesses.

Abba's Wall: The wall is progressing beautifully. However, we still have a long way to go. Alex, the iron worker, is starting to make the names of God to be attached to the different sections. To those who have given to help us provide protection to the children -- THANK YOU!

Summer Teams

God blessed us with some amazing teams this past summer:


Woodsedge Community Church/The Woodlands:
This team was exceptionally special to me since they are my Texas home church. Their main purpose was holding an eye clinic for our children, staff, and community. Can you imagine putting on a pair of glasses and seeing things clearly for the first time? The team also ministered to those in the Internally Displaced Camp, worked on our Abba's Wall, and spent lots of special and fun time with the staff and children while they stayed on site full time. Thank you Woodsedge!

Champion's Forest Baptist Church/Houston:
Champion's Forest visited our home last year and wanted to come back. This year they blessed us so much with their many young volunteers (the older one's too!). The team stayed on site and accomplished so much in just a few days. They repainted our floor in the church, helped with a section of the wall, and spent some Bible and fun time with the children. Thank you Champion Forest Baptist Church!

















The Church at Bethel's Family/Houston: Bethel's Family team visited IAA while in Kenya. They brought medicine and medical supplies to minister to the surrounding community and spent some time with our children and staff. So many people in our community go without medicine and medical help due to their lack of money, so this was a blessing to them to be able to receive the medicine. Thank you Bethel's Family!

Summer Volunteers

Dear Friends:

     This summer at IAA we were blessed to have so many volunteers who came to love our children and help out wherever they could. Here are some of their favorite pictures from their visit:

Testimonies from some of our volunteers:

Elissa Adams:

"I never would have been able to accurately imagine the memories, emotions, relationships, and spiritual growth that I got out of my experience. One of my favorite memories of my stay is the night we celebrated the May birthdays for Faith and Martha, which was a very spiritually uplifting event for me. When everybody was singing and having a good time is one of the first moments I really felt what IAA was all about, and realized how lucky I was to be a part of that big family this summer. Also, watching the kids treat the baby dolls they got as birthday gifts as if they were real babies is one of the cutest memories I have of them!"

Carly Hubbard:

"Spending time with the kids at IAA was something I'll never be able to forget. Just the opportunity to be a part of such a small bit of some truly incredible kids' lives was a blessing in and of itself. Whether it was working with the rambunctious preschoolers, washing dishes and swapping stories with the incredible Kenyan workers in the kitchen, or goofing off between homework assignments after dinner, I felt like the time I was able to spend on site was truly valued. When I chose to give myself the chance to do nothing else but love the people around me, everything else suddenly began to seem insignificant. In the end, what was the truly difficult part? Saying goodbye."

Kathleen Wilson:

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13. This Bible verse is one that I became acquainted with over the summer and has brought me much inspiration. Through my incredible summer experience, I learned the true impact that love can have and how much joy and hope it can bring to one child’s life. Into Abbas Arms not only provides a safe haven for homeless children in Kenya, but it also instills a sense of hope, love, and family. The best experience by far was spending time with the children and building lasting friendships. Never in my life did I imagine such young children teaching me so much about life. Their precious singing, dancing and rejoicing in the Lord brought me so much joy and happiness. My connection with Faith was incredible and I am so thankful to have gotten the opportunity to pour my heart into her and love on her. I truly feel these kids showed me what it means to have faith, to love, and to cherish every moment of everyday."

Website Update:

We are excited to have a new web site design by Harry Chisholm. Kristin Klein has added new pictures of the children under the "Meet Our Kids" section. Check it out at www.IntoAbbasArms.org. She also works on the Blog posts. Thank you Kristin and Harry!

Building Abba's Wall

Dear Friends:

We are having a great response to the "Abba's Wall" project, but still have a long way to go!

The front wall is 1/2 way up across the front of the compound, but we still have the other 3 sides to go.

A $10.00 donation will provide 5 stones for the Adonai section.


Be a Part of Abba's Wall:


      Donors giving $200.00 or more will have the opportunity to pick one of the names of God for their section of the wall. For donors who wish to donate on a smaller scale ($5-$200) we will reserve a section of the wall with the name "Adonai" (The Lord my Great Lord) and combine your contributions for that section. A list of God's names can be found on the top of this page or by clicking here. I will periodically post updates to this list. Check back to see which names have been selected, or subscribe to our blog using the RSS feature in the right-hand panel.

Click here to make a donation.

Please include an email address when you make your donation. We will be in touch regarding your name request.