The Board of World Mission is grateful to Michael and Ceci Tesh for sending updates on their work at the Ray of Hope orphanage and the work of Moravians throughout Kenya. Michael is a cross-cultural servant supported by the Board of World Mission.
Updates about their family and the Ray of Hope orphanage:
Greetings from Kenya! We hope you are all doing well.
We as a family are doing well. I would like to say thank you for your prayers and support for us as a family and for the Ray of Hope ministry.
Here at Ray of Hope we are doing well. The kids are busy doing their studies. Please pray for them because they have to do more studies in a short period of time. We, the staff at Ray of Hope, have started School Ministry. Every Friday morning and afternoon we go to a nearby school and share the Lord’s word with the kids. When Covid-19 goes down here in Kenya, we are praying that we can start the one day monthly camp. We also want to start the one week camp during the school holidays.
Please pray for our oldest daughter Blessing. She has had a bit of tough time in the last three months. First she broke her left thumb and then the next month she broke her right arm. As of this past week she has fully recovered from both breaks. Blessing is in class seven next year. In December she will do her final primary school exam, the exam that determines what high school she will go to.
Love is doing well. She is going to school and loving it very much. She travels to her school that is 15 minutes from home on a motorcycle.
Our family took out a loan to buy a solar system to give us power in our house. We tried the government’s electric power, but it was unreliable and they would cut it off if it wasn’t used.
Prayer requests – Please pray:
- that the Ray of Hope staff can start the camps again as Covid-19 infections decrease
- that more schools will allow us to speak to the kids
- that the school children will be safe and open to the Word
- that our family is able to pay off the loan for the solar power system
- for Blessing and Love as they are in school
- for Cecilia as she is trying to reach out and do more ministry (she will send out a update on that real soon).
From the Tesh family (Michael, Cecilia, Blessing and Love)
Updates on an outreach project to Turkana:
Ceci shared a report on their outreach project to Turkana County, Loima Constituency Kabilaasenyok Village. During one visit to Turkana, they were able to prepare rice and goat meat and eat together with more than 200 people. They also distributed underwear for girls as well as donations of corn, rice, and beans for 54 families. The Church has played a very big role in bringing people together to work as one family and to be part of decision making and also providing space and spiritual nourishment.
Ceci also shared that education is an especially difficult problem to solve in Turkana. The area is vast with no school around, so nearly every child raises livestock as their main source of income. The people living in this area have had a nomadic culture for thousands of years, which has made it difficult to establish educational programs. The Church is currently working on setting up a school there.
Parents of 89 children have agreed to allow their children to start school and the Church has been asked to allow the children to use their premises. The proposed school will include two or three classrooms of 25-30 students per class. The initial construction will be temporary, with children also using teacher’s houses. They expect school lunches to be a big incentive for students to come to school. Feeding programs play a major role in encouraging students to start coming to school as well as keeping students in school.
The following items are required for school to begin: learning materials, chalkboards, cabinets for storing learning materials, chalk, temporary classrooms, and funding for the food program.
While there is much work to be done, Ceci expressed her joy at being a part of this wonderful community. Below are some photos from her visits to Turkana.
