Pure Christianity

Picture of the Week

It is not always fun and games at A Future and a Hope. Here is Edith standing in time out during Butterfly's birthday celebration.

Things you may not think about...

When living with 17 people it obviously requires a great deal of time, energy, and thought. When trying to relate, there are lots of things that you may think about such as our meal preparations or the amount of laundry we have...

But have you tried to put yourself in our SHOES, literally? We have at least 34 shoes lying around at any given moment. In fact, Emma our 1 year old, loves shoes so much that she is constantly wearing some one's shoes. This is a problem because she carries shoes all over the house! If you need a specific shoe, you may only find ONE of them!

Another issue we have is school supplies. We go through erasers and pencils like sweets! Since I home school Andrew, Makena, and Butterfly, we are ever without the supplies we need because the orphans are constantly taking our pencils to school with them. I have a special 'teacher' drawer that I think they are invading daily. Fortunately, we have a sponsor who has ordered personalized pencils for us! Hopefully that will help solve the problem.

Taps. Water taps. Our water system is different than most of yours. Instead of trying to explain it now, let me just say this:  Our kids never close the taps! (Usually it is because when they opened it no water came out so they just walk away without reversing the action they took upon the faucet.) However, when we pump the water from our storage tanks into the house, if we don't check all 24 taps, water will be pouring down the drain. Since we have to buy our water from a water company because no water comes to our house, it is a very costly waste!

On the lighter side of things, having 17 people around means that there is always someone to play with or talk to. Our kids play outside games because there's always enough for team play. It is great fun. Our kids get along pretty well. I'm so grateful for that!

~Kate Brooks

Missionary to Nakuru, Kenya

Co-founder of A Future and a Hope, home for orphaned girls.

Picture of the Week

Here is Makena with some produce from our small garden at the house. The kids really enjoyed watching things grow. I don't think they enjoyed the work of watering the plants, weeding them, and all the other things associated with gardening. After a while the watering and weeding stopped, and nature just took over. Despite everyone's lack of green thumbs we managed to grow some zucchini. I am not sure that is a good thing, but still they grew.

 

Johnny 

Our little secret... where your donations go.

It's 2 am and this article has been rolling around in my mind for a few days. Now that I'm up typing it, I don't know how to begin.

For many of you who read our blogs regularly, you know that we, the Brooks family, help orphans and occasionally we reach out to those in need in our community. Well, it's not true. Not entirely.

You see, Johnny and I along with our kids, we live with orphans, yes, but that is not our ministry. We focus on it quite a bit in our Internet presence, but the secret is, we don't just help 'the least of these' from time to time. Our real ministry, if I may use that term, IS helping 'the least of these.' We live with orphans, that's our lifestyle, and we want to open more homes in the future, but our day to day job is actually helping people outside the home.

I know many of you have heard a few of the stories of people we've aided, but what you may not realize is that we are afraid of overwhelming our readers. Every story you have read, is just one in over 637 people we've seen in our office, opened a case file for them, and aided just in the last 6 months.

I didn't want this article to come out as if we are bragging or posting numbers, but Johnny and I have been wondering HOW to raise money to help these people. Most people who donate are giving to A Future and a Hope, but I thought you might be interested to know that in the last 6 months, we've given away in the form of aid over $17,000 USD OUTSIDE our home. That is 40% of all of our donations received. The other 60% goes to our orphan project. I.e. paying school fees for the orphans, feeding them, etc.. Let me say this:  If you give us money, we will spend it. We cannot turn away people who have needs when we have the funds to aid them. There. I said it.

Two days a week, Johnny and James meet people in the office. Usually 30 or more people flood in asking for assistance. Some need emergency surgeries. Others just need enough money to get to the hospital for testing, and some are being held prisoner in the hospital until their fee is paid. Others need glasses or help starting a business. Some need help with school fees. They fill out a form with their requests. Meanwhile, Ben is 'out in the field' doing leg work. Since we don't give out cash to cases, either Ben or Johnny must personally take care of whatever needs there are.

Then the other three days of the week (usually more), Johnny, James, Ben and sometimes Ali visit people and/or go to the office and look over all of the case files trying to prioritize the needs. Then they go out like Santa bearing gifts of food to the hungry or clothes to the naked. Or they take the ill to the hospital, or release the well from the hospital by paying their fee, etc... It is an AWESOME job!

Yep. That's what we do. We don't have an orphanage, really, we just live with orphans. What we really do is help 'the least of these.'

 

Have you ever seen a child get excited over a bag of flour? This picture is of some very grateful kids. They are holding two buckets of 'goodies' you bought them. Thanks for making it possible!

 

  Kate Brooks

Missionary to Kenya, East Africa

Co-founder of A Future and a Hope

Picture of the Week

Here is Leah, she cooks for the home.

Mundane

Almost every weekday my wife will hand me a list. These lists detail the things we need to buy for the house. Living with 17 people means that we consume a lot of stuff. So we are always needing to buy something from the supermarket or the market or some other place.

Here is my list for today:

• Morning Fresh (dishwashing soap)
• Sweeping broom
• Tissue paper (toilet paper)
• So Soft (fabric softener)
• Persil (laundry detergent)
• Supa Brite (sponge)
• Salt
• Bathing soap
• honey
• Blue Band (margarine)
• Bean sprouts
• bread

So after leaving the office and dropping James and Meg at their house I will head to the supermarket to get as much as I can on this list. Sometimes everything is not available, and sometimes I do not have enough cash to buy everything.

Mundane, but exciting at the same time. What do I mean? So glad you asked.

I am buying all this stuff so that we can provide family for orphaned girls here in Kenya, and I cannot think of a more exciting thing to do. So yes I often times smile when buying sponges. (Of course it helps that I love supermarkets.)

 

        Johnny Brooks

Missionary to Nakuru, Kenya. Co-founder of A Future and a Hope, a home for girls.

Picture of the Week

Mildred on her first day at A Future and a Hope.

Is it a Plague?

Last night while we were all watching "Hello Dolly," one of the girls decided to go to bed. Suddenly, loud screams came blasting up the stairs. Here is what she saw in her room...

Someone had left the window open and the light on. This picture doesn't do them justice, but there were THOUSANDS of giant termites flopping and flapping all over the place. Our cats were in Heaven, but the girls were, well, terrified!

Here's a picture of Ben and the girls trying to get them off of the net. They were swarming everywhere!

Pauline brought a basin of water to put them in so they couldn't fly away but one is managing to escape...

Believe it or not, Kenyans (especially Luos) eat these little guys. In fact, Edith, our 5 year old orphan, was eating them while still alive! So after drying them in the sun, we decided to cook them for dinner...

That's one big skillet full of sautéed bugs! YUM! Tastes like peanuts. My kids love 'em.

~Kate Brooks

Missionary to Nakuru, Kenya, East Africa

Co-founder of A Future and a Hope, Home for orphaned girls

New Kid in the house

We are happy to introduce to you a new member of our family at A Future and a Hope. Her name is Mildred Awino age 13.

Recently, Johnny and Ben found Mildred and her two brothers in a small one room house taking care of their dying mother. They had been cooking for her and 'nursing' her for over six months completely by themselves. When we found them the mother was very, very ill. We rushed her to the hospital where, unfortunately, she passed away.

Thus, Mildred, and her two siblings were left completely alone-- no father, no aunts nor uncles, no grandparents. They had no income, no food, no comfort, but Jesus sent us. We were able to provide food for these children and pay the rent on the house so that they can live there with out worry.

Mildred and her brothers finished the burial process for their mother and now, Mildred is living here with us in our home.

She just got Malaria and is running a high fever (105.1 F). I'm giving her anti-malaria and fever reducer, and she should be better soon.

Since our home is for girls, her brothers are still at their small, one room house, but we are paying their rent and helping them with food until we can find a better situation for them.

Thanks for making this possible!

 

~Kate Brooks

Missionary to Nakuru, Kenya

Co-founder of A Future and a Hope home for girls

 

 

P.S. Pictures coming soon.

Picture of the week

This week, we started Karate lessons at A Future and a Hope. Here's a picture of our first lesson.