Some recent pictures

Alaina and some of the older Children

Greta  love to hang out with the kids

Amy and I at Lake Victoria

Imani and his young cousin Imani

The construction of a large hut by the meeting area

6 Month Update!

6 month update!

Hello everyone!

I can't even believe I have been here for 6 months!

My time here has been exciting, difficult, fun, stretching and definitely an adventure.

One of the most recent things we have started is a small restaurant (which is called a hotel here) at the City of Hope. We set it up to teach some of the children how to run a store/restaurant and give them experience. Currently we have 3 girls running the store Bhoke, Dorka and Jane. There are 2 more girls who help with making the chai (tea) and mandazi (African donut). At 10 AM is chai break which is when they eat breakfast here the employees can come and eat mandazi have a cup of chai or have a soda and crackers. This has really been fun for me because Imani and I are the managers. J

My sister Greta is really enjoying bringing art into the school at the City of Hope. She has many classes during the week and the children love the painting drawing and are very creative.

Also my sister Alaina is enjoying helping with the school, Playing and helping the kids, Greta’s class and almost anything that needs to be done.

I am also working on making a dictionary that has English, Swahili, and the “mother tongue” in this area Kikuria.

We are also continuing our building projects at the hospital and around the compound. We have 2 milk cows. We are milking one and the other one is about to give birth. The corn fields are now high and it is looking like we will have a good harvest!

I want to thank everyone who has supported me with this endeavor. Truly this has been a learning experience. I never thought that this missionary field would teach me so much.  

            We are also putting together a huge Christmas celebration for the Children here. We will be slaughtering a few cows inviting the guardians of the children and many other to celebrate with us. The children have also been preparing for the Christmas parades we are going to do in the neighboring villages. Imani Chacha has been teaching the drum line, preparing for the parade. My sisters have been teaching flags, dances and other performing arts to some teams of children.

If you would like to contribute towards making this Christmas for the children here incredible please send me an email!

            If you have any encouragement or anything please feel free to send me an email I cant garanty a promt reply I will get it. I would also like to hear about what is going on in your life and what God is doing in your part of the world.  Also you have supported me once and would like to again please send me and email at ledyard.k@gmail.com

Bless you all!

           

Visiting the secondary school

About a month ago I went with a few of the children to a secondary school just up the road from us. They invited us to come to their graduation.

Ambulance driver

A short story from the field: 

Two nights ago about 8:00PM I was just winding down from the day and I was disturbed by one of our teachers running up talking really fast and freaking out. after a minute I understood that the head master from the school up the road had just wrecked his motorcycle right down the
road from us so we took the truck and found him at the police station (someone else had driven him there on a motorcycle) 

He was beat up pretty bad so we decided to take him to the District hospital about 45 minutes away.  He was in the back of the pickup with 3 guys holding him driving over the rough roads. We get to the hospital and they are the slowest I have ever seen finally they let us take him to the ward and we put him in the bed. There was only 1 nurse for the whole ward and she was not a very helpful person. so we ended up cleaning him up ourselves.

He is recovering well. I guess this makes me an ambulance driver :)

Summer recap

HELLO!

Habari zenu!

Wow. Let me tell you about this summer! I don’t think I will be able to fit it all in one post, but I will try.

I am truly grateful for everyone who came to the City of Hope this summer and everything we were able to accomplish. I was told that we have had the most progress on the City of Hope this summer than any other summer. I don’t think I had any idea of what I was getting into but I knew it would be good and at times a little crazy.

This summer we have had 100+ volunteers come to help in our efforts! Here are just a few of our accomplishments: 

• Completed silage pit (food for the cows for 6 months)
• Completed a pen for the cows
• Built a playground (A huge playground, build by my grandfather)
• Harvested the corn
• Made bunk beds, tables, benches, stools and shelves
• Put ceiling in and painted the General Managers Apartment
• Built a corn crib
• Taught the children
• Organized the store rooms
• Created a library
• Spent countless hours investing into the lives of the children 
• Bought two milk cows
• Bought a power tiller to assist in Farming
• Bought 300 chickens for laying eggs
• Killed and ate a cow, a pig, a goat, a sheep, many chickens and 2 rabbits.

This summer we also hosted a celebration to honor the elderly of the village of Ntagatcha. The children prepared a cow, cooked a feast, and we gave out over 150 blankets. To show their appreciation, the villagers began to dance and sing in the traditional Kuria style. One of the Pastor’s I know here was telling me how his church is helping 4 old men who’s wife’s have died and don’t have any family. He brought them to this event. Now he told me that they are sleeping well and were very very grateful for the blankets.

          Something I really enjoy is the Children’s church service they hold on Sunday morning. They help lead the service for themselves with Pastor Christopher’s help. I have had the chance to preach/teach there a few times this summer and will continue to do so.

          I am looking for ward to my sisters Greta and Alaina coming in the middle of September.

          And last but not least I was able to squeeze in an over-night safari in the Serengeti. (which was amazing)

Thank you for your prayers,

Mungu ako badiki,

God bless you,

Kyle Ledyard

The Playground

A few pics

Some heavy work unloading the container, and some light wok playing with the monkeys. :)

Project management and engagement

Hello to all my blog followers,

I know this is late in coming but I am on African Time here so please bear with me.

A lot of events have happened here in the past week. We have a total of 20 guests here this week and so there is always some thing going on. A few in particular are…My grandparents are now here at The City of Hope and my Grandfather is building a huge playground for the kids. My cousin Mwita also proposed to his girlfriend and they are now engaged.

The best way to describe my position here is Project Manager. It has been difficult and fun and we are seeing good progress here. Hopefully you can see some picture tagged on Facebook of what we are working on.

I have preached at three different churches the past three Sundays. I has been wonderful and I have been using some points from my own study on leadership and excerpts from Pastor Terry’s Teaching on the “The Church Leader” to give an overview of what Biblical leadership should look like and that it is not only for the Pastor and with that challenging everyone to find their area of leadership within the body of Christ.

Tomorrow is July 4^th and yes they do have a July 4^th in Tanzania. Everyone here that is from the US will be celebrating by slaughtering a pig and barbecuing it in a large pit that I am making today.

HAPPY 4^TH OF JULY!

Until next time,

Kyle Ledyard

P.S. Don’t forget to email!

Teams and fun

Hello Everyone!




This is my second update. I have some pictures and videos to upload but will have to wait for a better connection to load them 



Over the past 2 weeks we have had 2 teams here at the City of Hope. There was 27 people staying and doing various things such as the first team did a complete survey and looked at the vision for the city of hope and created a picture of what that would look like from a practical standpoint. The second team did a medical examination clinic for the children who live here and also help with many other projects.



Since Thursday it has only been my cousin Mwita, Oscar and I at the guesthouse here at the City of Hope. We are preparing for the next teams that come on the 16th. lots to be done and lots of fun to have. I have literally been given the “Keys to the City” and many of the responsibilities of running it.



I have been picking up the language fairly quickly and even today some of the Kids said I am not an “mzungu” (white person) that I am an African, which makes me feel good about being here. (and I am learning to drive on the left just as good as any African)



Blessings,



Kyle Ledyard





P.S. I will also be preaching at a church next week so pray for me.

First post from Tanzania

Hello Everyone!

Habari gani!

It has been 2 weeks since I left the US and it has literally flown by. I have been busy learning from the missionary family who has been at the City of Hope for 2 years and as of this Monday they are on furlough for 4 months. I am taking over many of their responsibilities here during that time.

Some of you may want to know what it is like where I am staying. I live in the missions center which is the housing for the many teams that come to the Teamwork City of Hope(this coming week there will be over 25 people staying here) The weather is beautiful around 60 at night and up to 75 during the day and at this time of the year it rains almost every day.

As far as the City of Hope is concerned they just accepted 8 more orphaned children for a total of 85. Also they have been buying more land to a total of 50 farmable acres where they are growing everything from corn and beans to peanuts and coffee.

Lastly I have already made some great friends and met lots of amazing people, as well as have pet monkeys.

Blessings to you,

Kyle Ledyard

Please feel free to email me at any time at kyleatcoh@gmail.com

Tanzania Here I Come!

Tanzania Here I Come!






If you can't see the video go here:
Tanzania Here I Come

Training for the Field 2

This is how we train for the field FX Missions style.
Here is a quote from a recent post on www.fxmissions.com
"How do we prepare for the days ahead?
Obedience.
What is it that God has been leading you to that you have been avoiding?
We know that obedience to God always looks like a cost to us before we move into it.  This should not alarm us, and we don’t need to be surprised about it.  It will always be this way, at least in this age…..  After we enter into the obedience that God is directing us into, and we are established in it, then we can see that it really wasn’t cost, when compared to what God has added to us.  We should also realize that the higher the level of obedience, the greater the cost can appear, and the longer it may take to see the fruit." 

Training for the Field

Pictures of the City of Hope and surrounding area

The beautiful country

This is for everyone who wants to know more about the country I am going to be living in. 

Tanzania... 

is the one of the largest countries in Africa in terms of area and population. 

became independent on December 9th 1961 and it was called Tanganyika(Tanzania's former name).

home to the highest mountain in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro. 

has over 130 ethnic groups that speak over 100 languages including the rare Khoisan click Language.

borders with 8 countries. Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.

also borders Lake Victoria the largest lake in Africa.

main exports are coffee, cotton, tea, tobacco, cashewnuts, and sisal

Bible lesson on Spying

I came across an interesting article.

CIA's "Bible Lesson on Spying"

southerncrossreview.org

This CIA study, 'A Bible Lessonon Spying,' appeared in the Winter 1978 issue of the agency'sclassified spy journal, Studies in Intelligence.

http://southerncrossreview.org/44/cia-bible.htm

Time is short

Wow, Only 20 days away from departure. This is getting exciting. Over the next couple of weeks I will be moving out of the house I am renting in Charlotte NC and moving my stuff back to VA to store it. I am getting everything packed and ready to GO. 


This is what the Teamwork City of Hope is all about:

• Giving children skills for life
• Bringing health care to a region that has none
• Building economies through micro-financing and farming
• Education and training

Preparing for the Field

Recent reading

I have been reading excerpts from a number of books lately and this hit me profoundly.

How you position yourself to recieve makes all the difference. For example, as you read this book, if you position yourself to recieve by saying to the Lord, "I will take action on what you show me," you will benifit more than if you read just to be motivated or inspired. Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. Position yourself to be ready for responsibility.

Opportunities drop in your lap if you have a lap where opportunities can drop. When you don't position yourself to receive, it's like praying for a bushel but only carrying a cup. Don't pray for rain if your going to complain about the mud.

When a person is positioned correctly, he is ready for all that God has for him.

From "An Enemy Called Average" by John L. Mason

Plane Ticket

Hello All,


Last week, teamwork had reserved a one-way plane ticket for me and we were waiting on the money to purchase it. I had made it a goal to have the money by Monday the 15th of March and on Sunday several people donated the money to cover it! (much thanks!) I have the plane ticket! Challenge complete. 


Now for monthly support. I need $600.00 monthly for the next year. 


Sincerely excited!


Kyle L.

The City of Hope on google maps

Google maps is a great tool. We found the City of Hope!
It is the blue roofed buildings on the map.
Google maps showing the City of Hope

Challenge

Well now it comes down to it. 2 months out. Lots of prep work to be done.

On the financial side I need $1000.00 by March 15 for my plane ticket.

If you want to partner with me financially please go here Partner with me

Progress Toward

This weekend was a great one! I have confirmed my departure date I will be leaving May 8th 2010. I know this is only a few months away and my excitement grows as time continues toward my trip.

Also this weekend I presented my trip in VA to New Life Community Church. They were encouraging and very supportive.

Thanks too all who have supported me so far.

Why the Nations?

Hello All!

Hello All!

I hope this finds you well. I am writing this blog to update everyone about what I am doing in 2010 - 2011!

My name Is Kyle Ledyard and I would like to tell you a little about myself and my background with missions.

I have had exposure all of my life to missions and world travel and have always loved studying about different places in the world and with that came a desire to travel to those places. My first mission trip out of the country was to Jamaica and seeing the poverty stricken land with astounding points of natural beauty and the small patches of wealth from tourism. Most recently I have been to Kenya for the months of May 2008 and July 2009 with Morningstar University and the SF Missions program. I saw similar situation there I had seen in Jamaica. This brought a love for the people, a love for the  culture and a want to help bring economic opportunity and spiritual change. This is why I am going to the Teamwork City of Hope (www.teamworkcityofhope.com) in Tanzania for a year! I will be leaving May 8, 2010. 

I have created this blog so that I can keep everyone updated while I am in country.

If you would like to know anything more please do not hesitate to contact me.

                        Faithfully,

            Kyle Ledyard