Tournament Joys

At a recent small tournament, Wild Hope's Nyota FC took first place for both the U17 and U12 teams. We were very proud of them! The photo above shows the U12 team (in blue) waiting to collect their trophy :-)

The longer we know these young men, the more we learn about their lives. The more we learn about their lives, the more we want to see them succeed in both football AND life. Their community is a challenging place in which to find joy and hope, but we know it's not impossible.

Please join us in prayers of blessings for these guys, and for our efforts to do increasingly more than sports alone for them.

The crowd of impressionable young ones looks on.


The goals we made for the pitch come apart and get carried home so that they don't get stolen.


The team enjoys a little post-game chat.

Let's Do Lunch (AKA We Have the Neighbors In)

Saturday the 8th of March was a fun day for the team at Wild Hope. With no kitchen or permanent structure of any kind out at the new property, we managed to throw a lunch party and serve about 150 neighbors a big, hot meal of pilau rice and stew. We took the opportunity to buy a nice fat ox and make it into the main dish.



Under the shade of our tented pavilion, we told the neighbors how happy we were to be among them and we shared a little about who we are and what we do. Later, when a heavy afternoon shower broke over our heads, we squeezed together under the tented roof and danced and sang.

It was a lovely day, made extra special by the fact that Peter's sister, Alice, and her husband, Mark, were with us from the U.S.



We could not have pulled it off without Philemon and his crew of willing and able volunteers. They gathered all the utensils we needed and did the cooking over open fire pits on site. It was tremendous.



Celebrate with us the joy of building relationship with our new neighbors!

Proud Graduates :-)

Education is such a luxury! In developed nations we hardly ever realize the privilege it is to have easy access to learning.

The team here at Wild Hope is extra proud of our adult-learners who have been gathering faithfully to study in Torosei, Kenya. In the photo above you see the 7 recent graduates of the first phase certificate level of the International School of Ministry. These men, leaders in local churches, have worked hard because they know how important it is to be trained in solid foundations if they are going to encourage others in their growing faith.

To set the scene, imagine that you live hours from a power line, a paved road, a bookstore or a library. Imagine that donkeys had to carry large solar batteries out to your location in order to get the one solar powered VCR and television set in the area up and running so that you could watch classes taught in your 3rd language, English. Imagine that the motivation to learn, to keep up with the reading and to take the tests, was to know that you were better prepared to serve others in your remote church community.

Completing 19 trimester-long classes to earn their certificates, these men deserve to be very proud of their accomplishment. Throughout this season they have studied a wide variety of topics from surveys of the Old and New Testaments to the integrity of a leader. Drawing together to encourage each other took on a whole new level of meaning in this small group. When one classmate did not pass the final exam of the final course, the guys agreed to all repeat the course together to help ensure that this colleague finishes successfully. Now that’s school spirit!

At Wild Hope, we believe in the development of local leaders and that takes many forms. Our thanks to Christian Assembly in Eagle Rock, California, for the financial gift that secured this college level course as well as the DVD player and television set. Thanks, also, to Jeff James for accompanying Peter Russell on a wild motorcycle trip out to Torosei to get the solar power up and running again.

As the fruit of this course is felt throughout the network of churches in that region and 10 new students sign up to take the course, we are blessed to be able to facilitate training and maturation among indigenous leaders.

Photo: Peter and Tammy Russell with the graduates on location at Torosei where the Russells lived for many years during the 90’s.

"The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain" OR English Lessons in Sokon

One of the beautiful things about Tanzania is that they have honored their own heritage and valued the local language, Swahili. This has been a blessing in many ways.

Simultaneously, one of the greatest needs in Tanzania is for children to learn English as well. With most of the wide world of the web being in English, this generation cannot afford to miss out on all the vast learning resources that the web provides.

One of the things that the Diamond Canyon team did while they were here with us was to engage the kids in Sokon in morning sessions of what we called "English Club." Those mornings were so appreciated! Kids have a wonderful capability to learn language and we were delighted that they responded so positively to the invitation to learn. Many of the kids stayed on into the afternoon to hear more from the team about their lives and faith and a great time was had by all :-)

Serah's Story (A Chance to Respond to Kenya)

"Pray for us," the text message on my phone read. "My parents and my husband's parents have lost everything and we are hosting many family members who have become refugees overnight."

I sat staring at the tiny screen on my phone trying to comprehend what was going on in Kenya. The message had come in just days after December's disputed election results were announced and the news we had been reading on the internet was not good. Breaking down along tribal/political lines, the country had pockets of shocking violence springing up which would eventually take at least 850 lives in the ensuing weeks.

My mind raced back over the years. Byron and I arrived in Kenya in 1984. (Yes, we were very young.) We spent most of that initial 2 year commitment to Kenya in the lovely little town of Nakuru where we worked with a group of high school students who were hungry to grow closer to God. One of the students that I was closest to was Serah Njeri.

When the students were on leave from the boarding school in town, Byron and I would pack up our blue Landrover and travel out to different areas of the country so that we could visit some of them in their rural homes. We stayed in their villages and experienced the hospitality of many different cultures within the culture of Kenya. What I remember so clearly about Serah's home village was the happy relationship she had with the neighbors who all shared a forested highland area of fertile land.

Ten years later, in 1994, the tension at election time took a serious toll on Serah's community. We got the shocking news that her family home had been burnt down and Serah's relatives were left with nothing.

Oddly, this loss came shortly after our own home had burnt to the ground. Generous friends in the U.S. helped us rebuild quite quickly. We also had a small (in U.S. terms) insurance payment that we received from the company through which our organization had insured our far away home. My memory is that it was a couple of thousand dollars, meant to help replace personal items, not to cover the cost of a new building.

We saw the insurance as a gift that we could share. Because of the quick generosity of donors in the U.S. we already had what we needed to build again in Loita. Blessed with the insurance money that came after we were already in the re-building process, we saw Serah's family as a perfect place to pay it forward. Our Kenyan insurance went to their re-build and all of us were blessed.

We didn't see much of Serah over the years and we eventually left East Africa. In the fall of 2007, still quite newly back to Africa, I got an email asking if this was the correct email address for Byron and Lisa who used to live in Nakuru. Serah had found us and we were so happy to re-connect.

Serah and I passed sporadic email or text notes. I was concerned when things began to fall apart after Kenya's elections because I knew that her family came from one of the main ethnic groups that was targeted by angry demonstrators.

Soon we heard about her parents and husband's parents losing their homes (again to fire) and being chased out of their long-time communities. I tried to imagine how Serah, a teacher of teachers, and her pastor husband were managing to care for the extended family that was in so much need. But I never expected to hear the news we got next.

A couple of weeks ago I heard my phone go off at 6am. Squinting with my blurry morning eyes at the message, I tried to wrap my mind around what Serah was saying. "My husband Moses has gone to be with Jesus." This was all it said.

Moses contracted a fast moving, hard pneumonia that took his life and left Serah a young widow with 3 children and a large, extended family that still needs her.

This post has been quite long but the point of it is to give you an opportunity to respond to a needy family that is deeply affected by the turbulence in Kenya. At Wild Hope, we are not equipped to do mass refugee relief, but we can follow this relational line and make a difference for an extended family with shattered lives.

If you would like to give, please hit the donate button on the right of this blog and designate your gift for Serah Mburu. 100% of your donation will be passed along to Serah.

Thanks for joining us in this.

Lisa, for the Team at Wild Hope

Wonderful Water!

The Sinon School in the Sokon area of our city, Arusha, is a school that Wild Hope has built a lasting relationship with. Because we strongly believe in education as one of the most effective tools in the war against poverty and HIV/AIDS, we are blessed when we are able to bless them!

Just recently, the Sinon School was able to turn on the water faucet and celebrate with us the working well on the school campus. Imagine the joy of that simple luxury, running water :-)

Big thanks to our friends at Diamond Canyon Christian Church who have partnered with us in our efforts to provide a better school for the kids of Sokon. The photo above shows some of the team from California enjoying the water with some of the kids.

The kids at the school are thankful that they no longer have to haul buckets. We are thankful that we could come alongside to provide wonderful water!

Mark's Double Duty Trip to Tanzania

If you've ever sent a gift to Wild Hope then you'll have received a receipt prepared and posted by our own Mark Harris in his office in Pasadena. Mark faithfully keeps our books straight and makes sure that donations are allocated properly and receipted in good time. We would NOT like to face this task without him!

But Mark is far more than an accountant! With cross-cultural mission experience of his own (in Russia) and an advanced degree in the subject, Mark brings to our team a depth and knowledge that we truly appreciate.

Not too long ago, Mark had an article published in a missions magazine. His topic was Cross-Cultural Leadership Training. Though he was citing experiences from Russia, his article caught the eye of a local pastor here in Tanzania. Sergi tracked Mark down and invited him to come out to Tanzania and lead a seminar in Moshi, a city not too far from our Wild Hope team.

"Hmmmm," we thought. "This could be a nice double blessing for Wild Hope and the indigenous pastors and leaders who are gathering." With books to keep straight in the United States and East Africa, and with several different systems already underway and trying to converge into one, we knew that we could really use Mark's expertise on this side of the ocean. Peter and Byron and Mark just needed time in one place together to set up a good, workable system that would allow for flex and growth and multiple currencies! Meanwhile, local church friends in Moshi were looking with expectation for input from his other areas of expertise. How could we pass up such a great opportunity to launch a double blessing?

Peter teamed up with Mark to teach and they greatly enjoyed their days with the men in Moshi. Their time and input was deeply appreciated and they were happy to be able to help bring further training to these dedicated leaders. During the rest of his trip, Mark, Byron and Peter huddled around computers with ledgers and receipts and multiple cups of coffee and tea. A nicely workable system emerged and we are thankful!

What a great blessing all around. Thanks, Mark, for your help on so many different levels.