Savuto - Celebrations, Thanksgiving and Margaret!!

Aristides A.D 125 describing Christians of his time: “They walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not found among them and they love one anther. They despise not the widow, and grieve not the orphan. He that hath distributeth liberally to him that hath not. If they see a stranger, they bring him under their roof, and rejoice over him as if he were their own brother: for they call themselves brethren, but not after the flesh, but after the Spirit of God……..And if there is among them a person that is poor or needy, and they have not an abundance of necessaries, they fast two or three days that they may supply the needy with their necessary food.”

Sunday, May 3rd was a very special day for the hospital and the Methodist Church in Kenya. But I will start with Saturday, May 2nd. That evening Presiding Bishop Rev. Dr. Stephen Kanyaru and his wife, Mercy, had dinner with us. What a privilege it was to have them in our home. I have spoken of both of them in the past. Rev. Dr. Kanyaru built the new Methodist Conference Center in Nairobi and did it in one year. Mercy came to Maua for our Alternative Rite of Passage for our young women in December 2008. One thing that makes me so grateful to both of them is the way they work as a team. Mercy Kanyaru is attending all the Synod Meetings with her husband. There are ten Synods (what we would call districts in the UMC) and while they were here they saw anyone who wanted to talk to them. They literally spent every minute they were not in meetings or eating talking to the people who want or need to see them. Mercy is a graduate of the Maua Methodist Hospital School of Nursing and has literally nursed in hospitals all around Kenya. She is very proactive in her work for women and girls. Some of the people that come to see them are women who need Mercy’s support, understanding and wisdom. For someone in Presiding Bishop’s position it is very unusual to bring your wife and work as a team...more>>

: AIDS Orphan's Fun Day, Thanksgiving for Rain and Prosthetics and Needed Prayers

When the races were completed, we gave T-shirts to all the children and youth who ranked in the top ten in their class at school. We were so excited about this as we had over 50 of the children/youth who are doing very well in school and presented 45 T-shirts (some of the children were not present that day). We thought it was especially wonderful for them to be acknowledged and receive an award. The first student to be given a T-shirt was in Form 4, a senior in high school, and had been number one in her class all through school. The first many students called were all girls but after a bit there were several boys. As the children/youth came forward and received a loud ovation from the others there and were given a T-shirt by Mr. Gitari, you could see the joy and pride in their eyes and occasionally in their smiles...more>>

Methodists, Baptists Work Together to Improve Disaster Response

Methodists, Baptists Work Together to Improve Disaster Response
Missions volunteers from three Huntsville area churches will host a collaborative training May 15-17 for Baptist “Yellow Hats” and Methodist “Early Response Teams.”

The training is designed to help faith-based volunteers assist one another’s official disaster response efforts. Additionally, it will better prepare teams for local service, during and after emergencies.

Training will occur Friday, May 15 at Riverside Baptist Church (2359 FM 980 in Riverside– just north of Huntsville) from 6-9 p.m., for Yellow Hat disaster relief training. Saturday, May 16 at Riverside Baptist Church from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. will be the Yellow Hat “mobile feeding unit” training. Sunday, May 17 at the Senior Center of Walker County (340 Hwy 75N, Huntsville), from approximately 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., will be the Methodist Early Response Team disaster training.

The goal is to create a common pool of volunteers that is larger than any one denomination could muster on its own for when an emergency arises. In order to cover expenses, training will cost $10 per person for both Baptist Yellow Hat trainings and $25 for the Methodist ERT training.

Automatic “pre-approval” and registry of volunteers is not available across denominational structures. Certificates of completion will be provided to all attendees. They will be required to present those credentials to team leaders (of the respective denomination) when a response opportunity arises.

We encourage everyone to join us in these training sessions. Reserve your training spot ASAP.

For more information, contact Rick Carpenter, Wesley Memorial UMC Missions Group chair, at 936-662-7119. Or, contact Claudia Loofs at the Senior Center of Walker County, at 936-295-6151 or 936-662-0435.

ALL GOD'S CREATURES-KATHIE MANN

When I returned home the day after Ike made landfall, it was eerie as trees and telephone poles littered the ground. Roofs and fences left debris eve-rywhere. As I made my way to my neighborhood, every signal light was broken. No cars, no peo-ple, no electricity any-where. Taking a quick look around my house, I didn’t know where to begin. So I put batteries in the radio and listened as though the words would make the nightmare go away. Finding candles and matches, I cleaned out the refrigerator because it seemed the most urgent.

Then nothing...I didn’t know what else to do. I needed time to breathe.
I found my hammock and since it was cooler outside than in, I hung it on my “new” slanting porch and settled in carefully.
Gently swaying back and forth the only sounds were those of birds. No planes, no sirens, no children playing. So I concentrated on the blue jays. They were frantic, flying back and forth screeching from one downed tree to the next. Then the hum-ming birds began zip-ping around the bushes in a desperate attempt for answers to the dam-age. That’s when I re-alized that all of God’s Creatures were scared. But God was there in the darkness and bro-kenness, promising a new dawn tomorrow which would include chain saws, generators, blue tarped roofs and ice in coolers. [ View Parters In Mission Spring News Letter ]