Saturday, July 31, 2010

Dylan and Kaleb








Today was an amazing day! A group of friends are still here from my church. We did an outreach at a school near by. Last year the school only had 30 students. Most of them were orphans and street kids. The school found funding and has expanded a lot! There are now 80 children there! We got to spend time with them all day today doing a Super Saturday event!

After the event we walked the village to meet children from our school in Vipingo. It was interesting to see the houses the children live in. They are small and made of mud. When we got to the children’s homes, they were so happy to see us there and showed us around the village.

We also went to an orphanage today. I was able to give gifts from my nephews to the kids. My nephew, Kaleb, felt bad that the children don’t have good shoes so he ran upstairs (before I left), grabbed a pair of shoes and asked me to take them here. Today, my friend Paul found a child at the orphanage that the shoes fit perfectly. He was really happy to wear them!!! My other nephew, Dylan, wanted to give away some of his books. I took them to the orphanage, too. I could not believe how much the kids LOVED the books. So many children kept reading them and looking at the pictures the entire time we were there!!

The two pictures above are from the orphanage. The books and shoes from my nephews!! Thanks to you both!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Mohommad needs our Prayers

This little boy is at great risk. Please take the time to read about his story from a missionary family I work with here in Kenya. He needs prayer for his life to be saved. Thank you.

"Dear Praying Friends,

If you heard me speak last year or read our prayer letters you know the story of Mohammed. He is the little boy whose Mom came to the gate of our school crying for us to save her child and even offered for us to adopt her little three year old son if we would help save his life. What you don't know is that Mohammed's whole family had AIDS. For the past five years, his family has battled the disease. We were happy that his father and mother both received Christ as their Savior. While we were in the states this year, Mohammed's father and other died of AIDS. All of his brothers and sisters have also died of AIDS. When she brought him to us, he could not eat and could barely move because he was so weak from malnutrition. His hair was falling out, his eyes were yellow, and his stomach was distended.

We have made sure that Mohammed was under medical care since he came to us at three and the doctors told us that with proper medicine he could live a good life and possibly even have a family of his own.

When his parents died, Mohammed moved into the home of his grandmother. She is a kind lady and loves her grandson very much but the problem is that she is illiterate and does not understand the importance of medicine. For the past month, our teachers have noticed that Mohammed was not acting like the sweet, healthy boy that they have come to love. Just this week, we had a medical team come to visit us from MANNA Worldwide. The nurse who was examining Mohammed noticed that he was not doing well at all. She immediately notified Lisa that this young man was dying of AIDS and would not have long to live. Upon questioning him further we found out that he had been told by his grandmother that he was healthy now and did not need to take the medication any longer. When we asked her she said that he looked and acted fine so she did not want to punish him every day by making him take the medicine.

We would ask that you pray for Mohammed. I have attached his school picture from last year so you can see his lovely face. We need his grandmother to understand the importance of the medicine and we need God to use the medicine to make him whole. We know that Mohammed is saved now and will be with God if the Lord chooses to take him home to glory, but our desire is that he might remain with us for a little longer and continue to bless us. He is already a reminder of God's grace and mercy. Pray that God will help us to know how to minister to him and comfort him during this time.

May God bless you all,
Bobby and Lisa Bechtel
Missionaries to Kenya, Africa"