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