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Issue No. 17- July 2015

S t r e n g t h e n i n g t h e A f r i c a n F a m i l y A s To g e t h e r We F i g h t A i d s & P o v e r t y

Coming o f Age in KenyaJoy Vi l lage Erect ing a Boy’s Hostel

It is a centuries’ old Kenyan tradition that boys come of age when they enter high school. This is the time in a young Kenyan boy’s life when he must move out of his family’s home and live apart from them. The high school boy continues to eat meals with his parents and siblings, yet he sleeps alone, does his own cleaning and washes his own clothes.

Joy Village is following this model as well. With our first boy to enter high school this fall, we are erecting a boys’ hostel on the grounds of the home. Michael, who turns 17 this year and enters high school in the fall, will be the first resident of the new boys’ hostel. He will be followed by five other boys over the next several years.

Girls, in Kenyan culture, do not move out of the family home until they complete high school. We anticipate adding a girls’ hostel at Joy Village shortly before our first young ladies come of age in a few years.

Michael will enter high school this fall.

Allamano School

Children at the Allamano School are learning to use a mouse pad. Technology is f a s c i n a t i n g t o k i d s everywhere, it seems.

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S t r e n g t h e n i n g t h e A f r i c a n F a m i l y A s To g e t h e r We F i g h t A i d s & P o v e r t y

2 0 1 5 P i l g r i m a g e s t o K e n y a E n c o u n t e r s w i t h G o d

The diverse and engaged summer team has returned to the States after two weeks at Nazareth Hospital. Including a high school senior, a retired couple, a stay-at-home mom with two young boys of her own, a teacher on summer break, these 12 pilgrims united to bring a visible reminder of God’s love and compassion to our brothers and sisters in Africa. Their greatest gift was their time. They sat quietly at bedsides. They prayed. They played. Their hearts were broken and mended again. Eternal relationships were formed and the Kingdom was changed.

If you are interested in chasing after God in Kenya this fall, we are now putting together the team for October 2015. Contact Becky Lyle Pinkard, becky.treeoflives@gmail.com.

T h e O t h e r S i d eK i s e r i a n i n t h e N g o n e H i l l s o f K e n y a

In Kenya, remote and rural regions are often referred to as “the other side.” In late June, several of the Tree of Lives summer team from the U.S. accompanied a medical team from Holy Family Center to Kiserian in the Ngone Hills area of Kenya - the other side. Once a week, HFC staff travel to Kiserian Clinic to oversee treatment and care of HIV/AIDS patients there and to make home visits to patients in the surrounding countryside.

Initially AIDS was known as an urban disease yet it has migrated to remote areas such as Kiserian. Historically this region was inhabited by the Maasai tribe who led isolated lives tending herds of cattle and goats. By 2000 their culture began to change and others began inhabiting the land, many carrying HIV/AIDS.

The team endured an 8.5 hour, extremely bumpy ride on dirt “roads” to visit Masai country, where they discovered for themselves that God has a heart for all his people, even those on the other side.