JOY KITCHENS - UPESI STOVES

Below is an update report from David Kayando of Kager village:

Joy Kitchens initiative is a program that brings together two sectors of the Jubilee Village Project: Housing and Energy & Environment. JVP has identified 16 women in Kager Village who are fully integrated in this program.

The program seems to have brought with it realities of life issues in Kager. The fact that it involves women, it has birthed new understanding and brought good news. It is the song that every woman is singing. A new JOY has come to the women of Kager village because the recipe of the Joy Kitchens Initiative is being followed: first (J)esus, second (O)thers and last (Y)ourself.

Joy Kitchens Initiative is a program that hopes to bring life and light into the Kitchen of homes in Kager. With this program on, JVP has been able to provide improved stoves (Upesi Jiko) to the 16 women. This was done to bring awareness on best energy conserving stoves, the results of this distribution and donation of improved stoves has had tremendous results.

Two weeks after distributing these Improved Stoves, these are some of the feed backs from the women.

(1) The Stoves preserves heat even after fires is put off. This was observed when one woman had her food on the Stove and decided to go to bed leaving her food half cooked, so that she cook it fully the next day. When she woke up, she found her food fully cooked.
(2) The Stoves use less than half the fuel as compared to traditional stoves. It also burns more steadily with less smoke compared to traditional stove
(3) The fact that it is portable makes it advantageous to those who do not have constructed kitchen, as they can easily move them to a sheltered place and cook.
(4) One woman explained how she used to look for waste plastic materials to burn in her traditional stove when it rains, to allow her lit her fire and cook. Since the stove uses firewood, the user remains clean compared to charcoal burning stove.
(5) It serves well with the most cooking pots, as compared with the three stone stove where you have to adjust based on the size of cooking pan one in using.

The women all agreed that transformation has taken place in their homes. The news has spread all over and we are overwhelmed with requests of those who want the stoves. The transformation with these has taken centre stage and has now exposed the real needs and problems faced by many women in Kager Village. JVP has also began its bi-weekly program of meeting with the Joy Kitchen women on Bible Study, educational programs on nutrition, hygiene, HIV/AIDS, food canning and others.

The Upesi Jiko improved stoves are one of the five improved Household solutions of the JOY Kitchens Initiative. It is the goal of the Jubilee Village Project to help deploy all five of these solutions in 100% of the homes in Kager village within a three year period. These five soutions include:

(1) Upesi Jiko improved stove

(2) Household water purifier

(3) Solar lantern

(4) Home canning

(5) Smoke hood / chimney

SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS AND SUPPLIES DELIVERY

I've got to admit that right now I can't keep up with the good news that our brother David continues to share with us of the transormation work being accomplished in Kager by the Jubilee Village Project team. The Project is partnering with the three primary schools in the village to help them obtain basic school supplies and school books. Check out the pictures below and David's testimony of love below the pictures:

"On Monday, we went round to the schools and distributed the supplies to them. We began with God Kado Primary School (public) where we had the teachers, parents and pupils come together as we share on the work of the Jubilee Village Project and it was such a great time of seeing how people are willing and realistic of what JVP would like to achieve in the village. This was a real inspiration, and I took several photos which I am attaching. The river of God is flowing and everybody is motivated. After God Kado, we went to Oneno School and did equally the same. The photos will tell you the rhythm of the events as they unfolded during our presentations. We finished today with Heartspring Academy and it was the same River flowing. We expect a more public awareness of the river of JVP flowing within Kager and beyond and people have their ears open to hear what next. We are excited to see what $462 ($1 per student) is going to allow these three schools to achieve in the next school year."

The books distributed were at HEARTSPRING ACADEMY, GOD KADO PRIMARY SCHOOL and ONENO PRIMARY SCHOOL:

1. School writing composition
2. Good News Bible
3. Kamusi
4. Nursery Learning Language
5. Supplementary Sciences
6. God and Us
7. Social Studies bk1
8. Social Studies bk2
9. Gateway Kiswahili
10. Kiswahili Mufti
11. Philips Atlas
12. Mende Mdogo
13. Hairy Friends
14. Matano and Makumi
15. Jua na Upepo
16. Bidii the Bee
17. Cock and Lion
18. Golden Tips
19. Peak revision English
20. Gateway revision English
21. Golden tips composition
22. Peak revision Kiswahili
23. Gateway revision Kiswahili
24. Access Mathematics revision
25. Top Mark Maths revision
26. Gateway Maths Revision
27. Learning Science
28. Access Revision Science
29. Golden tips science
30. Peak revision social studies
31. Question and Answer Social studies
32. Peak revision C.R.E
33. Keynote English class 5
34. Keynote English class 6
35. Keynote English class 7
36. Keynote English class 8
37. Face to face mathematics class 7
38. Kamusi ya Kiswahili
39. Access K.C.P.E Revision science
40. Face to face Maths class 6
41. Oxford Student Dictionary
42. Common Mistakes in English
43. Maelezo ya methali
44. Highflyer Combined Encyclopaedia
45. Peak Encyclopaedia Model
46. Highflyer combined English BK8

MASTER'S WORKERS

I recently received the following prayer from a missionary in Liberia and I thought it was appropriate for the long journey God has prepared for us to help transform the village of Kager, Kenya (the prayer is attributed to Oscar Romera). It reminds me to not take myself too seriously and always remember that I am the Master's Worker, not the Master. Enjoy!


It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we’re about:

We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are the workers, not the master builders, ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

Amen.

MEET KENNEDY NYANJWA

Kennedy Ouma Nyanjwa (age 15)
Jubilee Scholar, Class of 2013

Kennedy was born in October 1993, and is the oldest boy in a family of six children. Kennedy was a very strong primary school student and attended the Heartspring Academy in Kager village.

Kennedy is one of two Kager youth first sponsored by the Jubilee Village Project to attend secondary school. Kennedy attends St.Paul's Ligisa Secondary School. St. Paul's is about 7 kilometers Kager and is sponsored by the Catholic church. The students there are compelled to attend catholic mass every Sunday, but they are given room to worship together through the week as other Christian faiths. The school has a Christian Union body which invites speakers from outside and Kager Vision Centre has conducted several evangelistic missions at the school. The current principal is a born again Christian and loves the Lord.

“Me as Kennedy Ouma, I am grateful with the Jubilee Village Project. Being one of the most benefitting projects in the community, it should be promoted to the highest level. I am so grateful to the Jubilee Partners and Champions. I am grateful to the JVP since it has something that is going to help the village and make life easy in the village. One of the things is that it is going to make education affordable and enjoyable for me and other people as well. From this, the whole village is going to benefit.

I am supporting this, since it is going to make me someone with meaning after I am done with education. I ask everyone to turn to Christ and begin praying for this great work to continue as long as the world exists and reach others as well in Africa and the world.

I am working to be an engineer in future, and through the assistance from JVP, I want to promise to work hard in my education and achieve this. I also wish my fellow JVP scholar the best and ask her to work hard and achieve her goal in future through the support from JVP.

Finally I want to sincerely thank the one who began the project and ask God to guide everyone involved and take care of them, and give them more power and ability to do more.

God bless you all and God bless JVP.”

Kennedy Ouma Nyanjwa

The Jubilee Village Project is currently raising the $667 needed to send Kennedy to secondary school for one year. You can contribute to this noble cause by joining the Jubilee Village Project Facebook Cause at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/196499/41186406?m=6d54c0aa

SEA CONTAINER PREPARATION

CON-FLU-ENCE
Function: noun
1: a coming together, meeting or gathering at one point
2: the flowing together of two or more streams

Basic Utility Vehicle & FAME Medical Supplies

HSMO Medical Equipment & CISCO Farm Supplies

E91 Clothing Ministry & Moving Bags of Clothes

For the past three weeks, we have been "confluencing" -- starting with the Basic Utility Vehicle that launched the entire vision for the Jubilee Village Project, we have been collaborating with churches, ministries, companies and individuals to collect and gather goods to fill a 43,000 lb. sea container to send to Kager, Kenya.

It has been amazing to see the variety and assortment of items come together at the Kern, Kirtley & Herr warehouse in Zionsville and we are thankful to Denny Cunningham for allowing us to stage all of the materials at his facility. We are also thankful to Bob Boucek and Stefan Radelich at LESEA - Feed The Hungry (South Bend) who are coordinating all of the logistics, permits and paperwork for this shipment. We are waiting to jump over one last hurdle -- gaining an import certificate for the corn meal and canned goods that are a big part of this shipment.

The list of ministry partners and goods we will be shipping is phenomenal:

• A Basic Utility Vehicle that was funded by over 60 different people and made by the Institute for Affordable Transportation (Indianapolis)
• Over 50 bags of gently used clothing and books from the Solomon's Wardrobe Ministry of East 91st Street Christian Church (Indianapolis)
• 2 pallets of medical supplies and equipment from the Fellowship of Associates of Medical Evangelism (FAME-Indianapolis)
• 3 pallets of medical supplies and equipment from Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach (Springfield, IL)
• 8 pallets of high-protein canned goods from LESEA-Feed The Hungry (South Bend)
• 8 pallets of high-grade corn products from Prairie Mills / E-Z-Bake (Rochester, IN)
• 28 SolaDyne solar lanterns for the JOY Kitchens Initiative
• 2 pallets of home cannning equipment ordered through and delivered by Summerfield Ace Hardward (Greenfield)
• 2 improved stoves from StoveTec (Oregon)
• 3 pallets of farming supplies from Cisco Seeds (Indianapolis)
• 120 lbs of proprietary materials from the Aqua Clara Foundation (Michigan) for household water purifiers

We ask you to join the Jubilee Village Project in prayer to help us get through the last hurdles and red tape that is associated with getting a shipment of humanitarian goods into Kenya -- we never imagined it would be this hard, but we are faithful this is exactly what God wants us to be doing right now.

Stay tuned to hear when the shipment actually leaves and starts its journey half way across the continent to Kager village.

VILLAGE FARMERS LAUNCH MODEL FARM INITIATIVE

A MESSAGE FROM GEORGE AMINO,
JUBILEE VILLAGE FOOD & FARMING CHAMPION:

“As the food and farming Champion for Kager Jubilee Village Project, I hope that with the JVP Model Farm program the following is going to be achieved:

· Due to the constant changes of weather, the model farm initiative will transform the community through the introduction of Irrigation techniques.
· Use of high quality seed will result in better harvests and this will increase knowledge to the locals who have held onto long-time traditions, which cannot work now.
· Better understanding of how best to plant interims of spring and when to do that will bring very fruitful results.
· The use of fertilizer for planting and top dressing is a real development in the village, and this is going to be an eye opener to the people who have remained behind and continue to suffer from hunger because of lack of food.
· Model Farm initiative will bring about knowledge on better pest control, and killing of insects that destroy crops.
· With the model farm initiative, the will be an increased in food production that will spur increased economy and good bye to famine in Kager.
· With model farms good food crops production will be seen and the village will be the source of supply of foods to other regions.
· JVP being a project of love and care to less fortunate, and while focused in bringing lasting solutions in the village, will be able to share with less fortunate the fortunes received from the model farm program.

This is a wonderful program, focused and committed to bring transformation in Kager. May God bless JVP.”

George Amino, February 7, 2009

George Amino, JVP Model Farm #1

George is 33 years old, and he is married to Mary. The Lord has blessed them with two children, both are boys. They are Doug and Rick. George has been in farming for the last ten years and has good experience of the same in the field.

Significant challenges that George has experienced in farming are:

· Use of local seeds has contributed to poor harvests.
· Lack of farming equipments and farm inputs.
· Inability to control pests, e.g. cutworms and storage pests.
· Poor knowledge on better farming techniques.


John Ogenga Nyang’i, JVP Model Farm #2

John is married to two wives with seven children. He is 49 years of age and has been in farming for the last 20 years.

The challenges he has faced in farming are:

· climatic changes
· prolonged drought

With the JVP model farms and entire project in Kager he hopes to see real transformation within Kager and enough food production.


Charles Akoth Mwai, JVP Model Farm #3

Charles is 37 years of age. He is married to one wife and five children. He has been in the farming for 15 years. Some of the challenges which he has faced are:

· Planting without fertilizers
· Poor timing due to unpredicted weather conditions.

He is glad with the JVP program on food and farming, and he hope that through this program, Kager village is going to experience real transformation.


Maurice Awino Ondiek, JVP Model Farm #4

Maurice is 47 years of age and he is married to one wife and the Lord has blessed them with three children. He has been in farming for the last 20 years and has been a resident of Kager since birth.

The challenges he has experienced in farming are:
· Unpredicted rain seasons
· Poor farming equipments
· Lack of fertilizers
· Better seeds.

He is so much energized and encouraged with the JVP model farms and he look forward to working hard on his farm for good results. He hopes that through this program, Kager village will be transformed, to become the major source of food supply.

TYPICAL FARMING IN KAGER, KENYA

THE FIRST JUBILEE SCHOLAR - IRINE AUMA ONGONDO

Below is a note from Irine Auma Ongondo, the first ever Kager youth sponsored by the Jubilee Scholars Program!

"I am grateful to have this privillege to write this essay to express my fundemental feelings towards your help. I would like to congratulate the Jubilee leaders who came up with the opinion and project to support those who are not capable to continue with their education because of financial difficulties.

I so much value this suport and I would like to promise that I will always be ready to work very hard in classwork. I know that this will motivate the Jubilee members at Kager Vision Centre to carry on with the same spirit.

Another thing that I must not fail to indicate here is that I would like to become a Lawyer after studying the law of Kenya and how they operate. I hope that won't be ten years from now. That is my ambition and I hope my dream will come to be accomplished.

Finally I would like to wish the Jubilee Champions and Partners a humble and nice time as they continue to stand with me financially. Otherwise I don't have much to say. May the Lord God of Israel bless JVP greatly and abundantly."

IRINE

The Jubilee Scholars Program is focused on identifying and sponsoring “low income, high performing” children and provide the financial resources to allow them to attend secondary school. The Scholars Program will also provide mentorship under the guidance of Andrew Aduda, JVP Education Champion, and David Kayando, JVP Team Kager Lead Champion.

The following criteria will be used to identify and select 1 girl and 1 boy annually to receive Jubilee Scholars Program sponsorships for their entire secondary school education:

- Completed 8th grade and received the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education
- High performance on the O-Level exam
- Strong moral behavior and personal integrity
- Demonstrated role model to other students
- Financial need – the chosen students will be selected from family’s that do not have the financial means to send their children to secondary school
- Commitment to share their lives and give back to the Kager community

The Jubilee Scholars sponsorship is renewable annually and is dependent on annual achievement of the following items:

- Satisfactory grade performance
- Completion of periodic reporting
- Completion of periodic guidance and counseling
- Contribution by the parents (or extended families) of at least 20% of their school costs

Stay tuned as we have one more Jubilee Scholar that will head to secondary school in the coming weeks!