2017 Highlights

A Year of Nurture, Growth and Change.

The above photo speaks of 2017 at Faith House: of those young women, six completed their KCSE exams and will learn computers and begin specialized advanced studies in 2018, two of the students will spend the year as Form Fours (high school seniors), preparing for the comprehensive KCSE exams. Those two have also begun some basic leadership training in leading Bible study and leading in Faith House. One of the girls is no longer with Faith House. It was a year of nurture, growth, and change.

Faith House Year in Review

BEGINNING AT FAITH HOUSE:
In January, Faith House welcomed six new girls into our family, offering the opportunity to attend Thika Road Christian School as Form One students. This group of new students brings a fresh sense of teamwork into Faith House. They love reading the many books in the Faith House library and work together well in the responsibilities that come with family life. And they are teenagers, in that transition time of life between childhood and young adulthood, awkward, sometimes moody, and so much fun.

BEGINNING BEYOND FAITH HOUSE:
Effie and Juliet competed high school in 2016, and so 2017 brought new beginnings for them. Through her years at Faith House, Effie could often be found in the kitchen, reading recipes from our collection of cookbooks, baking cakes, frying mandazis. Training in catering and food preparation is a natural next step for her. Juliet has a tender heart to help those in need.  She considered nursing, but has settled on early childhood education and looks forward to studying special education, hoping to work with young children with special needs.

COMPLETING HIGH SCHOOL:
When students complete high school in Kenya, they are required to take the national exams (KCSE), The exams stretch out for three or four weeks in October and November, and cover everything the students have learned in their four years of secondary education. Intense study and training marks the months leading up to the exams. As a small glimpse into the study process, on many occasions, Prisca (one of the form four leavers and a math and science WHIZ) was observed, sitting on a stool in front of a white board, explaining to her sisters the intricacies of specific concepts. The girls may have learned more from Prisca's explanations than they learned in class. Now, finished with those exams, the girls will work individually with Beatrice to find their next steps.

LEADING BY EXAMPLE:
By far the biggest change in Faith House in 2017 was the celebration of Beatrice's wedding to Wycliffe. Our girls have seen very few godly, committed marriages in their lives. Their experiences are so often of dysfunctional, broken homes. Beatrice is leader and mentor and older sister to our girls. We trust that she and Wycliffe will give the girls a beautiful example of what marriage can be, an example that our girls deeply need to see. 
 

Looking ahead to 2018 

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction is the title of a book by Eugene Peterson, but it could also be the title of expectations and dreams for 2018. At Faith House we look forward to graduations from high school and from advanced programs. We look forward to weddings of some of our graduates. We look forward to the possibilities of getting to know a whole new group of girls and watching them grow. We look forward to the discovery of new talents and gifts and to the building of new friendships and family relationships. We expect that there will be heartbreak and tears, there will be laughter and teenage silliness and much fun, and there will be growing family love. Most of all, we wish for our girls that they will grow in the knowledge of God and that the  commitment of the girls, each individually, will be to Jesus Christ, following Him in "a  long obedience in the same direction."