News from Ilula

~by Caroline Kiptoo
Children's Home Admin Assistant

Bwana Asifiwe! Praise God! It has been a successful and busy week for all of us at Ilula this week. Glory and honor to God for seeing us through and for answering our prayers. The Lord has continued to guide our paths. The children are home for August vacation and are enjoying every bit of it. During their end of term II exams, their performance was above average in general. Their languages especially English has improved a lot. Most of them can now communicate fluently in English. They will be going back to school on Monday, August 18th for extra coaching for two weeks.

Birthday Celebration
There were 3 children celebrating their birthdays in the month of August. The celebration was colorful! The three children and some staff members celebrating their birthdays in August joined hands in cutting the cake and ensured that at least every person tasted it. Pastor Dave and Judy who were visiting Ilula from Kipkaren were part of the visitors who made the party a success. Judy encouraged the children to celebrate their birthdays and be thankful to God for everything he has done in their lives.



Visitors
Pastor Dave and Judy from the US who had been at Kipkaren visited Ilula Children’s home early last week. The children were glad to welcome them with a bunch of flowers at the round about. The visitors were so happy to meet the children and they looked forward to interacting with them, getting to know them and playing with them. Dave and Judy also conducted a one day seminar with the house parents on having Visions. The parents benefited a lot from the seminar. They also spent most of their time with the children cheering them at the field during soccer competitions, playing with them and taking meals with them. They left on Tuesday to go back to Kipkaren. As they bid goodbye to the children and staff, they encouraged the children to love one another as God loves us. They were happy to have been a blessing to the children and staff and to have also received blessings at Ilula.



August Vacation
The children have had lots and lots of activities to do since they closed school two weeks ago. They have been very busy cleaning their rooms, gazebos and the compound ensuring that everywhere is clean all the time. They have also been helping at the kitchen garden to weed and plant more kales. The older kids have been working on their small garden beds behind their houses weeding and planting more crops. One child who loves gardening a lot was blessed when he received some water melon, pepper and cucumber seeds from his sponsor.

The kids have also been participating in sports. There was inter-house competition in soccer between Chepsat family Vs Kiprotich family and Rono family Vs Kosgey family. Every family cheered their team and for sure it was a success. It is quite encouraging that the Ilula children understands and appreciates that at the end of every game, they are all winners. Despite the fact that in a game there are winners and losers, the Ilula kids appreciates that we are all winners. One child said “At ELI, we are all winners!” isn’t this great? Praise God!



VBS which is normally conducted during the holidays started yesterday August 14, 2008. Edna one of ELI’s staff who is concerned with the Children’s Ministry led the VBS. The children are enjoying it very much and are learning a lot. They are being taught bible stories, memory verses, missionary stories and new songs. They will have a chance to present what they have learnt in VBS on Sunday at church.