Friday, September 22, 2017

Great trip to Happy Life!

Happy Life 2017


Back home from Kenya!

Our team has returned from Kenya with full hearts and wonderful memories of our time at Happy Life Children's Home and Juja Farm School!  It was another great trip this year with a wonderful team. Our hosts at Happy Life were so pleased to have us back and said how thankful they are for our teams from Texas.

We were able to bring 12 large suitcases full of donations this year and were also able to purchase many needed items in Kenya with the generous donations we received including food, medicine, diapers, wipes, school books and supplies, two cook top stoves and a refrigerator for one of the new homes at the Juja Farm school, and a commercial dryer for the Children's home...and more! Thank you to everyone who generously donated and allowed us to bless Happy Life with these much needed items!

2017 Donations 
Stove top for new home at Juja Farm School 

Refrigerator
Lots of diapers!

We all had so much fun feeding and loving on all the precious little babies in the nursery...and playing outside with the older babies and toddlers between feeding times. 

The mothers SO appreciated all the extra helping hands!









It was a special treat to meet baby Cindy!  I was so honored to have one of these precious babies named after me!             
Me and baby Cindy

Feeding baby Cindy


It was an extra blessing to see my sponsored child and little sweetheart Jesse Kay from last year, and little Gideon from 2 years ago.  Gideon came to Happy Life so small and failing to thrive, but is doing much better and is growing and finally learning to walk, thanks to all the loving care of the Happy Life staff! 

Jesse Kay

Gideon

We enjoyed our visit to Happy Life Juja Farm School and playing with the school-aged children for an afternoon.  These beautiful children captured everyone's hearts as they sang songs and had fun taking lots of pictures with us!

















It was great to see the progress on the construction of the new Jesse Kay Medical Center and get a tour. What a beautiful facility which will be a huge blessing to Happy Life and the community!  It is close to completion and scheduled to open in November.  


Jesse Kay Medical Center

View from the rooftop of the new Medical Center



We are so thankful for the opportunity to partner with this wonderful organization in caring for and loving on these precious orphaned children!

Happy Life Team 2017

Thank you to all who contributed 
to help make this trip possible!!



Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Leaving for Africa!

Ready to leave for Happy Life!

We are all thankful to be safe and dry after Hurricane Harvey and able to leave as planned for Kenya today!

We are so excited for the opportunity to GO and Serve...and love on all the babies and give the "mothers" a helping hand with caring for all the precious children at Happy Life!

This year we have about 800 pounds of donations...packed and repacked...twice, since we removed some items from our bags to donate locally to help those affected here in the Houston area by Hurricane Harvey.  We have also received over $7000 in cash donations to spend once we arrive in Kenya.  These donations are an added bonus to bring along with us to bless Happy Life!

Happy Life Children's Home is opening a Pediatric Hospital and clinic to serve their community this fall...and we were able to raise enough funds (with the help of Rescue Hope and Medical Bridges) to ship two 40-foot containers filled with gently used medical equipment for the hospital.  These containers left the USA in July and will arrive in Kenya sometime in October.  We are so excited to see this new building when we arrive and glad it will provide more guest rooms to accommodate our larger team size this year!

IF you would like more information about this wonderful ministry, check out their website at: www.happylifechildrenshome.com, and also take a look at recent happenings on their blog at:  http://happylifekenya.blogspot.com

Thank you for partnering with us through your prayers and support...and for going on this journey with us!

Blessings,

The 2017 Happy Life Team

Julie Ewers
Lauren & Shelby Jenkins
Barbara Young
Schelley & Mickey Tucker
Pam Wolfe
Mary & John Kievit
Jill Parmeter
Liz Glass
Cindy Gross