Kibera Clinic

One of the great new events for 2015 is the opening of our New Hope Initiative Clinic in the Nairobi, Kenya neighborhood of Kibera. We have had for many years a makeshift nursing station at our Kibera School, however, we recently were privileged to open our first dedicated clinic building to meet the medical needs of the people of Kibera. Without question one of the greatest needs in this slum is medical treatment for the massive number of people who live in that community. We are so pleased to be taking the first step towards meeting this need as our clinic becomes fully operational. The clinic is currently being staffed by a very competent nurse named Olive and we have a dream of this facility one day being the finest full service medical facility in Kibera. We have room for expansion and believe by faith that God will raise up a great facility in this place.

It Is Always Worth It

Saturday was one of the toughest days our family has ever experienced. My wife Karen and our children Kyle and Kelsey arrived in Nairobi from Sierra Leone after having gone to make application to adopt a precious little orphan by the name of Brian. The week in Sierra Leone had been a challenge, but was seemingly successful and the adoption process is moving steadily ahead with hopefully about 6 months to go. They arrived at the Nairobi airport to be reunited with me and Beckett our grandson, who I had traveled ahead with (I know I am a brave grandpa), and to continue our work in Kenya and Tanzania.

However, after arrival in Nairobi they were turned away at the airport due to unfounded Ebola concerns. They were then locked in a small room for 16 hours. It was a very frustrating, confusing, and challenging day as we fought to keep them there. We fought to have them sent back home to Texas instead of back to Sierra Leone as the authorities desired. And we fought to allow them to take Beckett with them which at first was denied. Sadly this strange story did not have a happy ending. They were deported later that night, although they were allowed to take Beckett with them and they were allowed to return home. This was a crushing defeat for our family and emotionally and physically very exhausting (they were traveling or detained for 70 straight hours).

As I was dejectedly leaving the airport after the 15 hour ordeal I heard a strange noise. Tollowing a disorientated moment, I realized my phone was playing a song from my iTunes list. I want to preface this story by explaining that although I am a person of faith I also am a very pragmatic person by nature and I often scoff (to myself) at people's so called "miracle" moments. But as I walked in the rain through the Nairobi airport parking lot, inexplicably, without even removing it from my pocket my phone began to play a song and as I strained to hear the word I soon recognized it as a song called "Orphans of God" by Avalon. I did not even know the song was on my iTunes, it must have been left over from a presentation we did 7-8 years ago. I have never even one time played that song on my phone. But in my moment of discouragement I heard these words:

So often abandoned by life's circumstances Come you unwanted and find affection If grace exists, then grace was made for lives like this There are no strangers, there are no outcasts, there are no orphans of God

- Orphans of God, by Avalon

I was powerfully reminded in that moment that doing good can sometimes be challenging and difficult. I was powerfully reminded in that moment that rescuing the hurting, the hopeless, the orphaned, and the outcast can at times be painful, but IT IS ALWAYS WORTH IT. For the little Brians of Sierra Leone as well as for the children of East Africa, India, and Nicaragua where we work, we cannot allow discouragement to defeat us. God was faithful in my very dark moment to wonderfully and perhaps miraculously remind me of why we do what we do and why we can never quit. If you are discouraged today, in some good work you are engaged in, I hope my story will lift your spirits. Don't quit!

Sandy Baird - New Hope Initiative Director

A Healing Hand

Many of you remember the remarkable story of little Esther from Arusha, Tanzania who was terribly burned on her legs in a fire and was struggling with the scar tissue and lingering effects of that horrible accident. In the summer of 2013 we had a team visiting us from Springfield, MO and unbeknown to any of us that team had a sponsor Dr. Carla Kester who was also a very experienced plastic surgeon. Dr. Carla was able to operate on Esther and do a very successful skin graft that has greatly enhanced the quality of life for Esther. While most of our 25,000 patients at our Arusha medical clinic are suffering from the typical tropical diseases like malaria, typhoid, and parasites, we are also seeing more cases of an unusual and dramatic nature.

This past month we had a young boy rushed to our clinic who had severed the artery in his wrist and was in danger of bleeding to death. Dr. Byemba our clinic director is also a skilled surgeon and he was able to immediately repair the artery and to save the young man's life. As important as this initial operation was Dr. Byemba noticed the severe damage around the wrist area of this young man and desired to do a skin graft to help not only with cosmetics but also to promote the healing process. Dr. Byemba was not formally trained in plastic surgery but he had watched and learned from Dr. Carla in 2013. Using that skilled learned from our visitor he was able to do a beautiful job repairing the damage to this boy's wrist. When you treat thousands of patients each month the typical day can be pretty repetitive, however life is never dull at our Arusha Clinic where Dr. Byemba and his staff are faced with new challenges on a regular basis.

New Hope In Nicaragua

We are very pleased and excited to announce that New Hope Initiative has a new partner! We are developing a new project in the country of Nicaragua with a dynamic local ministry called Familia Avance Nicaragua. The country of Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere where their are great opportunities to share the love of Christ with people who have both physical and spiritual needs.

This new project will be in the mountainous northern region of that country where Nicaragua borders Honduras and will consist of a new school and church plant. In this region it is reported that 35% of the children do not attend school due to the lack of availability and our new team leader on this project is not only a local pastor but an educated and experienced school administrator. We are excited about this project not only because of the great need and potential in the area but also because of the proximity of this work to our friends and supporters in the United States to whom we will be able to offer cheaper, less time consuming trips.

We encourage you to look for upcoming information on our new Nicaragua project and determine how you can help by supporting this project financially or by being a part of an upcoming trip.

To see more images of the project visit the Facebook Page.

NICARAGUA-2-3-15

Penda Project Grows

Our incredibly successful scholarship program takes young people from our Kibera Primary School and helps them to further their education into secondary school, college, and university. Here is the record of 5 years of amazing growth.

• From 14 to 121 high school students
• From 14 to 41 students yearly that pass their entrance exam
• From 1 to 15 college students
• From no sponsors to 89 sponsors from 17 different states.
• From a staff of 2 to a staff of 7
• From a yearly budget of $4,200 to a yearly budget of $70,000

This incredible record of growth in such a short period of time presents incredible challenges as well. We now have 41 brand new high school freshman who are in need of a scholarship in order to attend secondary school in 2015. We have allowed these young people to enter school in a bold step of faith and we are searching for new sponsors who will commit to $30 or $50 dollars per month to cover the cost of either day school or boarding school for one of these wonderful young people. This is one of the very best investments you could ever make, literally giving these young people a chance for a future.

If you are interested in sponsoring a specific student please visit www.kiberapendaproject.com or email Kelsey Baird at kelsey@kiberapendaproject.com