Ten 2 Kenya July 2012 The Newsletter of the Eric & Lisa Kjeldgaard Family What About the Girls? Praise and Prayers >>> We are thankful for an amazing fun and educational time during Lisa s parents visit in May. We are praising for the productive trip that Eric made back to the U.S., even though he was only in the country ten days. We are grateful for friends who send letters and care packages! Thank-you! We give thanks for a one month internship at Agape from our close family friend, Hannah Mollath. We are in awe at how God has worked in Gracie to grow her vocabulary and physical dexterity over the past six months! With only four months remaining in Kenya, please pray for us as we begin to prepare for our return home. Though we have had our share of minor illnesses, we have had no major problems, praise God. Please pray for our continued good health. Please pray for Lisa to have wisdom and strength as she helps to build with the Lord s leading the new Agape Girls Program. Please pray for Nick as he is applying to participate in a six month YWAM-DTS program that is scheduled to begin in January 2013. Anyone who knows me knows that I m definitely a boy mom. Not just because I have six sons, but because I get boys. I don t mind the roughhousing and scores of weapons. I get the need for them to carry a big stick and I m not afraid of blood. I love getting gifts of rocks and snails, and my favorite birthday present this year came from a precocious eight year old who promised not to fart in the house all day long! Coming to serve at Agape, a home filled with nearly 100 boys, is the perfect fit for my love of boys. So why is it that all I can think about is the girls? When Eric, Kate, and I visited Kisumu in 2010, we spent some time in the Remand Centre, the juvenile hall facility where police take children they round up from the streets. Agape has had a long history of ministering in the Remand Centre with weekly times of worship and teaching and years of rescuing boys from the overcrowded, often abusive, understaffed and filthy facilities. When we visited, we were able to share with the kids during the teaching time and then got to spend time mingling with the kids. As I watched the Agape staff speaking with and selecting boys they thought might be able to move to Agape, I felt a tugging on my sleeve; a young girl wanted my attention. This 16 year old girl told me her story: her older sister had talked her into running away from home to the excitement of city life. But as soon as they reached the city, the older sister left this younger sister behind, and she found herself alone on the city streets. She d been picked up by police and brought to the Remand Centre where she d been held for over TWO YEARS. I have a family, I have a home. I want to go home and go back to school. Why does Agape only help the boys? What about the girls?
What about the girls? God used that young girl s question to begin a new aspect of Agape s ministry. Within three months, our first female reintegration staff member was hired. Since that time, over 60 girls have been told of the love of Jesus, counseled, and rescued from the Remand Centre to be taken back to their homes. But the time has come to do more. Sweet Saumu, thankfully safe! Our Plans Have Changed: When we embarked on our Kenyan adventure, the plan was to be in Kenya for nearly a year and return to work for Agape out of the Modesto office. But, the Lord has tied our hearts to this country and these people, and we believe there are things the Lord still has for us to do here. We will still return to CA in early November and we ll be involved in speaking on behalf of Agape and doing administrative tasks during that time. But late next summer, we ll be returning to Kenya for another year! We re excited about where the Lord is leading us. Please pray for us as we finalize plans! The children have various responses ranging from, I was going to be in Kenya anyways, glad you ll be with me to I want to stay in America! Please keep us all in your prayers. Recently, Margaret, a young girl around 15 years old with a mental impairment, was found on the streets late one night in the midst of a group of street boys. When a visiting missionary found her, our only option was to admit her to the Remand Centre; there just wasn t any other organization that had the capacity to care for her. The very same place we have been working tirelessly to rescue girls from, was where we found ourselves taking a lost and confused girl. When we took her on an initial home visit, we found she had a 60 year-old husband who no longer wanted her. And her maternal home was incapable of caring for her. So we had to take her back to Remand where she remains today. Saumu, the sweet 11-year-old who you may remember gave her life to the Lord when she asked questions about my tattoo, was reintegrated from the Remand Centre. However, she wasn t doing well at home over the school holiday break. Thankfully, one of our staff members was able to offer her a place to stay. Following the holiday, the plan was for Saumu to return to her father s home and to attend Agape s school as a day student when classes resumed. But Saumu wasn t in her classroom when I peeked in to wave at her. When we called Some of the girls at the Remand Centre with Kate and our friend, Hannah. Margaret is in the front on the right.
her father, we learned she had never arrived home and no one knew where she had spent the night. Thankfully, a well-wisher had found this small, shy girl and offered her safety. Saumu is now safely at home with her father and doing well, but the transition has been a difficult one. Because she was so small and shy, our staff was eager to remove her from Remand even before her family was properly prepared to care for her. The fact that there were no other options for Saumu angered me; anger that was fueled by my desperate fear over what could have happened to her the night she was missing in Kisumu. The same day Saumu went missing, Brian, one of our sweetest Agape boys, was very ill in the hospital. As I visited him that night, he mustered all of his strength to beg me to look for his niece; a young girl that he thought was being beaten and had possibly run away. With tears in my eyes, I told Brian that I could look for her, but if I found her, I had nowhere to take her. I begged Brian to join me in praying that the Lord would prepare a place where girls like his niece would be safe. The Lord is answering those prayers! Within a week s time, missionaries were praying, staff was briefed and asked for their opinions, and God responded in a giant way: an incredibly generous gift was given to fund the start of an Agape for girls! The Lord also gifted me with an amazing Kenyan woman named, Hellen. Hellen has been brought on board to help with research. We ve just completed a survey of all the NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and ministries currently helping girls in the city. Our conclusion? There is no organization working to rescue street girls and bring them the hope of Jesus within the city of Kisumu. Everyone we spoke to told us the need was immense. We are confident the Lord is directing our paths. Our start up plan was just approved by the Agape Board of Directors, so we ll immediately begin interviewing staff, securing a facility, and developing our models of ministry with the goal of being able to open our doors the first of August. So what about those girls? The Lord is moving to care for them and we are thrilled to be a part of it! So thankful to be here, Lisa for all the Kjeldgaard s. 0 1 1 2 Currently, 11 of our 96 beds on our Kisumu campus have been sponsored! The boys sleeping safely in these beds have someone who is answering a former street boy s plea to Pray Me Home! Will you help us find additional sponsors? A Bible Study, Sunday School class, youth group, or Christian school is the perfect sponsor for a bed. See details at: http://agapechildren.org/getinvolved-2/kitanda/ Lisa has developed a new tool for parents, the Agape Rafiki activity pages. These activity pages are a free download filled with puzzles, memory verses and activities aimed at sharing God s heart for the poor with your child. Visit our website today and get started on an adventure that will teach them about God s love for the needy! Nicholas and Lisa have also been working hard on a new Agape website! www.agapechildren.org
We Need Help! We are praying for someone to return to Kenya with us in August of 2013 to help with our children s studies. We will have seven students in grades K-12 and we need help! Travel expenses, room and board will be paid along with a (very) small monthly stipend. If you know of someone who wants to see Africa and help a missionary family, let us know! Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Isaiah 58:6 $4,500 Monthly Support Pictured clockwise above: Eric with some of the boys from Agape school, Stephen with his friend, Steven, Jack and Charlie loving the Kenyan mud, Kate expressing her constant joy, Nick showing the girls his camera, Chris and Gracie out for a ride, Lisa always smiling and Matt with his friend Jacktone. Total needed: $4,500 Current committed: $3,700 Thank you to all of you who support us monthly! Your gifts make it possible for us to do crazy things like say, YES! to God when he tells us it s time for a ministry to street girls! Agape Children s Ministry PO Box 5062 Modesto, CA 95352 Local: 209.543.9255 Toll Free: 888.572.4273 www.agapechildren.org agapekids@agapechildren.org
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