Jacaranda Sewing Ministry
This summer our team will meet many of the women who sew with Jacaranda. This is an amazing ministry started by our friends Brenda and Garry Kean. These women live in and around the slums of Nairobi and have desperate needs. Most are single Moms. Many are HIV positive. Sewing and bible study continues to lead them away from the familiar beer making and prostitution that can consume their lives.
Jacaranda trees are prevalent in Nairobi,Kenya. They have deep purple flowers that bloom before the rain falls. The Jacaranda tree represents the hope that the rains will indeed come. Rain needed by a dry and parched land. We hope to represent that rain sharing God's love and hope with people in need.
Thought I would share some pictures of these beautiful women.
This is Sarah, the Production Manager. Sarah is the "one woman" that Brenda started this ministry with. We now have 67 plus women in 13 different locations around Nairobi. Sarah is training trainers, and is a beautiful woman with the most precious humble spirit. Jacaranada is hoping this year to help her begin to "homeschool" in order to get her high school education. She has only been able to complete grade 8. Right now they are in the process of not only making beautiful bags, but they are training our ladies to make school uniforms and backpacks to help with the incredible need for the thousands of children in the slums who are refused an education because they cannot afford uniforms.
This is Mercy ... making "Mercy Baskets". Mercy is a young girl who is not married yet, and does not have children. Jacaranda ministry is giving her an alternative to getting pregnant and selling her body in order to make money for her family and for food. Most girls have not hope of getting a job, so they end up ruining their lives because they do not have hope. God's love, and mercy are so great, and we know His plans for her are far above what she could hope or imagine!
This is the walk on the way to one of the branches ... life is hard for the people and the children
This is Monica ... she makes beautiful aprons (Monica Aprons) and she has recently become a Jacaranda Branch Leader. She has been sewing with Jacaranda for three years now, and she has been able to feed her children and pay for her rent. Her husband is an alcoholic who does not have a job and who has made her life very difficult. We are praying for him and for a miracle to happen in their marriage. Monica is the one that we trust to check on others in the slum who are sick and in need. She helps take people to the hospital, we deliver work to her and she distributes it among the ladies at her branch. Please pray for Monica as she takes on her new responsibilities. Brenda believes she has great potential, and that she will rise above her circumstances and that her two children will have a better life. She is now being paid not only for her piece work, but for her leadership at the branch, and also a commission on all the bags, aprons, mercy baskets, etc. that are made at her location.
Jacaranda trees are prevalent in Nairobi,Kenya. They have deep purple flowers that bloom before the rain falls. The Jacaranda tree represents the hope that the rains will indeed come. Rain needed by a dry and parched land. We hope to represent that rain sharing God's love and hope with people in need.
Thought I would share some pictures of these beautiful women.
This is Sarah, the Production Manager. Sarah is the "one woman" that Brenda started this ministry with. We now have 67 plus women in 13 different locations around Nairobi. Sarah is training trainers, and is a beautiful woman with the most precious humble spirit. Jacaranada is hoping this year to help her begin to "homeschool" in order to get her high school education. She has only been able to complete grade 8. Right now they are in the process of not only making beautiful bags, but they are training our ladies to make school uniforms and backpacks to help with the incredible need for the thousands of children in the slums who are refused an education because they cannot afford uniforms.
This is Mercy ... making "Mercy Baskets". Mercy is a young girl who is not married yet, and does not have children. Jacaranda ministry is giving her an alternative to getting pregnant and selling her body in order to make money for her family and for food. Most girls have not hope of getting a job, so they end up ruining their lives because they do not have hope. God's love, and mercy are so great, and we know His plans for her are far above what she could hope or imagine!
This is Monica ... she makes beautiful aprons (Monica Aprons) and she has recently become a Jacaranda Branch Leader. She has been sewing with Jacaranda for three years now, and she has been able to feed her children and pay for her rent. Her husband is an alcoholic who does not have a job and who has made her life very difficult. We are praying for him and for a miracle to happen in their marriage. Monica is the one that we trust to check on others in the slum who are sick and in need. She helps take people to the hospital, we deliver work to her and she distributes it among the ladies at her branch. Please pray for Monica as she takes on her new responsibilities. Brenda believes she has great potential, and that she will rise above her circumstances and that her two children will have a better life. She is now being paid not only for her piece work, but for her leadership at the branch, and also a commission on all the bags, aprons, mercy baskets, etc. that are made at her location.
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