Steeves'
Summary #42: "What can we in Africa do to help Canada?"
April 2007
The
Kikuyu Bibles have finally arrived! We took a trip into Nairobi with
a school van to pick up twenty-one boxes of Bibles. While we
were
sorting
things out we had a great conversation with Caroline, who runs
the Bible Society bookstore. She was asking about
some of
the
things we were doing, and we told her about how the Bibles were gifts
for Kenyans from our supporters from home.
She then asked us very seriously, "What can we in Africa do
to
help
Canada?"
What a great question! It is easy to think of ways
in which
the Western
church can help the African church, but turning it around made us
think. We told her that we have learned so much
from Christians in
Kenya. We are humbled by their faith. Many depend on God to look after
their daily needs. They have an amazing amount of
appreciation
for the little blessings. Many value relationships above all
else.
They have been great examples of faith and they have already helped us
grow in our faith. After pondering her own question,
Caroline asked for our email address so she could receive our
prayer requests and we could receive hers.
Up to now, we've been giving the Bibles out one-by-one to
Kenyan friends and co-workers. This week we gave Ephantus the 11 boxes
that
will eventually go to Matathia and the people of the "Feed my Lambs"
project. It is exciting to see how much value people put on
these
Bibles.
Feed my Lambs:
The project leaders have noticed that the meal at
the church isn't reaching the very needy in the project as much as they
hoped. People may come to the meal but leave family members
at
home who are also hungry. This month they decided to buy food
packages for all the project members instead of having the meal at the
church. Each of the members received 4 kg of maize-meal, the
staple food of the Kikuyu. It was hugely appreciated when
they gave it out on Saturday, and on Sunday the members who came to
church were still talking about how wonderful it was! Their
thankfulness is very humbling.
As they were having a short worship time before handing out
the food,
an unknown elderly lady leaning on her walking stick came in and sat in
the
back. She said, "I heard that you were giving out food to old
people, and I'm in need." She had walked half an hour to get
to the church. It just so happened that one of the
people in the project had died recently, and there was one extra
package of food
available for her to take home. She is now a member of the
project. Talk about perfect timing!
Third Term at RVA: We
are
entering our final term at RVA. Now that we are getting comfortable
with how things work, it is time to wrap up our work and hand it over
to new people. Bernadine expects to be busy in
Student
Health as it will be rugby season, with associated injuries, as well
as flu season. Computers break regardless of the time of year,
but
this term I will also have to prepare things for a new person to take
over my work.
There is going to be a large staff turn-over this August and there are
still a few positions that have not been filled. Several
families
are struggling to raise support to get here on time. Every
year
there are questions as to how the staff turn-over will
work, but
each year many people show up at the last minute
and existing staff are juggled to fill the required positions.
The
school has functioned this way with volunteer staff for 100
years
yet continues to rank as one of the top schools in Africa.
This is truly miraculous.
And my God will meet all your
needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians
4:19
Blessings,
Michael,
Bernadine, Julianne and Evan
You
can see our previous
newsletters on our website
at
www.kijabe.org/mission2005
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Michael
and Bernadine Steeves
P.O. Box 80
Kijabe, Kenya 00220
phone: 011-254-20-3246-255
cell phone: 011-254-735-317094
steeves@kijabe.org
www.kijabe.org
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|
Africa
Inland Mission
1641 Victoria Park Ave.
Scarborough, ON
M1R 1P8
(877) 407-6077 (Toll Free)
www.aimcanada.org
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