HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?

How does it happen that we plan a visit to Campbell for 12 March because we need to be in Thousand Oaks on 13 March, and then we find out that 12 March is the day the Christian School finishes a fundraiser for Made in the Streets, and they would like very much for us to be there for the closing event?

How does it happen that my doctor tells me it would be good to read Three Cups of Tea, since it is a little like our own work, and we arrive at the Jacks' house, where we are staying that night, to find that Michelle has that book sitting on her stairway to give to us?

How does it happen that the MITS' Team works out the holiday events for the street kids, sets up a budget so I can send out a newsletter requesting help, and the money we get in the next two weeks dedicated to that purpose is in fact that amount?

What is the nature and power of faith that events like this should occur? Does faith in fact bend the course of events to fit the need and the plan? Or is faith a faithful guide to put us in the right place at the right time? Jesus said that our trust in Him would shake geography, putting mountains in unplanned locations. So faith has this power to bend and shape. And it is not the power we put into our faith, but the mere presence of faith that brings such joyous shape to our lives. For this is the nature of the mustard seed.

We are not ashamed to accept these gifts, not ashamed to admit that it is not our intelligence and planning that makes life so very good, but the goodness of the one in whom we trust.

So...take a look at a coin today...and let good things happen.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR HEAVEN?

Here at Made in the Streets in Nairobi we have had everyone painting Christmas stockings - all the students at Kamulu, the single moms at Eastleigh, the Team members, the other staff of MITS, the little kids in our family -- we have 89 stockings hanging up in the courtyard of the Learning Center and a few more to finish. I told them that Father Christmas only puts stuff in the stockings he finds. Darlene had fabric paint, so they have all been creative.

We watched the movie Polar Express, and we then gave the DVD to the girls. The boys have seen it. The big question is, What do you want for Christmas? Somebody asked me, and I didn't have an immediate answer, but I've been thinking about it. All I can think of that I really really want is a quiet, or noisy, afternoon with my granddaughters. I think that's "dayenu" as we say at Passover time about each of God's gracious gifts that are "plenty."

Then I started thinking about the gift of heaven and what other gifts go with it. And I was sitting in church at Kamulu on Friend Sunday yesterday (we had 186 before the kids went out for Sunday school, and I had 34 in my adult class - quite a few visitors at church), and two of our street girls sang a song for the church, and Titus led one of his wonderful prayers, and I looked around at all these kids, some in literacy, some in skills training, some in internships, some having jobs and with us on Sunday. And we set up all our tables and had chapati and bread and Blue Band and jelly and cookies and tea and coffee and juice and cake (did I mention it was Jeremy Mbuvi's first birthday yesterday and Laurent and Eliza's anniversary?), and everyone sat around

and talked and ate and the kids had so much fun.

And I thought -- this is what I want for heaven. This is the gift of heaven I want -- to be with these people eternally, along with some of my family and some old friends -- and Jesus, of course. I think that will do it for me.

BLESSINGS FOR JANE

Jane Njeri was a church member at Kamulu for about a year before she began to volunteer in street ministry at Eastleigh. She would go in on Mondays with Maureen and Team members who worked with the street mothers' program (more than 40 young moms from the streets with their babies) or to go out on the streets with Kennedy, Anthony and Larry Conway. She proved to be a great teacher and inspiration to the young moms. Her background in alcoholism and a broken family and subsequent decision to be faithful to Jesus gave her a good background for working with the girls, plus the fact that she came out of poverty also.

Jane had a problem, though. She had a growth on the side of her face at her lip that had been growing for about 15 years. Last summer she became a Team member at MITS after Ann Mwangi, our Eastleigh supervisor, left us to go to university. Then John Bailey, who was in Kenya on a medical mission program, had a doctor look at her, and we took pictures for the doctors to analyze. Last month doctors came again with Dr. Bailey, and Jane flew "fly540," one of our local airlines, to Malindi on the coast for surgery. It was her first airplane ride.

She was there for almost a week and returned with a swollen jaw. But she said she could tell the difference and was confident the swelling would go down.

Here are before and after pictures to help you see the benefit to Jane. And having her happy is good for MITS! We are all happy for her and grateful to the doctors who came with John and performed the surgery. MITS is blessed to have such friends.

Garden Delights

Yesterday I had opportunity to make a chapel talk. We rotate chapel talks through the kids and the Team members. I decided to talk a little about our garden, because we have been so delighted in how well it does. It makes me know that at Kamulu we are able to grow more food than our kids can eat. It's a matter of doing the farming right, and we will learn.

We have a young woman with a small boy whose husband left when trouble came who works as a gardener for us. Her little boy was born without a full urinary tract, so he has needed surgeries and therapy. A doctor whom Larry Conway knew has been wonderful to take care of him. Anyway, Nancy has done wonders with our garden. Only 6 tomato plants are making all the tomatoes we can eat, and about 200 plants will soon produce. We have 7 short rows of pole beans, and every other day we get about 15 pounds of green beans. So we have been feeding green beans to the girls and the boys and the Team members and for lunch at our cafeteria.

Back to the chapel talk. We sometimes have kids who have reasons to give up - school is hard, another student yells, they make mistakes, they have to keep to the schedule. So I talked about "burnout" in business and professions. Then I talked about how beans can give and give and give (we've picked our beans 12 times already) and still, at the end, they produce as many dry beans as they would have if we never picked them. God made the bean, and it turned out really good. I told them that when they produce for God, He will pick and pick from them and use it for good, and they never have to give up. And at the end God will take what they have left and it will be good.

Then we had a short Team meeting. Francis had been to a leadership conference, and one of the things he wants to talk to the team about is the ability to keep on going with joy and dedication without losing desire and quality work. The ability to renew self in spirit so that you can go.

So, here is to a life without burnout, a life that keeps on giving, a life propped up by God's own energy!

There cannot be much better in life than seeing good things happen to those you love. So let me list a few --

1 -- Paulyne Adhiambo, one of our street moms who came into the Eastleigh program last month, went to the hospital on a rainy night to have her baby. Can you imagine how hard it must be when a street girl has her baby on the street in the rain?

2 -- Jane Njeri, our supervisor at the Eastleigh center, has been invited to fly to Malindi tomorrow to have a long-term growth taken off her lip and cheek. We doubt that we will recognize her when she returns at the end of the week.

3 -- we have good friends in Iowa, and you can imagine how they feel after the locals came from behind to defeat an arch-enemy in the second half.

4 -- Francis Cugia, one of our older boys who is in an internship in carpentry now, was honored in church today for his service to the church.

5 -- Kehl Omondi, Jackton and Millie's baby, came through hernia surgery on Friday just fine, thank you, and came home yesterday. Jackton shared the story of his birth in the communion talk this morning.

6 -- Susan Wambui, our student with diabetes, looks great lately. I talked with her today, and she is keeping her sugar level down, giving herself injections regularly, exercising and eating the diet she has been given, and she is enjoying her beauty school. She has taken mock exams, will take final exam in a couple of weeks, and has talked to some salons about an internship. She will be 18 in December and is looking forward to her life "out there." She also told me that she has already checked into a school downtown where she can go in the evenings and get her high school equivalency, which she will pay for herself after she starts work (unless we decide to give her a gift just because we are so proud of her!)

7 -- Joseph Mburu, our student who got a job in a computer shop, talked to me today about going to programming school. Looks like we'll have to get some money together to send him; it is nice to see such ambition in our kids. He has checked into a school, gotten a brochure, and will now get our IT man to write a proposal for him to present to the Team.

8 -- And there is Titus Kioko, a young man who has come out of a drugged-up life to become a fine young man -- we presented one of his prayers last week. Today he told me that his grandmother found him when the kids went on their last shopping trip and told him her house in the slum had falled down, obviously hoping he could get someone to help her. So he wants to find some way to help her build it back up (she is still sleeping in the fallen remains). We talked about how we could get our Team at Eastleigh to take a few of the older street guys down there with some posts and sheet metal and shore it up. What is important in this story is that this is the grandmother who did not want him. When our Team members first helped Titus get off the streets, they found his grandmother to talk about where he would live and see if she would sign off on him. But she said, "Titus is worthless..he will just run away," and she refused to sign. But there was another grandson, and she signed off on him. He came to Kamulu but soon ran away. But Titus is still with us, and now he wants to help his grandmother. I would say that good things have happened to that young man.

So...I'm happy today, in Jesus Christ I'm happy today....because my friends are blessed.

Have a blessed day

Garden of Delight

We weighed the basket that we got in from the garden this morning - 9 pounds - green beans and tomatoes and passion fruit. And we have two stalks of bananas ripening in the garage. When I left the Oklahoma farm for university, I said goodbye to the farm, thinking it was forever. Now we have our own "little farm," and the street ministry has a lot of farm land in which our students can learn agriculture and which help feed the kids as well.

Tonight I went out where young passion fruit vines are growing near the fence. I took twine and began to disentangle the strands of vine to tie them up on the fence. The passion fruit complained that I was hurting them, as I had to break some of their tendrils that cling on other surfaces in order to raise them higher where they could grow better. They thought I was being mean to them. So they cried out in pain, and they did not understand that I had a better plan for them.

So it must be with God at times. He works in our lives, shaping and molding and creating a future for us. And we hate change and pain, and we cry out against Him, or we seek some other answer to life besides His patient but pain-giving tending of our lives. And He has a better plan for us than we can make for ourselves, sinking our tendrils into the lower parts of the earth, when He would have us climb and produce.

MORNING IN KENYA

Early morning the hyena are whooping, and many birds singing their joy. The mara in Kenya is a most marvelous place, even in a time of drought. Six AM coffee, then to the hunt. Two cheetah walking across the plain, a thousand gazelle dot the landscape and lonely acacia trees spot the land. Seemingly lazy giraffe walk in majesty and a lilac-breasted roller sits calmly on a branch in the wind. Lions are sleeping, and a few raise their heads and show golden eyes. Four Thompson gazelle run with all their might, and an eland stands quietly in the early morning sun. A black rhino casually saunters down to the river bank and up the other side, charging a secretary bird just for the fun of it.

And God said, "it's good."

Hard to find a better experience than seeing African animals in their own habitat. And then back for breakfast at the lodge- omelettes and fruit and coffee and toast until bursting. Happy conversation with friends, talking over what we saw.

We were the guests of Nargis and Minaz Manji, who are businesspeople in Nairobi and have part ownership of the lodge. Nargis is the salon operator who has trained and employs five of our street girls. Minaz has helped many of our visitors with safari plans at his travel business.

And on this trip they introduce us to other people, who are interested in the street ministry and willing to help. And they have ideas and suggestions and they know people who will give our kids attachments and maybe jobs in their businesses.

Nice to mix pleasure with ministry.

Prayer and Doing the Right Thing

Certain things seem to have power to work out. One of those is prayer - we know the power that God exerts in the lives of those who pray. When the local member of parliament here in Nairobi and a group seeking to gain money from a government community growth program invaded Made in the Streets land, brought thugs to attack two of our team members and a student and tore down our fence around our skills training property, we immediately began to talk to the kids about how to respond to trouble. No violence! No anger! Pray for your enemies, in obedience to Jesus. Seek to let the law take its course.

The law taking its course has not worked well. The police did not protect us nor did they deal with the invaders in any way. They fear the powers that be. Nor have the courts proven to be a place that upholds the laws of property ownership. Even the Ministry of Education has allowed an illegal registration to take place; it violates the policies they have tacked to their most visible bulletin board (No registration shall take place without receipt of copies of legal ownership of land where schools are built.)

But prayer has had power in the lives of our Team and kids from the streets. Last Sunday morning one of our young men, Titus Kioko, prayed in church for the health and well-being and blessing on the member of parliament. The character of our young people is being developed in prayer.

And today John Wambu came by to talk about some of his conversations with people in the community. There is a man in the community who operates a school, and he has been our "enemy," encouraging those who seek to take land away from others. Last year his school had a terrible fire. The only people in the community who came to their aid was Made in the Streets. We took them a load of sand and some cement to help rebuild. We re-welded their metal bunk beds, which were twisted in the fire. He told John that he has encouraged everyone he has influence with to leave us alone. So doing the right thing has power too.

This doesn't solve the current ongoing problem of the land that was invaded, but it does help secure that we will not be invaded again. And through prayer maybe those who are involved with get what they really need in their lives.

Visitors to Made in the Streets

We love having visitors at Made in the Streets. We love introducing street kids to visitors, giving our kids a chance to interact with all kinds of people. For two days Dr. Don Moore from the Otter Creek Church and Vanderbilt University has been with us. He talked about medical issues and answered questions from both our Team and kids, and the kids had lots of questions. He endeared himself most to them when he presented them with a soccer ball from his son.

Yesterday Greg Clodfelter, who works in Nyeri, showed up about 5 PM with David Roland and Keith Pilcher of Knoxville, Tennessee. They rode a matatu (our local transport, famed for its disrespect of the law and crowded conditions) from Nyeri. Four of our girls saw them as they arrived and directed them to our house. They enjoyed talking to the 4 girls, whom they said were quite talkative. That shows how much confidence kids gain from being at MITS. It was really great to have David ask us, "If I went back home and told my elders what you need here, what would you say?" That was great! So we told

him that 1) we need a hairdressing teacher, and we need to fund that teacher for a couple of years (and we could use someone here a few weeks from the US to train someone. And we said 2) we need a pre-school teacher, again with funding for a couple of years, since our single moms will need a place for the kids to be while they do skills training. Each of those is about $125 a month, in case a reader is interested. Donate online (see madeinthestreets.blogspot.com) or send to Made in the Streets, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027. We also told

David that we feel a need to send our Team on a retreat two times a year, since we are a 24/7/365 enterprise. It costs about $1,200 for a retreat, unless we do something really special such as flying to the coast and staying at a resort, which costs about $325 a Team member.

some of the men on the MITS Team

Things That Inspire

I felt inspired by a passion fruit this morning. We have a garden on our stone wall surrounding our house in Nairobi; passion fruit vines are growing on it. We took 124 passion fruit down to Milly today so she could include them in the lunch for our students, former street kids now in our "family" and education and skills training program at Kamulu. So I took one of them into chapel and talked to the kids about it after the first couple of songs (it's great to be back here singing with the kids -- that's inspiring in itself!).

I held up the passion fruit, and they told me what it was. I told them it is dark like them, but unlike them, it is kind of ugly, while they are beautiful. They laughed, and I shared with them that many American visitors have never seen passion fruit before, and when they look at the fruit, they doubt whether it will be any good.

I reminded them that they have had experiences like that, when nobody thought they were very good. They nodded their heads or said yes. They have had people shout at them, run them away, pour hot water on them, throw stones at them and abuse them in other ways when they were sleeping on the streets.

Then I told them the value of the passion fruit, that it makes everything else better. You mix it in with mango and strawberries and apples and oranges, and it adds a special flavor that is delightful. And I said, "You make my life better." And I told them that I believe they will make many other people better during their lives. Most of them will marry, and they will make husbands and wives into better people. They will help their employers to have a better life, and they will make fellow employees better. And they will make others in the church better.

They will do this because they love God, and because they love what is good. So I said to just keep on going the way they are going, and they are like the passion fruit, making life delightful in their own way.

God is Smart

I mentioned before about walking home from a Passover meal carrying my granddaughter, when she looked up at the constellation Orion and said, "God is really smart." I've been thinking about that truth lately. We drove through the desert in our move from California to Texas and saw its stark beauty. And here in Texas we saw a lightning storm, as great bolts hit the ground all around. I walk a great deal, partly to keep the diabetes in check and to stay relatively fit, partly to have time to think or to talk to Darlene, and I have looked at all the ways we use concrete.

There is an enormous amount of concrete all over the world. One aspect is that it means the removal of trees and the loss of farm land. But another is revelation of the enormous amounts of raw materials for concrete.

So...in the beginning...God planned for our future. He made raw materials for something people would learn to use many thousands of years after their making. And he made enough for all the creative ways we would use the materials. And then there are radio waves, which we would learn to use. And who knows what else lies in our universe that we have not even dreamed of, but will be useful to people who live long after us.

God is really smart. He not only makes what is needed for the moment -- all manner of fruits and plants for the young couple in the Garden to eat and use -- but for all the long future of mankind before He decides the time is finished. That's why the marveling Paul of Tarsus writes that in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Col. 2:3) and in Christ all things hold together (Col. 1:17).

And there are a lot of other things to marvel at, not to mention the people whom God has transformed into the image of his Son.

Coulston Address

We have a new address to receive mail. The family is now based in the Fort Worth/Dallas area. We are less than 20 minutes from DFW, so our flights to visit people on behalf of Made in the Streets will be easy to catch and centrally located.

Continue to donate online (see www.made-in-the-streets.org or www.madeinthestreets.blogspot.com for the online) or send to Made in the Streets, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027. But for mail about the ministry, or for sponsors to send mail for us to take to students, please send to

Charles/Darlene Coulston
P. O. Box 93165
Southlake, TX 76092

We look forward to hearing from you.

I Fell Off the Truck

We are now in Texas. We have been warmly welcomed. Joel Quile, who was in the youth group in the Redwood Church when we were in the Bay Area, lives 5 minutes away and he found us kind and serving believers who came over and helped us unload at the house. And Kim brought pizza and someone else brought a cake and water bottles...it was a great welcome.

We received a wonderful goodbye from the Conejo Church in Thousand Oaks, CA. They let me preach on August 16 and gave us a reception goodbye after second worship. Then we drove the pickup and the van the 1,474 miles from Thousand Oaks to the Fort Worth/Dallas area, along with me in a rental truck. So, back to the topic...

Darlene and I are putting our belongings in storage for the time being; maybe by this time next year we'll have a place to put it all. We took the rental truck to the storage unit and started unloading. Our son-by-marriage was in the truck with me handing out a large mattress, and Darlene and our daughter were below, with the kids in the car. Darlene slightly tripped on a bed frame and I thought I'd be a good guy and get down and help them with the mattress, so I walked off the truck.

I am impressed with how efficient gravity is. Seemingly with no time in between I left the truck and landed on the asphalt. Everybody screamed, and I don't know what they did with the mattress. It was quite a shock to my system, and I lay there a bit to assess the damage. My head hit the ground but there seemed to be no pain there. After a while I isolated damage to my left knee, my right elbow and the right side of my back in the rib cage. In the last few days I have supported the Ibuprofen industry and been pampered by the family. Each day one of the granddaughters asks me how I am, and I tell her I am sore, and she says she wants God to help me feel better. That helps a lot!

I am still able to drink lattes and talk short walks around the neighborhood. And now I am back at work on the internet. And I have this short piece of advice that is useless -- it isn't wise for a medicare patient to be too helpful.

peace, charles

Ready to Move

We always try to be ready to move, whether to heaven or to another spot here.  There is so much work to moving, to remind us of the value of where we are and the joy of where we are going.  Nothing against Texas, but we would stay in California if it were up to us -- we are following granddaughters (and they have parents, of course).  The Coulston's new mailing address is P.O. Box 93165, Southlake, Texas, 76092.  Donations to Made in the Streets may be done online or sent to Made in the Streets, 409 Franklin Road, Brentwood, TN 37027.  But anything that needs our special attention please send to the Texas address.  

Tomorrow is a granddaughter's 5th birthday, and in two weeks we will have been married 45 years.  As Scripture says of the early church - "much grace was upon them all" - we have first-hand experience of that great and wondrous grace that grows out of not only the kindness of God but also the kindness of God's people.  

So...be kind!   And rejoice in grace!

A Good Book

Now and then I find a book that reaches deep down within me where my true heart resides.  That part of my life needs to be touched now and then with great ideas, because it is out of that place that my actions come.  Last year Mike Rivas of Thousand Oaks, CA, gave us several copies of John Ortberg's Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them.  Two weeks ago I finally got around to reading it myself.  Chapter 3 on "the fellowship of the mat" is worth spending my own money for.  So today I introduced the book to the Team members at Made in the Streets who are dorm supervisors for the boys.  I asked them to read it at the same time and talk in pairs after each chapter.  They agreed.  I found out that a couple of the Team have already read it, and now 6 are engaged with it.  We will see what it touches in them and what it will come to mean to the street kids also.

When you find a book that reaches you, we would love for you to recommend it to our Team, or buy a few copies for us.  We can get the books over here in suitcases when we travel.  Let us know.  It's a way to powerfully impact young men and women who powerfully impact kids who have no home and no hope.  

Matatus

Matatus are fascinating.  They are mini-buses that are used for public transport in Nairobi and all over Kenya.  They have 30 seats and hold 77 people - or they did until they passed a law in 1994 saying everyone had to have a seat.  Once Darlene and I turned off 1st Avenue in Eastleigh into Juja Road and there were 4 matatus abreast coming at us (and that's on a 2-lane street).  I guess they missed us; I didn't remember anything for a few days.  Here is a picture of two matatus coming down a street in Eastleigh with lots of trash in it.  Many of them are wildly painted, with all sorts of graphics and words on them.  And they play loud music and drive as fast as they can wherever they are.  The objective is to pass one more car.  And the method is to stop anywhere and without warning to try to pick up one more customer before another matatu does.  They cause lots of traffic jams by passing anywhere, especially if there is a slowdown, blocking cars from the other direction, filling up the round-a-bouts (traffic circles) and causing all traffic to come to a standstill.  Everybody hates them, and everybody rides them.  Of course some of our kids at Made in the Streets aspire to be matatu drivers. 

  And yesterday we were in a small traffic jam on the highway, following a matatu, and we saw written on the back of it -- Max Lucado!  Now that's fame!  

Virda Stevens

  Sadness and joy seem always mixed in our lives.  We have to say good-bye to a close friend.  Virda Stevens, the person who convinced us to visit Kenya in 1990, died, and we feel an empty space.  We often tell this story when people ask us how we came to work with street kids or why we do what we do.  In 1988 Bill and Virda visited Kenya, spent time with some missionaries, and fell in love with the concept of ministry the missionaries held.  And they developed a great vision for the work that led to a great school in Eastleigh Section II of Nairobi -- KCITI.  Under their vision and help, it became a computer and electronics school that excelled in training computer operators and technicians.  For many years KCITI produced more graduate than all the other schools in Nairobi combined, and they got the jobs because they had everyday experience on the computer.  

  But back to the story.  In 1989 they decided to join an evangelism campaign led by Lloyd Deal in Eastleigh.  They invited us to go with them, but we refused.  We had no intention of working in Africa, since we wanted to eventually go to Singapore and Malaysia.  Besides that, we were set on going on a backpacking trip in Europe that summer.  So they took several other people with them on the trip.  Deal's campaign, lasting over 2 months, baptized 360+ people, and a church was begun.  

  That was great, but Virda had another vision.  She saw hundreds of kids on the streets, and they were only evangelizing adults.  So she wanted to return and do a Vacation Bible School and train teachers, so they would one day have a good children's ministry and Sunday school.  She came to us and asked us to write a series of 5 classes and a two-day teaching training manual of the type she felt they needed for the kids in poverty in Eastleigh.  We said, "Okay, but we are not going."  It took about 3 months to write the material.  When we gave it to Virda, she read it and liked all the graphics and lesson plans and crafts.  A few weeks later she came back to us and said, "Uh, you are the ones who wrote this teacher training material; you really ought to be the one to do the training."  That was too much to resist.  So we went, and 35 people from the Eastleigh Church came for training, and it was wonderful. And on the last day of VBS, there were 435 kids.  

  She wanted to go again the next year, so we did the same thing.  This time 76 people came for training for the two long and grueling days of preparation.  And on the last day, 1003 kids showed up for VBS.  We could have died and gone to heaven then.

  But Virda has continued to serve the Lord, and so much more has been done in all the years since.  And we are still in Nairobi, now working with street children, still in the Eastleigh area, because of Virda's love for us and her perseverance. Thanks, Virda, for a friendship well lived.

Moving Gets You More Friends

Those who know Darlene and me know how much we love California.  The San Francisco Bay Area was home for 21 years.  We love the rugged Pacific beach and the stunningly beautiful Sierra Mountains.  We love many people there who live in our hearts.  The Redwood Church holds wonderful memories for us.  

And we have truly enjoyed having our "base" in Southern California for the years we have worked in street ministry in Nairobi.  Returning for time with family in between visits to churches to make reports is a delight, as we watch grandchildren grow and spend time with an aged mother, who herself did great ministry in Nairobi for 6 years.  And the growing relationship with Conejo Church has enriched our lives, as we have developed many dear friends.  

Now our lives promise to be divided further, as we will have 3 homes.  We will continue to be in Nairobi half our time, but we will be divided between the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth area and California.  Because of street ministry, we have found great friends among Christians in Irving, Denton, Colleyville, North Richland Hills, Hamilton and Garland, not to mention Dallas itself.  Such varied churches as South MacArthur, Prestoncrest, Legacy, Hamilton and Singing Oaks are dear to us.  

Every move we have made has resulted in finding dear friends with whom to enjoy life and ministry.  We are certain that will continue.  In Christ there is never a need to look back, only forward, and sideways to those we walk beside.  For Christ is always the "yes" to what we seek to become.

An Answer to Despair

  I am happy to have an answer to my questions in a short time.  I have known people who struggle with issues and bad feelings for long periods, and who thus have to battle against bitterness as well.  Asaph writes in Psalm 73 of his own struggle as he watched bad people get good things.  The rich got richer, the proud gained more reason to be proud.  He was almost reduced to complaining and bitterness.  Then, he says, "I went into the sanctuary."  Then he understood the vaporous character of gain without gratitude, the slippery slope of self-pride in place of God-pride.  

  So today I went to church.  It's my job to make coffee and teach the 9:00 am Bible class.  Today it was 1 Thessalonians 2.  But it was afterwards that I found my answer.  I begin on Sunday getting ready for next week's class, which is to be 1 Thessalonians 3.  I sat in church and listened to two of our girls sing, and one of our boys read a scripture about hope from Isaiah.  And in a quiet moment I started to read chapter 3.  Paul wrote to the church that "we must have these troubles." He says, "we told you that we all would have to suffer."  I know those concepts, but it was only in the context of the church that they became real for me.  For Paul also wrote, "we have much suffering, still we are comforted by the faith of the church."  

  So there it is.  Suffering does not diminish joy, when you are in the church.  Loss does not bring despair, when you listen to the song and the scripture and you experience in living color the faith of the church.  

  Next time I suffer loss and feel the pain, I will seek to remember to go right away into the presence of the One who lets us see.  And I will not forget the church.  And I will never cease to value the role of the church in my life.  

Dealing with Loss

John Wambu and I are having a hard time dealing with loss.  We made the offices at the Learning Center of Made in the Streets as secure as we knew how.  We put a safe in the wall when we built it -- and put a cement roof on the room.  We put a metal door on the office, a metal door on the outside office door, metal gates on the Learning Center, and we stationed a dog at the Center.  As it turns out, we did not have at the time of the break-in the strongest possible locks everywhere, but we had strong ones.  Thieves broke in and stole $8,000 of the ministry money, which was scheduled to do renovations on the property, to build part of a new building and to pay for special activities for the street kids, among other things.  No one had actually seen us bring in the money, and only 4 people knew about the safe.  

But people know that a school will have cash at the end of a month.  And they know it will be in the most secure office.  And someone may have noticed that there was a connecting door between the conference room and the office area, and the conference room had a strong lock but one that could be cut.  So...they came at night, broke the locks, found the safe and took the money.  

For us, loss is hard to deal with.  Both John and I feel guilty, knowing there was more we could have done for security.  And we feel bad for the ministry and the kids.  We sorry that someone we know and love may have been involved.  We wonder if we can keep money safe the next time.  

There are many things we think of.  Jesus suffered loss; he even let Judas Iscariot continue to steal out of the common purse.  Paul counted all material, mental and social things of this world as less than nothing for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus.  Paul said he was content, with little or much, with whatever happens in life.  Christians are called to rejoice in all circumstances.  We are called to believe that we are in the will of God, that God is in control, that all that happens to us will further the kingdom of God in some way.  

We still find it hard to deal with loss.  It happened on our watch, and we built the office and the safe.  And we have responsibility for the ministry's money.  So how do we find peace? Or do we need the turmoil until we find better ways to take care of God's resources?  

We each forgive and try to encourage the other, and it is hard for either of us to receive the encouragement.  It keeps us awake at night, and both of us have lost weight (and John can hardly afford the weight loss).  We both know that God loves us, that this ministry is worth doing and these kids are more valuable than all the world, but all that doesn't yet console us.  Each of us keeps thinking it's our fault, and that's hard to shake. 

I have discovered many times that one of the answers to guilt is the passage of time.  One usually feels better in the morning, at least after sincerely changing and desiring to be a better person.  So I feel sure that a morning will come when we both feel better.  We want once again to have what John writes about, when the heart does not condemn.  

I usually don't write like this, because my life has been incredibly happy and full of joyous things.  Bad things have happened,  but I have been basically untouched.  So why does the loss of money hurt so much?  Maybe it's because my Dad was so responsible when it came to money, and I think the way he did.  

I'm also working on forgiving the people who took the money.  May they find the Lord!

GOD ANSWERS PRAYER by darlene

  Last week the whole Team of Made in the Streets sat and talked about their feelings and questions regarding the land problem.  Some had fear because of a man who brought thugs near the property, some were confused.  At the end, Irene Akinyi suggested that the best thing we could do was to ask God for help, and Jackton wondered aloud, "What extraordinary thing can we or can God do that will help us with relationships with community people?"  We all dedicated ourselves to pray for God to show us something extraordinary that will lead the community to love what we do for street kids, instead of hearing rumors.  

  Two days later some women from the church, who did not know that the Team was praying, dedicated themselves to pray and to talk with their neighbors.  And a week later, the member of Parliament who led the group in the invasion of MITS land came to visit, to see what we do and to talk.  The picture is a group of women who meet and pray together after worship on Sunday.

  God is at work!  We can't wait to see what the end of it will be.

Making Kids Happy

   Each time we return to Nairobi after a stay in the States, we have great joy in seeing the growth of the street kids who are in our program.  It is especially gratifying to see our young mothers who came from the streets and are learning to enjoy their babies and toddlers.  This time our grandchildren, who pray for street kids every day and especially for these little ones, bought gifts to send with us for the kids at the Eastleigh Center.  Here they are packing their gifts in our crates before we left the States.  

   

                                                         Darlene spent time with the young mothers and gave the

 gifts to the kids, who are Mna and Larry (their mom is Maria, the 15 year old), Mutua (his mom is Catherine, 17) and Brian (his mom is Millie, 16).  In this pic the kids are enjoying their treasures.  The other pic is Mna, who got the most wonderful little African-American baby doll.  You garage sale lovers might look for a soft vinyl African-American baby doll for us, since one of our teenage girls, a new one named Florence, who hardly ever speaks up, said wistfully to Darlene, "That is beautiful.  I have never had a doll."  Make you wanna cry!   

Of Things Missing, Fleas and Dying Engines

It only takes 30 minutes for disaster, or something close to it, to occur.  We needed to deliver empty crates to the boys' dorm leaders because some of the boys had no place to put clothes, we needed to deliver new mattresses we will use for visitors to the girls' compound (all the girls were there taking karate lessons from the Pepperdine University visitors), and we had other things we needed to take to the Learning Center.  The Team was there doing Team-building exercises with the Pepperdine University group.  So we decided to drive it all down.

We rounded the corner at the Learning Center to drive to the shops for the crates, and the ground we usually drove over was all plowed.  And Darlene said, "where's our container?"  I looked and couldn't believe it -- someone has stolen our container!!! -- John Wambu and I own a piece of land near the Learning Center and I have a container parked on it.  But it was gone, and the fence was gone, and it was all plowed.  Now there has been a dispute over this piece of land because a neighbor behind it wants highway frontage property, and we are there on the very valuable piece of land.  When we drove through the Learning Center property to get to the shops, we found the container.  It had been moved down by the Learning Center on the frontage road, and there were the fence posts.  That's the first step.

We went on to the shops and went in the auto mechanics area to get the crates.  We noticed that our dog Beauty was missing also.  Then as I went back to get the flashlight -- did I mention the electricity was out? -- Darlene noticed something stinging on her legs.  When I went into the container there, she ran back out to the light to find little black seeds all over her legs.  When they didn't brush off, she then concluded they were fleas.  By the time I put some things in the container and got the crates out, I could feel stuff crawling around on me too.  When I got outside, I found little black fleas all over my shirt, and pants, and shoes.  So...we delivered the crates to the team and said, "Did no one see the container moving around?"  Of course they did, and you can read about it in the MITS blog at  www.madeinthestreets.blogspot.com  

We got back in the car and drove home, with Darlene opening the gate and motioning me to go on and get my fleas taken care of.  When I turned the corner to head for the house, the car died.  And it wouldn't go any further.  Maybe it didn't like us getting fleas in the car, maybe it's tired, maybe the fuel pump went out -- I don't know yet.  

We ran in the garage and got our clothes off and got the bug spray and whammied the fleas and picked all of them off ourselves.  We wanted to take a shower, but did I mention that the electricity was off.  Did I mention that we didn't have water in the afternoon either because someone digging at the boys' place had busted a water main from our well and so they had to turn the water off?  A little later the electricity came back, and we had water, and we got the shower and felt much much better.  We feel really grateful to be here facing the little struggles of life while we work on the really great things of life with street kids. 

The evening ended really wonderful, even though the day is filled with plenty of trouble of its own.  Go to that MITS blog and read about it.  I feel pretty sure that we will all feel better tomorrow morning too.

Touching the Important in Bible Study

I love it when something brings my heart back to what is important.  I am teaching a Sunday morning Bible class, currently on Ephesians, and we are in chapter 5.  So I prepared a worksheet on Ephesians 5:19-33, a passage where the relationship of husband and wife is compared to that of Christ and the church.  I took a look at the Greek text as well as several English and Swahili translations, and it always amazes me how much the translations lose by using logical and meaning-filled words instead of staying with the graphic and image-producing Biblical language.

  Just one small example -- the language used to describe Christians' relationship to one another and that of wife to husband.  The Biblical image is that of arranging things where they belong, putting that which is highly regarded in the prominent place.  It's like stacking papers, putting the most important document on top.  Or like God's creation, where he puts everything in order in the universe and sets one of his creatures on top. Or like putting fruits and vegetables in a bowl, where you put the tomatoes on top so they won't get mashed.  We do that for one another, and wives do that for their husbands.  That is so much richer than "submit" or the Swahili "stahi" (which almost no one uses in normal speech).  And it puts wives in charge of their relationship, where they ought to be, since marriage is a voluntary involvement.  

  My study led me to 1 Peter 3:1-8, where I found what I think is the most wonderful statement of the marriage relationship.  Peter, who traveled with his wife on his mission journeys, says that a husband is to treat his wife with HONOR as she shares with him in the inheritance of LIFE!  That is just great!  Another rich graphic image is that he says to treat her as the "weaker vessel."  We often dislike both of those words -- "Am I weak?", she asks as she arm wrestles him into submission.  "Am I just a vessel, like a tool?"  But if we see his image as he states it, it is rich and good.  Husband and wife are both vessels, and she is the fragile beauty.  It's like having a stainless steel kettle for heating water on one hand and a slender glass tea steeper on the other, or a pottery plate up beside the fine china.  Which one do you take most care with, which one do you protect most, which one do you cherish and put in a special place?  That is the task of the husband, to make a place for the beauty he has found and won with love. 

  And so I went into the kitchen and found Darlene and hugged her for a long time and told her I have remembered why I love her so much.  

musings from Darlene

I'm reading Charles' blog (over coffee at Java), and I ask him, "Can I write something on your blog? He's so gracious, he even gives me half of his latte also!  A few days ago I was remembering that when I was in jr. hi, I delighted in finding games and having the teens over to our house.  I even went to the library to find games, and I loved it.  Here I am, many many years later, finding new games and leading teens in fun, and I love it still!  Like Charles told the students and Team yesterday, God can give you your heart's desire, even in small things.

It's so good to be back, to sit in Laurent's living room and hear him say, "This is the right thing.  I like it here so much.  This is where I started, and I want to teach other kids they can succeed."  He and Eliza have jumped in and are busy helping in the ministry with joy.  And now we have a Pepperdine group here to teach baking, build ovens, and share skills.  The girls were ecstatic when Shannon arrived -- she'll probably not have a minute to herself!

It's also good to sit in Millie and Jackton's living room and hold that precious baby.  He can hold up his head and his eyes follow a toy and follow his mama walking around.  I'm so thankful!  And Jackton shared with us how he felt when he first saw Kehl, but he has seen this is a true blessing from God.  They are finding others in the community with special kids and they are drawing even closer to God.  And Kehl is a delight; he and Jeremy are passed around by the students. The students love babies and they are learning nurturing and loving.  

I love babies too!  Our ministry team has changed -- now we have toddlers and babies of Team members, and two Team members are seriously in love... (Robin and Irene A).  We miss our family back in the States, but God gives joy here too.

Thank you for loving this street ministry.  Kids really are changing and the Team loves them and give themselves away for this ministry.  When we first started in street ministry, Charles and I asked God to lead us to people who would love street kids.  And He has!  It's amazing -- we have found wonderful friends in the USA and here as well.  

As the kids say in chapel, "My encouragement today is to" ----  Ask God for your heart's desire in serving.  He will provide!

The Reality of Who We Are

Every day brings a new adventure and a new twist in life.  We are struggling with regaining control of a piece of land that belongs to Made in the Streets but has been invaded.  The people, who call themselves the "Kamulu Residents Committee" and pretend to look out for the welfare of the whole community, but who are really a small group of men who gained the help of a politician for what they wanted, have built a building on our property with government money and bought a pickup and added to their houses.  

And the American Embassy has refused to help us in this issue.  They made one suggestion at the beginning, but have recently told us they don't want to do any more.  We had hoped for some influence from them, but we are little fish and don't matter much in the world.  I really mean that.  While I know that God loves me fully and I rejoice in His guidance and power and love, I know that what I am trying to do is small in the eyes of most of the world.  I am grateful that many of you who read my blog like me and believe that what we do for street kids is important.  

But we should not live with illusions.  When we talk with middle-class or more wealthy Kenyans and they ask what we are doing in Kenya, we talk about the street kids.  And they almost always respond with something like, "Can they really learn?"  or "The police really should round them up and put them in remand somewhere." or something like that.  Back home even unbelievers will say "That's nice" when they hear of street ministry.  

I am grateful that followers of Jesus count street kids as important as they are and believe that to raise them up to a new life is a really good thing!  I have found street ministry and the care of these homeless kids to be the fulfillment of my life, to be what I was born for, to be what God has always intended for me.  So it does not matter what people think who do not value these kids, nor does it matter whether anyone thinks we or what we do is important or not.  What matters is that these kids come to know God and have a new life.  

And I am certain that the end result of the land problem will be good for us, whether we win or lose.  It isn't winning that is important, but what our lives become, what we are.  So let us be glad for today and rejoice in it. 

peace and joy, charles

Pure Agape

Speaking of communication, there is nothing like the close and small, especially with the small ones in my life.  Before we left the USA to return to Nairobi, we had a couple of days with the granddaughters.  And they took us to the airport, but we stopped off at Starbucks before checking in.  The girls had hot chocolate, we gave them a Polly Pocket Cowboy and Corral present, and they sat and played while we talked to the daughter and the son-by-marriage.  Now and then one of them would come over for a hug and a little talk.  And we did the "kissing hand" and the "I love you to the moon and back" -- or to Pluto, or outside the universe, or whatever exceeds the last thing we said.  

The youngest one told Darlene that she would think of her Shosho whenever she sees the color gray, a reference to our current hair color.  One of the girls told me she would look at the stars and think of me.

Since we left the youngest one has decided that her birthday party should be tomorrow, since we are coming back for her party, that way we would be back.  

This kind of communication is at the heart of life.  

Pure Angst

The modern world has its new anxieties.  One of the chief is finding myself without a cell phone in hand.  In all the months in the USA, I had instant access to everyone I wanted to talk to.  I haven't had one since getting back to Nairobi -- but NO COMPLAINTS.  I am working to live my life without complaining.  But back to cell phones - before we left Nairobi, we went to the phone company and asked them to set our plan so that our phones would no be deactivated even though they were unused for several months.  They agreed and entered it into the computer.  But...of course both our phones were deactivated.  So we drove into the city and went to the office, waited in line, then found out that their system for reactivating lines is out of commission for a while.  The technician took a friend's phone number, wrote down the deactivated numbers, and promised to call and let us know whether the lines were still available.  But...of course no call.  Now it's the weekend, and we have to wait until at least Monday before we can go back and try again.

  I'm trying to living without complaining...when I conquer this, I will need to work on NO ANXIETY!  Over the years we work on our anxieties and are able to overcome them with God's help.  And then new anxieties appear, prompted by the very things we love most about the modern world.  "Cast all your cares on Jesus" is one of the standards by which we live, but every new thing in our lives brings a new challenge to our life of peace.  

  At least I had the internet chip in a phone and could do email and access the world that way.  It doesn't work with Skype for phone calls, but it works for communication.  Isn't it amazing how used we have become to instant communications with everyone?  The internet and the cell phone have become wonderful tools for missionaries, and we value them highly.  

  Still, the most important task as a missionary is to share the life of Christ with others, to train and encourage others to serve the mission.  The cell phone and the internet can aid that, but cannot replace the personal touch.  So, living without complaining and living without anxiety are more important than having technology working the way we want it.  The conclusion is that, since living without anxiety is more important than getting a working cell phone, I must turn loose of anxiety about not having a cell phone in my hand. 

  How's that for logic?  Now to make it so...

Back at Made in the Streets

Darlene and I arrived in Nairobi this week.  As always, there is much to do, and yet if we did nothing, this ministry would be a blessing.  We have visited with the kids, and they seem very happy, a good sign that our Team is doing good work.  We have 13 really industrious kids now who are on the Fast Track program -- they will take the 8th grade exit exams in December -- and they still keep up their chores, their skills training, farm work and life in the church.  These are kids who have had very little formal education, and we give them our basic literacy course, then set them on a study course to prepare for one year for the exams.  

  It has been very dry in Kamulu area for the whole year, but we have crops growing, thanks to our drip line irrigation system and the well.  The new equipment that came in the container - thank you, everyone - is working well: the tractor, the woodworking equipment and the sewing machines.  

  Our students are wearing uniforms with pride, and the sewing factory continues to develop, with two good contracts for uniforms.  In years to come, this will develop as a strong force in the ministry.  We have a new auto mechanics' teacher, who is working on probation for now.  Joel Njue and Irene Akinyi continue University studies in Business and Counseling, respectively.  

                                                                                       

 Take a look at the blog produced by the Team for the prize-giving day!  Great uplift for the students.  That blog is www.made-in-the-streets.blogspot.com   Moses Okoth (our technology guy and computer teacher) tells us that Alex Atemai is brilliant. His sponsors in Cedar Rapids, IA, and Mount Vernon, IA, will be happy to know that!

May you be as happy as I am when you look at your co-workers and those whom you teach!

The Children of Passover

Our family has been doing a Seder Passover service with family and friends for many years.  Over the years Darlene has developed an enjoyable, concise and meaningful Seder based on the joy we have in Jesus the Christ.  Now our grandchildren are part of the event, along with other families with children.  We had a great time this year with 10 adults and 13 girls. 

We sing the song "dayenu" (it would have been enough) and invite anyone to share what God has done in our lives "that would have been enough" if that were all that God had ever done for us.  One of our 6-year-olds raised her hand to say "if God had only given me faith," then later raised her hand again to say "if God only gave us the Holy Spirit."  We sang the "dayenu" after each person and enjoyed it much.  

After everyone had gone home, I walked home with the grandchildren and our daughter.  I held this granddaughter's hand and walked along talking about the stars and Orion and the moon.  Then she began to talk theology, all about Jesus and what God has done and how he made California and it was for us and about God's love and Jesus dying to help us.  She chattered all the way home.  There are few things finer in the world than listening to a grandchild get her theology straight.  I complimented her on the wisdom of saying that "faith is enough" and she said, "of course (I am your granddaughter)" -- and went on to talk some more about how smart God is.

In Honor of Street Youth

Darlene and I spent the weekend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Great "Poetry and Coffee Night" with the Central Church -- dessert, coffee, original poetry -- lots of fun and fundraising! Here is my poem, written as I thought about the pathos and pain involved with sleeping on the streets.

SHADOW PLAY

Shadows play on darkened alleyway

As boys gather at end of day

A shadow propped like a scene from the manger

Cut deep from bottle broken in anger

His story legion, abandoned one

Has not enjoyed childhood fun.

Once he was home, a child desired

New wife said no, Dad was tired,

Blind to the deeds of his mate,

Who for her own child's sake learned to hate,

Little food, no bed, driven out,

His worth, his hope, his heart, reduced to doubt.

In the city he disappears,

No one to listen or see his tears,

Slowly blood seeps into the shirt

And mingles with trash in the dirt.

Someone must come, come to bind,

But most of the world is blind.

If there is none to come, none to find,

Then the world loses piece (sp?) of mind.

Shadows play on walls we see

This child of destiny.

Lifted, bound, healed, sent,

He fulfills all that was meant.

But will he see the light of day,

Will he run and laugh and play,

Will he have his heart restored,

Is there someone who ceases to hoard

And answers the call from the dark place

And shines the light on this little face?

29 March 2009

by charles coulston

The true joys of life are not hard to find.  They present themselves to us in the ordinary movements of our lives.  We go someplace, and there the joys are to be found.  We come home, and the joys are there already.  

This weekend we are in Iowa - Cedar Rapids - to see old friends and visit with the Central Church. Richard and Diane Bradford have a daughter entering Abilene Christian University in the fall, and they have four 15-year-old sons who are a great mix of interests.  We've talked about school, and played table tennis, and looked at snowboards, and listened to drumming, and gone out for coffee together, and watched March Madness basketball and compared computers.  These are true joys with people we love.

And this afternoon it started to snow.  We seldom get to see snow, since most of our time is spent in Nairobi, Kenya, and when here we are often in Southern California.  And deer were running in the trees behind the house in the snow.  So I called California, and talked to a grandchild who loves the snow, who would be outside making snow angels no matter how cold it gets.  And that true joy told me about the great race at school and the award.  That's a true joy.  

And I share all this with Darlene.  True joys are all around and constant.  God made our lives for this, for joy that erupts in laughter and affection and hope.  All I want for my life is that I can share the true joys with street kids, who have borne the great abuse of having no one tell them how wonderful they are and how much they deserve to revel in true joy.

May your joy be full today, and true.

Planning the Future for Street Ministry

I may have mentioned before that I am on Medicare and Social Security now!  A real transition point in life, and I get 10% off at buffets and would get in cheaper at movies if I went.  So we are now in the process of setting up advanced health care directives and wills and powers of attorney.   It will make it easier for other people when we all of a sudden can't make the decisions we need to make.  

   In the past three years we have had five families make special gifts to Made in the Streets when a loved one died.  In each case they were people who already had an interest in street ministry and in MITS.  That has caused us to make a decision to do something similar.  

   We have talked with our heirs about using part of what is left in our estate for Made in the Streets.  We are thinking that somewhere around 25% would be great -- that still leaves something for the family but provides a future for the street ministry.  

    And doing it this way will not place constrictions on our heirs.  They can give whatever amount they want to for a few years in order to get the best tax benefits possible until the whole amount is given.  

   We are hopeful that some of you will do the same thing.  Decide an amount or a percentage you'd like to go to Made in the Streets. Talk to your kids, executor, whoever, and express your desire, then let them follow through when the time is right.  

   The 5 gifts have done great things for MITS -- we set up a visitors' quarters, we built a skills training building, we are preparing to build a new boys' dorm, we bought a piece of land that has been invaluable, and we were able to do a  refurbishing of our Eastleigh Center, which gets a lot of wear.  

   So...please give it some thought.  We want to provide the infrastructure and funding for Made in the Streets, since we have wonderful Kenyan Team members who can run this ministry themselves and who plan to stay long-term and serve street kids. 

Prayer for the Church

How's your prayer life?  

  Every day I get reminders about the power and meaning and joy of prayer.  Many things bring prayers of thanksgiving to my mind and heart

• The Eastleigh Team meets a kid who has just come out on the streets.
  
• I go to the park with the grandchildren and play and hike.
  
• One of the street youth students decides to be baptized into Jesus (such as Millicent last Sunday - she is one of the "moms" in our Eastleigh program)
  
• A Team member decides to be a long-term street minister with MITS.
  
• Darlene and I meet with a USA church that is excited about street ministry.
  

  

 There is also much that calls for sober and continual prayers for help

    A street student turns 18 and prepares to leave MITS for a job or internship.

    A student runs after being with us for two years.

    A student's relative dies and we deal with grief.

    Last week Francis Mbuvi sent me two pictures of the church meeting at Kamulu, pictures which he showed to the church and told them he was sending them to me so I could pray for them. Here is a pic of part of the church.  There's Jane and Mama Caro near the front and Kennedy waving from the back.  My heart is very  much with them.  Most of us will be with a church somewhere tomorrow morning.  When you sit down in the pew or chair, please stop a moment and pray for the Kamulu church, the street kids of the world, and give thanks for the church you are part of.  And God's powerful Spirit can then be unleashed in the church.

Happy Birthday

One of the most loving acts we do at Made in the streets is to give birthday parties to the street kids who are in our boarding program.  When we meet the kids, many of them do not know when or where they were born, and none have ever had a birthday party.  If we have no documents on them, then we take them to a dentist for their molars to be examined, and the dentist will say, "He's 13, give or take a year."  What the dentist writes is a legal document.  So we then ask the student, "what month and day do you want for your birthday in 1996?"  Ali quickly answered, "February 5."  Others decide to take the month we are in, since they will be included in the birthday party for that month!  Still others think they know the month, so they choose it.  The picture is of Mercy Kisya getting her age assessment. 

Our birthday parties are great events.  We gather in a circle at the Learning Center courtyard.  We share good things about each birthday person by passing a ball around while we are singing, then whoever has it when we stop gets to say a good word about any or all of the honorees.  We will have a devo also, and we will serve cake (baked and decorated by our own!) and maybe popcorn and punch.  

May you have a happy birthday.  And please remember to pray for kids who do not know when they were born, or why!

Travels

The Coulstons are on the road again.  February 22 we are at the Otter Creek Church in Brentwood, TN.  Sunday morning March 1 we are at Eastside Church in Duncan, OK, and in the evening we are with the Singing Oaks Church in Denton, TX.  On March 8 we are at the Legacy Church in North Richland Hills, TX.  

We have been in Tucson, AZ, and a great visit with the Mountain Avenue Church; we have visited with many people at the Conejo Valley Church in Thousand Oaks, CA, while spending time with "the kids" - daughter, son-by-marriage and the grandchildren.  

It is our great joy to tie together two worlds that have many differences but One Lord -- the street ministry in Nairobi and supporting congregations and friends in the USA.  And what we are most amazed about is the continuing compassion and generosity we experience in Christians in the USA.  

Maybe the greatest difference is that our world in Nairobi is "homeless" while our world in the USA has the comfort of good homes.  In Nairobi the street kids sleep outside, so our work is outside also.  And our congregation in Kamulu is "homeless", since we meet outside in the courtyard of the Learning Centre at MITS.  But at Kamulu we are providing a home for kids, with each street kid having his or her own bed!  And the same is true for the girls with babies at the Eastleigh Center.  Your support makes this possible, and we are all grateful.  

The Pursuit of Happiness

In the USA, we believe firmly in certain rights for every citizen.  One of those is the freedom to pursue happiness.  Of course, happiness has different dimensions and definitions.  Since it is a pursuit, it hinges on certain realities, and that is where being happy differs for people.  For some, the foundation of happiness is having the economy strong, and that means having enough money to do the things I want to do.  For others, the foundation is family - having everyone together and safe and unified.  For still others, happiness comes from having the career or job or activities that one wants to do.  

If those things are not there, then happiness is lost, and depression or sadness or frustration sets in.  We hear this now and then from those who have lost jobs and whose happiness depends on money.  We hear it when a family member is in a dangerous place or separated from family.  We hear it when a person gets too old or is too weak to do the things he wants to do.  

It's easier for those who are not suffering loss to stand aside and regard people as weak or wrong-headed who are frustrated or unhappy.  

But there is another answer for life, one that enables us to find happiness regardless of human situations or losses.  God has an economy, God has a family, God has a purpose.  To accept God's economy, to enter into God's family, to take on God's purposes in our own lives is to find a way to happiness that does not depend on having money, or a safe family, or doing what we want to do.  

God's Spirit has his own ways to produce happiness in our inner lives, and our outer lives as well.  As we tell the street kids, "you are not bound by your past."  Now are we bound by present realities.  We also tell the kids "money is not the answer."  And we tell them, "we are also your family."  

We are free to pursue happiness.  Let us keep our ears open to hear the enduring words, "Happy are those who...." (see Matthew 5)

Raise Your Own

MITS HONORS ITS OWN

It really pays to invest in people.  Land and buildings and cash and clothes and furniture are all very nice, but people pay off in the long run.  In our short careers (have I mentioned that I am on social security now?), Darlene and I have always worked with young people, whether campus ministry in university, teenagers or nursery school kids.  We directed youth and children's camps for 20 years.  Our objective was to "grow our own," using high school youth who had been in our children's camps as counselors in children's camps when they were 15 and older.  And we used our college students as counselors in youth camps.  

   The first picture is a group of street kids taken early (1996) in the Made in the Streets ministry.  Laurent Mogambi is the one in the front with the baseball cap turned sideways.  At the time he did not know his real name, but he called himself "John Mwangi Isaac," with the Isaac emphasized because his little brother, Isaac, had been picked up by the police and Laurent thought Isaac was dead.  He wanted to honor his memory.  

  

The next picture shows Laurent at 15 years old just before he entered the initial live-in program at the Eastleigh Center in 1999.  He was a good student -- we were teaching Bible, English and Math.  Darlene's Mom came to Kenya 6 months each year (she was 72 the first year she came) and taught reading to evangelists and street kids.  She taught Laurent to read, giving him lots of encouragement and guidance.  He absorbed everything and wanted more.  When our team enrolled him in middle 

school (he was accepted into the 7th grade even though he had never been to school because he learned English and Bible and math at Made in the Streets), they also found out his name and other info a

bout him.  

  

   The next picture shows Laurent at his final meal preparation at the cooking school the Team 

enrolled him in, which he cooked for Darlene and me.  By God's grace he got an internship at the University of Nairobi cafeteria, and he has cooked there for five years.  He has cooked at meals attended by the President of Kenya, and this year he helped cook a meal for the contenders for President (Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga) held during the negotiations for the new coalition government.  All along Made in the Streets has stayed in touch with Laurent, and his wedding to Eliza (another of our former students) was held at the Kamulu Center in December.  

  

Now our investment in people really starts to pay off.  Laurent becomes the fourth of our former students to begin working on the MITS Team. 

  Last week Francis and Mauryn Mbuvi moved into their new house, moving out of the house at the girls' center.  The next day Laurent and Eliza moved into the house vacated by the Mbuvi's.  Laurent will begin part-time teaching at the new cooking skills area in the Connor Brown Memorial Skills Training Center.  As soon as he finished his responsibilities to the University, he will be full-time with MITS.  He will train students to cook, and he will direct their work in operating the small cafe we have on the highway at our Shops Center.  Eliza both sews and has good ability as a hairdresser, so she will likely work in some capacity in relationship to MITS.  

  There is nothing like "raising your own" when it comes to good management of resources and investment in the future.  The church can always do this by giving young people lots of responsibility and opportunity to stretch their abilities and faith.  

Have a good time in your investments in 2009