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