Relationship, not sponsorship.

I'm really encouraged!
The last two days we had meetings with the legal guardians of the kids at AMCC. Thursday was for the kids in High School (aka Secondary School) and yesterday was for 1-8th grade (aka Primary School).
Thursdays meeting was mostly John talking, which, thankfully, was translated from Kikuyu into English by Nancy the teacher/secretary/matron/mom/cook/janitor/rocket scientist. It was so cool hearing John speak, because he shared a lot of his heart and his methods for what he's doing and it's just beautiful stuff to hear. Cool also, because even though it's translated into English it is still done in Kenyan style. That means that there are lots of illustrations, analogies, and questioning used to make a point. i.e. "Would you have your children getting involved in all kinds of destructive actitivites while they are here? Then you can see why we have this rule about when they are allowed to leave the home, etc..." It works really well in this culture, and Nick and I are learning to adopt it as well when we are talking with others.
A few reflections on these meetings:
1. Only half of the guardians came. That's a bummer, for a number of reasons. I don't know how to interpret their truency though; it may be for lack of concern, or for lack of funds...
2. The most that any of these guardians makes per month is $38.00. That's the MOST that any of them made. All of them had jobs, which were: casual labor on coffee or tea farms ($1.00-$1.25 per day), house help ($1.00-$1.25 per day) or selling fruits in the market. They all shared what they did and how much they earned, and it was pretty sobering to me.
I did some math, and figured out how difficult that would be to live on. For example, two pounds of rice costs here costs about 55 cents. That would be great for me if I earned US pay, but here it's over half of my daily wage! What if two pounds of rice cost me $45! Or what if one tortilla cost me $20! That's the kind of equivalent wages that people here are earning. It's true that, aside from specialty items (like mozzarella!) food here costs less than in the states, but since people earn comparatively less most people don't benefit from it. Pretty crazy for me to think about. The monthly rent at AMCC is about $65, which is just under DOUBLE what these adults earn in one month. So I guess it's true that the kids at AMCC need assistance...
But, they don't need sponsorship! We have been talking with John a lot about how to partner, and we've kind of honed in on the word relationship. It is a much more involved interaction than sponsorship, and we're excited about where God will go with this new model for partnership.
John told the parents that AMCC is not trying to create a parasitic relationship for them, where one party benefits and the other simply gives and gives. This isn't healthy for anybody in the long run (at least not when people are involved, though it does seem to work for the mosquito population). So John is wanting the guardians to become more involved in the provision for these children. Most of these guardians, by the way, still have more children at their home whom they are caring for. They talked about it with the Secondary school guardians, and each agreed to bring the equivalent of about $18 to the fund-raiser we're holding on April 26th!!!
--- News Flash ---

AMCC is hosting a fund-raiser for itself on April 26th! Please pray for us about this! We're inviting people in Kenya, the guardians, friends, officials, just different people we know somehow. Our food will run out right around this time (actually, a week or two beforehand it looks like) and so we're doing to this to try to get some money to buy food again.
I can't tell you how happy I am about this!
1. It was John's idea.
2. It's in Kenya, with primarily Kenyans as guests!
3. The guardians will be contributing funds to it as well!

It seems very much like a step in the right direction, or rather, a step in lots of the right directions for AMCC. Please be praying for God to bring people, and for Him to provide for AMCC. We'll need money to pay for the dinner that we're serving to our guests (which may cost about $40 total) and we'll need the Lord to move in people to give gladly.
I'm stoked about this, and very encouraged to see where AMCC is headed. We're also still researching how to start having food for ourselves on a sustainable basis (i.e. keeping chickens, or growing food, maybe paying for a rice patty to be kept and then reaping and selling the harvest for profit).
I'm also happy to report that today, for the first time in four weeks, the children will be eating ugali (the staple in Kenya). Bwana asifiwe! (praise the Lord)