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