Samuel and Rhoda Teimuge hosted me during both of my visits to Kenya, 2011 and 2014. Their campus in the rural outskirts of Eldoret is simultaneously a vibrant hub and a peaceful retreat. Friendly people, working as teachers, gardeners, house parents, and cooks welcomed me, showing me the sustainable agriculture training garden (with fish ponds, compost piles, mushroom greenhouses, and more), the elementary school and daycare centre, meeting hall and dining room, guest huts, cow and chicken pens, and the children’s home (run by Empowering Lives International).
Touring the Samro School kitchen gardens. This kale will be used in the school lunches.
Evidence of Spirit in Action was all over the centre – SIA helped build the first school classrooms (they were some of SIA’s first grants!) and the Ukweli Training Centre farms were conceptualized by Del and Samuel. The encouraging messages on classroom walls seem to echo Del and Lucile’s words of hope. And yet, I credit the many successes of the school and training centre to the dedication and leadership of Samuel and Rhoda. They embody Spirit in ACTION.
When I visited the Teimuges in 2011 with the SIA Small Business Fund Coordinators, Samuel told us how SIA encourages people to act, not just talk, “You know many times people talk, talk, talk, talk, but the Spirit in Action business plan starts from where you are, so instead of talking you do something that will really help, not only to your family, but also to others.”
Honored Guests
The Teimuges have been such wonderful hosts to me and other SIA friends and so perfectly represent the aims of SIA and Del that it is with great pleasure that we will welcome them to Oakland on June 25th as honored guests as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Spirit in Action’s founding.We hope that you will take this opportunity to meet face-to-face some of SIA’s partners and hear their stories of serving the youth and working to reduce poverty in Kenya. It is sure to be an inspiring afternoon.
For more details about the event, click here. Or email Tanya for more information or to RSVP.
Encouraging words in the Samro School computer lab.
!["We have seen that seed of faith and vision grow, which were powerful gifts from Del and Jim [Thomas]," Rhoda told me when I visited Samro School in Eldoret, Kenya in 2014.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/58a465_eaa2aa55b119454a98eabdfcf65edb50~mv2.jpg)
“We have seen that seed of faith and vision grow, which were powerful gifts from Del and Jim [Thomas],” Rhoda told me when I visited Samro School in Eldoret, Kenya in 2014.
A peaceful moment of stillness with the Teimuges, in the midst of a crazy travel schedule (2014).
P.P.S. I’m working on a timeline of SIA’s 20 years and I realized that I have been writing weekly blog posts since June 2010! Wow! Thanks for reading!
