Its Worth the Effort and the Trouble

A year is gone now since I came back from the comfortable and convenient Unites States of America. With a little hesitance and apprehension I started working for CTC. I was not sure how things will work out for my family, myself and for the big CTC family.

There was a ton of changes for all that were involved. We were not sure how things will turn out as we started together. New faces all over, big expectations and low expectations, Good things expected while others were not sure. Confidence and encouragement flowed freely from all who were involved. It was a time full of mixture of emotions.

I now look back and appreciate the opportunity to serve with CTC. We had an Ubuntu day last Saturday May 22 2010. Just a normal day when we give back to the community. But this one turned out to be an evaluation Saturday. We planted the trees as usual and then gathered together for a drink after some good hard work. One person after another gave their comments on how CTC have affected and impacted their lives in one way or the other. They all loved the work they have been doing with their own hands. A sense of pride and ownership of the good that is happening in our town. And then we wondered what the future holds for CTC in this community. There is lot of hope and expectation due to the performance of all the other activities.

Thanks to our sponsors and donors; Your work is not in vain. Through our relationships and being there to listen, many are experiencing the love and the acceptance that every human being needs, and even so those that are poor in the community that we are serving.


Being a full time community servant by profession and a minister of the gospel by calling, I love the opportunity to share this love by doing more than by words and hence the extra opportunities to tell the Story.
Our work is worth all the effort and the trouble we have to go through to accomplish the mission.

Thank you to volunteer Alice Johnston for sharing your story!

Big thanks to Alice Johnston for her television debut on Topeka local news. She was invited to tell her story as well as the story of the Maliaka Mums. Alice has launched her very own campaign to raise funds for new sewing machines for the women. We are so proud of her work for CTC International.

Also big thanks to CTC Volunteer, Aimee Lirette, for her public relations skills. We knew that Alice had a story to tell of her own and are so thankful that she was able to share with her community.

Malaika mums project is still progressing as mums are working harder to make their ends meet.
The amazing thing is that from the previous month, mums made 700 L.I.F.E bags. still on that month we had a tour to Gilgil during the national field day which was very educative to our people and they were also very excited.
Members who were present were anxious and curious to learn more about us after finding out the amazing work that CTC have been doing to the community of Maai- Mahiu.

An all new look and some exciting news

Hello everyone,

Hopefully by now you have noticed that CTC has gotten a makeover. We have changed our look and are so excited to share these changes with all of you. Please be sure to visit our new website. We are just working out some finally things on the site but are really pleased with the way that it is turning out. http://www.ctcinternational.org

Some other great news is that Zane Wilemon(Founder/Executive Director) is in Washington D.C. right now preparing for the annual D.C. Summit Series. DC10 is an invitation-only event that connects top young minds and inspires a new generation of leaders to succeed in business and in life.
With over 700 guests and panels including President Bill Clinton, Blake Mycoskie(TOMS shoes), and John Legend we were more than excited to be invited to attend. However, we were ESTATIC to be asked to be the offical bag of the event. That is right over 700 of the L.I.F.E. bags made by our Maliaka Mums will be sported around all weekend at this event by attendees.

When we learned of this we immediately called up our friends at Veritas Fashion and the H.O.P.E. campaign and asked that their artist collectives create designs for these 700 bags. We were so happy to get such amazing designs and to be able to include our community of like minded people who want to use their art to give back.

We are wishing the best of luck to Zane on his trip to D.C. and are so proud of everyone that came together to make this work out.

Special props to the women that make these bags and have found a sense of empowerment with a skill that is quite literally being used on the other side of the world.

Thanks to all of you that have made this possible from our screen printers at Under Pressure(Austin),to the artists, to our FABULOUS intern Cali Huffman for her graphic work on our new L.I.F.E. Bag tags.


For more info about
Veritas Fashion visit http://www.liveveritas.com
H.O.P.E. visit http://hopecampaign.org
DC10 Summit Series http://dc10.summitseries.com/

More Pictures from the Field Day

Our staff at work:

NATIONAL FIELD DAY

Well, things are good here in Kenya, We have been enjoying a good climate as it raining quite regularly. We are hoping that the community will have a good harvest this year if it continues like this.

We had an educative trip to Gilgil last Friday; it was a national field day in Kenya where we were able to demonstrate what CTC is doing to over 5000 people from different parts of our country. We were also able to learn what other people are doing and we achieved and it was a great learning experience.

Malaika mum’s, youth program, caretakers and environmental club members had a wonderful time. They were able to visit over 40 different programs that were being exhibited in the site. The theme for that day was sustainable resource use for social-economic development.

On other programs : The Shosho shamba is doing good and they are ready to train others. This is shown by what they are doing back at their homes and at the demonstration garden. The ministry of agriculture is impressed with what we are doing and they want to partner with us and work with environmental club at Ngeya primary school and at the demonstration garden. We are glad to be able to do something that the government officials appreciate and recommend to people in the community.

Thanks for your support

By Rocky Muuri

Thankful

We are back!
We are thankful to God for giving us a good quiet week. Things have been happening one after another and sometimes its only through His Grace that we can be able to confidently face another day. Thanks to all of you for following with the things going on here, your prayers and encouragement has been a great support to all CTC family and Maai Mahiu community.

In brief for those who did not know what was going on. A car accident took a close friend who was a CTC volunteer and the wife of our printer. It was very sad. Same week the man who led with the funeral arrangements passed away after an hour's illness. Same week a bus accident killed ten people still in our town and one man hang himself. Very chaotic but we are thankful to be able to serve and support those who have been griefing among us.

The Mums were so thankful at the same time as they completed making 700 bags, a huge order that left their faces smiling at the end of the month.

We are also thankul for DWC team nd their great work at Maai Mahiu Secondary School. The project was a success and Mr. Mwangi The head teacher is still getting creative and making it look even better. Pictures will come once its finally done.


Maai Mahiu is finally green. We take some things for granted but this place was desperate, dusty and in need of rain but now it looks wonderful. We are so thankful for the rain.