July Newsletter a much delayed update!

July 2010

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Kenya! The Tipton family is enjoying the summer break from school although we are actually experiencing winter time. We pray that this letter finds you all doing well.

Since our last update, we ended our school year. The end of the year was full of sporting events, music concerts and recitals, awards ceremonies and celebrations for those who were graduating. In the transient community of missionaries and expatriates, it is too frequently a time of goodbyes when families are moving on because of change in ministries or jobs. Mary Shea asked me one day why all her friends had to move – it was a tough end of the year for her in particular as one of her very dear friends left to return to the US. So, we said a few goodbyes to friends that we hated to see go. However, we know that they will be blessings in their new communities as they have been here. We also have the hope that we will see some of them when we travel to the US in the future.

Summer/Winter has flown by, and the kids do not like the reminder that this break will only last about 3 more weeks. Although, we are sad about missing out on visits with friends and family this summer with a trip to the States, we are a bit relieved at the opportunity to stay at home and enjoy the slower pace.

We have not been bored however. The first week of June, the kids enjoyed a week at Camp BlueSky, which has truly been a blessing to us in our years here – look them up at www.campbluesky.org. I just can’t say enough good things about the group of young adults that runs that place – they truly have servant’s hearts, and they love the kids here. They even stick around all year and run the youth groups for our kids. This was Horace’s last year as a camper, and he was able to enjoy a week of camping, rafting, paintballing and general fun with friends. Mary Shea woke up the day we were to travel to camp with strep throat, so her camp was delayed until the antibiotics were in effect. It did not slow her down though, and she enjoyed rock climbing and the ropes course almost as much as the concentrated time with friends. She is looking forward to the years that she can enjoy the off campus activities as well. We hope that Horace will be able to return next year as a junior counselor – even if only for a week or two.

We gave them a brief week of break to recover, and then we traveled to Uganda for a little working vacation. The first few days, we visited Restoration Gateway in Kuruma Falls. It was a beautiful area with a sad history. Situated on the Nile, it was the first place that people fleeing Joseph Kony and the LRA could safely stay. For some reason, Kony did not cross the Nile River, so the first camps were set up in the Kuruma Falls area. We visited Tim and Janice McCall who lived in Memphis at one time. They have been given a vision to build a development there including a children’s home, school, hospital, seminary, resort center and farm. Horace was asked to come and consult with them about the best use of the farm land to raise food as well as income. For those of you in Memphis, you will enjoy that Janice was a second grade teacher at PDS once upon a time, and Horace (Sr.) remembers her from when he was a student there. Truly a small world experience!

After leaving Kuruma Falls, we traveled to Jinja to raft the source of the Nile. Well, the boys rafted – the girls took the easy route and were driven down the river over much calmer rapids. The minimum age for rafting is 16, so Mary Shea will have to wait a few more years. Horace, Jr. had a blast doing that, and would have loved a longer day rafting. Horace, Sr. was questioning his sanity (most of the falls were class 5s; everyone in his boat was half his age) and definitely felt the muscles he had used. Mary Shea is inspired and challenged now, and she wants us to plan a family outing to raft the Tana River here where she will be old enough to participate. Mom was just fine with hanging out in the serenity of calm water enjoying the surroundings, as she will be when they raft the Tana. After all, someone needs to stay back and cook dinner, right? Another small world experience was that one of the rafting guides was from Memphis. We made the connections as we were wearing Huey’s and Rendezvous t-shirts.

After returning from Uganda, the boys had another fantastic opportunity to camp in the Masai Mara with a group of friends. Horace, Sr. could only go for one night, but Horace, Jr. stayed 3 nights. They visited with Masai in the villages, went on game drives, cooked, camped and enjoyed being out there. The highlight was probably when one of the Masai men took them hunting at night. Overall, it was one of those fantastic opportunities to make memories of growing up in Africa.

We are looking forward to a family vacation to end our summer. We are planning a trip to Egypt at the end of July. It is one of those places on our list that we are so excited to see. We will write more about the experience later, but we do plan to see as much as we can of that country. After that, I am afraid to say it is time for school. Horace, Jr. has decided to narrow down to only two sports this year, but he will have quite a demanding work load for his junior year. Mary Shea will continue with basketball, and her eighth grade load will be a challenge, but she has the added responsibility of being Middle School Student Council Vice-Chair. All in all, I know we are headed for a busy, but enjoyable year.

Our work is progressing well. In Ngare Ndare, a group of about 20 farmers just completed financing, growing and marketing an onion crop on their own. We had extremely little to do with it, which is exactly what our goal is – to make ourselves obsolete. In Mang’u another 20 farmers are preparing to do the same (although they are yet undecided what to grow – some are saying bell peppers). The farmers in Kabete are struggling with selling their flowers. They feel the local market price is too low to justify their efforts, yet they are having a hard time making their flowers reach the quality standards necessary for market in Amsterdam. Please pray for their success.

In Murang’a the farmers are working on planting a rice crop. Michael, Rebecca and our Kenyan employee Beth are working very diligently on this project, as we see it as the wave of the future – our giving production, management and marketing assistance to the farmers, but allowing local institutions to do the actual financing of the crops. This also allows us to have more time with the farmers simply to build relationships and disciple the people. Please pray that this project succeeds.

In Meru and Embu the farmers have produced sunflowers, processed and bottled the oil, and have now produced about 1100 bottles, and they are working on selling them through local markets. The finished oil they have produced is excellent, and it has added a lot of enthusiasm to the group. However, they have had a rough road getting to this point, with management disputes and delays in production. Pray their transition to complete sustainability by early next year is a smooth one.

The Kirinyaga and Mbeere farmers have recently sold over a 1000 aloe vera suckers and should sell another 2000 by the end of this month. They have also made contact with a leaf buyer, who should be inspecting their crop soon. If all works out successfully, the buyer, who bottles and markets the aloe vera gel, could be purchasing at least a ton per month. The challenges for these farmers are not only in producing a high quality product but also managing amongst themselves how they will distribute their product. It will require a lot of detailed organization and diplomacy amongst the Planting Faith staff, our partners and the leadership of the farmer group. As soon as money gets involved with group work, it always becomes much more complicated. Pray.

Our demonstration farm now has a complete drip irrigation system on our grain crops. For the most part, they look very good (except for the soybeans). We should be harvesting everything by the end of August. At that time, we will have it milled into meal, and then we will mix it ourselves for dairy feed. Having proper feeds should prove to boost our dairy production greatly, as our three cows are only feeding on fodder now. The cost savings over purchasing commercial feed should be tremendous, and could be a realistic advantage for dairy farmers here.

We are also growing irrigated red and yellow bell peppers that are nearing harvest, but we are noticing some disease problems on them as they begin to ripen. Pray that we can keep the plants disease free, so that we can harvest a good crop, as all our proceeds go to the children of the children’s home, whose land we use.

We are so very thankful for your prayers and support and hope that you know you remain in our prayers as well.

Blessings,

Horace, Anne, Horace, Jr. & Mary Shea Tipton