Update - October 13

Greetings from Kenya!

I am trying to be a more regular blogger. Here are the latest developments with us.

Work with Planting Faith is going well – and very, very busy. We have several things on the horizon and several important meetings this week. With God’s help, I will be writing more about some of these things later.

Horace left today for a busy two days of travel. First, he heads to Ngare Ndare to check on the butternut squash and the group there. Tomorrow, he will be in Kerugoya for a meeting with farmers and CCS officers about details of the sunflower processing machine. After that, he heads to a rescheduled meeting with the Bishop in Thika. He tried to have the meeting last week, but Bishop Githiga had to meet with Kofi Annan instead….ok, that’s a good reason.

Kofi Annan was in town because Kenya has reached some deadlines in dealing with the post election violence perpetrators from December 2007. They had until September 30 to set up a local tribunal to bring them to justice, but it failed twice in Parliament. So now, it will be up to the International Criminal Court at the Hague. That prosecutor is due to arrive in Kenya soon to set up details of how this will happen. The plan is that the major players will be prosecuted by the ICC and others involved should be tried locally, but I guess we will all have to wait for official announcements. Kenya has pledged to support the process, and we pray that, whatever the outcome, the lasting result will be peace and reconciliation among the people of this country. So, stay tuned for more news in this area.

In other Planting Faith News, we are beginning a pilot project in Murang’a which has a slightly different approach to financing projects than our other work. We pray that this will be successful, and we are optimistic as we approach it. Please check out the Rhodes’ blog http://allrhodesleadtokenya.blogspot.com for more details and information about this.

We continue to need and pray for rain. We have had some nice showers, but we cannot say the rainy season has begun quite yet. I can truly say that rain hitting the roof is such a wonderful sound. We keep hearing that an El Nino weather pattern will be coming and causing abnormally increased rainfall. This will bring the blessing of filling rivers and dams across the country, but it can also bring landslides, flooding and disease. We pray that all are prepared if this does occur and that the people in rural areas are protected.

Family life moves right along at a brisk pace. Mary Shea and I had a great trip for Cultural Field Studies (CFS) with her seventh grade class. CFS is a great program at Rosslyn Academy that takes each class (from grade 5 – 12) on a 3 to 5 day experience somewhere in Kenya. For Mary Shea’s trip, we went to Elsamere – the home of Joy Adamson of Born Free fame. It was a great time for the kids. We had awesome teaching on Environmental Stewardship, a service time of fellowship at a local school and great devotions on what God is calling each of us to do in the world with others and with our surroundings. Unfortunately, we returned with an uninvited guest as we both contracted a bacterial infection somewhere along the way. Thankfully, we were treated Saturday by competent doctors – even though Saturday was a National Holiday here – and we are both now recovering. I continue to be thankful that we can receive good medical care here – especially for these type illnesses.

Meanwhile, Horace, Jr. , who usually participates in all three sports season each year, has been experiencing substantial knee pain for quite a while. We sought treatment and were told it was growing pains, but we have become increasingly worried that the normal pain relievers did not seem to work. So, we got a second opinion on Friday. They are running multiple tests to determine the nature of the problem. The good news is that the doctor is talking in terms of rest and physiotherapy to alleviate the problem and not surgery of any kind. We will know more after some of the test results. The bad news is that he is out of sports for the next 4 weeks. We pray that we can get some answers and start him on a treatment course for relief as well as get him back into all the sports he loves.

In other news….the Tiptons are moving! We have loved the house where we have lived for the last 3 ½ years, but there have been many changes in our area. The latest blow was the beginning of construction of a Nakumatt in the once wooded lot next door – think Walmart as your neighbor. The construction noise has seemed to grow louder each day. So, we will be moving to the tea area of Tigoni next month. We are looking forward to the move and where we are going. We will even get the chance to have a real garden again like we did at our house in Thika.

So, as you can see, we are not lacking for activity. Please join us in prayer for our work and our family. We do seem to be in a lot of transition in many areas, and that is always a source of stress. However, we rest in the knowledge that God is firmly in control of all situations.

Thank you for your messages of encouragement and your prayers. May your week be truly blessed in all you do.

Anne (for all the Tiptons)

Planting Faith October Newsletter

October 1, 2009

Greetings from Kenya! We pray that this newsletter finds all our friends and family healthy and safe.

Times are a bit difficult here in Kenya, but we are striving to make the best of those circumstances. Drought is upon us. In many areas the rains fell far short of expected amounts, and we are now seeing the resulting devastation. We are under strict water rationing in Nairobi and electricity rationing in all of Kenya. We currently only receive 24 hours of city water each week and have 3 days that power is cut during daylight hours. In trying times such as these, you really see the vulnerability of the infrastructure here.

It occurred to me this morning driving to school that the two most frequent sights I see every day are water trucks and cows. Both are things that were rare only a few months ago, but both are now vivid reminders of the drought we are experiencing. Water trucks are delivering water to homes and businesses because often the water pressure is too low even when the city water is running to fill water tanks. Most buildings here are designed with storage tanks that may hold anywhere from 1000 to 10,000 liters. I have a friend who only receives water 2 hours a week, and it does not come close to filling her tanks for a week’s supply. Cows are here because they have been herded from outlying dry areas in search of water and acceptable grazing areas. They simply keep moving because there is no point returning home until the rains come. I was with a group of women today in Bible study, and we all remarked how accustomed we are to yield to cows in the road and how that has become a routine recently, when only a few months ago, it was an oddity.

The farmers with whom we work are likewise facing these challenges, but as always are a wonderful testimony to perseverance and faith in all circumstances. We all continue to pray for rain to replenish the water supply here. Following is a brief summary of each of the ongoing projects:

Ngare Ndare- After the failure of the Moby Dick flowers, the farmers have reorganized and planted butternut squash after doing some initial local market research. PF has assisted them with the research, with a refinancing of the loan, and with helping the group start saving together as a group. They expect to harvest in late October.

Mang'u- Because of the lack of rain, only a few farmers have been selling passion fruit in Nairobi every two weeks, but we expect this number to increase as soon as the rains arrive. Those whose crops failed have been encouraged to repay the loans from other sources. The group has also received agricultural training on several other horticultural crops to be planted during the rains using their own capital, and has asked PF to begin training on how to form a small-scale informal savings and credit scheme. Training will begin in October.

Kabete- The Kabete farmer's continue to grow Bird of Paradise flowers, but due to a lack of rain have not begun selling as a group. They hope to begin shortly after the October rains, and in the meantime PF has begun training the group on how to form a small-scale informal savings and credit scheme.

Kirinyaga- The farmers in Kirinyaga continue to tend their aloe vera, with all the farmers recently receiving small scale drip irrigation kits that, once installed, will help conserve water while providing
the plants with a consistent source of water. PF and CCS staff are currently assisting the farmers with installing the irrigation, with disease and pest control of the aloe vera, and are continuing the Prepare a Better Business training.

Mbeere- These farmers continue to tend their aloe vera, with every farmer recently receiving a small scale drip irrigation kit that, once installed, will help conserve water while providing the plants with a consistent source of water. PF and CCS staff are currently assisting the farmers with installing the irrigation, with disease and pest control of the aloe vera, and are continuing the Prepare a Better
Business training.

Embu and Meru- Embu and Meru farmers recently harvested and dried their sunflower seeds, and have delivered them to the CCS demonstration farms in their areas for processing. Although the harvest was poorer than expected due to a lack of rain, the committees of both regions have met with PF and CCS staff to continue planning for the start of the Sunflower Oil businesses, which will begin as soon as the processing machines are delivered to the stations. Both groups are also near to completing the Prepare a Better Business training as conducted by PF staff.

The Tiptons recently returned from a trip to the US. It was mostly work for us, but Horace, Jr. did manage to get his driver’s license and enjoy a few days of that rite of passage. Anne and the children returned August 7 in time to begin the new school year. With Horace, Jr. in high school and Mary Shea in middle school, we quickly were back to the hustle and bustle of the school year with sports, worship team responsibilities and music lessons on top of academic demands. Horace, Sr. stayed in the US to continue work until September 3, when he returned to a family that missed him greatly!! We are learning the fine art of conservation in our household with limited water usage and the scheduled power cuts. The Rhodes were in Nairobi over the summer carrying on with their work in business training and facilitating the groups. They did have the blessing of many visitors over the summer which they seemed to enjoy tremendously.

It was, of course, wonderful to see family and friends, but there is never enough time. Fundraising, as you might expect, is challenging in the current economic climate. We continue to be so blessed with support from churches and individuals, and we are working to spread the word about our work here in Kenya. We hope you will spread the word about Planting Faith to help build our support base. Even the smallest donation goes a long way to further the work of Planting Faith in Kenya.

We are always encouraged when we visit churches and are reminded of how much prayer support we have. We visited a different church each weekend of the summer, and each of them seems to lift us up in prayer on a regular basis. That is both humbling and awe-inspiring for us. We have made new contacts and renewed old friendships in this process, and we are truly thankful at how God has blessed our time in Kenya as well as our trips back to the US. Truly, our work here could not continue without your prayer support, so we hope you will keep us in on your list of regular prayers.

Until our next update, may the Lord bless you and keep you in His protection.

The Tiptons

Horace, Anne, Horace, Jr. & Mary Shea

One more thing..

Sorry for the duplicate email, but I neglected to mention in the newsletter that a new version of the website is up and running.  Please check it out at www.plantingfaith.org.  

Blessings, 

Anne Tipton

May Newsletter

May 11, 2009

Greetings from Kenya!
(We are attaching a PDF format of our newsletter. Help us spread the
word about Planting Faith by printing and sharing with friends.)

First, we would like to wish all of the Mothers a Happy Mothers’ Day.
It was truly a blessing to celebrate here in the Tipton family. (This
Mom is very thankful for her wonderful husband and children.)

We are marching right along with our progress in work. We are at
various stages in 8 different communities with projects – each one
full of their own successes and challenges. We are assessing at every
stage to learn from our experience to make each new project more
successful.

Our four older group projects are all at very different places in
their work. Murang’a will be reviewing and seeking new opportunities
for crops and group work. We hope to provide an update soon on which
way this group will move.

Mang’u has been quite successful in passion fruit production. The
export market has proven to be quite a challenge for them, but they
have used their business knowledge and have been actively pursuing new
marketing opportunities. A driver takes a Planting Faith vehicle out
each week to gather the fruit, and several farmers then proceed to
Nairobi to sell. Over the past few months, the farmers have built
relationships and markets for themselves with local “green grocers”
(fruit and vegetable markets) and learned a tremendous amount in the
process. This has been a rewarding experience as they are truly
moving themselves toward independence and sustainability.

In Ngare Ndare, the farmers have had a challenging year. The flowers
chosen for this group have proved quite difficult. As the export
market turned south, standards rose, and unfortunately left our
farmers behind, as they found it very difficult to meet export
standards. We are now in the process of working with a new crop –
butternut squash – which will hopefully be planted during the months
of June and July for a timely harvest in the market.

In Kabete, the flowers are just now maturing to a stage for group
marketing. In the next few weeks, we should see sufficient quantity
for export marketing. In addition to the export market, the farmers
have also been looking at alternative local markets. This group is
very well organized, and should serve as a model in many areas of
their group work.

Our four new projects are at various stages as well. Two groups are
growing aloe vera for local and export markets, and two are growing
sunflowers for the local market. In addition to producing the
sunflowers, these groups are purchasing an oil press in order to add
value to the seed and sell the oil in the local market. There is much
to be done in organizing all of these groups, and we look forward to
watching the progress of the next few months.

Michael and Rebecca remain very busy with activities in teaching and
mentoring the groups. In addition to the Rhodes, we have also been
blessed with two short term missionaries who have been living with us
since Easter. Sarah Crockett and Cheryl Vickery are here working with
Planting Faith and helping with marketing research in the vegetable
and flower markets in Nairobi. We look forward to seeing the results
they find. Sarah only has a few days left with us, and Cheryl will be
here for the rest of May.

Family life marches on. Basketball may have “March Madness”, but all
schools have “May Madness”. We have rugby games, 3 exams, 2 music
recitals and 1 Girl Scout awards ceremony left in the 3 short weeks of
the school year. Makes one tired to consider it all. After school is
out, our kids will once again have the fantastic opportunity to attend
summer camp here – which has been renamed “Camp Blue Sky”. When camp
is finished, we will go back to the US for a summer visit to update
our donors on our challenges and progress and work on fundraising for
the next segment of our ministry. We have all been a bit under the
weather lately, and are praying for a strong and healthy end of the
school year.

Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers. Please continue to
pray for the farmers and for us so that we are able to discern God’s
way forward in each and every area of our work. Please pray for
Michael, Rebecca, Sarah and Cheryl as they continue with transitions
in the mission field. Also, please pray for the Tipton family as we
journey to the US and try to balance work and family.


In Christ,

Horace, Anne, Horace, Jr. & Mary Shea

April Update

April 1, 2009

 

Greetings from Kenya!

 

Sometimes when planning our time with a visiting team, we don’t really know how things will turn out.  Recently, we had the pleasure of hosting a team of short term missionaries from the UK who came to spend some time with Planting Faith to help us get one of our projects started in an area of Kenya called Wanguru.  They had an incredible beginning of their week – planting way beyond the number of plants expected.  They were planting aloe vera plants and were scheduled to begin work on a drip irrigation line at the end of the week.  But things definitely didn’t go as planned.  I was planning to send this out much earlier, but it ended up on April fool’s day.  Please don’t take it as a joke; it is a very real story. 

 

Wednesday of that week, at about 11 in the morning, their work came to a halt as they were viciously attacked by African bees.  There were 16 members of the team from the United Kingdom, two Planting Faith missionaries Michael and Rebecca Rhodes and many of the local farmers as well as some of the CCS employees out in the shamba working that morning.  Everyone has an account of what happened, but suffice it to say there were feelings of utter chaos, fear and panic.  From my perspective, getting a frantic call of disaster from out in the field is one of my worst fears.  And that is what happened as we were sitting down to lunch. 

 

Half of the team was stung badly, some of them hundreds of times.  One of the women, Roberta, is 71 years old, and the rest of the team estimates she must have been stung 1000 times.  Bob, who had previously experienced heart surgery, was stung hundreds of times as well.  Bob and Roberta collapsed in the field from the stings.  Clive, the team leader, laid over Bob to protect him, which resulted in being stung multiple times himself.  Michael, upon realizing the horror of the situation, began running back into the field and pouring water on people to get rid of bees. Michael was also stung many times.  The hired drivers of the safari vans that the team used for transport also made multiple trips back to the field to make sure people were out of the field.  It was sheer terror, and it, lasted for quite a while. 

 

Everyone was taken to the local district hospital where they were treated.  Bob and Roberta were admitted there.  Horace and I were in Nairobi, and Michael called us shortly after the attack.  We made several calls to get the kids secured, and we left to go as soon as we could.  After we arrived in Embu, and after consultation with our family doctor, we made the decision with the team to bring everyone back to Nairobi for further medical evaluation.  Finally, we arrived in Nairobi with everyone around 10 pm.  We visited Aga Khan Hospital, and Michael and 7 others saw Dr. Tesfaledet in the emergency room that night.  All were released with follow up medicines and a list of warning signs of trouble to watch for in the following days. 

 

To say that this team was protected by the Lord seems crazy after reading all of that, but you need to understand that there were so many instances all along the way of God’s protection.  First, when they were attacked, none of the team members can recall feeling any pain.  They were terrorized for sure, but they do not recall pain.  Then, when they got to the hospital, in a country where we regularly experience shortages of the most basic supplies, they were given injections of steroids, antihistamines and pain killers which probably prevented much worse reactions.  Then, half of the team did not seem to be affected by the bees – for whatever reason; there was a caregiver for each person that was stung.  I think each person out in that field has a story to tell, and I truly hope they will share their stories with anyone who will listen.  Our family doctor told us he had practiced medicine in Nyeri a few hours away from Nairobi and had seen deaths from bee stings before.  He was “surprised that no one died or was not more seriously injured from the attack or the shock afterwards”.  The team has returned to the UK, shaken, but able to return to their normal lives.  Two women have stayed in Kenya working with a children’s home and will work with us after Easter. 

 

It has made us think, reflect and pray a lot about mission teams – everything from “never again” to “what can we do differently”.  After digesting the experience, this truly seems like spiritual warfare.  This particular team represents an organization that has been part of some very productive work here in Kenya, not only with Planting Faith, but with many organizations.  That particular week, they were getting more done than anyone thought possible.  The enemy takes note of these things, and prepares for battle.  However, the Lord protected them in the distress of being attacked.  Please pray for their continued healing from the trauma and physical stress of this experience.  And please pray that what the enemy has meant for evil will be used for good in the testimonies of God’s protection of all involved. 

 

We continue on now in our work as before.  Rebecca is currently in the US as her grandfather died a few days ago.  Please pray for her and her family as they celebrate his life and gather together.  Pray for her safe travel back to Kenya. 

 

Michael and Horace are out in the field today meeting with farmers in Mang’u about the future direction of their group as they move toward sustainability.  Our other groups are plodding along.  We are most thankful for the blessing of several rains this week.  Please pray that they continue as they are sorely needed all across this country.  Our new groups are in a critical stage of planting and the rains are absolutely perfectly timed if they will continue. 

 

We pray that you are all well in these tough times.  Please keep in touch and let us know how we may pray for you.  Email us any time.  Work on the website continues to be a struggle, but I have made some small changes- check it out at www.plantingfaith.org. 

 

Blessings,

Anne Tipton