Birthday celebrations

I love celebrating birthdays! So a few months ago I decided to have a monthly birthday celebration for all who had a birthday that month. We celebrate on the last Friday of each the month right after lunch. It has been such fun so far! We have a little party with chocolate cake and sodas. Both are very rare for these ladies, such a treat for them! Last week was extra special for the women because they got to celebrate my birthday! Every day that week, the women reminded me that the birthday is coming.

I love it when we sing Happy Birthday. And getting to hear their happy voices singing. I introduced them to our tradition of blowing out candles at the end of the song. They taught me a tradition of taking turns cutting your own cake while everyone sings, "Cut-a, cut-a!"

On the left is a picture of me last week, the October birthday celebration. Judith is cutting the cake, and Mama Morine hands out soda. While I not-so-sneakily steal a little cake.

At the end of September, we celebrated Mama Morine's birthday (pictured on the right). She is our lovely cook and such a joy. Her joy radiates out of her daily. She absolutely loved the party of "cakes and cokes." I am so thankful for her.

August was the first month I started these monthly birthday parties. We celebrated the birthdays of Seline and Alice (pictured below). They are both students in our sewing training programs. We all had a fun time. 

This has been such a fun tradition that all look forward to every month. Looking forward to our next birthday celebration! 

October update

This autumn has brought a new season for me, taking on a greater role to fulfill with more responsibilities. I am currently the only person locally in Kenya representing both James 127 Foundation and Judith & James. In addition, I am representing Jimani Collections as a go-to person.

I am continually thankful for these opportunities and responsibilities this presents. It has kept me busy, even busier than I was previously. I also continue to volunteer in my spare time at local orphanages and slums. Below is a picture of my mom and I in the Kibera slums, one of the largest slum in the world. On the right I am pictures with some of the kids at Mcedo school in the Mathare slum.

 


One of my favorite parts of what I do is continuing to build relationships with the staff, students, and employees at our Kasarani house. Being part of their lives and seeing the difference and change in them. Seeing joy spread through laughter or a smile. While learning jewelry or sewing. Below are some of the sewing and jewelry students.

October 1 Update

Hey sorry all it has been almost 3 months since I have written a blog post. I am now officially working as Judith & James' Production Manager. This means I supervise beginning and end of production. Organizing the clothing production order, finding the fabric/notions, quality checking on products, and packaging/sending products to the US.

As well, I am serving as the James 127 Foundation's Communications Manager. That entails media footage, sponsorship updates, and social media. In addition, I help serve in any needed operational or managerial roles.

Below is a picture of me and the J127 trainees. In the top photo are the 7 jewelry trainees and on the bottom are our 10 sewing trainees.

Fabric Donations

On Monday, I blessed the J127 sewing trainees with lots of fabric, donated to us by some of our generous friends in Arkansas. It was a humbling experience. I distributed pieces of fabric to each of the trainees. None of it was given by me, but I was fortunate to be the messenger, giving it all to them. They thanked ME over and over. 

The sewing training had just completely run out of fabric and teacher Jesca told the students they need to provide their own fabric, when they can’t afford it. Luckily it came with God’s timing. They were so very grateful. It was such a blessing to them. A blessing to receive such a gift and a blessing to give to them who need it.

Following this, each of the sewing trainees were interviewed over receiving fabric. They were ever so grateful for the fabric donations and to our sponsors for the great work they do. Pictured on the bottom are little snapshots of each of the happy ladies. I enjoyed putting a smile on their faces! 

International Widow's Day

Last week, 23 June was International Widow’s day. In honor of that special day, we decided to have a market day. A celebration day for every lady in our Kasarani workshop. The day before, I and three other ladies went to purchase all the huge quantity of fruits and vegetables we were to give the J127, J&J and Jimani women. I am pictured on the right, at the produce market where we bought all of the foods. After, we set up the workshop and displayed the produce to prepare for the next day.

On the actual day, we started off the day with our usual devotions in the morning. Everyone could see there was a special day to be had. During worship, you could tell the ladies danced with all they had in praise. Kesia, a powerful yet humble sister in Christ, shared another wonderful Biblical testimony, preaching about the story of Anna in the Bible. A gifted speaker.

Some of the Go Near team joined us after that. They introduced themselves. Jennifer Mooney on the Go Near team, herself a widow and J127 sponsor, shared deeply from her heart and sang a song for us all. After that, each woman was given a bag to fill up with many fruits and vegetables. We also gave each of them a copy of the Jesus Calling book.

The part of the day that gripped my heart the most was hearing the heart wrenching stories of each of these strong impoverished women, orphans, and widows of Kenya. As we drank chai and ate mandazis together, I couldn’t help but feel moved as each person shared their deepest struggles and how they are overcoming them. It was encouraging to hear they have such thankful attitudes, giving God the glory despite any circumstance.

International Widow’s day is a day I will not easily forget. A blessing it was to these widows and women and an even greater blessing to me to be part of the Lord’s great work.

four of the ladies who shared their story with us 

four of the happy jewelry and sewing trainees after receiving 

their Jesus Calling books and produce 

Anna Taylor and I with the three J&J widows from that day. 

They were all so happy to receive gifts of produce and a special 

word of encouragement from our Go Near friends. 

Judith & James' birthday

This past weekend we celebrated Judith and James' second birthday here in Kenya. It was a party to remember forever. Judith, Kesia, and Domaris have worked so hard these past two years we wanted to appreciate them. Some of them have never been to a party before so it was quite an experience!
I loved getting to celebrate with the ladies outside of the workplace with their families. What wonderful children they all have!

We started off by singing praises to the Lord, the one we thank for leading us to where we are today.
And we all had homemade chocolate cake (three cakes we made the night before) and chips (french fries) and soda. For them all of these things were so special to eat. Throughout the day, many smiles and laughter were seen as everyone was energized on all that sugar!

It was neat to remember how far Judith&James has come and exciting to think where we will be in the coming years to come. We have many things to be thankful for. This was a very special day, one that we will all remember for a long time.

Covenant Group

I had the absolute pleasure of having weekly covenant group meetings with these awesome 6th grade girls this year, alongside Kara Noble my amazing 11th grade leader. It has been a wonderful year getting to hang out with these girls one morning a week. What a pleasure to be part of each of these girl's lives.

It was the perfect start to every Friday morning. Breakfast and covenant group. As the school year comes to a close for them, they are all traveling to America for summer. I will miss them in the coming months but pray blessings upon them until they come back.

Food Purchase in Githurai

Last week I went to the market in Githurai to buy the food products we will need in the Kasarani workshop. This food should provide for the next month’s meals. So we bought in bulk. Tons of potatoes, tomatoes, rice, ugali flour, and beans. Luckily, I went there with Eunice, one of Jimani’s jewelry makers, and Mama Morean, our cook. They both were oh-so-helpful when negotiating the price and finding the best quality produce. This was the first time I had been there so I was very thankful for those two to introduce me to the market. 

Eunice and Mama Morean are pictured here as 

they choose which tomatoes to buy. 

I loved learning how to pick which food items you want in such a large flurry of a market. We wanted to purchase Wairimu beans, but there were three types (see right side of the picture). Mama Morean showed me how she decided on which type of beans we wanted: by putting her hand in the sacks of beans in the photo and feeling for the right texture. Can you guess which one was chosed? Mama Morean decided on the Wairimu Kisii beans, the perfect match.

At the end of the day, we had such a large quantity of stuff that we couldn’t carry it all. Instead, we paid one of the market workers approximately $0.50 (USD) to carry the majority of it (maize, rice, AND produce) on his shoulders to where we needed to go. What a lifesaver! I definitely wouldn't have been able to carry all of that.

What an experience that market was!

First week of Training

This has been such a momentous week. May 12th was a day to remember for James 127 Foundation in Kenya. Many days and weeks of preparation led up to this moment, our first day of our training program. Monday was the very first day of training. It went as smoothly as we hoped it would. Pictured at the top of this post are: the large beginning meeting with the staff, J127 Foundation board members, trainers, and trainees. Catherine Oduor, our Kenyan board member, started us off with a wonderful exhortation, encouraging us to join together in unity with God and asking Him to bless the work of our hands as we start a new chapter of opportunity through the training program.

Even after the first day, I was encouraged. Though we are still getting used to the routine and schedule, I have confidence that God will work in this training program to change lives for the better and unify each person involved in the training. Amos and Jessica, our trainers, said they have already enjoyed getting to know each student on an individual level.

 We have started each and every morning by singing several songs, led by the ladies of Jimani (jewelry company) and Judith & James (clothing company).

We also have a time of devotional and prayer time after that. The ladies in the training program or jewelry/clothing companies will share a short spiritual message depending on the Lord's leading.

What a great way to start the day! I especially love that this is not primarily led by us mzungus (foreigners) but by the ladies themselves. It is a beautiful testimony to witness.

At the end of the day of training, we all share lunch together, prepared by our cook Mama Morean. It is a wonderful time of food and fellowship after a day of learning and training.

This is time where all of the 17 trainees, 2 trainers, and 6 ladies in Jimani/Judith & James can get a chance to know one another outside of the classroom. These are women from different tribes, tough backgrounds, and living situations but they can all come together as one body of believers in Christ. Amen!

Pictured on the right are many of the ladies eating together outside. This meal consisted of rice and potatoes. Throughout the week we also eat a variety of other local Kenyan food such as ugali and sukuma wiki or githiri (beans and maize mixed together).


This has been a great first week of training. The students have already eagerly been learning a lot. And are looking forward to what is to come in the next months. 

Giving Sewing Machines

This past week, before the new training program starts, we gave twelve sewing machines to past graduated trainees from our sewing training program. All of the ladies were ever SO happy and thankful to be given a sewing machine. One lady said, "we are jobless because we have no machine" but all that will change for each of these women. "It will help bring them good work." My heart was touched to hear that the ladies plan to use their sewing skills to help other needy people and orphans in their community because they were given help to gain the knowledge to sew. 

Pastor Oscar, Judith's pastor and our help with transporting ladies/sewing machines to their houses, gave a wonderful prayer over the women, J127, and the sewing machines. 

Then each of the twelve ladies were given an opportunity to test both the sewing machines and their sewing skills. The huge smiles on their faces were priceless as each person took their turn testing it out.

They were all so grateful to receive such a huge blessing. All the ladies insisted on singing a few songs of praise to show their thanks before they left for home. "Mbari Kiwe sana"- Be very blessed was the first song they sang to us. 

We then loaded the machines and tables in the truck to be loaded and drop off each of the ladies at their homes. We as a Foundation have greatly blessed each and every one of these ladies. My prayer is that these women will now have divine strength and power to use the sewing skills and materials they have to provide for their families and communities.