Christmas in Kenya- How to Help

"Every great journey begins with a small step."

I read this phrase last night and was very touched by it. It made me think about the Chemurgui village and how 5 years ago when we started with a HUGE dream of providing clean drinking water to this place we knew nothing about... and now. Now there have been so many changes to this little village and we have fallen in love with the people there. Over the last 5 years we have dug a fresh water well, provided them with a solar pump for the water to farm the land, provided beds and mattresses for the agriculture school there, lots of chickens and goats, cows, and last year we built 2 classrooms for the Kriete School and filled them with desks for the young children in that area to learn and grow!  What an AMAZING journey that started with just one small step! The step was to say "yes". All we had to do is say yes when the Lord nudged our heart in that direction. We said yes, and he provided through YOU!

We are so aware that there is NO WAY that our little family could ever do this on our own. But with much prayer and a whole lot of amazing generous people, the Lord has provided!

This year our contact at Christian Relief Fund traveled to the Chemurgui village in August. She took a ton of pictures and spent a lot of time with me on the phone answering every question I had and sharing so much about what things are like there. After many conversations (and pictures that just stole our hearts) we decided our number one priority this year was to get the children sponsored that will be attending the school we just built. These two classrooms are pre-K and kindergarten, so most of the children needing sponsored are ages 3-5.

To sponsor a child is a $35 a month commitment. This provides them with medical, food, schooling, and Bible teaching every month! This will be LIFE CHANGING for this community! It keeps kids off the streets during the day, it provides them with much needed food they are not getting at home, and it helps pay the teachers that are working there to stimulate the environment and provide safe and appropriate employment. When we started a month ago, we had 34 children in that area that needed sponsors. We are now down to 15! That is so amazing and we are so thankful for those who have chosen sponsorship, but we aren't done yet! We currently have been granted a private page to try to get these children sponsored. We have until Thanksgiving, and then they will go into the mass system of all waiting children in all countries that Christian Relief works in.  We would LOVE to get each of these children a sponsor BEFORE Thanksgiving, as to not get lost in the shuffle of all waiting children.

If you are interested in sponsoring you can visit our private page HERE. If sponsorship is not for you right now, please take the time to go read some of these children's stories and choose someone to pray for until they find sponsorship!

The other two goals for the year are to dig a pit latrine and build a stable a secure 10 stall bathroom for the school and to buy 25 goats.

The current bathroom situation is horrible. There is no bathroom at the school. The school must share with the church across the road. This bathroom is a very old, one stall situation. Currently the pit is caving in and the rickety structure surrounding it is infested with bees. When talking about all of our options for physical needs, this was ranked as the most immediate need!

We also would like to purchase 25 goats. This provides soooo many things for this community. Employment of tending to goats, milk for the children at the school, milk to sell at the market, and many more possibilities. The goal is to have a herd of 150, but we would like the people there to be invested in raising this herd to its potential. With a herd of 25 they felt they could get to 150 in 2-3 years.

HOW TO HELP

We have several ways you can help!

1. PRAY- this is so important! We strongly believe that prayer should be the first line of action, not a last resort! So please, please pray for this to be a successful effort!

2. Hire our kids! This sounds bad, but our kids are willing to do the work! If you have a job that needs to be done, they are willing to try to do it!

3. Sponsor a child- We have 15 more children desperately needing sponsorship. You can go HERE to read their stories and choose someone to sponsor.

 

 4. Purchase Socks!- I will have an entire post dedicated to socks early next week, but here it is in a nutshell.. We have partnered with this amazing organization called WeHelpTwo. You get to purchase fun funky socks (3 pairs for $15). Every time you purchase a package of socks, we get $9 toward our goal AND we get a warm pair of thermal socks to donate to the homeless in our area! It is helping both globally and locally- win, win! We have heard your requests, and they have TONS of new styles and designs this year.  Tall socks, ankle socks, stripes, polka-dots, athletic socks... and in a size for EVERYONE! They even created "funky first" for the toddlers in your life (and they are super cute).
If you are local- I have all of the new styles and designs on hand and you can purchase them NOW! it is first come first serve on what I have in stock. Just send me a message and I will hook you up! If you are not local- you can still purchase socks. Go HERE to the sock store and you can purchase any pair of socks you desire and have them shipped directly to you! Just make sure you put "Kriete" in the organization you would like to support (step 3) so we get the credit for the socks you order!

5. Make a donation/sponsor a goat- if purchasing socks is not your cup of tea, and you don't live close to have the kids work for you, but would like to contribute... you can send a donation through PayPal. Goats are $50 each, and we would love for you to sponsor a goat! Just send money to krietechristmas2018@gmail.com through PayPal and we will be happy to get you covered!

6. SPREAD THE WORD!  We know not everyone can contribute financially right now, but you might have people in your circle that can! Please share our story and our mission! We want as many people praying for this goal as possible, and that requires you!


These BIG goals have a $6,250 price tag! That is a lot of work to do before Christmas! But as I said in the beginning, every great journey begins with a small step. Take your small step today!

Thanks for joining us on the journey!