Jarretts Ministry

Jarrett’s Prayer Letter
Volume 7, Number 14
June 29, 2006

Dear Friends and Family:

It’s difficult to believe that this 7th six-month term is over. Although seven is the number of completeness, we plan on returning again in January, 2007. It is always difficult to pack up belongings and memories, say goodbye, and wrap up the ministry for awhile. Thanks for your continuing prayer for the multifaceted ministry here and our travel home.
We will drive to Nairobi tomorrow, spend the night at a guesthouse, and fly out on Saturday night. We depart about 3:45 pm Indy time. We’re scheduled to arrive in Indianapolis on Sunday afternoon about 4pm. Please pray for safety, our passage through security [the girls favorite thing to do], the flight connections, rest on the flight, reentry into the States, and for the final arrival. Seems like the connection in Chicago is often a problem, and we’re hopeful that all the luggage will accompany us.
I wanted to update you on the children’s homes. Last Saturday we went to Bosto Children’s Home. Whatever you might have heard from the girls, the trip out there wasn’t all that exciting. Granted, the brakes mostly quit working when we lost the brake fluid from the master cylinder. But I had some brake fluid with me to add back in, and when that leaked out, I was able to slow down going back down the mountain by using first gear. You don’t really need brakes going up the mountain. The horn was still working, so we didn’t run into anybody. And I took a wrong turn on the way there and took 20 or 30 minutes extra before we figured out that it wasn’t a good alternate route. And even though the starter wasn’t working, we could always start the car by pushing it and popping the clutch. It’s just harder to push it up hill or downhill in reverse heading towards the trees when the brakes don’t work. But those were just minor inconveniences.
We had a great time visiting this home which was built largely with donations from our home church, Castleview Baptist Church. The 20 girls all ran out to greet us, hug us, and take our hands which they basically held onto for the rest of the afternoon. The girls range from 7 to 13. They liked to stroke my hairy arms – quite a novelty here. We had 3 visitors with us as well as our family members, so we took a tour of the facility before doing games and a Bible lesson.
The girls’ dormitory is nearly finished. They have been living in one half of the building while funds were awaited to complete the second half and the matron’s quarters. Now the dormitory room of equal size is being painted; it was just a shell when we were there before. The matron’s quarters remain to be finished; we lack about $200 for finishing that portion of the project. There is space that is under roof for an office just outside the dormitory doors. It will require another $500 or so to complete. Records for the home and a greeting area for visitors [very important in this culture] will likely be in this room.
We toured the rest of the property. A storage shed for materials has been built and is in use. The bunk beds for the new dorm room, cups, plates, cement, etc. are all in the shed waiting completion of the building. A pen for the goats has been completed, and an adorable new kid arrived two weeks ago. He is a male, so he won’t give milk, but he will be exchanged for a female when he is grown. The other goats that have been purchased were found to be of questionable pedigree, and the government rejected them. The Ministry of Agriculture has taken an active part in this project and will even be providing transportation for the new goats when they arrive. Please pray that they can come soon. A chicken house was the other new building. The church is contributing 1 hen per family, so they hope to have 50 laying hens in the coop very soon. About 15 residents were present including a rooster who seemed friendly enough at this time. At least he didn’t show his spurs.
The next improvement was a quarry; the sand from it will be used to construct cement blocks. The mountain where the home is located can be “mined” for the sand used in making blocks. Instead of importing and chipping large stones into square blocks, they are building the dormitory out of their home-made cement blocks like those at Tenwek. This will reduce the construction costs considerably, especially considering the transportation costs coming up the mountain road from a long way away from any distribution centers. In some areas there is some soil that can be used to plant Napier grass to feed the animals. A local church is coming to plant Eucalyptus [gum] trees on the property; they will grow into firewood within a very few years. One variety only takes 5 years to get quite large.
Water is still an issue at Bosto. This week a subcommittee is meeting to explore the costs of bringing the water up the mountain from the river. A source in the forest nearby is possible, but may not be sufficient. For the meantime, the animals must go to the river or the water must be hauled up. I would not be surprised by a request for $2,000 for this project.
After the girls played some games and sang songs with the children, we shared a piece of bread and a cup of chai while sitting on the side of the hill with the girls and the workers who were there. We then went up the hill a 100 yards to the church where Marty gave a presentation of the wordless book and the accompanying bracelet which we helped the girls make. We encouraged the girls to learn to share the gospel using the 5-colored bracelets with their classmates at school. They seemed very excited to do this, so we encouraged them to practice with each other and the matron and then pray together before going to school on Monday. Who knows what fruit will come from such an effort?
We met with the pastors and board of directors who were present that day and involved in an important planning meeting. The architect, Steven Sitonik, told us about the government inspector’s visit. The government representatives are very happy with the project. There are even some funds available with official registration that would qualify the home for assistance during food emergencies. He also found some building code issues that needed to be rectified. The government is increasingly concerned about compliance with codes following some spectacular building collapses in Nairobi and Kisumu and school dormitory fires in boarding schools where perishing children were trapped by doors that opened towards the inside in addition to being locked from the outside.
The funds for a second dormitory have now been wired to an account, so construction should begin soon for a boys’ dormitory. There are some issues that need to be discussed and prayed over for the future. How big should the home become; that is, how many children should live there? We want to have more of a family structure than an institution. How many parental units should be there or how many matrons? When should the next group of children come in? If they come before January, they can’t transfer schools; but those who aren’t in a situation where they’re enrolled in schools could be brought in right away. What is the maximum age to keep children here? Twenty-two has been suggested. What kind of marketable skills can they be taught? Dairy and poultry management and marketing are possible along with masonry and carpentry skills. Other ideas are being considered. All the girls need to learn cooking and sewing skills. These are just a few of the issues that we need prayer and wisdom about. Anyone who has any resources that they can refer me to for orphanage management, vocational training in low resource areas, etc is encouraged to send them. These problems will be faced by all the children’s homes.
At the end of our visit, the church presented us all with gifts. The girls and Marty were given necklaces, and all the guests received decorated gourds. But the guests of honor, granddaughter Elissa and I, were given different gifts. I was given a carved rod as a symbol of authority and age – elders are honored here. And Elissa was given a whisk made of a cow’s tail and a heavily-decorated, beaded handle. It is also a symbol of wisdom and honor that comes with age [Steven said that she had been upgraded]. She is to whisk it in the direction of those whom she is blessing. For whatever reason, perhaps because she represented the Children’s Sunday School at Castleview, the people at Bosto were captivated by 13-year-old Elissa. If there had been an election for Queen, she would have won hands down.
The car was in the repair shop every night getting brakes and the starter repaired. [It would seem that not starting and not stopping would even out, but Marty insisted that we get it fixed before going to Nairobi.] That limited our travel during the week, so we didn’t get to revisit Kitoben before leaving. But Steven Sitonik did visit at my request to make a site plan and evaluation of the home adjacent to the Bomet Airstrip. On Monday this week, the four directors came to our home for a meeting; Amy Bemm, who will assist all of the homes in administration in our absence, and Steven Sitonik were also present. Steven’s findings were very helpful and may involve some radical changes in the project. I will try to summarize these.
The government has plans to upgrade every airstrip in Kenya in the future. Steven thinks that this particular airstrip will be a priority because of its proximity to Tenwek, Longisa, and Kaplong Hospitals. The government could easily decide to block access to the Children’s Home from across the airstrip. This would force the upgrading of the potential road on the south and west of the home for vehicle access. In other words, the road doesn’t exist except on paper.
The soil at the home is the black cotton soil similar to that at Mosop School. You may recall that the choo [toilet] was extremely expensive to build due to the soil conditions and the necessity for concrete reinforcement. One of the existing permanent buildings has some structural failure in the northeast corner; Alice thought it was due to poor quality cement, but foundation shifting is more likely in my opinion. She didn’t build that building — it was on the property when the children first came.
This type of soil requires that the buildings be built on pillars that go 15 feet in depth into the soil. Mosop has been constructing four new classrooms and the foundation alone for these buildings is over 2,000,000 \= [Kenya Shillings]. That’s about $28,500 US. Some of their dormitories that don’t have the proper foundation are encountering problems. Alice faces similar problems for the construction of additional permanent buildings which are needed for the number of children that she has there.
Alice faces significant water needs in this area. The water tanks are sufficient for only about 4 – 5 days of storage without additional rain. The river where they go for water is very far away. The children are making two trips to the river each day, which leaves them very tired for school. It would require a major transportation source for sustaining the water needs in the future. Growth of the home would only aggravate the situation. Even the cattle feeding operation that is planned is problematic. A cow in a zero-grazing facility can require up to 100 liters a day, although I suspect this requirement is higher in the coastal areas than at the higher elevation. But even 50 liters is a major problem. A well is probably very expensive, according to what Alice has told me.
Steven’s recommendation was to relocate the home to the Tenwek area or across the river in the Kitoben area where Alice has a farm. I wondered ahead of time how this recommendation would affect Alice. Steven had told me about it on Saturday when we were at Bosto. I asked if he could come to the meeting on Monday at our house, and he was very gracious to accept. I know that it meant riding an hour each way on his motorcycle. He was also very complimentary of Alice’s care for the children [He was there when she wasn't present and had talked with all of the children and older boys]. We were pleased how graciously he told Alice of his findings, complimenting her and praising the home before making the suggestion for relocation.
We talked with Alice for a few minutes after the others had left. Alice had an interesting “take” on the conversation. At first, she had said that she wanted to pray about it. But a few minutes later, she said that she viewed it as a confirmation of what she had been thinking for some time. They have actually been thinking and praying about going back to the Kitoben area.
There are some significant advantages to such a plan; the soil is solid and foundations are only necessary to a depth of a few feet. Choo construction is inexpensive, at least as far as the digging. And the river is not so distant, even if water isn’t provided on the property such as the Lord did for the Kenduiwa home. And there may be more support on that side. As you may remember from our other letters, we have found very little support locally from churches in the current location. Alice has sensed some opposition from local government as well.
This idea leaves some questions unanswered. Like, what will become of the current home? Alice thought that it would remain a facility that the older boys could use, but I think that we have to keep all options open, including sale of the property. It is obviously greatly improved with fencing, buildings, and the expensive choo. And even if the smaller children left, perhaps it could be used by the older boys and some of the boarding school children; their vacation months currently produce overcrowding.
Additional land would need to be purchased in the original location at Kitoben. That’s always confusing – the original place where Alice has property is Kitoben. They had the vision for the children’s home while there, so the children’s current home is called the Kitoben Vision Children’s Home even though it is nowhere near Kitoben. Land in this area is about 200,000\= per acre and two acres are needed [about $6,000]. Some of the buildings could be relocated as they are not “permanent”.
Alice’s chickens are now producing 100 eggs per day, so they are closer to reaching their potential. At 6 or 7\= [about 10 cents, US] per egg, that’s a current potential income of 3000 –3500 per week, assuming that the eggs can be sold. We are looking into marketing them at Tenwek, and already have some standing orders. Eggs have been in short supply, hence the price increase from 5\= from last year. And people have been frightened of the bird flu, and they haven’t scaled up their production accordingly. Their feed is 2500\= a week. The cow gave birth to a calf, so the milk production should be about 3 liters a day.
Alice still lacks consistent, Godly counsel. We asked Alice to ask the group of praying people that we had met with two months ago to come together this past Saturday at our house. No one came. Alice says that she feels that they didn’t want to make a commitment. That’s good, in that we don’t want uncommitted people in leadership. But that’s bad because Alice still has no council to assist her in making these huge decisions. And she has no local support. So keep praying about this. For the time being, we are her local council, for better or worse. And we will always be outsiders. Alice has also expressed fears of having others come alongside in a position of authority; she is concerned that such a person might “divert” funds away from the children for their own personal use – I have said before that this is a real problem throughout Africa, and here is no exception.
This evening we met with Pastor Kilel regarding several issues. What a blessing his counsel is! First, two representatives of the Tiroto AGC local church came by. They were requesting that Pastor Kilel come and meet with them and help them to know how to proceed. The village is interested in building a children’s home, but no one has any idea where to begin. Some land has been offered. We gave them some ideas similar to what was given to the other villagers at the meeting which these two representatives hadn’t attended. And we tried to give them some specific next steps. But I’m sure that each children’s home will be different in origination and final appearance depending on the local community and the make up of the various churches.
We discussed the education fund disbursements. We now are supporting 70 orphans in various high schools and 67 orphans are supported in elementary schools; some of the children are in boarding schools because of the bad home situation for many of the them. I didn’t realize the numbers had climbed so high. And we have approximately a total of 100 children in the four children’s homes. This doesn’t include many other situations where children and widows are given some assistance through the benevolence fund.
We have also had some funds designated for pastor’s training and some vocational training for some of the older orphans. We hope to encourage some of the children to volunteer at the children’s homes after graduation. Twenty-five seniors will graduate this year. I would love to see this fund grow.
We have not indicated in the past specific needs for the education fund. The amount necessary to pay fees for the third term beginning in September is 300,000 \=. That’s a little under $5,000 US. That represents about a fourth of the annual budget for school fees for this year. One half of the budget for the year is due in January when half of the school fees for the year are due. We have only 5,000\= in reserve at this time. The benevolence fund has been under heavy pressure this term due to the famine; this food shortage will last to some degree until September when the maize harvest comes in. Even a balance of 50,000\= in this fund would likely be used quickly. The orphanage assistance has been strong throughout the term, largely in part because of the participation of the other Tenwek missionaries’ home churches and visitors. Ongoing support of the homes that are in existence will still be necessary until the self-sustaining projects are well established and the local churches are able to assist again in a more significant manner.
The stress of school fees on families is severe even with parents in the home. Alice met a man today named Albert. There was an article about him in the Daily Nation – he had offered to sell a kidney to finance his two sons’ education. He seemed to think that it would be even better if he were dead if his sons could go to school. Alice tried to help him in his thinking, but asked for prayers for him.
This term we gave to six individuals a camera and trained them in business principals so that they can earn a living for their families. Thanks to all of those who sent 35 mm cameras. I will probably make another appeal for these at the end of the year when we prepare to come back in January. It’s remarkable that a US family can donate an unused but workable piece of equipment and enable a man in Kenya to provide for his family.
David told us another rather remarkable story concerning an orphan family that is worth passing on. It illustrates what an impact it is having to visit and care for orphans in this part of the world where no one has ever cared for orphans outside his own family. I believe that it was two years ago that I first went to visit Diana and her two brothers. They ranged from 16 to 20 at the time that David and I visited them. The young people were trying to camp out on their family land in a little shack to keep others from taking the land. It seemed their only hope for the future. The grandfather had sold most of the land off to buy alcohol. People in the community north of Merigi noticed when David and I visited. David later bought them a cow and some seeds through the benevolence fund. Last year we gave Diana some clothes and supported one of the boys in high school.
Recently a teacher in the local school who is an alcoholic came around bothering Diana wanting to take her for a second wife. The local people in the village witnessed this and chased him away. They went to his school and complained about his actions. They threatened to call in the Ministry of Education if the Headmaster did nothing to curtail this man’s advances. This type of involvement on behalf of the young people is unprecedented in David’s experience.
Then another man and his sons came and beat the three young people and tried to chase them away from their property. They wanted to steal the land. Some villagers were walking by that normally don’t even go down this road; they confronted the men by asking why they were abusing the children. They threatened to get the police. The men left, but as they were leaving the man’s 16-year-old son was run over by a car that drove on ahead unaware of the accident. The orphan boys who had been beaten assisted the youth and helped to load him into the back of a pick-up truck. He was brought to Tenwek where he remained unconscious for 4 days. He was finally released after a week here. The villagers told the father that it was God’s warning to him that his son was hurt. A magistrate [judge] in Kericho came home to the village shortly after this. He was greatly angered by the behavior of the man and his sons. He asked David Kilel to come and talk to him about the orphans’ situation; he wanted to do something to try and protect them.
Apparently our visits out into the local community do more than encourage and assist orphans; they raise the community awareness of the need to assist. The interest in the local churches and villages to do something that has never been done before in response to a crisis is very encouraging and, we believe, an answer to your prayers.
Please continue to pray for Lucy whom I mentioned in the last two letters. She was released from the hospital, but still needs much emotional healing. The other two girls recovering from late term illegal abortions are making progress in their physical recovery. They had both prayed to receive Christ with a chaplain. Rosaline, the abused woman with blind children still needs a place to live. We are giving some assistance through the benevolence fund.
The containers are still being held up by various manipulations of the shipping company and the government agencies. The permits for their release are expiring and will need to be reissued. Our administrator is very discouraged. Another million shillings [$14,000] is being demanded by someone. Please continue to pray against the evil forces behind all of this subterfuge and obstruction. I can hardly wait to see our bill for our soccer balls and Bibles which are on the shipment and subject to some of the duty. Please pray that this won’t be a big issue.
Our vehicle has been repaired and is ready for the trip to Nairobi. The starter is rebuilt and the brakes are working just fine. We drove out to Kenduiwa today for a shake-down run; we took some pictures of the dormitory construction for World Orphans. The walls are up and awaiting the last row of blocks and lentils before the roof supports are put up. It really looks nice.
We are thankful for the opportunity that we have had to serve God in this place. It was a great blessing to us and to others here to have our daughters come and be actively involved with the ministry. They have been thanked repeatedly for coming and ministering. And we are thankful for your involvement with us. Your prayers and support have made a tremendous difference in the lives of many people – and the impact on many will carry over into eternity. Tenwek has become an integral part of our lives. We’ll be home for six months, but our thoughts and prayers will never be far away from this place. Please continue to pray with us. Also, please pray for unity in our home church, Castleview Baptist Church, as it goes through a difficult time of transition in leadership.

Serving Jesus with you,

Paul, for the Jarretts soon to leave Kenya

Dear Family and Friends,

This August, I will be leaving to go to Japan. I went to Japan two years ago with my youth group on a trip for two weeks. I completely fell in love with Japan, and God has placed a burden in my heart to go back ever since then. I will be living there for a year in a city called Sapporo. While there, I will teach conversational English. Along with teaching English, my other responsibilities will be to work with the youth ministry, serve in the outreach ministry- planning, performing, tracts distribution, etc., and also to study Japanese.

I will be living at a church with the pastor and his family. Pastor Kamidate and his wife have 4 daughters, and live at the church in an upper apartment. This church is the same that the youth group from my church has been partnering up with in the summer to do short term mission trips and that I visited before.

Japan is a country that needs God. In Japan only one out of every two hundred people is a Christian. The main religion there is Buddhist. Japan needs to hear the truth about God’s love and the relationship that is available to them through Jesus Christ. God has placed a burden in my heart to share this truth with the Japanese people, and I pray that this year in Japan will give me many opportunities to do this.

I would appreciate your prayers for the following areas.
1. Please pray for the softening of the hearts of the Japanese people. That they would see their need for Christ, and that the seeds would be planted in them.
2. Pray for my safety. I will be traveling alone, and also for safety while there.
3. Pray for me, that my relationship with Christ would ever be strengthened, and that I would grow through this experience. There will be so many times I know that I will be homesick and will need strength from the Lord.
4. Please pray that my financial needs will be met. My estimated amount would be just under 3,000 dollars; plane tickets, money to get me started in Japan, a laptop for taking classes online from Moody Bible Institute and communication back home.
5. Please pray for unity with the church, Pastor Kamidate and his family. That we will work together in Christ, for the furthering of the kingdom.
6. Pray that I will learn Japanese and be able to affectively communicate.

If you are interested in supporting me with prayer and/or financial support, please send a note to Castleview Baptist Church, 8601 Hague Road, Indianapolis, IN 46256. Checks can be made out to Castleview Baptist Church with my name in the memo.
Thank you so much, and I pray that God would show His power and love to each of you in a special way. God bless.
Love in Christ,
Laura Jarrett

Jarrett’s Prayer Letter
Volume 7, Number 13
June 23, 2006

Dear Friends and Family;

Thanks so much for your prayers. We are leaving Tenwek a week from today, so I wanted to update some prayer requests and then, perhaps, write a final letter before we depart.
Today we operated on the 8th grader who had an induced abortion near term; I had mentioned her situation in the last letter. She had a stormy course over the past two weeks with persistent pain in the uterus and a fever that initially went away with antibiotics, but then it returned and increased in magnitude making us believe that she might have an abscess developing. We had been following her with ultrasound examinations, and yesterday we were convinced that we were seeing an abscess develop around the top of the uterus near the ovary.
At surgery we found that the top right portion of the uterus was indeed involved with an abscess that had destroyed the corner where the Fallopian Tube enters. There was also an abscess beneath the tube. We cut away the infected, dead tissue after freeing the small intestine from the area where the uterus had been perforated with an instrument, either during the abortion or in a subsequent curettage where retained placental tissue had been removed. We reconstructed the uterus, so it may be capable of childbearing in the future even though a cesarean section would be required for delivery if she is so fortunate as to get pregnant. She has prayed to receive Jesus as her savior.
Early this morning, an 18-year-old girl presented with severe abdominal pain 9 days after giving birth at home to a premature baby. The situation looked remarkably similar to the first story. An area of the uterus on the front wall looks like it is involved with infection and tissue destruction. This patient had not sought medical attention until the present time, and she presented with symptoms of septic shock. She has responded to antibiotics and fluid resuscitation; we are trying to get enough blood replaced for her to have surgery tomorrow that may even extend to the point of a hysterectomy if it isn’t possible to reconstruct the uterus. Chepkirui didn’t admit to an abortion having been done until she talked with a chaplain at our referral. She gave her life to Jesus and said that she was sorry for what she had done. Please pray for God to spare her life and her uterus.
I had mentioned Lucy, a patient who had renal failure and infection after an abortion. Her kidney function returned after dialysis, but she continued to have a significant infection somewhere in her body. She has responded to a potent antibiotic, Vancomycin, and she may be discharged soon. Please continue to pray for her.
My “I’ve never seen that before” case of the week occurred on Tuesday. A middle-aged mother had been seen by one of our doctors in February, and a 13-week twin pregnancy with a questionable uterine fibroid in the uterus was diagnosed. We saw her in clinic last week and diagnosed that the babies had died at about 27 week’s gestation. We spent the weekend trying to induce labor with no success despite using all the tricks that we knew. We used Cytotec, Pitocin, and a Foley catheter inserted into the uterus, but she simply would not begin laboring. One of the doctors even tried unsuccessfully to rupture the membranes; he concluded that there wasn’t any fluid remaining. We finally decided to take her to surgery for a hysterotomy [mini-cesarean section].
In retrospect, our failures made perfect sense in light of what we found at surgery. The uterus was small and empty; the pregnancy was all outside the uterus. I’ve seen advanced “abdominal pregnancy” before, but this pregnancy was contained entirely within the left ovary. It had allowed both baby girls to develop up to nearly a pound and 1\2 apiece before they had died. It was a fairly simple surgery to remove the ovary; the patient is going home after only three days. Ovarian pregnancy is among the rarest forms of ectopic pregnancy.
The beginning of a pregnancy normally is preceded by ovulation [release of an egg from the ovary] which is picked up by the Fallopian Tube on the same side. Fertilization of the egg occurs in the tube, and a new human life has begun. It takes about four days for the fertilized egg to travel down the tube and implant into the lining of the uterus which has been hormonally prepared to receive it. All during this time, the egg is growing and developing. The pro-abortion groups argue that it isn’t really a pregnancy until it is implanted in the uterus; they utilize this semantic distinction to justify the use of the “morning after” pill as a method of contraception. Only it really isn’t contraception because conception occurred four days previously. They claim it isn’t an abortion because the fertilized egg hasn’t implanted.
There are lots of good arguments against the “morning after” pill being given OTC [over the counter] status by the FDA, including studies showing that it has no impact on the number of unwanted pregnancies in countries where it is widely available over the counter. And there is the larger problem that women will not seek professional care for unprotected sexual exposure which is far more often the source of sexually transmitted disease than it is of pregnancy. You can contract gonorrhea or Chlamydia infections every day of the month, but pregnancy can only occur in a one or two day period. A delay in diagnosis and treatment of STD’s often leads to sterility or other serious consequences. But here, once again, I have digressed.
In our case, the egg never left the ovary upon its maturation and a sperm still found its way to fertilize it. It’s likely that the embryo divided completely sometime later to form a set of identical twins which grew very well up to the point that the blood supply of the ovary was insufficient to allow them to continue their growth. [If they weren't identical, then there had to be two separate eggs that never left the ovary and were both fertilized.] There are at least two case reports of full-term ovarian pregnancies where a baby survived. We are happy to have a surviving mother.
We have had six cases of anencephaly these past two weeks where the near-term baby is born without a brain. We have also had other variety of “neural tube defects” where the sac around the spinal cord and brain has incomplete development. This defect causes a great deal of pain and suffering [physical and emotional] for mothers here in Western Kenya. It is known that Folic Acid dietary deficiency can cause this problem, but I believe that the reason we see this problem is due to a mycotoxin called Fumonisin found in spoiled corn. There are pockets of this problem in areas of the world where corn is the main dietary staple. Esophageal cancer is also found in high numbers in the same groups of people. The fungal toxin attacks the myelin sheath that lines the nervous system and hinders its development and subsequent closure of the system. During times of starvation, people eat corn that would otherwise be discarded. We may see many more of these cases during the next year as starvation conditions still exist in many areas.
We have visited some of the children’s homes this past week. The most exciting developments have occurred at Kenduiwa. They received a grant from World Orphans for a dormitory, and construction has begun. They were “pouring” the foundation last week when we were there. The workers constructed a perimeter foundation of stone blocks about four deep. The floor was filled in with rock chips, and then cement was mixed by hand on site and distributed by wheelbarrow. No big red cement trucks here. The rocks had arrived by a wagon pulled by a tractor. Men sat on the ground and chipped the edges of the rocks away until they had a rectangular building blocks. The chips were used for the fill-in.
The “fundi” or contractor had hired 10 casual laborers from the local area to do the work alongside his two skilled workers; this serves to promote “ownership” of the children’s homes in the local area. The other exciting development was finding water in a 50-ft well that was dug. Very few places around here on top of a mountain have water available on site other than what little can be collected in a cistern or tank. And that supply is only available during rainy season. Otherwise, a trip to the river with a donkey or two is made daily; a donkey will carry several 5 gallon jugs on his back. At Kenduiwa, there was a shallow hole that had been dug by the previous owner of the land for use as an outhouse. But the location was not good for an outhouse since it was uphill from new dormitory. So they dug the hole deeper and found water! They were using the water for mixing cement; we’re hopeful that they can clean up the base of the hole so that the water will be useful for drinking and bathing. In the long run, potable water from the well would save hundreds of dollars in hauling costs not to mention time.
As I watched the construction, Marty and the girls were playing games and doing a Bible lesson with the children. We have been here often enough that the children are no longer shy around us. My attention was diverted away from the hole where the man was hauling up water with a bucket on a rope. On the other side of the dormitory near the fence, another man was hauling up a bucket from a hole, except he was dumping out dirt each time. I realized that there was someone down in the hole who was filling the bucket with dirt each time. I asked David Koech about this. We went over and looked down 30 feet to the bottom of the hole where a man was toiling away with his shovel. I asked David if there weren’t danger of a cave-in. He said that in this soil on the mountain, there wasn’t any danger of the sides of the hole caving in. That was how the 50-ft hole was dug. This other hole was to be for a new outhouse, but it was downhill from the dormitory. Now I know of yet another job that I would never want.
The dormitory should be completed within the next 3 to 6 months which will allow for the expansion of this home to over 40 children. The dorm will hold 36 boys. The girls will stay in the existing semi-permanent structure until a girls dormitory is built in the future. A larger kitchen and a dining hall are also planned. A work team from the Bemm’s church in Pittsburg is coming in July to begin this project. David hopes to have another building in the future that will house a medical clinic and a library to benefit the local community. The posho [corn-grinding] mill is also planned as an income producing project for the home. Please continue to pray for the Kenduiwa Children’s Home.
Umoja Children’s Home was also doing well when we made our final visit there for the year. The children are happy and well cared for. They send their greetings and thanks to all those who have been assisting them in support and prayer. Joseph Chepkwony, the director, showed me the title deed for the property. It is no longer in the name of his family; the title deed belongs to the Umoja Children’s Home. I believe it is now possible to promote this home to local churches abroad as well as other organizations. I have felt for quite a while that this home has been under supported due to our impression of private ownership, even though the children were receiving loving care in the name of Jesus Christ. Hopefully, others will feel more comfortable now in coming alongside to assist. Joseph has plans for increasing the dormitory space which will enable them to bring in more children. It costs around $6,000 to put up a 36 to 40 bed dormitory and several thousand more to equip it with beds and the necessary bedding. They have nearly 250 chickens, but only about 15 are laying eggs. Four times as many chickens from the same hatching located at Kitoben are laying, but that area is a bit warmer according to Joseph. Please keep the Umoja Children’s Home in prayer.
In the next letter, I will report on Bosto and Kitoben; we plan a final trip to both homes tomorrow. Our daughters have had a good time of ministry during their time here. Becki has been doing standardized testing for the missionary children who are being homeschooled. The mothers appreciate having a “yardstick” to see how successful they are with their children’s education. This past week Debbye and Amy helped the children with a fine arts workshop. Next week is a VBS week. They are leading worship and teaching children’s church for the Tenwek meeting-room fellowship. Elissa and Rachel have been helping out a lot as well. Laura is at home in the States making her final preparations for a year of ministry in Japan. Please continue to pray for her; her departure is scheduled for August 17.
I also had mentioned praying for three young men from our home church who were participating in an expedition in search of Noah’s Ark. They returned safely from Iran; recently, there was a release of the results of that trip with the appearance of Bob Cornuke on Fox News. The team believes that they have found the Ark, but it may take some time for all the samples to be tested; the world’s acceptance of the evidence is another matter. But you had a part in praying for the safety of this mission whatever the results are determined to be, so I felt obligated to pass along to you the information. Here is a copy of a website along with the link featuring an interview with Bob Cornuke:
http://www.worldviewweekend.com/secure/cwnetwork/article.php?&ArticleID=813+
Noah’s Ark?
For Real
By Brannon S. Howse
© Brannon S. Howse
June 16th, 2006
How many times have you yawned at the claim “Noah’s Ark Has Been Discovered”? Right, you say, and Elvis has been sighted again, too. People who hoped to find the famous vessel and the legendary voice have been pretty much in the same boat (so to speak)—No proof. Until today.
Led by explorer, adventurer, and featured Worldview Weekend speaker Dr. Bob Cornuke, a fourteen man crew returned this week from Iran bearing stunning evidence that theirs is the long-anticipated, even coveted discovery of the remains of Noah’s Ark. Bob’s team consisted of a Who’s Who of business, law, and ministry leaders including Barry Rand (former CEO of Avis), the multiple best-selling author and Christian apologist Josh McDowell, Frank Turek (co-author with Norm Geisler of I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist), Boone Powell (former CEO of Baylor Medical Systems), and Arch Bonnema (president of Joshua Financial).
The unusual object is perched on a slope 13,120 feet above sea level. After studying the discovery site, Bonnema observed, “These beams not only look like petrified wood, they are so impressive that they look like real wood—this is an amazing discovery that may be the oldest shipwreck in recorded history.”
Reg Lyle, oil and gas geologist said “the object appears to be a basalt dike, however, it is absolutely uncanny that the object looks like hand hewn timbers, even the grain and color look just like petrified wood….I really need to keep an open-mind about this.”
The team returned to the U.S. from rugged mountains in Iran with astonishing video footage of a monstrous black formation which looks like rock but bears the amazing image of hundreds of massive, wooden, hand-hewn beams. Could it be the lost ark on which two of every animal once sailed with their human rescuer?
Bob Cornuke, president of the BASE Institute, is a veteran of nearly 30 expeditions looking for yet-to-be-discovered locations and artifacts described by the Bible. He is cautiously—but enthusiastically—optimistic about the find: “We have no way of confirming for sure that this object is Noah’s Ark, but it is probably the most interesting and baffling object ever found by ark searchers…it sure gets my heart to pumping just thinking of what it could be.”
The arkish object is about 400 feet long and consists of rocks that look remarkably like blackened wood beams while other rock in the area is distinctively brown. And one visible piece is “cut” at 90-degree angle. Even more intriguing, some of the wood-like rocks were tested just this week and actually proved to be petrified wood, and it is noteworthy that Scripture recounts Noah sealed his ark with pitch—a decidedly black substance. Upon being cut open, one of these “rocks” also divulged a marine fissile that could have only originated undersea.
Scouring the mountains all around the object, team participant Steve Crampton found thousands of fossilized sea shells blanketing the landscape. Cornuke brought back a one-inch thick rock slab choked with fossilized clams.
High above the ark suspect, the team also found wood splinters and broken pottery shards under snow and rock at the 15,300 foot level. It showed evidence that ancients had thought this an important worship site for hundreds—if not thousands—of years. The landing location would also be an unusually hospitable place to live. The team notes that every ecosystem helpful to humans and the animals is reachable within a 25-mile radius of the ark’s location.
Cornuke initially got involved in the search for the ark after meeting Apollo 15, moon walking astronaut Jim Irwin. In the 1980’s Cornuke participated with Irwin in several searches on Mount Ararat in Turkey but was disappointed with the results. After several years of frustrating expeditions, Cornuke started looking elsewhere for the ark.
Cornuke found clues in the Bible that the ark might be on a mountain other than the famed Mount Ararat of Turkey. His observation was based on the Genesis 11 account that says descendants of Noah came to the Mesopotamian valley from the east. According to Cornuke, that would put the Biblical mountains of Ararat somewhere in the northern reaches of Iran. He also cited ancient historians such as Nicholas of Damascus and Flavius Josephus who wrote just before and after Christ that timbers of the ark had survived in what would today be the higher mountains of Iran.
Although his research is by far the most definitive ever, Dr. Cornuke is not the first to suggest Noah’s Ark came to rest in Iran rather than Turkey. In 1943 an army observer named Ed Davis said he saw the ark on a high mountain in Iran. Sergeant Davis was a road construction engineer in Iran during World War II, building army highways from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea. During his tour of duty there, some Iranian friends told Davis of the ark and led him to the site. After the war, Sgt. Davis passed a lie detector test affirming his testimony about actually seeing timbers from an ark-like object high in the mountains of Iran.
Before his death, Davis became acquainted with Bob Cornuke and gave him a map showing the way to the object. “It was right where Ed said it was in his map,” Cornuke relayed, “After seeing it from a distance I thought it at first unimpressive, but once we stood on the object we were all amazed at how it looked just like a huge pile of black and brown stone beams.”
Mary Irwin, wife of late Apollo 15 astronaut Jim Irwin, viewed the evidence and stated that it was “compelling and certainly could be the actual Ark of Noah.”
Many Christians will be eager to see the pictures and video footage, and hear the Biblical evidence for why Noah’s Ark and the mountains of Ararat must be in Iran. Unfortunately, I also expect that Dr. Cornuke will be venomously attacked by both Christians and non-Christians. His discovery will greatly distress evolutionists who do not want the story of Noah and a worldwide flood to be verified. And many Christians that have spent years and millions of dollars searching on Mt. Ararat in Turkey will be quick to dismiss Cornuke’s discovery out of jealousy (and perhaps a bit of embarrassment that they spent so much time looking in the wrong place).
Dr. Cornuke has used the Bible as his primary guidebook to one Biblical location and artifact after another. Has he once again overcome huge odds to make what is arguably one of the greatest archeological discoveries of all time? Has this crime-scene-
investigator-turned-explorer pieced together clues from years of examination and discovered the remains of Noah’s Ark?
Some of America’s leading businessmen, an attorney who has argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and two leading apologists believed the evidence was compelling enough that they made a daring trip to the politically volatile state of Iran and climbed a harsh mountain to see the object firsthand. Now that they’ve returned, they seem anything but disappointed. Elvis may have long since left the building, but it looks as if the Ark may have just appeared at the door.
For media appearance and/or interviews with Dr. Bob Cornuke, please contact Brannon Howse at Brannon@worldviewweekend.com

Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com

Paul writing again:
Please continue to pray for our last week here. Please pray that we will be able to find a suitable housing and working situation for Rosaline, a mother with two blind children whom we have mentioned in many of our letters. Also pray for funds to come in for the orphans’ school fees. There currently is only a fraction of what is needed for the fees that are due in September. The containers are still being held in Nairobi; pray for their immediate release. Thanks so much for your prayers and support.
Paul, for the Jarretts in Kenya

AGC Tenwek Area Education Fund [sending orphans to school or orphanage support] contributions: Checks payable to and send to: Christian Foundation of Indiana, 8445 Keystone Crossing Blvd, Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN 46240. Indicate for Tenwek Education Fund or specific orphanage support on a separate piece of paper.

Dear Friends and Family:
Thanks for your prayers. I wanted to update an important prayer request. Peter Kiplangat, the formerly tongue-tied boy, is doing well at Mosop school, as far as schooling and relationships. However, at night he is having terrible nightmares that cause him to scream and cry out, which is very frightening to the other boys in the dormitory. They involve visions of the dead mother and other frightening things. Other Kenyans are fearful of evil spirits — these beliefs are not far below the surface here. In medical terms, he is having some form of post-traumatic stress syndrome. But spiritual warfare is also a possibility. Would you pray for complete deliverance from this problem?
Our patient who had kidney failure, Lucy, has finished dialysis at Eldoret, but is still having some infection in her body, perhaps in the pericardium, the sack around the heart. Please pray for complete healing for her.
The young men from our home church have returned safely from the expedition in search of Noah’s Ark. I have no report on their success or failure as of yet, but they are home safely for which their families are very greatful.
We’ve had great visits to the orphan’s homes, but that’s a story for another day. Pray for us as we minister in Sunday services tomorrow. The girls will do music and children’s church at Tenwek. I am preaching at a local church.
Paul, for the Jarretts in Kenya for two more weeks.

Reply to pauljar@gmail.com

Jarrett’s Prayer Letter
Volume 7, Number 12
June 10, 2006

Dear Friends and Family:

We have had an exciting two weeks and are continuing to enjoy having more family with us. The girls helped lead music for the worship service at Tenwek and will probably do so for the reminder of the time here. I’m in charge of the worship service tomorrow as a favor for Mike Chupp who took his family to Nairobi this weekend. Thanks for praying for him; his HIV test has remained negative after a hand injury in surgery on an HIV+ patient several months ago. There is a final test at six months, but it is usually negative if the other tests have remained negative.
We’ve had some exciting developments with the orphanages that I’d like to report. In the last letter, I mentioned that a ministry called World Orphans had agreed to help finance the building of dormitories at Bosto and Kenduiwa. This week I got a report from them that they are partnering with PrayerSong Ministries who will hold a series of concerts in California to benefit these two children’s homes. Then PrayerSong plans a visit at some time in the future to see the homes. I also helped World Orphans to move further along in the process of sponsoring a dormitory for Mosop School and the Laura Children’s home there. [Laura is pronounced Lah OO' rah here.] Please pray that World Orphans will finance a much needed dormitory there as they have 90 orphans living full-time at the school. I also heard from one of the Anderson University student nurses who stayed with us in March. Jacklyn is from the Gettysburg, PA area. She is also organizing some concerts to benefit the orphan projects. Please pray for all of these concerts to be successful. God certainly moves in most unexpected ways!
I mentioned in the last letter that a visiting ENT surgeon, Dr. Scott Voorman, would operate on the 13-year-old tongue-tied orphan boy, Peter Kiplangat, last week. I watched Scott do the simple operation under a local anesthetic. [I actually did that procedure thirty years ago on a newborn while doing a circumcision and seeing the problem when the baby cried.] Peter was so happy to be able to stick his tongue out! Rosaline, his aunt, reports that his speech has much improved, and he is really talking a lot – a big change. Thanks for praying! I took Peter to Mosop School where I registered him for school – I was able to pay for his fees through a donation sent before we left for Kenya to be used for discretionary spending for orphan assistance. It seemed like the best possible use for some of this money. Thank you, Nancy.
It is difficult to imagine the change that has taken place in this boy’s life. It almost seems as much as the change that occurred when Jesus healed a leper or a blind man. Peter was an orphaned boy, long neglected because of the terminal illness of his single mother. He had never had proper medical attention for a relatively simple problem that nearly incapacitated him socially. People couldn’t understand what he was saying, so he stopped talking. He was living in a remote area, and his only relatives were too poor to help him. He left that remote area to stay in a more populated area where he could work in a man’s garden to feed himself and try to continue school in 2nd grade – five or six years behind his age mates. When Rosaline told me about him, I told her to go and find him. He was wearing rags since everything else he had owned had been stolen from him. The picture in my mind is of Job sitting on the ash heap.
At first, Rosaline had difficulty convincing him to go with her. He didn’t want to go back to the remote area where his grandparents lived. But she washed him and put clean clothes on him [which our prayer supporters donated]. She brought him to Tenwek where his tongue was set free. He spent time with some of our children and Kenyan neighbors playing soccer, smiling the whole time. Then we took him to school where he will be fed, educated, and taught about the love of Jesus which he has already experienced. Now he is happy, smiling, and talking all the time. People who knew him can’t believe it is the same boy! Please pray that his tongue will learn to sing the praises of Jesus, in whose name he was healed. I believe that he will.
Thursday evening Rev. David Kilel and I had another exciting adventure. He told me he would like to leave around 3 o’clock to meet some orphans that he had been told about. All week at the hospital we have been short-staffed since there was a lecture series on critical care for our doctors and nurses. [I even got asked to give a lecture on 20 minutes notice and preparation time.] Meanwhile, I took care of most of the surgeries with the help of Kays Muruka, my protégé. As Thursday afternoon wore on, there was one more surgery to do – a mother who had delivered three weeks before had a large abscess in her abdomen which was pretty suspicious for TB – of course, I’d never seen that before in a mother after delivery. Her abdomen looked like she was still 9-months pregnant.
Muruka and I made the opening incision and could see that the peritoneum [lining of the abdomen] was greatly thickened. We made a small incision and then drained out 5 quarts of watery pus. After washing things out, we could see that the abscess cavity was completely walled off from all the intestines, although it occupied the entire lower half of the abdominal cavity; it surrounded the uterus where the baby had developed for the past 9 months but pushed everything else upwards. The reason for the abscess was clear when we saw the classical appearance of tuberculosis of the Fallopian tubes. It was a miracle that the mother had ever gotten pregnant in the first place; the tubes were by now destroyed by the TB. The tubes were 2 inches thick instead of less than a quarter-inch. Only the end of the tubes [fimbria] were recognizable, which is characteristic of TB. We put in a drain and closed the abdomen after getting a confirmatory biopsy. We’ll start TB treatment in a few days.
It was now after 4pm, so I called David Kilel to tell him I was ready to go. We left in a hurry in my Pajero, driving up the high road along the mountain ridge to Merigi. In the town was a little road leading to the right. David said the village of Tiroto was that direction. The road soon deteriorated into a narrow, rocky path just wide enough for the vehicle. Only a high-wheeled vehicle would want to go down this road, and I wasn’t too sure about it anyway. But the road was dry, so the 4-wheel drive wouldn’t be needed coming back up. In about 5 minutes, we found a large crowd of people standing by the road clapping their hands and smiling. Apparently, we were expected.
We were greeted by a man with a notepad; David had communicated with him by telephone that we were late because of the surgery. Other people were smiling and greeting us as we moved through the crowd to a house near the side of the road. As we turned the corner around a fence, more people were there smiling and clapping. There were over a hundred people at the house. We were ushered in and seated at the head of the 12 by 18 foot room. Others sat in chairs or on benches around the edge of the room which held about 50 people. Naturally, I had very little idea what was happening.
The people were introduced by the man with the notepad; he was the chairman. The first group of people in the room was the committee that was concerned about orphans in the village. The chairman explained that the village was very poor. Only about 25% of the land was tillable in the area due to the very rocky condition of the land on the mountain. And it was over 7,000 ft in elevation. People live hand to mouth, he explained. And the community has been hit very hard by AIDS. Then they brought in another group of people who were the orphans and their caregivers, all of whom were women, most of them elderly. There were 25 orphans present; many others were fearful to come, particularly the older ones because of the social stigma associated with being an orphan.
Apparently, the meeting took place because a week before our Tenwek Hospital administrator, Steven Mutai, visited the village as part of his campaign to run for the national parliament. He was asked about the orphans, and after thinking a minute, he said that he would have Rev. Kilel respond. So, instead of visiting 3 or 4 children in their home, we were meeting with an entire village. David was as surprised as I was, although he didn’t let on like it.
We were served a Coca-Cola [warm, from the bottle] as the villagers explained their concerns and David asked questions. Other than the chairman’s introductory remarks, the entire conversation was in Kipsigis, so I was smiling and listening until it came my time to make a speech. By now I’m not surprised by such a request, and I had been composing my speech as they were talking. I told them the history of how God had laid on our hearts the situation of the orphans and how the provision for them is an answer to your prayers. I outlined the needs that orphans have and the commands from the scriptures concerning caring for them. I told them that we may be able to assist them in getting started, but that they themselves would need to care for the children’s needs with what little they had; they would then see God’s hand at work in response to their obedience to His Word. David translated my remarks; working through an interpreter is really pretty good for an impromptu speech, because it gives you time to think what to say next.
After I finished, I sat back down while David continued the discussion. The villagers were concerned that many families had large bills at the hospital that couldn’t be paid; this often made access to further care a problem for the surviving family members since the registration clerks require some payment on an outstanding bill. [This is a long-term big issue for the hospital; it's necessary for continued operation of the hospital to receive some payment for services, but people are so poor that they have no means to pay. The needy patient fund at the hospital can cover only a fraction of the number of cases – this is an excellent way to support the ministry of Tenwek Hospital. Contributions can be made to World Gospel Mission – Tenwek Hospital needy patient fund: www.wgm.org ]
As we finished the meeting, we prayed for the children and the committee. David gave the people instructions on how to begin such a project; such a thing has not been done in this part of Kenya until the now existent four local children’s homes have been started. We shook hands with everyone within reach; the little children all wanted to shake hands with me, but many were very shy. The chairman told me what I have heard said many other times: the children would be talking about shaking hands with the white man for six months or more. As we loaded up the car to drive back towards Merigi, everyone wanted to get in the car with us and escort us part of the way – that is very much a tradition in Africa, I have learned. I had to request limiting it to 5 people in the middle seat because of the rocky road – I was concerned about too much weight on the springs. Otherwise, I know that 10 more people would have crawled into the cargo compartment.
I guess that I now know how a celebrity feels when he is greeted and adulated wherever he goes. I find it a bit embarrassing, but even more, a responsibility since I am representing the Lord Jesus in such situations. I’m often in areas where white people are rarely, if ever, seen. Most children off of the main road have never seen a white person. Even driving along the roads, children wave and call out “white person” in the local language. And often, they use one of the few English words that they know – “sweets’. But children in these “off the main road areas” never ask for sweets, because they don’t associate the white person as someone who gives sweets as he drives by. Aside from the oddity, there is a respect given to white people here that has little to do with the former colonial “master” status; it’s the memory that the white people brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Africans that gives us this undeserved status. It’s because of Whom we know (Jesus Christ) rather than who we are. Thus it behooves the visitor to relate in a culturally appropriate manner – like it or not, he is representing Jesus.
Another observation is how differently people respond to a need in a different culture. In the States, if there is a problem that concerns people, a few may get together when their schedules allow to discuss the issue. There may even be a town meeting, but usually it’s just a few concerned people. Here, nearly an entire village waited for hours for the visitors to come and meet with them. When they make a decision, it won’t be just a few people that meet and decide. The whole group will meet, discuss it, and come to an agreement on the way to proceed. If it doesn’t work out, then no one is to blame.
Please pray for these people who live in Tiroto. They are obviously interested in doing something about helping the children. They know that their traditional structures won’t meet the need. They are searching for answers. And I think that it will be the local churches that lead the way. It’s the Christians who will do something. One man I met at the meeting was about 50 years old. He used to be an alcoholic; but God delivered him. Now he has a motorbike and has organized markets in both Mulot and Kapkwen. I know that these are large, successful markets along the main highway [like a street fair where everyone gathers one day each week to sell and exchange goods]; apparently it took someone with initiative to get them started. Someone has donated a half of an acre for a children’s home. We hope to meet again before I leave Kenya at the end of June. I believe that you will be hearing more about a children’s home in Tiroto in the near future.
In case you haven’t picked up on it in my letters, David Kilel is an exceptional person – a true man of God; I count it a real privilege to be his friend. He is the Head of the Chaplaincy School at Tenwek as well as being the pastor for the Tenwek Hospital staff. He has held leadership positions in the Africa Gospel Church and still is sought out for advice and leadership. If there is trouble somewhere in the western half of Kenya involving an AGC church, he is often the one who is sent. He works long hours 6 days a week and pastors a local church on Sunday. He is preaching funerals, looking after orphans, counseling people, leading devotions, and doing a host of other things. There is always a line of people waiting to see him. Yet he never complains about a lack of personal time; his wife, Esther, never complains about the time he is gone – what a jewel she is! David is a true servant of the Lord; he is scrupulously honest and careful. And he appreciates my sense of humor which he matches with his own. Please keep him in prayer.
Other updates: In the last letter, I mentioned a mother with meningitis who I thought might die. She survived. There are three babies in the nursery whose mothers have died. Hopefully, relatives will claim the babies soon. Another mother, Alice, has had a sub-arachnoid hemorrhage [bleeding at the base of the brain], perhaps due to a berry-aneurysm; her life is in danger as well. Her baby is doing well in the nursery. Please pray for Betty, the wife of one of our clinical officers: she is having severe pregnancy-induced high blood pressure that may force us to take the baby much earlier than we would prefer. She is not yet 30 weeks pregnant. Our fetal monitors have arrived with Dr. Steve Willing of Brownsburg, IN. We will use them to try to monitor the status of Betty’s baby. It helps a great deal to have such a reliable device to make such a crucial decision concerning the timing and method of a premature delivery. Please pray that the coordinators at World Medical Mission are able to find some paper refills for the monitors.
Please pray for Lucy; she has lost her kidney function and has gone to Eldoret for dialysis. We’re not certain if the problem was malaria or infection from an abortion. Two nights ago, we had an 8th grader come in whose family had helped her abort her baby at term. Last night we had a 19-year-old mother come in at 5 months pregnancy with symptoms of impending delivery. I told the intern to check carefully for a foreign body or some sign of a criminal abortion. Sure enough, she found a piece of plastic in the birth canal, and the stillborn baby was missing her legs. This was another botched abortion.
The problem is the same worldwide; a woman with an unwanted pregnancy is deceived by the spiritual enemy that there is no other way to deal with the pregnancy than to abort the baby – legally or illegally, at great risk to her own life and future childbearing. There is a good deal of evidence accumulating in the worldwide medical literature that legal first trimester abortions predispose a woman to premature delivery in future pregnancies. It’s just another significant risk added to the already long list of potential future problems, including infertility, breast cancer, placenta previa, depression, and substance abuse. But that’s a whole discussion better left for another time. And it isn’t politically correct to attack the sacred cow of a woman’s right to choose – even with incontrovertible medical evidence. But pro-lifers need to continually remember – it isn’t enough to attack abortion without a positive alternative of love and support to the woman in a crisis pregnancy. And the message must be given out – Jesus Christ died for All of our sins; there is forgiveness available from God to anyone for any sin regardless of its magnitude. Please pray for our chaplain staff as they counsel these women and girls whose lives and bodies have been scarred.
Please pray for our final 3 weeks here in Kenya. We want to visit all four children’s homes again as well as preach at one or two local churches. Several people want us to visit them before we leave. It is always difficult to cram so much into the remaining time. Fortunately, I don’t feel the pressure at the hospital to get everything done before I leave because there are capable people continuing in our department. I will give at least one more lecture to the doctors and nurses on the use of fetal monitors now that there is something to talk about.
I have another prayer request for three members of Castleview Baptist Church, our home church. Troy, Tim, and Dave have joined a man named Bob on an expedition in search of Noah’s Ark. I understand that they have been gone for about a week. Historically, it has been a very dangerous undertaking to search the high mountains of the Middle East. If the ark exists, the spiritual enemy does not want it known because of the impact that finding it would have on all of mankind; without question, it would turn the hearts of many toward God. Would you please pray for their safety? The truth about the ark will be revealed in God’s timing.
We appreciate so much your standing behind us in prayer. The only offensive weapons we have in spiritual warfare are prayer and the Word of God. Wherever you are, you can pray and carry on the battle.

Serving Jesus with you,

Paul, for the Jarretts still in Kenya