April Update

Our Growing Family:

I wanted to welcome more children into our home when I was in Kenya. However, when we went to Nairobi Children’s Home we were told there were no babies anywhere. I was shocked, but at the same time it was good news for the country of Kenya. I called Pastor Samson and he said he knew there were actually many children that needed homes. We had the blessing of visiting a home in Nairobi where we met Douglas and his sister Damaris. I originally planned to look for children one or younger, but I didn't want to separate Douglas and Damaris just because Damaris is supposedly 2 1/2. We also found out about a three month old baby girl that is at the Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi. We are hoping she will join our family at Into Abba's Arms as well. 

Our New Kitchen and Dining Hall:

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who supported us and helped build and equip our beautiful new kitchen! It was such blessing to see the finished kitchen and dining hall. We are told we have the best kitchen in Kenya. Due to the heavy rains we never had the opportunity to “officially” dedicate the new building, but we plan to do that sometime soon. The staff started using the kitchen two days prior to our departure. I think it was a bit intimidating for the staff at first as they had become so accustomed to the small old kitchen we’ve had for the past 10 years. The children loved their new dining hall. The older boys convinced us right away to move a small TV to the dining hall so they could watch the 7:00 news. It’s a good hang out place for them to get away from the younger children for a while. I cried when the tables and benches were moved in. It’s all so nice and such a blessing.

IDP camp:

We visited the IDP camp to measure the shoe sizes of the 630 children. Corrie Sharpe, a young girl from Woodsedge, felt called by the Lord to provide rubber boots for every child after visiting the camp last year. We also visited Josephine while we were there. Tarin raised money to help her get an operation on her hand that she needed. Christine has kept in touch with Josephine and continues to visit her.

The 3^rd Annual King's Feast: 
Enjoy the slideshow!

When we arrived in Kenya the rainy season had started. We prayed the night before and the morning of the King’s Feast that it wouldn’t rain. Would you believe that is the only day during the time we were there it didn’t rain? It was a beautiful, sunny day. God is so good! Joseph counted 310 people were at the Feast. We had many presentations from visitors: Mike Eden’s Children Home; Flying Kites Children’s Home; the community children that attend the IAA Children’s Chapel; and our own children. There were also many adults from the community that attended the celebration.

 

Many of you already know we celebrate the King’s Feast first and foremost to celebrate our King of King’s and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Secondly, we honor the memory of our dear friend King Lane who passed away three years ago. He was a blessing to many children in Kenya and he always wanted to make sure they had meat to eat when he visited. We celebrate his memory by slaughtering sheep and goats. This year we had three sheep and one goat. Thank you to the Iverson family for purchasing them!
    

The older children decorated the church with the supplies that were donated. Thank you to those who gave towards that! This year, Tarin Paradise, our Missions Director, Doris Wilson, a volunteer from West Conroe Baptist Church, and Doug Gifford, a regular volunteer, planned and organized many fun games for the children to participate in. We had a ring toss, bean bag toss, an area with dirt and little shovels and rakes to play with, a fishing game, jump rope, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and much more!

Paul's funeral:

We were grieved to hear that a little boy named Paul who regularly attended the Children's Chapel at IAA passed away. Tarin, Christine, and several of our children attended his funeral. The father also lost his wife recently. Please keep this family in your prayers.

Meet Agnetta:

Agnetta is our new house mom for the younger girls.

She's tall, has a beautiful smile, and the children love her. 

Mum Posey:

Posey is not only a loving house-mom for the children at IAA, but she is also a nurse for those in the surrounding community. Day after day I watched as people arrived at the site for care and medications for their illnesses.

Toddlers Welcome Home the Boarders:  

It was a special day when the boarders arrived home at IAA. The toddlers were so excited to see them and wanted to help them bring in their very heavy bags.

IAA VOLUNTEERS:

Donna: Donna started a library for the toddlers and reads them a book every night at bedtime. She then lets the children check out a book to read until the next day.

Tarin Paradise: Tarin, IAA’s Mission Director, traveled with Jane to Kenya to organize and prepare for the upcoming teams and visitors that will be coming to IAA this summer. She was also a huge blessing in helping with many other projects, especially with the King’s Feast. We are so blessed to have her and her husband Bill working with IAA.

Doris Wilson: Doris kept up with my fast pace during her time in Kenya and was such a blessing to many. She was always eager to serve and helped with anything that was needed.

Doug Gifford: Doug was with Jane on her first trip to Kenya in 1997, and he came to volunteer at IAA again. Doug blessed us with a beautiful new handrail on our stairway.

Jim and Julie Taubitz: We were so blessed to have Jim and Julie as the site supervisors for the dining hall project. Their professional expertise and their love for serving the Lord was apparent and very appreciated.                                                                            

Daryl Whiteman and Richard Coleman: We were blessed to have a quick visit by our Missions Society friends, Daryl, the Vice President for mission mobilization, and Richard, the director of mobilization.

Steve and Rene Tyo: Steve and Rene volunteered at IAA this past January. Rene spent most of her time tutoring the children and Steve fixed many things and helped with the construction of the new kitchen and dining hall.

February Update

Into Abba's Arms is now on Facebook! Please be sure to "like" our page to get the latest updates and see the newest pictures of our children!

Click here for our Facebook page!

Jane recently returned from Kenya and below is an update and pictures from her trip. 

"IAA February"

Pastor's Conference: 175 pastors from different denominations gathered together at IAA to worship, pray, and learn from God's word. The Wimberley First Baptist team did a great job teaching and encouraging all of the pastors. Jane had a chance to speak about unity in the body. She told everyone it was such a blessing to see them coming together, and she encouraged them to continue to communicate and work together in their community to help others.

From left to right: Mary Katie Riddle, Beverley and Tom Gillespie, Larry Adams, and Wiatt Warren

Kelvin

Kelvin: He received a full scholarship for a boarding high school! They will pay for all of his schooling and expenses for the next four years. We are so proud of him! 

Nelson: Jane recently received a letter from Nelson and he corrected her on his age in it. He said his sister had proof he was only 18, not 20 like we had thought. We were shocked with this news! We were making him into a man before he actually was. In Kenya, orphan's ages are often estimated by their bone structure and body development, and Nelson was tall for his age.

Kitchen: The kitchen is progressing beautifully. We are looking forward to when the construction is complete so we can provide a place for our children to eat and fellowship together.

Christmas at IAA: 

We would like to thank Island Church in Galveston for blessing our children with a very special Christmas this year. Below is a message from Donna about the Christmas celebration.

Donna: "We had the Christmas party last night. Trish told them about the church that sent gifts. The party was held in two parts because there were so many gifts. First the babies and toddlers went into the toddler room with Pocy and Jane. They put on their new clothes, and toy cars shot all over the room. Carina put on her new outfit, including high heels, jewelry, and a tiara, and tried to jump rope... it was really funny! Sharon went around and looked at all of the gifts while the other children were busy playing. She "picked up" what she liked and put those things in her bag. Wendy saw it happen, and got everything back to the owners.

While the toddlers were put to bed, the big kids had their party in the living room. They were much more subdued and treated their gifts like big secrets. They looked in the big bags and smiled the whole time, but didn't take anything out. It was like they were fearful someone else would like what they had received and want it also. Maybe they had experienced the "Sharon Syndrom" before and were protecting themselves.

Please tell the Island Church that everyone had a wonderful time! I don't know who had the best time: those who received, or those of us that were witnesses. All I know is that the givers outdid themselves and everything was fun, beautiful, fit and MUCH APPRECIATED!"

IAA'S NEW KITCHEN / DINING HALL PROJECT 2011

This slideshow will show the beginning to present building process as well as pictures of the students their supervisors and local workers who have dedicated their time to make this project a reality.

The shell of our Kitchen/Dining Hall will be completed around the end of this month.  We are so excited to have this facility that will allow our children, visitors and staff to gather together for meals.  We have been separated at meals since IAA began due to lack of space.  This facility will also be a blessing for: community gatherings; cooking for larger groups of visitors; and as a gathering place for the children to do homework, crafts, Bible Studies and more.

Thanks to:

·      The engineering students and faculty at Syracuse University who dedicated several years of time and planning of this project.  Group Picture in slideshow: Chuck Brooks (professional mentor), Lesen Haracz, Isaac Allen, Scott Ranthes and Erin Zeqja. Janet Brooks was present, but taking the photo.  Others from Syracuse University: Shannon Magari, Advisor to the EWB Syracuse University Student Chapter; and all the other volunteer engineers and architects in the Syracuse area who helped to keep the project on target.

·      Gordon Clark who spent volunteer time to oversee this project for IAA. 

·      James Taubitz, who is a Kenya missionary with EMI (Engineer Ministries International), who is overseeing the project construction. 

·      John, our Kenyan contractor, who has done his work professionally and efficiently. 

·     Christine and Samuel, IAA’s staff in Kenya, who has put in extra hours of work to make sure the project is progressing. 

·   All of you who have contributed to the financial provisions for this project.

APRIL'S THOUGHTS AFTER HER RETURN FROM WORKING AT IAA

April with Jacob and Hope
Just over a year ago, I took a giant leap of faith and boarded a plane to Kenya.  I was broken as I said goodbye to my loved ones, but I was trusting God fully with my life for the first time ever.  I had no doubt that I was going exactly where He wanted me to be.  The days were sometimes unbearably long yet my time in Kenya went by entirely too fast.  I can’t believe it’s been a year; I can’t believe I’ve been back home for two months already.
Once I got to Kenya, I waited for the culture shock that I was guaranteed to have.  Believe it or not, it never came.  Sure, there were things about the culture that were irritating sometimes but nothing was ever significant enough to make me want to go home.  When it was all over, I came home and I waited for the reverse culture shock.  This time, it came, but not in a way I would have expected.  I came home and suddenly nothing seemed clear.  I didn’t know who I was, where I was going, or what my life was supposed to be about.  When I was in Kenya, people always asked me what I missed about home.  My answer was always that I missed my freedom, or rather, my independence.  I was completely dependent on someone else for practically everything while I was there.  Coming home, suddenly I had more freedom than I knew what to do with.  Much to my surprise, that tripped me up more than once.  Being able to do what I wanted when I wanted to do it felt like a brand new feeling and was quite overwhelming.

April reading a book with Lydia

My life here at home is very different than my life was in Kenya.  Here, I don’t have children waiting for me.  I sleep half the day away because I don’t know what to do with myself otherwise.  There are no children for me to dress or feed, none to play with or teach new words to, no diapers to change, no little legs running to me or arms reaching for me to hold them the minute I walk downstairs in the morning.  Instead, I wake up and walk upstairs to an empty house.  I take a shower every day-at any time of day I choose.  I can stay in the shower for as long as I want and the water doesn’t suddenly turn ice cold or scalding hot, nor does it stop running when I would stand in the shower freezing and jpraying that the water would start running again so I could get the soap out of my hair.   I don’t have to worry about the lights going off and leaving me to shower in the dark.  I can get out of the shower knowing that if I want to dry my hair, I can.  I don’t have to rush to make sure I dry it while the power is actually on.  I can get in my car at any time I want and drive anywhere I want to.  The roads here are remarkable.  I hear people talk about the ONE giant pothole on I-20 near our exit and think about how nice it would be if there was only one giant pothole instead of hundreds from IAA to the kids’ school.  We take so much for granted here in the US and I immediately fell right back into that same mindset the minute my feet hit American soil.  All these things that we take for granted are great and it’s been nice to have them back, but I also miss Kenya and the simplicity of life there.  It was okay that I didn’t shower every day because no one else did either.  It was okay that I didn’t dry my hair because no one cared what I looked like.  It was okay that there were a million potholes in the road-we were thankful we had something to drive and that it was actually running that day.  There, nothing is reliable but it’s okay because God is reliable.  He shows up on time, even if it’s not in OUR time.  There, it’s okay that nothing is reliable because there, it’s not about things.  It’s about people and relationships.  In Kenya, I loved and was loved in a way that is rarely experienced in America, at least in my experience, because we too often let things and judgments and stuff that doesn’t matter get in the way of loving people for who they are.

As I said, I came home and lost myself.  I felt like I had left Kenya and lost God somewhere along the way back home.  All I knew was uncertainty.  God wasn’t giving me clear answers, or any answers for that matter.  I had no idea where to even begin, no idea how to find my way in a place that was so familiar and yet so foreign at the same time.  While wrestling with myself about all the uncertainty, I went to church and the pastor said this-

“The bad news is that there will ALWAYS be uncertainty BUT the good news is that your life-it’s going to be okay."

April and Jacob

If nothing else, I find comfort in those words.  God didn’t take me on this journey and teach me firsthand about His faithfulness only to abandon me at the “end”.  No, this is just the beginning.  He is here beside me and He always will be.  He may not be making every decision as clear as He did my decision to GO, but He will use every decision I make for the good.  He is sovereign and He is holding me in His hands.  I may be uncertain, but God is not and I will commit my whole self to Him so that my life will reflect His will.  
April Lingle