More than a year ago, the American teen pictured below, Katheen Crow, contacted me in Kenya and asked about helping her with her school project. The "help" she requested was permission to work through my ministry to complete her school project. She elected to collect books to help with a library in a school in Africa. Her request came at a very good time. There is a government primary school near our property that we have wanted to help. I am such a reader I had been thinking about starting a library there, but wasn't sure how to go about it. Kathleen started the process and many others jumped on board.

I decided to make it a broader project and sent out a request to my mailing list for book donations. A Maasai community I work with recently built a small building to house a community library, but they didn't have books. Then another school contacted us about helping them get a library started. My friends and family in America responded big time and I decided to ship a 20' sea container over here loaded with books and other things that can be put to good use in Kenya. My church in Oklahoma sent two vans full of books!

Before we knew it, it was loading day at the warehouse in Texas. How exciting to see these boxes stacking up in the warehouse.

This is the warehouse in Fort Worth that was used as a staging center for collecting all the items to go into the container.

Loading day! Talk about a packed container. These guys worked hard and long on a hot July day in Texas to get this done. Thank you guys for all your hard work!

Loaded and ready to go. Next stop, Mobassa, Kenya! Please pray with us that it gets here on time (September 15), intact, and that the authorities treat it fairly when assessing the cargo. A special thank you to all who made this possible!

Omeroi School

Recently, one of my dear Maasai Pastors informed me of a village that had started a school. I’m not sure how long this school has been functional, but they recently applied to the Kenyan government for certification so they could be officially recognized and thereby receive any benefits the government could provide. The government’s requirement for certification was that they must have books. They didn’t actually even specify what kind of books, they just said books. This village is so poor that trying to purchase books for 50 students was impossible.

We rose to the challenge of helping this community educate their children. I had six boxes of books sitting in my home, so we donated those books, bought some textbooks and traveled to their village. It was a very emotional day when those precious children and their parents saw us unloading the car.

I only bought enough textbooks for 10 students, not comprehending how serious their situation was. I was feeling guilty and sad until the teacher shared how amazing it was to have books. Their school only has four class levels at this point and we were told that they have only one book per classroom that is passed around from student to student.

Seeing so many books in one place was overwhelming to them. What a wonderful day of celebration – seeing their beautiful smiles and laughter.

The children lined up as we passed out cookies. Then the speeches began. It was such a happy time. The two men are Pastor John Shakai and Jeremiah. John is the one who first told me about this school.

Cookies are such a rare treat. These children were just overjoyed.

The head teacher told the children to sing for us. This is always special to me.

There was a certain segment in the song where the children all started jumping in unison. I tried to snap fast enough to see their feet in the air, but it didn't work. I was pleased to see so many shoes though!

These are the parents who turned out for the event.

My daughter Rachel was honored with a necklace and a pair of earrings made by the mother's in the village. This little girl was so excited about putting them in Rachel's ears.

Then it was my turn. More earrings

Precious faces!

Lives were changed on that day. What an overwhelming reality!

Tea Farm

Most of my life in Kenya is filled with working with the Maasai, but occasionally, I take the time to see other parts of this beautiful country. In June when my daughter and her husband were here, we went to a tea farm about an hour out of Nairobi. This farm sits about 7,000 feet above sea level; the air is crisp and fresh -- a welcome relief after the exhaust fumes in Nairobi.

This is a close up of the bloom on an old tea bush. The bushes they use these days are a hybrid with much larger leaves. This old bush was planted by the owner's grandfather in the early 1900's.

The farm is run by an old British couple. Fiona welcomes every visitor into her home, sits you down with a cup of tea and homemade biscuits (cookies) and tells you the story of this particular farm. She is a very interesting story-teller. Along with the history, she goes into details about tea from bush to factory and even discusses the tea auction in Mombassa, Kenya. I was surprised to learn Kenya has the largest tea auction in the world. All-in-all it is very educational and interesting.

After tea and the "talk" we are escorted outside to see their beautiful grounds, a small indigenous forest, and of course the tea plantation. Pictured below is one of their dogs named Chuma. He is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the troop of Colobus monkeys that live on their property.

We weren't disappointed. They showed up and waited at the edge of the roof, while Chuma danced around on the ground. I believe this is a daily occurrence for the monkeys and for Chuma! One of the workers brought out some pieces of bananas and invited us to feed the monkeys if we wanted.
Rachel was quick to accept and stood on the porch and handed up the banana. It was very entertaining and we somehow knew that the dog and those monkeys know that when visitors show up on a daily basis, they must do their part to welcome them.
When you look at the acres upon acres of tea bushes you might forget they are bushes. They just look so carefully groomed and almost like a lawn. But you can see that they are really waist high.
Well, waist high for some. Ricky is a tall guy!
Rachel took this inviting picture of a perfect cup of tea! What a wonderful day.

In early June some dear friends, Ron and Janice from Poteau, OK came to Kenya for four days for a pastor's conference. Janice met with the pastor's wives on Sunday and then again on Monday morning, but on Tuesday she and I had the whole day to spend with one another. I took her to one of my favorite spots -- Kitengela Glass. It is a wild and bizarre place where they take bits of used glass, crush it, melt it down and make something new and beautiful with it.

We stayed in a nearby lodge and walked across the field with our Maasai guide/guard to get to the factory. On the way we encountered gazelles and antelope. We also saw this little guy very busy with his buffalo dung. This is a dung beetle. They roll up these balls of dung. It is such a funny sight to see them rolling this dung around, but they are very useful little creatures.

When we got to the river gorge we could see Kitengela Glass across the river, but to get there you had to walk across this narrow, swinging suspended bridge. First our guide had to whistle to get the attention of the Glass employee on the other side. There are actually locked gates on either end of the bridge to keep people off until the attendant can lead them across. After the attendant arrived he unlocked the gates and made us sign a waiver to cross the bridge! Janice and I both wish we had kept a copy of the waiver. It said

"I promise not to hold Kitengela Glass responsible for injury or loss of life from crossing the bridge"

We paid the $2.00 fee and crept onto the bridge. I went first so I could take a picture of Janice. It was scary.

After the bridge crossing you enter into another world. Its as if some hippies from the 60's moved in and created this wonderland. This floor in the "bead" showroom is made from glass.

There were these funny chairs throughout the compound.

This room just sparkles and glows from the sunrays hitting all that hanging glass.

Janice posing on the "lady" lounger

This face was pressed into the concrete sidewalk.

More funny chairs.

This cracked us up. It is an old style travel trailer covered in concrete and glass made in the shape of a dinosaur. Someone actually lives in it.

My turn to cross the bridge last so Janice can take pictures. I had to prove that I actually walked across that scary bridge. I would do it again. Anyone interested?

On Saturday, July 3rd, Rachel, Ricky and I, along with Jeremiah, Pastor John and his wife Maria, traveled to the small community of Iyarat for a women's literacy graduation. This was actually one of the first classes we launched this year, but the teacher took a job and left without telling us, so for three weeks, these ladies were without a teacher. That break in their class time resulted in basically starting over when we located another teacher for them. Now, 20 weeks later, they are excited about what they've learned and we had a wonderful day.

This beautiful lady is one of the first Maasai I became acquainted with 7 years ago when my ministry here started. Her name is Peninah. She has a son, Josphat, who is in Bible School. My ministry, Starfish Charities, has supported him financially by paying for his fees every quarter. When his wife gave birth to their first daughter, they named her "Rhoda" after me!

This lady came to graduation even though everyone feared she would give birth before the day was finished. I knew she was pregnant, but I had no idea it was time! She was very quiet throughout and it was only afterwards that I learned how close to delivery she really was.

These are our proud students, along with their teacher (pictures on the left). We started with 10 and ended with 9.
Passing out gifts to them is one of my favorite things to do. The beautiful wraps they wear get very worn out in a short period of time, so our gift to them was a Starfish bag, a wrap and a handkerchief. To them it was better than Christmas!

Happy faces while they display their new wraps.
You can't outgive a Maasai. They had gifts of earrings and necklaces for me and Rachel and even a necklace for Ricky.


Rachel and Ricky all decked out in their gifts.
We went outside for a group photo session. What a glorious day.