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The Children of LLM had a party to celebrate all of the children born between April and August! They really had fun, even more so for celebrating with their friends, brothers and sisters!! They have since gone back to school for their final term this year that ends at the end of October. Thank you all for your prayers and support!! You are making a huge difference in the lives of the vulnerable children in Kenya!!

God blesses us to be a blessing to others, a few weeks ago ALL staff and LLM’S children embarked on a mission to visit another childrens home a few miles from Ol Kalou. Our children donated cloths while staff (with the support of our friends and LLM board) contributed funds for the same mission. After a lot of planning the day was finally here, we left our home early since we were cooking lunch for all the staff and kids of “In Heavens Eyes” (name of the children’s home in Nyahururu). Our able team of staff and older kids did a sumptuous meal in plenty. Games, fun, discussion, gifts and a word of encouragement from the Bible followed suit after the meal. That was an awesome experience for our children, learning to give at this tender age. Thanks for your support of Living Love Ministries, your sacrifice is making a difference for the vulnerable children of Kenya!! 🙏

The Living Love Family celebrating the day of the African child. The children have one more week before they break from school for the month of August. Thank you all for your continued support!!

CHARLES AND ROSE MAKANGA OUR INCOMING

HOUSE PARENTS. THEY WILL HELP OUR CHILDREN

THROUGH THEIR TEENAGE CHALLENGES AS LLM CONTINUES

TO GROW AND EXPAND. THEY HAVE ONE

GROWN SON AND THREE SMALL CHILDREN.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

35+ hours of travel, a few hours of mediocre sleep, eight additional checked baggage fees, one missing bag of safety glasses, seven $10 Dubai Shake Shack milkshakes, and thousands of replayed memories later, the team is back in the States.

We are grateful to have made it home safely, but sad that our days of sipping chai and playing endless games of basketball in Kenya are over (for the time being…). It feels like we have left our hearts in Kenya.

As Josh mentioned, the LLM kids and staff put together a farewell program for our final dinner together on Friday. They told us what a blessing we were to them through our projects and in spending time with the children, but I hope we made it clear how much of a blessing they were to us. We would not have been able to work with joy and endurance if it weren’t for their consistent smiles, words of encouragement, and wonderful examples of eagerness to serve. My introverted self never found it difficult to strike up a conversation with the Kenyans, and for some reason I always had just enough energy to play games or have my hair braided with the kids. Saying goodbye that night was harder than I ever imagined.

Staring out a window for hours at a time gives one time to think and reflect on the two weeks of work and exploring we just completed. Each member on our team is at different places in his/her life, whether it be after a few different careers, beginning one, studying for one, or figuring out the one God is calling her to. During our commute to our guesthouse from the LLM property one night, we discussed the difficulty of finding meaning in monotonous summer intern work, especially after working with a visionary organization like LLM in the Collaboratory for a year. It brings up the elusive issue of our individual purpose, which drives our motivation to do our work well and with joy. I pray that each member of our team goes into their next steps for the summer with the same drive and lightheartedness that we entered Ol Kalou, Kenya with, whether he/she sees the ultimate meaning of their work or not. Our purpose is ultimately to serve God and shed a light in every community whether it be in a neighborhood of Kenyan buildings or in a neighborhood of cubicles. Cliché, but so relevant.

I believe that I speak for all of us when I say that Kenya has truly changed us for the better, whether it be our first or second time interacting with the people here. We all have varying levels of confidence that we will return to Ol Kalou sometime in the future. As of now, the Land Development team will return next year to build a recreational field for LLM, provided they raise enough funds, but the Solar PV team will be moving on to another project for the ‘19-’20 academic year. Many of us would love to return at some point if God presented the opportunity, though!

Thank you again for all of your support and following us on this journey.

-Meghan Sampson, on behalf of the Solar PV and Land Development Teams

A huge Thank You to the Messiah Team for all of your hard work and dedication to the Living Love Family!! We are truly blessed to have you partner with us to help the vulnerable children in Kenya! Below is the final update from this years Mission Trip.

Thursday-Friday, June 6-7

We tried to wrap things up as much as we could on Wednesday, but on Thursday there was still some work to be done. The new solar system needed to be tested, and as you can tell Steven was really excited for it. The sun decided to cooperate as well, so we had plenty of solar energy to use to see just how much water we can pump out of the well at LLM. Seeing water flowing through this system has been surreal from the very first time we saw water pumping to every single test we have done. As we wrapped up the tests towards the end of the day, it started to hit me that all of the hard work we put into this project since last September has paid off, and LLM is now able to pump water using solar energy. The months of planning and week and a half of hard work has all come together right in front of our eyes.

Since all of our work was finished, Lydia and Charles decided to take us to see the Thompson Falls and the equator on Friday, which was gorgeous! We had a nice hike down to the bottom and almost walked right into the falls. All of us were soaked because of the mist coming from the waterfall, but that didn’t bother us. When we hiked back to the top, some of us were even able to get our shopping on. This was just the day we needed to end our trip.

That night, LLM planned a beautiful program for us that involved singing, dancing, and a lot of cake shoved in Steven’s face! Our friends gave Steven a nice graduation ceremony of dancing and which ended with a lot of cake icing on Steven’s face. I’m pretty sure some of it was still there when we landed back in the US. After that ceremony, we ate our last dinner with the kids and then had to start the long process of goodbyes which included lots of hugs, tears, and then waves goodbye. It truly was a great way to finish the trip and we all feel so blessed to have been a part of it.

-Josh Kripas

Coming Down to the Wire!

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

I think we are all starting to realize that we only have a few days left and that is scary, sad, and exciting!
Scary because although we have mostly completed our engineering projects, we wish we had more time and more sunshine to do more thorough testing. The solar water pump is working but not at full capacity with the lack of sunshine. Professor Heisey (or Grampa Scott as we now call him) and JJ have worked hard these last few days finishing up their drip irrigation system.

We are all starting to feel attached to certain children at Living Love, and so I think we are starting to feel sad that we will be leaving them. Tonight, after dinner the kids seemed to have more energy than usual. That is probably partly because they were able to sleep in a little because they didn’t have school today since it was a holiday. I spent most of the time playing and holding Bilhah and Stanley while most of the other kids were tackling or chasing everyone else. 

Today I spent most of the day trying to help get some lights and outlets working for Charles and Rose. Charles and Rose came to Living Love a month ago and are house parents for the boys. It is clear they are both getting along very well with the LLM staff and the children very much enjoy them. They moved into part of the main house and the outlets in their rooms were not working. It took me a few hours to troubleshoot the wiring, but I was able to get their outlets and lights working again and they were very grateful. I was happy to be able to do this for them.

Although we are excited about going home no one is really talking about it. Usually, during trips like these, towards the end, everyone is starting to talk about things they miss about home or what they are looking forward to. No one seems to be doing that. I am thinking we are all enjoying being here and are not quite ready to go home.
– Dereck Plante

Another Day in Ol Kalou

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

The team is happy to report a fairly uneventful day here in Ol Kalou, Kenya. Because we worked so hard the first four days here, the team was blessed with an 8 o’clock pick up instead of 7:30 AM. That extra half hour really helped the day start off on the right foot, along with the promise of sun beginning to poke through the clouds as we headed out to the children’s home. Dereck, Steven, and Ruth took a trip down to Cure Hospital in Kijabe, Kenya to visit another Messiah Collab team doing work with 3D printed prosthetics. There, they observed a few monkeys on roofs, received a tour of the hospital, and enjoyed an intriguing lunch of PB, egg, and cucumber sandwiches (they can’t say they didn’t not like it) with the other Messiah students.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Solar PV and Irrigation teams were slaving away completing miscellaneous tasks on the systems. Professor Heisey and JJ barely had enough time to squeeze in a 30 minute nap after lunch. It was slow going for the Solar PV team in the morning, however, as the team hit a couple road blocks such as having difficulty setting up WiFi to put last year’s solar system online and then attempting to figure out why the irrigation team’s auxiliary pump had power yesterday but not today (turns out you can’t always trust the junction box). Though we had a few issues to tackle, we had a great time organizing the web of wires in the battery room to look a little prettier while jamming to Josh’s electric playlist. We even got around to fixing a light in Pamoja Hall that we may or may not have disrupted from its home on the ceiling last week. 

The Land Development team continued to work hard at laying (and untangling) the drip irrigation system in the agriculture fields and began testing their system today! There seems to be a leak somewhere, but JJ knows where it is and is fixable, so all should continue (ahead) of schedule tomorrow!

Thank you for your prayers for sunshine! Please continue! Today did see more sunlight than yesterday (praise the Lord!) but still not quite enough to pump as much water into LLM’s water storage tanks as we would like to receive thorough results on the flow rate of the new pump and test the irrigation system. Please also pray that we can make the most of the last 3 full days here in Ol Kalou. While we have accomplished so much, there is still plenty to wrap up and many LLM kids and staff who deserve our appreciation. We want to put forth the same level of energy that we came with to finish serving well.

During our time here in Kenya, we have learned a lot about a culture that has both similarities and differences to the one we are comfortable with in America. After our work times, I have had the opportunity to play with and just sit down with some of the kids at LLM. I’ve been given a tour of LLM’s farm land, where they grow oranges, kale, cabbage, and lemons, among much more produce, sat with some girls as they do homework, and learned about their education system. The children have to wake up at 5 AM to get to school by foot, van, or bus, depending on what school they go to, by 8 AM and then the youngest are home around 4:30 while the oldest get back by 6. Around age 11 or 12, students are learning most of their courses in English. As a result many of the children at LLM, as well as the staff, speak English fairly well. It was nice to be able to learn more about them since us Americans over here can only really ask and answer the basic questions in Swahili. I have been truly blown away by everyone at LLM’s kindness and hospitality to us during our time here. We love Kenya!

-Meghan Sampson

Laying it on the Line

Monday, June 3, 2019:

Today the Solar PV team completed wiring runs, switches, and connections to power the auxiliary pump for the irrigation system, as well as connection of the three new solar panels to the old system. Chris was relieved that Steven did not encounter anything “shocking” when he checked out the system. Some of the work today required access by scaffolding in the 30-foot high Pamoja Hall ceiling, and we are happy to report safe completion of one of the scary tasks of the project.

The Irrigation team completed installation of the mainline, valves, and header lines in the 2-acre field earmarked for the first irrigated crops at Living Love. In total, the team has placed over 900 lineal feet of irrigation piping, with the help of some hardworking and productive Kenyan trench-diggers. The remaining work includes installation of the dripline emitters and testing the pressure and flow in the system. Pictured below is Professor Heisey explaining the irrigation system to the Living Love agricultural crew, as well as reviewing their methods of row spacing and plant spacing of their various crops.

We continue to enjoy the fellowship and hospitality of the Living Love staff, including an abundance of delicious food. As we wrap up this week, we hope to have more time to play soccer and basketball with the children when they return from school in the afternoon.

A prayer request for the team is the sun will shine brightly for the next couple of days, as the team tests and tweaks the new systems. We are at the beginning of one of the rainy seasons, and the cloud cover has hampered check-out of the new solar panel system.  
Professor Heisey