Tumaini- Kiswahili for Hope

We are currently in the town of Masii, a couple of hours south and east of Nairobi. We have no Internet here, so this post required the 30-minute trip to the neighboring town of Machakos in order to send it. The team is doing well- you’d be proud of them. We kicked off a week-long dental clinic yesterday, with Dr. Ron Jurgensen seeing more than 40 patients. We are only equipped to pull teeth, but there were plenty to be pulled! Ron (with the rest of us rotating in and out as assistants) worked eight hours, and will do so again today. It’s a long day, but worth it when we see the look of relief that comes with the remedy for a diseased, painful tooth.

While some are pulling teeth, others are making home visits to some of the AIDS orphans supported (through Tumaini International Ministries) by Knott Avenue Church members. What a joy to enter a home where the help that many of you give provides hope for those living there. For only $30 monthly, we help meet the physical and educational needs of a child who has lost one or both parents to AIDS. I was able to visit Mutinda Mboya, the boy our family sponsors. He and his brother lost their mom to AIDS while very young (he is now 17 yrs. old) and their dad simply walked away from the family, leaving them with their grandmother. To compound the pain in their lives, he remarried and lives not 30 minutes from them, yet they have never met him. But they both told me, “It’s OK, even if we never meet our father, because we have a Heavenly Father and He will never leave us.”

Their faith and courage are typical of so many of these Tumaini youth who are determined to become all God desires them to be, and have a chance to do so because people like you care enough to make a difference in their lives. For those of you who give, thank you for all you do. You can find out more about this outstanding work at

www.tumainiinternational.org.