Dear family and friends,
It has been a few
weeks since we last posted a blog, fuller days and a slow, and sometimes
active, internet have all played into this.
Thank you so much for continuing to pray for our family during this time
and for the children and staff of the TransMara Children’s Home (residents of
the Hill). We have daily sensed that God
is working through your prayers. We
never have we been so touched and grateful when others tell us that they are
praying for us.
A highlight so far this month: Forty three children asked God to forgive
their sins and asked Jesus to come into their hearts and be their Lord and
Savior last week during devotion time!!!!!!
We are very excited knowing that their new lives as Christians have just
begun!!! Please continue to pray for
emotional and physical healing for these precious children. I wish you could meet them all- to look into
their beautiful faces, hear their voices raised up to heaven in worship each
night, and witness the joy so many of them have for life. Each child has a story, a dream for their
future (even the little guy who told me this week that he wants to be a purple
crayon), and the strong desire to be loved for who they are. The eight little preschoolers have been
singing “Go,.Go Joshua” and marching around the pretend walls of Jericho-
shouting and blowing their horns many times each day. Just the sight of us walking onto the
children’s home can cause a few of these little ones to break into the Joshua
song.
Scott, Matthew, and James have continued to do some projects
around the home and we are looking forward to Nate and his brother coming next
month so we can help redo the kid’s bedrooms.
The spiritual development curriculum and Bible verse memorization
program are up and going- the kids love the object lessons, character
development and Bible stories, and they are becoming more comfortable with
coming up to be a part of a short drama.
We had thirteen older children up in front last night as we acted out
the real story of Valentine’s Day- they received quite the applause from their
friends afterwards.
Scott has been taking care of a small boy who cut his arm
with a knife last weekend. The terrified
shrieking has stopped when his mother brings him in the house- he knows his bravery
will be rewarded with gum. I started a
study on the book of James with the women’s Bible study group on Wednesdays. To
help bridge the language gap, sometimes I try to illustrate the teaching with
dramatic movement and gestures (which is received with loud laughter) and close
each time with Chai tea, sweets and friendly conversation in Maasai) They are a
precious group of women, the prayer time together is very special to me and I
love listening to their discussion through the interrupter (interpreter). One
woman told me this week and she didn’t think women from America and Kenya
Sarah will be sad to see her new friends leave for high
school next week- it has been a blessing for our family to get to know these young
men and women. Sarah also looks forward
to time playing with the little ones and has picked up some pretty useful
phrases in Swahili. James is continuing
to work with the kids on the CD of worship songs. All of the children will be home here for the
upcoming presidential election in early March so he hopes to do lots of
recording, especially their favorite worship songs in Swahili.
Friendships are beginning to grow with the staff and other
people in the community. Many have been
very patient with us as we become educated with their culture. As one of our
boys mentioned earlier this week, “it is still Ground Hog Day” around
here! We really miss Megan and we look
forward to her return in early May. She
loves to call at night after devotions and talk with several of the kids who
all want her to bring them a torch (flashlight).
Miss you all! Love, the
Derses
