February 16, 2012

January 18, 2012

Happy New Year from Open Arms Village

We are pleased to announce that following a comprehensive interview process our Kenya staff has hired house parents for Children's Home 5.  Josphat and Loice, along with their three biological sons Reinhard (10), Victor (7), and Emmanuel (4), have joined our Open Arms Village family.  Please join us in praying for their success and happiness.  Josphat is a trained pastor and has experience in farming.  Lois is a trained teacher, so their skills and experience will bring additional value to their roles as parents providing love and support for the children of Tumaini Jipya Home.  Children in need have already been identified and will be welcomed into the Village to live in home 5 in the coming weeks. 

   

The traditional school year in Kenya begins the first week of January.  This year marks the first time Open Arms Academy has opened its doors to the community.  Forty-five new students including staff-member children and children from families in the surrounding area have joined our Village students.  Four classrooms and the computer lab have now officially been moved to the completed African Cottages at the Village.  Although designed to serve as housing for long-term missionaries, these buildings have been converted into classrooms.  After a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s break, the children are excited to be back at school, many in these brand new buildings. 

We marvel at the growth and development God has blessed  the Village with this past year.  We are so excited for all of the promise 2012 brings and so appreciative of all of the loving support we have from our donors, sponsors, supporters, and prayer partners. 

Sponsor a Child at Open Arms Village

Make a Donation

Join a 2012 Team  

Open Arms International® provides short-term mission trip opportunities to impact the lives of orphaned and vulnerable children in Eldoret, Kenya. Team members don't need special qualifications. The only thing you need is a heart to serve and share God's love.   

When you join a team:

• You will stay in one of the three Open Arms Village

  riverfront guest lodges which feature comfortable bedrooms, and many western amenities.

• You will serve alongside our Kenyan staff and enjoy a profound experience while serving the needs of Kenyan children and families.

• You will meet the Village children and experience Open Arms community programs such as our feeding program, women's discipleship and mentoring program, street children's outreach program, service projects, and medical camps.

Although anyone is welcome to join an Open Arms team, we have an ongoing need for doctors, nurses, dentists, dental hygienists, pastors and experienced children's workers.

2012 Open Arms Village Trip Calendar
(All dates are tentative and are subject to change)

June 23 - July 7  - CLOSED:  TEAM NOW FULL

Summer Outreach Team #1  

Medical Clinics/Children's Ministry

July 21 - August 4 

Summer Outreach Team #2  

Medical Clinics/Children's Ministry

August 11 - August 25 

Summer Outreach Team #3  

Work Team/Children's Ministry

For more information contact our Outreach Program Manager, Nancy Winn at 503-296-9989 or nancy@OpenArmsInternational.com

January 5, 2012

A Message from the Founders

A friend of mine was trying to start his lawnmower yesterday.  He said he pulled the cord hundreds of times (it must have seemed like hundreds of times) and it just wouldn’t start.  In something of a prayerful way he began telling God that pulling that cord over and over again was a waste of his precious time and wasn’t an effective use of the precious time that God had blessed him with.  He prayed and exercised all the faith in the world that God would miraculously start that lawnmower.  It didn’t start. 

The next morning, his daughter, on her way out the driveway noticed something odd laying in the driveway.  It turned out to be the blade from the lawnmower.   Once he realized that the blade on the mower had been so loose, my friend then understood why God had not heeded his persistent and fervent prayer.  Had the lawnmower started, the outcome most likely would not have been what my friend wanted.

Our prayers must be offered to God with a submission and a humility that always says “Not my will but thine be done.”  When I’m manhandling the ignition cord (even the ignition cord of prayer) over and over again with the same request with each pull (or petition), I must also surrender myself to the fact that God possibly doesn’t want the mower to start (or whatever it is we’re asking for) - even if I don’t understand why.

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth……”  - Matthew 6:9,10

“My Father…..yet not as I will, but as you will.”  – Matthew 26:39

God, help me understand that my requests aren’t always what You have in mind even though they make so much sense to my mortal mind in the moment.  Oh, and also help me to come to grips with the fact that maybe the grass is going to grow longer than I’d like it to because You have determined that it isn’t the right time for the mower to start. 

Learning to measure my pulls in prayer because God may have another idea, 

David