Summer 2011

West Special School from Endë Photography on Vimeo.

THANK YOU Ende Photography!

November 2011

Lots has been happening over the last few weeks. Since we have a severe lack of time on our hands let me list a few off so you have an idea where we are and what the needs are:

- Medical center is being constructed very soon. This will serve the community and the children.

- In need of charity status or affiliation.

- Drawings for the on-site house have been completed.

- Bricks have been baked for the beginning of the house.

- Plans are being drawn for the dormitory.

- Jeff and team from Missions on the Move plan to go out in late January/early February. One of their goals will be to drill for water.

- Evelyne is studying for her teaching certificate.

- The new teacher, George is doing a fantastic effort and teaching well by all accounts.

- Still looking for one more teacher to assist Julius.

- We are taking the 'no-fuindraising' rule at Moody Bible Institute to the authorities in question to get it changed and allow West Special to be fundraised for.

- The children really need this dormitory.

- We are in need of more land @ £2,500 p\acre.

- Kenyan inflation means that our £'s and $'s go much further so now is a good time to give.

- We still have 10 more US calendars to sell at $25 each.

- I (James) will be presenting the project to my speech class in 2 weeks to compete for the $100ish prize for the school. There are about 30 us of competing so the chances are slim but I am willing to put the work in for it.

- The team of Mothers are getting excited about next summer. It will certainly be a good one.

That is about it at the moment.

PRE-ORDER CALENDAR!

PRE-ORDER A WEST SPECIAL SCHOOL 2012 CALENDAR NOW!
Starting prices: $25.00 or £17.00
(Keep in mind this is the suggested amount! Feel free to give more to support WEST!)

Email quincie.miller@gmail.com to pre-order now!

2012 Calendar

Keep an eye out for the 2012 West Special School Calendar, complete with photos of the children, their artwork, the school, and various moments along their journey. Because the calendar will primarily serve as a way to gather money for maintaing the school itself, feeding + clothing the children, paying teacher's wages, and supporting construction projects on campus, the starting price for one calendar is 25 USD or 17 GBP. We'll leave the maximum contributing price up to our buyers and supporters.

We will start selling these in approximately one month, so be sure to stay updated with West Special School news!

Photo: Sharon and her artwork (a featured photo in the calendar). June 2011.

September 2011.

We have finally managed to sort out the arrangements for getting money out to the school. With this new method we were able to send chunks of money out far cheaper than Western Union or MoneyGram. Having received the money those at West went hard to work to spend it wisely. With contribution from some wonderful people at BRBC (our church in England) and, of course, Missions on the Move in Canada things are really starting to take shape for next semester. The following is a a part of a recent email from Kutete on the ground in Chwele regarding the spending of the money. It is a marvel to us in the Western world how far our God-given resources actually go!

"We have a new teacher on us-his name is GEORGE OCHIENG. We had a whole day with him today and we reckon he is a nice young man. Over his professional training, he is deaf and that is a bonus. But over and above that, he is born again. He is ready to move in on Tuesday. We had a lengthy day with him and he was excited that so many of his kind were gathered together at West! We are sure to retain him longer than we would a teacher who has speech and hearing.

This was after many false starts in our search for teachers. The sort we were seeking are either all taken and for the ones available, they could not take what we were offering as remuneration.
We got the money that the Cliburns sent, last Saturday, thank you James. We have bought 15 bags of cement, bought enough two mature trees for firewood-which should last us many months to come. We have bought enough maize to last us upto the end of the year.
We are paying The Soldier this month's wages tomorrow-Monday.
We have contracted a cook for the school and she will be at her station tomorrow morning.
We have leased a house for the teacher in which he moves on Tuesday.
We have bought two Teachers' chairs.
We have bought school previsions-Salt, bar soap, steel wool, cooking fat-enough to take us for some time.
We have bought a classroom desk which should be complete by tomorrow morning.
We open school KESHO (TOMORROW) for the third and last term this year.
And we hopefully start baking bricks tomorrow!
And we shall hire two-three extra hands to start the baking!"

Mid-August.

The team has been back for about 5 weeks now. The memories made and friendships strengthened stand just as strong as they did on the plane flight home. The future of the school now looks brighter than ever with plans to employ teachers, fundraising for a dormitory and baking bricks for an on-site-house. It is plain to all involved that the LORD is fierce about the love of Jesus being shown to the children in such a practical way.

With so much there is still a long way to go. There will be many more sacrifices, big and small, to be made this side of the project (and by 'this side' I mean the rich side). The needs of the children at West Special School and of those hoping to attend are still urgently present. They all need food everyday and a place to live. We are ever more hopeful that these will become a reality in due course.

Quincie and myself (James) were able to talk to our church, BRBC, last Sunday evening to present the project to the church. We are yet to hear of the response of the church as a whole but certainly a few individuals have helped us out a lot, and their generosity will not go unnoticed when the Lord questions what they did with their 'treasure'.

We could say so much more but as always we're in the middle of a process, a process of seeing the love of Jesus become reality before our eyes. We hope and pray that as the world looks on at the lives of those involved they don't see us making a treasure empty things. We want a watching world to see Jesus as treasure. All things have been given to us to use in such a way that it is plain to the world that the things of the world are not treasure, but rather Christ is.

The Story