Famine Relief

Somali Refugees in the the village of Dhobley, Somalia

The Drought in East Africa is affected over 12,000,000 people but nowhere is the effects more visible than in the refugee camps of Dadaab near the Kenya/Somalia border where now close to half a million Somali Refugees have come for help. In the past two weeks, Erica and I have been travelling to Dadaab with our friend Amanda Lindhout to help her Global Enrichment Foundation and several other small NGOs to get food across the border and into Somalia.

You can read more about the first convoy and our experiences in our new blog at www.fivekennys.blogspot.com . Please continue to pray for the people of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya who are suffering from the famine. Pray especially for small children under the age of 5 who are the most vulnerable. We are hearing that in excess of 29,000 children have died from this famine in the past three months.

We appreciate all of the prayers and letters of encouragement!

To learn more of what Canadian Baptists are doing in Kenya and to donate toward the Famine Relief Efforts, please visit the Canadian Baptist Ministries website at www.cbmin.org

Growth Always Brings Change

Our kitchen garden full of heavy ladened pawpaw trees

We returned to Kenya just over a week ago and are settling back into life and ministry. Tristan and Emma have returned to school at Rosslyn Academy, and we are back to work with our new responsibilities with Guardians of Hope and Somali urban development and outreach.

Last Thursday, we hosted a good Somali friend at our home and during the visit we spent some time in our backyard and little kitchen garden. It was wonderful to see how much had changed in our small patch of fruit trees, tomato plants, and greens. It reminded me of the parable of the farmer who plants the seed and must leave the mystery of growth to God. Matthew tells us that "he knew not how" the tiny seed became the harvest. The transformation was not of his doing nor within his control.

This has also been our experience in Kenya. Growth and change is a mystery. We can tell the stories of a relationships or seeds planted, but who can understand how God draws someone into hope, faith, and compassion. How does the mystery work? Our friend has persevered through much hardship and uncertainty over the past eight months, but we are so encouraged by how God continues to uphold her. She is not the same person we met three years ago. Thank you so much for faithfully praying for the families of Iftin and Guardians of Hope. Please continue to pray for growth and change within their lives.

This young pineapple will take two years to mature to harvest

Sometimes the result of our small efforts bring enormous surprises. Last August, we visited a Luo village in Western Kenya and were given pineapple seedlings by our hosts to bring back to our home. By the end of our four day journey, the tattered plants were pretty beaten up from the tossing and jostling of the journey. I remember taking them out of the back of the Landcruiser and wondering if we should even bother planting. We did. And to our surprise, the forgotten and neglected seedlings have come to life. Young fist-sized pineapples have emerged under the shade of the pawpaw. Amazing. God brings the sun, God brings the rain, and God causes the seed to grow. Without God's loving and powerful hand at work in our world, nothing will grow and nothing will change.

As our friend left that afternoon, she carried an armload of fruit back to her home. She was encouraged by stories of our time in Canada and by the many people praying for her community in Eastleigh. We are thankful for changes that we are seeing not only in her, but within this little patch of the world.

Facing Challenges Together

Zahra, Nelius and Erica working through some problems today as we plan for the upcoming term with Iftin.

In July, we will be celebrating the first year of Iftin. We are deeply thankful for God's blessing of Zahra and Nelius who have been working with us and the incredible women of Iftin. It hasn't been an easy journey, but we feel that through faith and determination that obstacles can be overcome.

In Prayer:

* We pray for the desperate need of rain throughout Kenya. Although Eastleigh received a good dosing today, the spring rains have come late and much of the country is extremely dry. As a result, livestock are suffering and crops are withering. Food prices have climbed steadily and the urban poor are among the hardest hit as they try to make their few shillings stretch with the doubling of basic food prices. Canadian Baptist Ministries and Canadian Food Grains Bank are preparing for a major food distribution throughout rural parts of Kenya. Included in this will be a relief aid project in Northeast Province among the Somali communities where the Carlines and Gollos are working. We will be working in Eastleigh to address issues of food security with the families of Iftin.

* We are praying for clean water for the families of Eastleigh. With the generous support of Churches and individuals from Canada, we are preparing to distribute water filtration systems to vulnerable Somali and Oromo families living in Eastleigh and Mathare Valley. We pray that these families will adopt the regular habits needed to maintain clean water and good hygiene that are being taught through the distribution project. Poor sanitation and unclean water are leading causes of child mortality in Eastleigh and throughout the developing world.

* We pray for unity and trust within the community. Many of the women of Iftin have suffered criticism and even persecution for their decision to join Iftin. Traditionally negative views against female education, and the presence of women in public life, make it difficult for individuals who want to break the mold. Over the last month, about a dozen members of Iftin have stopped attending literacy classes due to outside pressure. Pray for us as we struggle to build in roads of trust, while challenging people to value the opportunity for women to learn.

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.

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.

Visitors from Cornwall

Members of our 10 am ESL class with

guests from Cornwall Baptist Church, Ontario

It was a great week in Eastleigh as the new semester began with the Iftin women at the Eastleigh Community Centre. Students also returned for both the preschool and primary school programs (the vocational schools will be in full force next week).

On Friday, we had the pleasure of hosting four men representing the Cornwall Baptist Church: Pastor Randy, Bob, Ted and John. The guys shared in a time of interviews with the Somali women, providing a chance for the ladies to practice their English conversation skills. Several of the students also stepped up and bravely took on the challenge of public speaking before the class and our special guests.

Tristan and Emma enjoyed having the last week off as Christmas break drew to an end. On Thursday, Erica and I took the day off from Eastleigh to go to the water slides here in Nairobi with our kids. To our surprise, we were the only people there and had the slides to ourselves for over an hour before a few teenagers trickled in. It was a lot of fun and great exercise as we ran up the steps over and over again trying to keep up with Tristan!

In prayer:

Please pray for our team mates, the Carline family, as Paul's father is struggling with cancer. The reports from Canada are not good. We pray that God's peace and strength will surround all the family especially Peter and Anita.

Please pray for the health of our friends within Iftin. Throughout this week, we've noticed the absence of several faithful members who are ill. We've also encountered many women struggling with minor injuries. Most people in this community can not afford to visit a hospital, and commonly self diagnose their ailments and purchase drugs from local chemists and shops. One of the ladies, Mama Halwa, has a ten year old daughter that is recovering from multiple injuries and head trauma resulting from a bombing in Mogadishu. Mama Halwa came to Kenya several months ago for medical help for her child.

We also continue to pray for Ava's adoption. We won't know until January 22nd if we will have a spot of the January 23rd hearing (Given the huge backlog in the adoption court, we may very well be bumped again). We pray especially for Sam Mutisya, our guardian ad litum, who is currently recovering at home from surgery. We pray that he will be able to be present at which ever date the judge is finally able to hear our case.

12 days till Christmas!

Christmas-OrBust!

The count down has begun in the Kenny household as Tristan and Emma anticipate the quickly approaching Christmas break and festivities. Ava is also getting in on the fun which includes making our own wrapping paper: each night after supper we sit together and draw/colour Christmas pictures and designs on big sheets of flip chart paper -- It is a very relaxing family activity. I think we'll have to make it a new advent tradition!

Looking back on the week, which was unfortunately gripped with cold and flu for me (Aaron), we had several highlights. The Christmas concert was the big one. We had a great evening at Rosslyn with a recorder recital from Tristan's class (I remember using my third grade recorder more as a kazoo than an instrument, but Tristan is amazing he certainly didn't get this talent from me), and then the Bethlehem Treasure pageant! Afterward, Emma's friend Mary slept over and we stayed up eating popcorn and watching a dvd of old Christmas specials.

On Wednesday, we had the fun of hosting Carla Nelson and Seth Crowell along with Malcolm & Patty Card for supper. Carla and Seth are in Kenya with the ABC teacher's program. We enjoyed lots of laughter as we heard bits and pieces of the work they are involved with.

We were also glad to hear back from Don & Joy Hepburn who've safely returned to Canada. Since being back, they have added some great new photos to their blog. For anyone interested in what an STM to Kenya might look like, I would highly recommend taking a peek at the Hepburn's blog as they chronicled their time here.

Looking ahead to next week. We are in Eastleigh sharing in home visits among the Somali women of Iftin. As part of our time in the community, we have been working together with Zahra to complete a baseline survey for upcoming Sharing Way programs in Eastleigh. We have been climbing a steep learning curve in sustainable community development, but our training and study of Integral Mission has wonderfully shaped our efforts in urban ministry. We will continue working in Eastleigh up until December 19th when the kids get out of school for Christmas break.

Thank you all so much for keeping our family and Somali ministry in your prayers.

Soundtrack

Our friend Carolyn Ward just inspired us to add a bit of a soundtrack to our blog. We are experimenting with playlist.com and hope you like it. Please let us know if this addition to our blog causes you any grief or frustration with connecting to our posts -- This is new to us! We hope that you will enjoy some of the music that is playing in our IPods.

In other news:

The Hepburns return to Canada tomorrow night after a great month of ministry in Eastleigh. Please keep Don & Joy in prayer as they fly home. We have deeply appreciated their encouragement and the passion they have brought into their time with the students and teachers of the Eastleigh Community Centre.


On Thursday, Erica is co directing the Rosslyn Academy Elementary Christmas Concert. Please pray for the kids who will be performing: Especially the fifth grade actors who've been rehearsing for several months now for the BIG night!

HOPE

Our adoption hearing has been delayed until the new year. We are scheduled to go before the high court on Friday, January 23rd, but we will not have this confirmed until January 22nd. Please continue to pray for us through this process. As we celebrate the first week of Advent, we light a candle of hope. Just as in every aspect of our lives, we must hold onto the assurance of God's good and perfect love. We are trusting in the Lord that everything will come together so that we can travel with Ava in the spring.

Princesses

Ava in her new "Snow White" dress. She may not be "as white as snow", but she is certainly as dark as yummy hot cocoa.

Our two little princesses!



On Saturday we received a wonderful care package from our friends Andrew, Kelly and Lauren Myers, and in it was a little Snow White outfit just the perfect size for Ava. She loves it. In fact, she must really think that she is snow white, because she refuses to wear anything else, but the dress. On Sunday morning she walked into our bedroom having de-robed, and presented us with the dress (that we had to force her to take off at bed time the night before): "Mommy, Daddy!" she said, more than a little frustrated, as she pushed the dress into our hands and stood up straight with her arms over her head... we got the message.

In Prayer for September

* We are excited to have many of our CBM colleagues returning this month! Paul Carline landed back on Friday evening with Kara, Kelvin and Keenan. Please continue to pray for Kelly and their eldest daughter, Katie, as she begins university this fall in Canada. The Cards and A., will be back a little later in the month.

* Please keep the women in our Iftin group in your prayers as they begin the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Today we were missing a few of the ladies as they find this a difficult month with many extra responsibilities. We will be giving them a two week break from their classes near the end of the month as this will be the most intense and tiring time for most of them.

* Please pray for our entire Somali Ministry team as we work together this fall with strategic planning with The Sharing Way. This will be a crucial time for us as we depend on God's leading and direction for determining the best way forward with our urban and rural development work and ministry.

* Remember our family as we await the last report needed for Ava's adoption. Once Child services submits this document to the court, we will be able to go before the judge and have our application heard. We are still praying for a Christmas adoption!!!

All is Well

We wanted to let you know that the BWA youth team is all doing very well and enjoying their time serving in Mombassa. They will be completing their project there this weekend and then returning to the city. Everyone is doing fine!

The renovations in Eastleigh continued today and the classroom is looking better and better. We had many little visitors as children from the school took every chance they had to come and see us working the noisy skill saw that was echoing throughout the centre. It was a surprise to see every little scrap of leftover lumber and chipboard being snatched up by the kids who started playing with the bits of wood. It was certainly and easy project to clean up.

Summer vacation is soon drawing to a close for Tristan and Emma, we actually did a little back-to-school shopping yesterday. Rosslyn Academy returns for a new school year on August 12. Both Tristan and Emma are very excited to meet their new teachers. It will be great for them to get back into the school day rythym.

July 2008 Prayer Update

We want to thank everyone who has been keeping Somali ministry and our family in prayer. Please continue to pray for our colleagues the Carlines as they continue to support Paul's mom and dad (No new information on how Peter's cancer treatment is going).

* Please also pray for the many short term missionaries who are serving here with us this summer: Jon Hodgeson, an elementary school teacher from British Columbia (married to Bob and Ann Swan's daughter Sarah) has come for three weeks to teach in Dadaab; Paul and Jennifer Ward (Ron and Joan Ward's son and daughter-in-law) arrived last week and are now in Garissa for two weeks; And the White Rock team that will be finishing their project in Dadaab and returning to Niarobi on Tuesday where they will be serving with us in Eastleigh.

* Please pray for the Somali women's group at the Eastleigh Community Centre. Our ESL classes are going very well and new students continue to arrive seeking space in the morning classes. Thanks to our friend Zahra's help, we are able to hold two classes each week day morning. We pray for these women who face many difficulties with dedicating the time for attending classes and studying English amidst their many family responsibilities.

We had a scary experience on Friday night coming home from the airport after dropping Jon Hodgeson off at the Carline's house. While driving home along the dark winding Peponi Road, a belt snapped in our vehicle stranding us on road at about 11:30 pm. We managed to get it off the steep road out of harms way from the rushing cars and contacted a towing company, but it took nearly an hour for the tow truck to arrive. This wouldn't be much more than an inconvenience in Canada, but here it was dangerous and more than a little scary. We were harassed by a few inebriated men, but in answer to prayer the Lord provided us with a Good Samaritan, a Kenyan named Robinson. Our baby sitters were greatly relieved to have us home when we finally got back after 1:00 am. We are so thankful for everyone who regularly prays for our safety and for the well being of the people of Kenya.

Great God!

It is often all too easy to become caught up in our present situations of life: The urgency of the now; The troubles of the moment; that problem right in front of you!

Since coming to Kenya, we have been confronted by incredible needs. After a while, the temptation is to shut yourself off. And to allow our energies to be absorbed by all the little things and the ineffective systems of Kenya (Like the three hours it took to retrieve a parcel from the central Kenyan postal office, good night!). We struggle with becoming cynical and even bitter over the very battles that we have come to enter into. And they are battles, wearying and relentless.

When we do stop to look back, it can seem that so little has been accomplished and that the same needs remain. We doubt this is anything peculiar to Kenya. We can all become overwhelmed by life and suffering.

But what gives us hope is found in our faith that God hasn't left us to solve the problems on our own. In fact, the battle is already won, we are all part of the playing out of that victory. Our little efforts, our small sacrifices, and even our weak perseverance some how fits into what our Masterful Creator is doing in the world. Somehow, faith allows our fitful cries of "Great God!" to become reverent confessions. God is Great and God is not finished with this world.

In Prayer:

* We hope you will join us in praying for God to expand our faith and our appreciation of just how Great God is.

* On May 30th, we will be going to court for Ava's adoption. We are praying that everyone who needs to be there will be present for the morning court proceedings, and that there will be no barriers to the adoption.

* Over the next three weeks, we will be traveling throughout Kenya with a group of pastors and graduate students coming from across Canada and Kenya to form the 2008 Praxis Class. Please pray a safe journey for the Canadians who will be arriving on Saturday evening, and for our travelling together throughout the coming weeks.

* Please be in prayer for two of the women in Eastleigh with whom Erica has been serving over the past year. Both have delivered babies this week, and praise God the children are both very healthy. But, in both cases the mothers are struggling without much in the way of resources. One of the Somali mothers has suffered from heavy bleeding and family members were gathered today to give blood for her for a transfusion. Thank you for lifting them in prayer.


ALSO: We came across this fantastic blog post on Shrinking God and highly recommend it! You can click on this link or use the address below to check it out for yourself! Blessings and peace!



http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/2008/05/212-shrinking-god.html