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Follow Judy's journey to Kenya to serve widowed women and to train teachers who will teach the nations!
april 2017
april 2017
farewells from Salem
farewells from Salem
What a blessing it was to have my entire BSF Leaders Group in Salem Oregon gather to send their farewell waves and prayers to me just days after I arrived in Kenya.
Karibus in kenya
Karibus in kenya
Blessings doubled as I am welcomed by the women participating in our Widows Program. They are hard working, sweet smiling, and grateful to have me here.
I'll introduce you to them and their handiwork.
These are the newest product received from our widows living in Kenya's largest and poorest slum settlement, Kibera. Milli told me how they had received a sample bowl from my predecessor, Charlotte, and have copied it. I was amazed at the process they developed to create these colourful and useful bowls. These women are creative and eager to make more to earn more. I am privileged to serve them.
Meet Felicity. She is one of the widows who has been representing and working with the others at her church widows group to learn to produce these very textural wooden beaded clutch purses. When the women ran out of beads to complete the entire order we had placed, they were enterprising to create a nearly identical version that represented the same great quality of workmanship. Skills developed were hand stitching, sewing in zippers, crochet, and lots of needlework.
Meet curly haired Judy Stokes. beaming with excitement in receiving and packing these beautifully carved and woven calabash gourds from our Widows group in Nairobi. Judy is surprised to see how the humidity is causing her hair to curl up, out of control of even the hair blower or flat iron devices she brought along. Judy is learning to accept her gift of naturally curly hair and expects everyone will say to her, "Finally! Sister!"
july 2017
july 2017
Okay, this is funny. My last entry I was learning to accept my gift of curly hair, but I realize I wasn't accepting my hair color much any more. So in this picture, you can see I have colored it dark. But ! only half dark. I left some grey tufts. I seem to have more courage here in Africa, where I'm willing to try new things, and often just have to do new things. Like today, I tried roasted goat for lunch at a graduation party for a friends daughter. It was yummy good. I was afraid it would be awful.
Our Village Administrator Melanie Martin, who I had the joy of working with in Nigeria years ago, guides me in protocol for meeting with the Pastors who engage with us by introducing our Widows program in their Churches. These pastors carry very heavy burdens in ministering to and shepherding their varied members and communities. This man is such a dear, loving and caring man. It's a privilege to serve along with him in my small way.
Meet Rose, one of our student teachers. She holds, with joyful anticipation, her new Reformation Study Bible presented to our Rice students to help them formulate future lessons and teaching from Holy Scripture.
In our second year Art courses in the Rafiki Institute of Art, which I am teaching, we explore and experiment using and creating colors in our paintings , using only the primary colors of red, blue and yellow. While we do not promote copying art works, we do have a segment on the skills of graphing images, and transferring that information to our paper. We then practice using our new skills of mixing the primary colors to match those of the original painting's colors, shades and tints. Here, Van Gogh's yellow chair is replicated by students who hadn't ever painted before these courses.
Once a student teacher begins to see the possibilities and joys of creating works of art, we discuss ways that they, as future teachers, will be able to lead their students on great adventures in creativity too! We are learning to be courageous teachers who will lead students in developing their gifts and curiosity! The students are acquiring amazing skills quickly! ( and all from red, yellow and blue only! )
Just one more to share with you, as I am blown away at the layers of paint and the active strokes that this student used to create a serious study of color! Enjoy looking closely!
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