A Very Merry Christmas to All of You!

The rainy season is upon us and farming activity is well under way. The monkeys are also quite active in their thievery as they regularly raid maize fields!



Our children at the Village of Hope are taking some baby steps in farming as they experiment with planting their own little patch of maize. We have received some instruction from Mark Wenham who is an excellent farmer. He taught us principles from the Word of God that we can apply as a foundation to our farming technique. Here are some of them:


1. Be faithful with what you have been given
2. Give and you will receive
3. Whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as unto the Lord. Make sure our standards are excellent.
4. Do not be wasteful
5. Do it with joy

Mark had a captive audience as we learned how to prepare the ground (first through prayer), dig the holes neatly and evenly spaced, apply fertilizer and the seed, and mulching.

He then performed two experiments; one demonstrating what happens to the soil when fields are continually plowed which cause loss of important nutrients as opposed to the soil in which the field has been cultivated using conservation farming methods. The other experiment demonstrated the importance of having “God’s blanket” or mulch applied over the cultivated area once the seed and fertilizer has been applied and how much moisture and soil were retained in the area with the mulch.

The children and caregivers have been taking turns weekly in caring for our maize patch and we have been very encouraged by the growth and health of the plants!



(The Mumba Family, Back Row from right: Dick, Jesse, Anita, Abraham, Front row from right: Rachel, Michelle, Esther)

We would also like to introduce to you our new missionary family who joined us in November this year; their names are Dick and Anita Mumba. They have five children, Jesse 17yrs, Abraham 16yrs, Michelle 11yrs and two 8yrs old twins’ girls Rachel and Esther. They are from Zambia and have been serving in the mission field with a ministry called Youth With A Mission in the Eastern part of Zambia for the last five years. They completed their five year commitment with YWAM and felt lead to Join All Kids Can Learn to help minister to the orphaned and vulnerable children.

Life sometimes has an interesting way of catching up with you; Kamau and Dick first met twenty one years ago when Dick, then a single man, left Zambia and came to Kenya to attend a Discipleship Training School where Kamau was a student. After graduation, both went their separate ways, married, had children and continued serving in the mission field in different locations, little did Kamau know that one day, he would come to Zambia as a missionary and not only renew his ties with Dick, but actually end up serving alongside each other in the mission field. Dick has attended a bible school and served as a pastor in several churches in Zambia. His wife Anita is a trained pre-school teacher and has worked in the role of teaching for the last past five years. Anita is from a small island in the South Pacific, she and Dick met in Kenya where they both worked at Youth With A Mission.

Kamau is particularly happy to have Dick on board as he will be another father figure to our 42 children and yet another 16 children to be admitted sometime next year; It was becoming rather challenging for Kamau to spend quality time with all of the children! Dick will also assist in our local church at VOH among many other responsibilities. Please be praying for the Mumba family as they begin this journey with us.

On the 22^nd we had our Christmas dinner celebration. The event was catered by the restaurant and we invited Pastor Zulu and his family to join us. We put out some tables, chairs and benches and arranged them on our front lawn. It was a very nice intimate atmosphere, just like an outdoor restaurant! After eating, the children sang songs and then the mothers and the aunties sang. Dick led us in singing after that and we had a really nice time.

(Anita Mumba with some of her children and Kimani)

Kimberly shared a Christmas message about an African American pastor in the early 1900s named Charles Tindley who pastured churches in Delaware and in Philadelphia. After witnessing gifts being passed out to children on Christmas day and one child being left out, he was heartbroken and asked God when would there be a time when the Spirit of Christ would so fill the hearts of people throughout the world that such things did not happen. The Lord responded by reminding him of Rev. 22:1-1,2 where it speaks of the tree of life and that Jesus is this tree! From that time he began to preach on "Heaven's Christmas Gifts" at Christmas time and many people were saved. They are, Hope for the Helpless, Forgiveness for the Guilty, Help for the Weak, A Friend for the Friendless, Peace for the Troubled Soul and a Home for the Homeless.

We then sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and also to Kamau because he was celebrating his birthday that day. We enjoyed some cake before we ended a very good day!

May the grace and peace of God rest on you moment by moment!

Many many thanks for your continued partnership with

us in this ministry.

The Kamaus

(Mama Anna with her children on Christmas Day!)

Mysterious Morning Conversations & Delightful Visitors

(Paul and Dockline at Hope Club)

Recently, I was fully awakened to the sound of voices coming through the window. It was Kamau and six year-old Dockline engaged in an out of the ordinary discussion. It went something like this:

Kamau: “So what have you decided, are you going to let him go?”

Dockline: “ No, I want to eat him.”

Kamau: “ But why? Mama Rose is fixing you a nice breakfast.”

Dockline: “Because it is good.”

Kamau: “Well how do you eat it?”

Dockline: “ I take off its head and then its legs because it has a spiky thing on it. The belly part has rice in it and it is good! Then I put it on charcoal and cook it and eat it.”

Kamau: “ Oh, I see. Now what if a giant came along and said that he was not going to let Dockline go because he wanted to eat her. Would you like that?”

Dockline: (Giggling) “No I don’t want to be eaten. I’ll let it go.”

Kamau: “ Okay, but now why are you pulling off its legs? What if someone said that they would let Dockline go but they would have to break her legs first, would that be good?”

Dockline: (More giggles) “No!”

What in the world!!!?? As you can imagine, I was intrigued by the exchange and when Kamau came into the house I began to ask questions. It turns out that the unfortunate subject of the conversation was a grasshopper! Dockline spends a fair amount of time hunting them, playing with them, dismembering them, and apparently enjoying them as a delicacy! (I don’t want to think too closely about what the “rice” inside the grasshopper might be!)

Greetings Dear Ones!,

Well, it has been a delightful season of visiting teams from the U.S. We have enjoyed the return visits of our church family and friends from Delaware, meeting old and new brothers and sisters from Wisconsin, Colorado, Philadelphia, Maryland, Texas, and Michigan.

Children at the Village of Hope and in the surrounding villages were treated to special activities at the Hope Bible Clubs, craft projects, learning new games, Vacation Bible School, etc. Our visitors spent time reading each evening to our children at VOH and listening to the children read to them, playing board games (which is not done much in Africa) , teaching knitting and crocheting, wood working, making balloon animals for them, and many other goings-on! At the School of Hope, various classes were learning how to prepare skits and musical programs which they were eager to perform for visiting teams.

The following pictures provide a panorama of what the visitor season has looked like for 2010:

The Delaware teams participated in the Hope Clubs and spent time a lot of time just hanging with the children and loving them! In this picture Rose Chipoya is translating for Stacie and Jim.

This event was an end 0f the quarter program. The team from Wisconsin and youth from Maryland were on hand to witness the festivities.

Roman was enjoying his new balloon hat after Mark from Colorado delighted the children with various balloon sculptures!

During the month of June, South Africa hosted the World Cup and the children were excited to take part in their own opening ceremonies celebrating the sporting event. They made their own hats and flags representing various countries. The teachers used this event to do a unit study for the quarter answering the question, "What makes a good soccer player?"

This was a teacher's appreciation lunch which was arranged by Maureen from Michigan and Bonnie and Lindsay from Delaware. The ladies prepared a beautiful table and provided a relaxing atmosphere with soft music and candles. What a well deserved treat!!

In this picture Joshua is looking up at Jaime who came to visit with his wife and three daughters. The picture says it all. This is why we are here.

We are very grateful to Steve from Delaware and Mark from Michigan for spending a lot of time
getting this huge generator up and running. When we have power shortages, which are frequent, this will help the business at the road front to continue to serve our customers, especially at the restaurant.
There were many moments like these, we just happened to catch this one on camera!

There are happy children and caregivers comfortably sitting on their new furniture thanks to the sewing talents of Wendy from Wisconsin. We had been having trouble finding someone to make the slipcovers for many months, but Wendy very quickly made slip covers for the cushions and Voila!

The girls are enjoying sometime together playing and practicing new found knitting and crocheting skills taught to them by a few of the ladies that visited this summer!

Thank you so much for all who came to spend time with us sharing your talents, gifts, laughter, encouragement and love with us! And we have not forgotten those of you who made it possible for them to come, thank you!

God's Grace & Peace to you all,

The Kamaus