Almost Christmas 2011 !

Hi to everyone! Sorry this has taken so long! We Leister's are back and reunited with our family here in Kenya at Tumaini and it is almost Christmas 2011!

" For to us a child is born, to us a son is given..." Isaiah 9:6 What would Christmas be without children! It began with a child and we ( the Leisters ) are so blessed by the children God has given us here in our family at Tumaini! Thank you Jesus for such gifts!

Here is Dad Leister and our youngest Thomas! Thomas is growing so wonderfully! We give God all the Glory for these fragile infants like Thomas, he is such a miracle! Praise God



Here is our next miracle! Zuri,only God could have picked her up from her circumstances and delivered her on to us!! Thank you Father God for your eyes that see all and hear the cries no one else can hear! A picture of God's ultimate desire for us all, Salvation, Life in Him!



Getting ready for our Christmas Celebration! Troy making Christmas cards with her little kenyan brothers and sisters.



Talk about miracles, here are our fiesty Twins,Elizabeth & Esther! Elizabeth is now waking all over and Esther is trying her best to catch up!



How is Brighton, well here he is with his therapest, walking with his therapeutic walker, that was donated for him while we were in the states. Thank you Chavez family, Hope Chapel Lewiston! Another Miracle!!!!!



What would we do with out our Dad, he even builds the tree! The kids are sure he can make anything!



Mom helps with the trimming! We only trimmed the top half to begin with, all the little hands had to get use to the trimmings and remember we do not touch and pull or the tree comes down and it did! Luckly there was nothing breakable on it!



Dannon made personalized orniments and cookies, then helped them put them up!



Here is our 1st born son ( eldest Boy )in our Tumaini family, Gabrial! He is growing up so fast!



Each one a miracle, here is Joyce with her big smile! Growing, growing too!



Abagail, loving to put on the high ones!



Matthew too!



After Brenda put her's up, she just had to stand and admire her work!



Gabe directing the choir as everyone admires the tree!



We so appreciate all our stockings, WOW!



Here is our finished Tree! The blue sack is our gifts from Sarah Mamlin, we will not put the others out until everyone goes to bed on Christmas Eve and we all know why, right!



Well, we are anticipating the next few days, how about you? We will get back with some Christmas Day pictures, after! Thank you to everyone who shares our delight in God's goodness poured out on these precious littles ones! We appreciate all that you give and do to see that their lives are lived to the fullest! Many Blessings, Merry Christmas! Be back with more soon! Love all of us here at Tumaini!

So much to do and so little time to do it!

In June Tumaini was so blessed to have the Downs family from Colorado, USA come and visit us! We had a great time working together and we got to so other things too!




We visited one of our favorite sposts and had lunch,Iten!




This is truly one of my favoite pictures! This is our beautiful friend Laurajean Downs with some of the crew!




Snack time in the yard!




We took the Shining Light class for a nature walk!




Here Lexi Downs is teaching with the name tags she made for all the children's desks!




Last minuet shopping before they leave, Laurajean & Vern Downs! Thanks guys we had a great time!




In July we graduated our 1st 6 month Child Developement & Behavour Course!




We had 10 in the class and 4 who recieved certificates for being at every class! We will begin another 6 month course in January 2012!




Also in July we graduted our Cooking Class!



The pizza was great! The students enjoyed all the meals we made and I enjoyed the students so much, this was great fun!



Dad put together a temperary climbing Gym! Everyone loves to climb and hang and swing!




We also started a Dance class for the school age group! We began with a video but while Rachel is here she will work with them on preballet! They love it and it is great excersise! Brenda & Gabe




Joyce!








We also completted our 2nd term of Preschool and had a painting party!





With Popcorn and cookies!





Here are our latest 2 arrivals! Zuriel Grace & Thomas Akiba!





And The beginning of August brought our beloved Josh Leister family to Tumaini! Josh has completed his Clinical Officer training and they are ready for their next step in life here in Kenya! They will be staying here with our children while us 4 American Leisters take a trip to the US to visit our family there! We will stay in touch! Thank you everyone for your continued prayer and love for our whole family! Love from all us here at Tumaini!

New Wash house & tanks

The small building that you see has been used for several puposes since we moved here 3 years ago guardhouse, office and now we have remodled it to take care of our ever expanding laundry. To make this work well Horace needed to put in a tank for presure. 1st him and Peter built the platform you see to the right. Then I asked how the were going to get the 5000 leter tank on it? This is the story of that day in pictures! As some say " a picture is worth many words"






























Here is our New tank in it's place! Thank you Jesus!




Dad Leister has never been afraid of heights or climbing! When we were 1st married ( over 36 years ago) I went to his work place,a large warehouse. I inquired of a man, where I could find him and he smiled this wicked smile at me and motioned for me to follow him inside. I step inside and he pointed up to the rafters of this huge empty cavern of a building and when my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I saw my husband, walking with no concern, across a beam set about 35ft in the air. I have never forgotten this experience and the fear I had for him ( because I hate heights ) but he has given me several experiences since then that assured me he has none! These are the 2 put in a few weeks later, much higher. I did not get pictures of this adventure!





Thank you for your continued prayer and support for our Tumaini Adventure! Love the Leisters

A Mother's Day Adventure 2011

I had a magnificent Mother's Day! I thought I would share it with you! I woke up Mother's Day morning and was greeted by our two youngest American daughters, Troyanna and Dannon with bedside prestents! Thank you both! They also picked out a card and helped all our African son's & daughters sign, it was the most perfect card,here it is!




Then I received some great words of encouragement from our children who live in the US, this always makes my day, thank you everyone, I love you so much!




Here are some flowers that God contributed!




They are so beautiful! Thank you Father God!




After breakfast Dad Horace announced that he was taking us for a adventure ride! About 20 minuets drive from Eldoret there is a place where a man has donated property and brought back some Giraffes. You can not always see them but Dad decided this was a good day to ride out and see! Enoch gets to head the line!




We all love to go for a ride! Dannon, trying to keep everyone calm to wait their turn to get in the van.




Here we are loading everyone in!!




Dema the Big sister, holding Elizabeth while we got everyone else in!




Here are Boaz & Abigail, we have 4 car seats and we put the littlest one and Brighton in them. Abigail is sitting forward because her and Jewel tend to get motion sickness. We give them medicine, sometimes it works and sometimes not, on the way back she got sick 3 times, that is how it is with children, you take the good and the not so good and have fun!!




Big sister Troy making sure everyone is seated and buckled in. The seats are so nice and big that it is a great snug fit.




First we saw this field of Antelope! They are also all gone from this area! They were beautiful and the children loved how they sprang in the air as they jumped away from the van.




This is what we came to see, a family of Giraffes! It is so awesome that this man is willing to reintroduce these beautiful animals back into their countryside. They use to Rome free everywhere just less than 10 years ago1



They were pitty far away but everyone was able to see them!




Here is a big bull Giraff that was laying down in the grass all by himself!




As we were driving the children pointed out these grass homes and asked us about them? Because they live in the city they do not realize that most people who live outside the city still live in these grass huts and small brickhomes. This is why we love to take them on rides now that they are older so that they can learn about their country of kenya.



Here we are on our way home, following a pickup bus! I tried to get a better shot so that you could see all the people and chickens that were piled on top but it went by us too fast and had stopped to unload before we caught up to it!



We had a great trip and to finish the day Dad went out and purchased some fantastic Chines food for all! Blessings Love Mama Phyllis