Dear Friends and Partners,

January has started off with a bang!  Wow, what a journey the first month of the year has been.  God blessed the ministry enabling us to present the children to many groups during January.  Please let me take time to thank everyone involved – THANK YOU!  Out of four weeks on the road we only stayed at hotels five nights…the rest of the time various friends of the ministry housed and fed us.  We are certainly blessed to have these kinds of people involved in the ministry.  This allowed us to keep the costs down while presenting the needs of our kids in Kenya to numerous people in five different states.

February is looking to be an exciting month also.  We are privileged to have a supporter and friend preparing to have a fundraiser here in Phoenix with a group of his friends.  He is having a birthday party where everyone who would like to “roast” our friend will have to give a donation to Saved By God’s Grace.  We will also be giving a presentation to his friends to let them know what our children in Kenya are going through at this moment.

What are our kids going through…FAMINE!  Currently the country of Kenya is going through a famine.  Food in the area of Nice View Academy and Mercy Child Foundation is scarce.  When food becomes scarce the price rises and hunger drives people to begging, stealing and even killing to get it.  Through God’s grace and your generosity we have been able to provide food for all three orphanages even though the prices are sky-rocketing.  We consider our kids blessed to be in the care of the men and women in Kenya who are our brothers and sisters in Christ and who attend to their needs when we are not on-site.  Father, continue to protect them and provide for them as you see fit so they can continue to serve you fully.

What are we at Saved By God’s Grace doing…quite a few things.  First and foremost we keep food in the kitchens at the orphanages.  This is the major necessity that God has blessed us with the responsibility to provide.  When the children know they will be eating, they can concentrate on others things such as their education.  Speaking of education, we have been in contact with a company that has donated 1,200 computers – we need to raise the $7,000 to ship them to Kenya.  In addition, we are going back to Michigan in March to speak at a college during their “Faith Based Initiative to Africa” program to tell more individuals about our kids.  We also continue to give presentations throughout the country about the children to get more people involved.  The best news, we are heading back to Kenya soon to be with the kids once more……you are invited.

Plans are being made to head back to Kenya in June or July of this year.  We are beginning to make arrangements to go back to Kenya for at least four months.  That said, we are now asking people to help us prepare.  This trip we need to take back more Bibles, children’s literature books, pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, toothbrushes and toothpaste and medical supplies.  Other items like clothing, shoes, slippers, soap, etc. can be purchased cheaper in the local markets in Kenya and we can help the local economy by doing so.  We are looking to return to Kenya with $50,000 to not only purchase the items listed above, but also continue the projects we have started through His grace.  These would include finishing the school building at Nice View which will accommodate 500 children, building a kitchen and wood storage facility at Mercy Child and turning the mud huts at Eldama Ravine into stone dormitories for the kids.  If we can raise these funds before we leave, we will once more make a large dent in accomplishing, through God’s will, the above mentioned projects.  Of course, we leave what ultimately will happen up to God based on how he moves you, our supporters.

I know the economy has not been good to many, but the economy in Kenya literally kills the children.  I know there is much need all around us, but I ask that you turn to the Holy Spirit in prayer and consider what you can do with us so the children can not only survive, but begin to thrive and see the God who they are told about in action.  Any amounts that you can give over the next four months to help us meet our goal will be helpful.  No matter what we receive, we will be traveling back to live with the kids to show them their Father in Heaven continues to remember them and loves and cares for them through our presence.

There will be more information forthcoming.  I will be compiling a detailed list of where we will be in the next few months and how the fundraising is coming.  If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to go to the website at www.SavedByGodsGrace.org (which Tammy has updated with more pictures and a four minute video) or call or email me.  If you have a group of friends who would like to hear about the kids, please let us know.  We would be happy to make a presentation.

To conclude, once again thank you.  I know there are many things going on in everyone’s life at any one point in time and you probably don’t need another thing to concern yourself with.  I simply want to promise you that we at Saved By God’s Grace will be your “feet in action” as you provide the means as God moves and directs.  We have devoted our lives to the call He has made for our lives and we continually ask Him to help us be faithful and bring those He wants to join us to us through His Holy Spirit.  The children you see on the website are not abandoned any more…they have you.  Please continue to work with us to show His love to them in a manner no one has ever done in the past.  God Bless You for your help and encouragement!

Serving the children of Kenya with you only through His grace,

Chuck McDonald

Executive Director