Home and Back Again

Erica returned from Canada late Saturday night into the tight embrace of all of us here! Her journey wasn't without a few complications, but along the way she had wonderful help from our friends Don & Joy Hepburn. In London, Erica was able to catch the super short connection to Nairobi (Her only trouble there was a surprise gift for me that the London airport authority seized and trashed -- so long sweet maple butter!). Despite the long trip, Erica stayed up for hours playing with the kids and catching us up on her mom and all our family.

We want to thank everyone who has been keeping us in prayer.

The Long Way Home

Dear friends,

A big THANKS to everyone who has been praying for Erica's mom. Mary is doing much better and was even able to see Erica off today at the airport.

Unfortunately, the plane never left the runway. I had a chance to talk with Erica from the Saint John airport as she was preparing to return home to us in Kenya, but I was surprised to hear that her plane was grounded for mechanical problems. Air Canada has provided a taxi service to Moncton where she is now flying on a direct flight to Toronto. This new flight will get her in too late for her original flight to Nairobi via London, but they have found an alternative routing.

Our prayer request is that she will make it back to us safe and sound. The new flights give her only fifty minutes to change planes in London. This is a problem for luggage, but also a stressful race to find her next terminal and gate. I'm praying that when Erica reaches Toronto that British Airways will have a later connecting fight in London that will give Erica a more reasonable amount of time to change planes.

Blessings,

Aaron

Beads

The training has begun with the Iftin Jewelry Project.

The ladies began their classes today in ceramic bead making. They were very eager, arriving early to meet their instructors and discover more of what they will be doing in the Jewelry project.

Newly glazed beads must air dry in a rack before they can have excess glaze cleaned from the hole with a bead reamer. These beads will become bright blue and rusty brown in colour once they are fired in the kiln.

James Odera sharing with the Jewelry class.

The ladies will continue to study English in the mornings, with the Iftin classes, and join the pottery unit in the afternoons for ceramic bead training. We thank God for how so many little things have come together to make this project possible. Each of these women represent vulnerable households that are in desperate need of a regular and dependable income. We want to thank everyone who has contributed to The Sharing Way toward the "Eastleigh Urban Development projects". Without such generous support, ministries such as this would not be possible!

St. Patrick's Day

Tristan and Emma enjoying a St. Patrick's Day Treat

(Any guesses at what's in the glass?)

Although St. Patrick's Day is not normally celebrated in Kenya, we are proud of our Irish roots! Along with wearing a wee bit o'green, we added a splash of green food colouring to supper. It was a fun evening guessing the true flavours of our emerald meal.

Seeing more green!

Today was also the official beginning of the Iftin Jewelry Project with the first cohort. Three women from class 2 and seven from class 3 were selected for training scholarships out of about twenty applicants. The women will be learning the art of designing and creating ceramic beads and jewelry. It was a very exciting day as the classes arrived early to read the official posted results and the trainees proudly wore their new dust coats.

ESL teacher Nelius with the class 3

students who will be leading the way as

Somali Women artisans for their community.

In Prayer:

* Erica's mom returned to hospital again today to see the specialist in Moncton. We pray for some good news. Please also keep Erica in your prayers as it will be difficult for her to return to Kenya this Friday with her mom's situation still so unsettled.

Nuts and Bolts

Introducing the first Iftin beads!

Hot from the kiln... we just completed our first experimental batch of ceramic beads with the Eastleigh Jewelry project. While we wait for our first shipment of imported glazes, the pottery team has been working with locally available glazes. The results have been good. Tomorrow we will be interviewing about twenty candidates from the Iftin group to make up the first group of ten participants in the ceramic bead training program -- from this group we will begin the jewelry enterprise.

hammering things out...

Most of the components and tools that we are using in the project are being made in-house. From the fine tools and measuring instruments, to the drying racks and firing bricks. Today we cut high temperature element wire and hammered it into shape to form the pins used for hanging the beads within the kiln. It is a labour intensive job.

Eastleigh made!

Even the components used within the water filtration project are produced on site. From the metal taps and attachments to the filters and housing, each part of the water filters have been designed and made by members of the community centre.

Our friend Nicholas Kamau (the second guy in wearing the blue lab coat) is an instructor with the metal work and construction sections of the Vocational Training Centre (VTC) at the Eastleigh Community Centre. He and his students were working on the metal lathe today used for producing components for the water filtration project. Each of the nine vocational training centres are focused on empowering youth with practical skills in order to help them provide a living and a future for their families. It is amazing to witness the ingenuity and spirit of optimism that people like Nick and his students share.

Back in the pottery section, more experimental glazes.

In Prayer:

* We praise the Lord for the spirit of cooperation and trust growing within the community centre between such a diverse group of people. God is not hindered by ethnic and tribal difference!

* We pray for the on going self help group meetings and for the Somali women who are being pushed further out of their comfort zones as they participate in a system of rotational leadership.

* We pray for wisdom and discernment as the first cohort is selected for the ceramic jewelry training.

* We thank God that even in the midst of our concern for Erica's mom, that it has become an opportunity for the Somali women to come around us in prayer. It has been wonderful to experience the support and empathy of our Somali friends through this time. One of the classes even made a short video to send back to Erica with love and prayers. God is good.

Prayer Update

Thanks so much for everyone who has been keeping us in prayer.

Erica just called from the hospital. Mary was taken off life support yesterday and started breathing on her own. She came out of the coma and, although extremely disoriented, she is stable. They are planning to move her out of ICU later today. Praise the Lord!

The kids and I are well. Ava keeps asking where mommy is and for some odd reason keeps saying that "Mommy has owies". I keep reassuring her that mommy is fine and that she'll be home in a little while. Tristan and Emma have been a great help!

We are hoping that Mary will be well enough to be moved to the Moncton hospital closer to her home and Mary Jane & Lori, who live in Riverview with their families.

"You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you."

-- Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth

Self Help Groups

Pharis Nyaga with the Somali women of Iftin

Today was the first in a series of workshops for the women of Iftin on building self help groups. Pharis Nyaga is the operations manager for the Eastleigh Community Centre's self help group and community based training programs. He is presently working with over sixty women's self help groups throughout the Eastlands region of Nairobi.

Our hope is that the women of Iftin will pave the way for other Somali women of Eastleigh to become part of a movement that has traditionally empowered women of various Kenyan ethnic groups. Self help groups, like The Sharing Way's "Guardians of Hope", empower women socially, economically, and politically to overcome extreme poverty and to bless their communities -- whether it be helping orphans and vulnerable children or people struggling with disabilities or disease.

Over the next few weeks, Iftin will continue to learn about Self Help Groups and have the opportunity to form groups together that will provide support, training opportunities, a financial savings program, and micro enterprise development support.

Today's gathering was very positive as about 30 women participated in the training and indicated high interest in continuing with the program and inviting friends to join.

In Prayer:

* We pray that the women of Iftin will be protected from forces in their community that would seek to discourage and hinder their full participation in the women's empowerment initiatives of the centre.

* We pray for emerging leaders within the group. May they grow in faith and integrity as they influence other Somali women living in Eastleigh.

* Please continue to uphold Erica and her mom in your prayers. Erica is currently somewhere over the Atlantic ocean en route to Toronto for a connecting flight to Saint John.

Answered Prayer

We want to thank everyone who has been keeping Erica's mom and our family in prayer. We were able to find tickets for Erica to return to New Brunswick: She departs Nairobi at 11:25 pm this evening. As God would have it, she is on a plane loaded with over thirty Somali refugees enroute to London. Erica will be arriving in Saint John early Wednesday morning. We pray for her safe journey and for the time together with her mom and sisters. We continue to uphold Mary before God that He might give her strength and healing, and that His grace and peace would be upon her.

Once again, we deeply appreciate your prayers.

Faith never knows where it is being led,

But it knows and loves the One who is leading.

-- Oswald Chambers

Prayer Request

We received a call at about 11:30 last night from Erica's sister Mary Jane: Erica's mom, Mary, was admitted to the Saint John Regional Hospital with severe pneumonia. She was put on life support and is now in a coma. She is at a high risk of congestive heart failure. It was a long night. But we were thankful for the ability to keep in contact with Erica's sisters through mobile phones.

Mary's condition worsened today, and her doctor feels that Erica should come back. We are praying that we will be able to find a ticket for Erica to return to New Brunswick tomorrow so that she can be with her mom and sisters.

Please keep Mary in your prayers. We know that God is a mighty healer and that He holds her in his hand. Please remember Erica, Lana, Mary Jane and Lori as they stand by their mom during this sad time.

Bronze!!

Emma showing her bronze medal

Today, Emma competed in Rosslyn Academy's first at home swim meet. She swam free style and back stroke. She was awarded the bronze medal in free style. We are so proud of our Emma!

Al Shabaab

Since the primary school re-opened in the New Year, we have noticed the absence of some of the adolescent boys with whom we had come to know. In particular, we began to miss Jamaal*, a fourteen year old boy whom we had spent some time with last fall. We were shocked to learn that he had been taken back to Somalia to train as a soldier. This does not surprise our Somali friends. "All over Eastleigh young boys are going to Jihad camp" our friend Abdi* tells us. "They are looking for boys to fight and free Somalia. They promise them heaven but all they are giving them is war."

The "they" our friend refers to is "Al Shabaab" a hard line militant youth movement of Somalia. "Al-Shabaab" literally means "The Youth". Since the overthrow of Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has been without a stable government. It is believed that Al-Shabaab developed out of the fall of the Islamic Courts Union in the Autumn of 2006 as an opposition to the Transitional Federal Government and its backers (primarily the Ethiopian Military). While the origins of Al-Shabaab in Somalia are not clear, the roots certainly go back to extreme Islamists in 2004. They have been actively recruiting jihadists to wage war against the "enemies of Islam".

Since we arrived in Kenya in 2006, the Ethiopian forces have kept Al Shabaab back from the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Now after two years of setbacks and losses, Ethiopia announced its withdraw late last year. Reports from Somalia tell us that their abandoned military outposts were almost immediately seized by Al Shabaab.

Somalia's new president Sheik Aharif Sheikh Ahmed has tried to dissuade the advance of Al-Shabaab, even this week agreeing to institute a lenient form of Sharia law to appease them. Despite this, they vow to continue fighting.


In Prayer:

* Please pray for our young friend, Jamaal, and for hundreds of youth like him who are being enticed to join a so-called "Holy War" against their fellow countrymen. Hatred is a powerful evil. We pray that God's peace would over come the deep distrust and spiritual conflict within Somalia. We pray for vulnerable youth like Jamaal that they will have eyes to see through the lies and hatred that will never free Somalia from war and death.

* Please keep our friend Moxamuud and his group Somali Youth for Peace in your prayers. Together they are working to promote peaceful conflict resolution among the Eastleigh Community.

Economist Story on Al Shabaab
http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12815670&CFID=37713077&CFTOKEN=44056901







* Names changed.

Unity Football Club

Aisha, Samiya and Khadija

members of the Friday Unity Football Club

A huge thank you to all the churches who have sent money into The Sharing Way to help support clubs like this one. We thank you and the girls of Iftin thank you! This is the first time that most of the girls have played an organized sport. Your donation for sports equipment is making a huge impact in the lives of many Somali women and children.

Let's Talk...

Today, our team mate, Diane Bannister, came to class with us to talk to the women of Iftin about HIV/ AIDS and TB. Diane explained to the girls how the disease can be transmitted and the importance of being tested. Many girls responded that they would like to be tested but there is too much shame attached to the test. They said that if they tested positive it would automatically be assumed that they had contracted the disease through sin and they would then be alienated from their family and community. Please pray for these women as they are very vulnerable to sexual assault and live under with much fear and shame.

First Graduation

Iftin's first graduating class!

Back Row: Leila, Hawa, Samiya, Faiza, Zahra, Safiya and Falastin.

Front Row: Khadija and Aisha.

The teacher's tent!

Erica, Zahra and Nelius at the graduation ceremony held in the Eastleigh Community Centre's vocational training square on Friday morning, February 27th. This was a very special day for us as we were so proud of our students. They have come so far over such short period of time. It was a special honour to have our advanced class receive their certificates as part of the VTC ceremony.

Safiya receiving her level one certificate from Dr. L.O. Lumuba

the honorary guest for the graduation ceremony.

E.C.C. director, Mr. Ehud Gachugu, addressing the

2009 graduating class of the Vocational Training Centre.

The director took the opportunity to challenge the graduates to use the skills, knowledge and experiences of their training to better their lives and to become a part of bettering Kenya. Throughout the ceremony faith and hope were central themes repeated in drama, music, and a challenge given by Rev. Shem Githingi, the pastor of the Eastleigh P.C.E.A. parish church. It was a theme echoed in the words of the Iftin song calling on the Somali women to become light to their nation.

Aaron sharing some words of encouragement to the VTC class, the graduates and the members of Iftin: Reminding them that God is calling each one of us forward towards Himself. As we study and work hard, we not only help ourselves but also our community, our neighbours and our families to move forward. Our prayer is that God will give each of us the sensitivity to hear His call upon our lives and the courage to step into it.




One of the great highlights of the ceremony was a presentation made by the Iftin choir.