Egg-cellent News!!!!!!

    I got an email from Mama Betty this week that brought me so much joy!  She was writing to let me know that a few eggs have appeared in the chicken coop meaning only one thing.... THE CHICKENS ARE FINALLY LAYING EGGS!!!!!!!

A picture of 39 eggs Maurice collected one morning from
the precious chickens!

   Waiting for these chicks to lay eggs has really grown my patience!  When we were told that it would take about 20 weeks for the chicks to start laying, for some reason it didn't register to me that it meant they wouldn't start laying until October!  I was ready for eggs in August.  But, the Lubangas have done such a wonderful job being faithful and taking care of those precious chicks that I can imagine they are even more excited than I am about the arrival of the eggs.
   Since the email, I have talked to Mama Betty about 3 times on the phone this week eagerly getting updates.  One day Mama Betty told me she spent the whole day taking care of the chicks - she is as excited as I am about them!  The first day the chicks laid about 6 eggs.  The picture that Maurice sent me from a fews days later has 39 eggs he collected in one morning!  It is "normal" for between 85% and 90% of your chickens to lay eggs everyday once they are in full swing.  So, hopefully in the next few weeks we will be collecting 180 eggs every day to sell!  Can you imagine???
   We have also decided that since we have an empty chicken coop now (the one we raised the baby chicks in before they were moved to the new coop) that we are going to purchase 100 broilers (which are chickens that we can raise and sell for their meat).  These chicken have a quicker turn-over and hopefully we can sell them by January-ish.  We are excited about this project too and I am hoping that some of the student teachers that are there now will also contribute to this project.
   I wanted to thank everyone who donated to the chicken project before.  I hope you are just as excited as I am that the chickens you helped purchase are now a money-making machine that will help Epico Jahns be more self-sustaining.  Mama Betty and I decided that the money collected from the project will be split between paying for food for the students at the school and paying the teachers' salaries.
   So, Asante Sana (thank you very much in kiSwahili)!  I will keep you all updated on the project as I hear more from Mama Betty!

Micah

    Many of you know, but many of you may not know (to be honest I have no idea who even reads my blog anyways), a friend and inspiration of mine, Micah Magnusson, passed away almost 2 months ago. This is a prayer that I wrote following Micah’s death. To read more about Micah and the journey God took him on, you can explore his care pages site at http://www.carepages.com/carepages/MicahMag/updates.

Father,

   On Wednesday August 22, 2012 a gentle and strong brother of the faith was taken home to you.  You must be so happy to have Micah with you finally.  It must give you such joy to see your child finally fully healed and completely redeemed.  Lord, I envy the time he is getting to spend with you, but you are above time and we will all be together for eternity and I praise you for that. 

            Father, it brings tears of joy to my eyes and an overwhelming gladness fills my heart when you give me visions of Micah running, climbing, talking, laughing, and shouting.  Lord it is a sweet picture and sound my mind gets to experience and I thank you that you have given me that joy amongst the sadness.

            Lord, I think what makes me most sad is that you didn’t choose to heal Micah here on Earth.  So many of your children had this relentless hope and belief that you would do it.  Lord, every time I was around him my mind was flooded with images of him laughing and walking again.  I saw him miraculously getting up out of that dang chair and just walking across the living room, like no big deal.  I saw it with my mind, but it makes me sad that I didn’t get to see it with my eyes.

            God, I know you could have done that and you would have been so glorified, but you have also been so glorified in Micah’s death.  Your children praised you time and time again at Micah’s funeral.  You were given glory upon glory for your unfathomable love, grace, and faithfulness.  Hundreds of people got to hear the good news that there is One that can satisfy the soul.  Hundreds of people got to hear and witness your strength that held the Magnussons together.  Hundreds of people got to hear that you, Jesus, are the only reason that Micah and the Magnussons could hold on to hope for so long and with such passion and determination.

            There is a song by Gungor called “This is Not the End”.  It declares that this is not the end, that we can open our mouth wider and that we will shine brighter.  I don’t believe that Micah’s death is the end of the impact that he is going to have on your creation here on Earth.  We will open our mouths wider sharing his story, and in turn sharing your story for your beloved creation.

            Lord, I am sad that I didn’t get to see any of those visions of Micah come to be here on Earth with my physical eyes.  But God, you are pushing me to have hope that is even more relentless than before because it is a hope that I will have to hold on to all the days of my life.  It is a hope that you are faithful and your plan is to redeem and restore all of your children.  Lord please give me this relentless hope.  Thank you. I praise you.

Holding on to Truths

God loves me. God is faithful.
Always.
God is the Restorer. God is Sovereign.
God deserves all the glory.

These are Truths that I am holding on to during this season.

Back in the US (again)

    I honestly have no idea how it has been almost 2 months since I last posted! Seriously, I feel like I just got off the plane and stepped back onto US soil yesterday, when it actually was a month ago.  However, time always seems to do that to me. I am now back in the US for the summer until I move to Jos, Nigeria in September.  I think knowing that I am going back to Nigeria is helping me enjoy being home now.
    The rest of my stay in Kenya was just fantastic.  My mom and sister came to visit me on the farm!  This was so special to me that they got to meet my Kenyan family and really experience true rural Kenyan life in Kabula.  About a day and a half before they arrived I decided that class 4 should put on a play for them (you know me always doing things last minute!).  So, class 4 and I rehearsed the play a total of 2 times through.  To be honest, I had my doubts about whether or not this crazy idea of ours was going to be a success or a flop.  During the rehearsals we had quite a few difficulties with them acting (which is something that I think is pretty foreign to them). Also, they can be super shy when it comes to speaking up in front of adults, especially new adults.  So, you can see where my apprehension came in.  However, never has a teacher been prouder or her students than I was after the kids had performed for my mother and sister!  They did a great job!  They were goofy when they needed to be goofy and were organized.  It was just great!

   The play was called "The Dancing Competition" so after the play my students showed off some of their moves, which proved just as hilarious as the first time I saw them dancing during the first week I was in Kenya.  Their facial expressions are simply priceless.  After they showed us a few of their dances, Katie and I proceeded to teach them the Macarena and the Cupid Shuffle.  It was a class period full of laughter, creativity, learning, and smiles (four of my favorite things about teaching).
We did a lot of other things while my mom and sister were there.  We took a trip over to the coast to meet the child that I sponsor through Compassion International.  This was an absolutely beautiful experience for everyone involved.  Perhaps I will write another blog on it...  After that we met back up with my dad in Nairobi and went on a safari, which was another beautiful experience, just in a different way.

    The whole time we were traveling around Kenya I would call Mama Betty everyday to get a report on how the baby chicks were doing.  Even since being home I get regular emails and picture/video updates on the coop.  My heart just aches to be there and see the chicks for myself, but I know they are in good hands and the Lubangas are so committed to taking care of them.  I can't wait for the day that I get a phone call telling me they started laying eggs!
   So, that is a very short recap of the rest of my time in Kenya.  Now that I am back in Michigan I am enjoying the time that God is blessing me with to spend with my family and friends.  I have really been convicted this last week about not wasting my time.  It is a little bit ironic that whenever my schedule is so busy I am always saying that I wish I had more time to do all of these things I want to do and spend time being still before the Lord, but now that I have all of this free time I am complaining too and I have not been dedicated to spending time listening to God and studying His word.  So, I have decided this week to hold myself more accountable to how I spend my days.  Feel free to hold me accountable as well!

Da coop da coop da coop is on fire

The chicken coop project has taken off and is in it's final stages! Wow wow, every time I pass it I just start smiling and feel almost giddy with happiness! We are hoping to have the baby chicks by the end of this week, just in time for my mom and sister to be a part of it! Thanks to all of you we have raised enough money to buy 200 chicks, but we are still praying that God will provide us with enough money to cover all of the vaccines and food until they become layers and are generating an income to support themselves. So, if you are still interested in being a part of the work I am doing here and helping to support the school I am teaching at, please send me a message via Facebook or an email at annawellemeyer@mac.com. Thank you thank you a million times from me, Mama Betty, and all the students here at Epico Jahns Academy!
Below is a picture of Mama Betty and myself with her cousin Rebecca who has been advising us with the coop. Rebecca works with the ministry of agriculture and has a true passion for farming and teaching others about farming. She has been a gift from God to us!

5 million words

They say a picture is worth a million words so here are 5 millions words about what I have been up to lately.

Anyone want to buy a chicken?

I am now an official poultry farmer. The past few weeks I have learned more than I ever thought I would know about raising and caring for chickens. Let me explain...
The school I am teaching at is a private school. Some of the students at the school come from a local orphanage. Mama Betty is the director of the school and has a heart of gold. She can never turn away a student, even if they don't have money for school fees. They also feed the kids everyday a meal of beans and maize. Too often they are running out of money to cover all the expenses, including teacher's salaries sometimes. I have decided to continue the project of a teacher that was here in December and help them start a chicken coup where they can keep chickens that will lay eggs to both provide food for the students and will generate money they can use to cover some of their fees. We have been researching poultry projects and even visited the farm of a woman that works for the ministry of agriculture! We have the coop all paid for through a scholarship that I received, but now we are trying to raise money to buy the chicks. Each chick costs about $1.40 and we are hoping to buy between 100 and 200 chicks within the next two weeks.

This is where you come in. I am wondering if any of you would be interested in purchasing a chick (or multiple chicks) for the school. I am so excited about this project because it is one that can really last and will be a way that the school can become more self-reliant. In the past, the school has been primarily supported by volunteers coming from different countries. Mama Betty has sat by and supported past volunteers as they have begun similar projects with other people in the community and has never once asked someone to help her start a project for the school. She is one of the most selfless people that I have ever met. She always tells me that she is just a vessel. Whatever God blesses her with isn't meant for her, but is meant to be passed through her to someone else. Even this coop won't benefit her or her family personally, but will be used to provide for the students and people in the community. I am excited that through this project Mama Betty won't have to rely so much on donations from volunteers to support the school, but she will be able to have her own source of income to support it. I think this is true community development because it is empowering her and the school to be a sustainable organization.

So, if you are interested in supporting this project, please send me an email at annawellemeyer@mac.com or a message on Facebook. You can let me know if you want more information or if you have decided to partner with us, how many chicks you would like to buy. Also, we are hoping to raise all the money this week because I leave in just two weeks (where did the time go right??!)!!!!
Jehovah Jireh
Below are pictures of Mama Betty and the coup in the process of being built! It is now almost done!