Destination : Karima

YEAH! we now know where we are headed and that is so cool to be able to "picture it" in your mind :) our team will be going to serve in the 410 Bridge community of Karima and it looks like will be working on a water project there. our team will also have the opportunity to do more relational things like home visits and working with the children in the community.

Karima is two and a half hours northeast of Nairobi just outside the Abedare National Park, near the town of Naivasha. the area is predominately rural farmland and the people depend on agricultural activities to support themselves. the land is very good for farming but finances are very limited. there are a large number of widows and single mothers trying to provide for the needs of their children and grandchildren. Karima is home to the Karima Girl's High School, a provincial girl's boarding school. there are two churches in the area, Glory Outreach Assembly and ACK St. James. the community of Karima is close knit and very welcoming to visitors.

Needs in Karima:

• Water is the largest need; currently it has to be retrieved by hand from the river (many miles away)
• Education programs and school renovation
• Micro-enterprise initiatives

Projects:

• phase 1 water project: the borehole is now COMPLETE... i believe we will be helping them with the tank that will provide water to this community.
• phase 2 water project: will begin upon completion of phase 1 which will include distribution of clean water throughout the community to various access points

• outreach and descipleship programs within the community

Impact:

• Karima is one of the newer 410 Bridge communities and 410 has great hopes for the partnership with the community of Karima
• visiting teams in 2008 worked on school renovation and community outreach programs
• the community raised money and purchased a plot of land for a large water tank as part of their contribution on the water project

i want to share with you something that i was made aware of just recently and it shows how God is really orchestrating everything about our trip. it has made it even a bigger blessing that our team will be heading out to Karima. a family in our church recently lost their son Grant just a couple weeks before his due date. it was and still is a heart wrenching loss. his parents wanted to do something to bring change and a lasting impact in Grant's name. they contacted 410 Bridge to see if it was possible to fund a project. at the time of the call 410 had no correlation to our church sending a team to kenya this summer. 410 soon returned a call to them and planned out the Grant Barrett project in KARIMA! :) we will be working on the project that is in Grant's name!!!!!! for me, that is an extra special blessing. not that going to kenya wasn't going to be a blessing for me in itself, but to have this added in makes it even better! God is working behind the scenes and bringing it all together.

well, our yard sale is THIS saturday. Come on out! we are having it at the club house in the Brandon Oaks subdivision in Indian Trail from 7-11. we will then be serving a hotdog lunch and have a bouse house 4 the kids to play in. we would love to see u!! i will be doing some baking so u don't want to miss out :) we are still collecting donations for the yard sale... so if you have something let me know.