Saba is a Hebrew word used in the Old Testament, and it means "to be satisfied, to have in abundance, to be filled--even to overflowing". At Saba, International our hope is to be able to extend an overflow of God's blessings to the Nest Children's Home and New Dawn School in Kenya.

We celebrate Easter today, the ultimate overflow of God's love, as He raised Jesus Christ from the dead. This victory over death fills us with hope as we journey through our broken world, toward our Heavenly home.

Happy Easter greetings to everyone at the Nest Children's Home, including the children, the staff, the director, and your families! May God strengthen you by his Holy Spirit to persevere with your challenging work, and we trust for his grace to be sufficient for you each day.

Happy Easter greetings to everyone at New Dawn School, including the students, staff, director, headmaster, and all of your families. Enjoy your holiday from school, and may you return in May refreshed and ready to take on the hard task of teaching and learning.

Happy Easter greetings to every one who supports these projects in Kenya through Saba, International! We are so encouraged by your genorosity, eagerness and steadfast love for children half a world away! May you each experience a double portion of God's love through Jesus Christ this Easter!

Moving on at New Dawn School

After graduation in December, New Dawn School closed for a holiday. In January the school re-opened, admitting a new group of Form One students (freshman), and everyone resumed the daily work of teaching and learning. Forty more students prepare for graduation this year, and it will come quickly.

After graduation in December, the graduates entered a time of waiting. They had taken the National Exams in October and November, and now they must wait for results, which will help determine what kind of higher education they can pursue.

Ruba has come alongside the graduates, and has determined to help find all of them some kind of post-secondary training or jobs. Day by day, opportunities have been opening up. The school received a significant grant from the Danish Embassy, which employs five graduates and will help the school generate some of its own income. Two students have been admitted to engineering schools and three have been admitted to a beauty college. Another student is employed by an NGO outside of Nairobi. We praise God that paths continue to open for the future of these young people! He is the Waymaker!

Celebrate with New Dawn! In early March, the National Exam results were released, and it was good news for New Dawn School! 16 of the 30 students had scores high enough to qualify them for a diploma at a Polytechnic School (which I believe is equivalent to an associates degree in the U.S.). Hannington Odhiambo (above) recieved the top marks in the school, and will qualify to study Mechanical Engineering at University! We at Saba, International congratulate all of the students at New Dawn. You have worked so hard, and overcome so many obstacles by your patient endurance! We eagerly anticipate the on-going work of the Lord in your life...

Director Irene Tongoi writes about the graduates and their exam results: "This is what makes the hard work worth doing. I am proud of our teaching staff who have served with us and trusted the Lord to produce these miracles! We now begin the next step in their journey to higher education."

Irene is traveling to the U.S. in March and April. Along the way she will do some ambassadorial work for New Dawn. A group in Oregon state is hosting a fund-raiser for New Dawn, with the intent of purchasing a school bus for the school. Irene's final stop in the U.S. is Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. This is a community that has been faithful in supporting New Dawn for more than three years! May God bless Irene and her husband on this journey!

Special commendation goes to Ben Khalonyere, Headmaster of New Dawn. He has been on-site working with staff and students daily, encouraging and disciplining. He is a gentle giant! Pleases pray for him and his family as he uses most of his time off from school pursuing his bachelor's degree in education.

As donors and partners in prayer, please pray for all the staff and leadership of New Dawn School as they do the hard work of leading, teaching, and counseling the students, and as they fund-raise and develop the school's property and its resources. May God give them wisdom and discernment.

On the fund-raising front of Saba, International, some exciting things are happening! Tammy Woller and her colleague spent the weekend at a women's retreat in Wisconsin. They donated their time, and the strength and tenderness of their hands; they performed several hours of massage, and accepted donations for the Nest Children's Home! Well done, ladies.

On March 19, the Nest Fest will take place in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is a charity concert for the Nest! May God multiply the efforts of the organizers and performers for the sake of the Nest.

All of these fund-raising efforts will go toward helping the Nest pay down their massive hospital bills that they incurred when several of their babies got pneumonia in February.

Posted by Cathy Woller

The Nest's Halfway House and beyond...

Welcome to the Nest's Halfway House facility in Nairobi. It complements the mission of the Limuru facility, where the children of imprisoned moms stay. When the women are released from prison, they come to the Halfway House for several weeks. Their children join them here, and the families are re-integrated in a safe setting. Here the women can learn better childcare skills, improve their English, and take life-skills classes. They also find community with other women who understand their life struggles.


Besides providing care for the prison women and their children, the Nest also provides care for babies who are truly classified as orphans, and are therefore adoptable. The Nest does not make adoption the centerpiece of its mission, but it goes to great lengths to support more than 30 adoptions a year,





When the Halfway House opened in 2006, the orphan babies were moved from the Limuru facility to the Halfway House in Nairobi. This was good for several reasons: the warmer, drier climate made for better health among the babies; they became more visable and accessible, and that has increased the number of adoptions; and it relieved the crowding at the Nest in Limuru. But now, as the Halfway House is operating at full-capacity, it is very crowded for the babies and their caregivers. This limits the number of orphans they can care for at one time.

What to do with these darling babies?!



In 2007 the Nest purchased a piece of land near the Halfway House. Over time the vision has emerged for the use of this land. The Nest would like to build a dedicated baby nursery and proper staff quarters for the caretakers of the babies. They would be able to increase the number of orphaned babies that they can care for at one time to 25, and this would ease the problem of crowding at the Halfway House. Each of the three properties would have a distinct mission: The Nest in Limuru serving the prison children; the Halfway House serving the prison mom's as they are released from prison; the baby nursery serving the orphaned babies.


The second phase of the development of this land would be to build 10 guest cottages. The cottages would be available to rent, and would provide accessible housing to the many European families that relocate to Nairobi while they go through the proceedings of an international adoption. The income generated by the cottages would help support the operating costs of the Nest. Greater self-sustainability would allow the Nest to spend less human resources fund-raising, and apply more human resources toward doing social work with the prison moms and their children.

Recall Irene Baumgartner, director of the Nest Children's Home. Her passion is to work directly with the clients of the Nest. However, for many years much of her energy has been spent fund-raising and developing the Nest's properties to maximize their ability to serve their clients. This property will bring the vision to completion. We at Saba, International call on you to pray for the Nest, for the development of this property, and for all the staff who labor sacrificially day-by-day!

If you would be interested in financially supporting the development of the baby nursery or any aspect of the work of the Nest, please write "Nest Nursery" on the memo line of your check, and make payable to:

Saba, International

Mail to:
Saba, International
c/o Helen Kahl, treasurer
10560 Blue Rock Road
Mount Horeb, WI 53572


We thank you for your prayerful support. May God be glorified by the work of the Nest.

posted by Cathy Woller for Saba, International

Meet the Children at the Nest

Welcome to the Nest Children's Home in rural Limuru, Kenya. 15 years ago the Nest began providing care for street girls. Over time the Nest specialized its mission, and began providing care for children whose mother's are imprisoned (which means that these children are not adoptable). Roughly 100 children are in the custody of the Nest, and about 60 children live on this compound.

On the left is Irene Baumgartner of Germany. She is the director of the Nest, compassionate defender and protector of children.

Nellie calls herself the grandmother of the Nest. She is a nurse, primarily taking care of the smallest children. At the Nest there is a toddler nursery, and dormitories for the big boys and girls. In Kenya, when a woman is imprisoned, she is allowed to keep her nursing baby with her, so there are not many small babies at the Nest facility in Limuru.

The Nest also has "adoptable" babies in its custody, and they reside at the Halfway-House facility in Nairobi. In the past 18 months, over 50 Nest orphans have been adopted!

Many children who are in custsody of the Nest do not live at the Nest full-time. All of the high-school aged children attend boarding school, and only live at the Nest when school closes for term-break. In December the Nest is full and hopping with activity, and there are many extra helping hands!

This young lady was very serious, but determined to have her picture taken as she escorted me all over the compound. The Nest uses some of its grounds to grow vegetables. It takes a lot of food to grow all of these little bodies!

On Christmas day Irene always presents the Biblical account of Jesus' birth to the children. This year, as she told of how there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inns of Bethlehem, one of the children made a startling connection: "The Nest did not say 'NO' to us, and it is good here!"

We at Saba, International praise God for the work that the Nest is doing to provide safe haven for children in Kenya whose mothers are imprisoned.

posted for Saba, International by Cathy Woller

New Dawn School, Graduation Day

Graduation Day, December 1, 2009
New Dawn School graduated its first class with great joy. Notice the wonderful facility next to which they stand. In April of 2009, by the grace of God and the help of many donors, their campus came to include a school built out of shipping containers! These students will never forget New Dawn's humble beginnings (Feb 2006) in the crowded borrowed space of a village church, and the eventual purchase of two other buildings for classrooms and a library. They have been on a journey as the "seed" of this project, and they have endured, with beautiful results! We at Saba, International wish them all the best as they journey onward and upward. We commit to standing with New Dawn year after year, and are confident that God will continue to go above our asking and imagining! (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Marching Onward
As the graduates march into the ceremony, they are crossing a threshold from the known to the unknown. For four years they have been together, building community, encouraging and challenging one another. Now they must extend their territories away from New Dawn, but better because of New Dawn. They await their national exam scores to see if they qualify for university. Many of them seek additional technical skills training. Please pray for their future endeavors, that God would make a way for them, and that they might be able to do the same for another disadvantaged student someday!


Humble, Faithful Teachers
Without the patient endurance of the staff and teachers, New Dawn would never have arrived at graduation day. They have worked long hours for sub-standard pay, and journeyed long distances daily to be at work. Their work environment has been cramped and their teaching resources have been limited. Yet they have produced good fruit as they have watched God prosper New Dawn School and its students! May God honor their willingness to serve the students of New Dawn!



Proud Parents
A whole tent was packed with family members of the graduates, including parents, guardians, aunts and uncles, neighbors and siblings. New Dawn has been a blessing to these families, financing and providing secondary education to a group of disadvantaged youth that would have otherwise been forgotten. Many graduates have younger siblings who need the encouragement of their whole family to endure in the pursuit of their own education. Please pray for these families as they are burdened by the physical, mental and spiritual forces of poverty.




Dancing in Praise!

Two groups of younger student dancers performed in celebration of the graduates, reflecting ancient dance traditions of Kenya. They were organized by a recently hired female teacher who has a background in traditional dance!




Standing Tall with Confidence! To see these students brimming with confidence was the best gift a teacher could ever receive. When I first started teaching them three year ago, they were in their Form 1 year (freshman), and they were so downcast. I would ask a question, and everyone would gaze at the floor and hope they wouldn't be asked to speak. Now they are eager and confident to share their thoughts, and are filled with hope and ideas.
It brings to mind Psalm 3:3...But you are a shield around me, oh Lord; you bestow glory on me and you lift up my head.




Joyful!
Henry Atetwe receives his diploma with great joy, as did all the students! The day was a great celebration of all the people that God has raised up to support these students in so many ways, and we praise Him who brought it all to pass! Each student was given a study Bible as a gift from a family in the Saba, International network. May God use his word mightily in their lives as they go out with joy and are led forth in peace (Isaiah 55:11-12).







The Six Ladies: 30 students graduated from New Dawn, and only six of them were ladies. They are bright young ladies, and it's amazing to hear their accounts of what they have endured to complete their education at New Dawn. Stay tuned for more on this group of gals!







The Next Generation: This child was hanging around during the graduation ceremony, and it made me wonder what her future would be like. Will she attend New Dawn? Might she know a life free from the shackles of poverty?

New Dawn has already become an agent of change in the lives of its first graduating class, and together we must trust God to spill over from their lives into the lives of their families and communities.

sincerely,
Cathy Woller

A very successful First Saba, International meeting

Here is a photo from our first Saba, International meeting. We had a wonderful evening and accomplished a lot of business while establishing multiple goals for Saba, International. Four of five board members were present and the fifth attended via tele-conference.

New Dawn Celebrates School construction in 2009

New Dawn continues to celebrate as it has finished completion of school additions in Nairobi, Kenya in 2009.