Letter from Anjali

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I received your letters.  How are you?  How is your health?  And how is your family members?  I am fine here, my family members are all fine.

I like horses.  Thank you for telling about horses and thanks for sending Abbie and Friday pictures to me.  I have a dog in my house.  That dog's name is Tommy.  I play with Tommy.

Belated happy birthday to Brianna.  I pray for you and your mother in my daily prayers.  My favorite thing is also books.  I saw the picture.  It was very nice to see.  The balloon looks like very colourful.  I like spring season.  I am living in Andhra Pradesh at Kunool district in Nandyal.

I saw the Brianna photo playing a ball game.  Now we are in rainy season.  We have some fruits in this season, like custard apple, apples, etc.

In summer season my project conducted VBS (vacation bible school).  In VBS I learnt many songs, memory verses and about Jesus.

On August 15th we will celebrate Independence Day.  I will participate in essay writing.  I am studying very well.  I promoted 5th grade to 6th grade.  I have new friends in my class.  I pray for you and your family members.  I hope you also pray for me and my family members.

Thank you for your support.

Your loving child,
Anjali

Letter from Samuel

I think that 9 year old Samuel is the best child I have for answering questions, either that or the person who writes for him is good at it!

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Receive warm greetings from your friend Samuel.  He hopes that you are doing very well together with your family.  He says that he is very grateful for the letters you have been sennding to him.  He says that he usually feels very happy and close to you.

He says that when you sneeze in Kenya, you cover your mouth to avoid infecting others and say "excuse me."  Then someone next to you will say that he/she is sorry.  What about in the USA?

He says that he has never known someone who is 100 years old and that he has never met a pirate before because he does not know who a pirate is.

He congratulates you on your anniversary.

He says that he uses chalk for drawing on a blackboard.

Thank you for being my sponsor and a friend.  Goodbye, Samuel says.

Letter from Wainaina

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Hello.  Tolday is another wonderful and beautiful day in my life. All over are clouds covering the sun.  It seems like some few days to come it will rain.  I hope you are fine together with your family.  I always pray for you whenever I want to go to bed.  I hope you are still praying for me.

I am so happy for these letters because they make my day wonderful and beautiful.  Whenever I read your letters I get inspired by the good news you send me every time.  Remember that you are always in my heart.  May God bless you and your family.

Receive my love and prayers.

Erick

New Kiva Loan

Hello World! Meet Rebecca. She is a true definition of a strong, spirited, young, dark, Kisii lady from Kenya. At only 32 years old, the single mother of one is a Branch Manager leading the oldest and most established office at Juhudi Kilimo. Passion, respect and integrity are the key values she upholds and that have got her this far. Her achievements have also been catapulted by her impeccable people skills. In the office, she is well-liked and respected.

Rebecca, however, hails from a very humble and traditional background. It is amazing how far she has got herself today. She is from Riabamanyi, a small remote village in the Central Kisii district of Kenya. Most of the people there are smallholder farmers who occupy small plots of land and practice subsistence farming.

Rebecca grew up fighting so many social and personal battles that only few can relate to. For example, Riabamanyi village has a social codification that invariably colludes with patriarchy to oppress women, through cultural identities that advantage men and disadvantage women. Rebecca was really determined to move against this and to thrive in a community where girls are regarded with less value and not given equal opportunities to succeed.
In her life’s journey, she has dealt with the pain of losing her mother, an elder brother and an elder sister. The two deceased siblings left behind four orphaned children. Being the only employed member in the family, she took the responsibility of looking after these children. Just recently, Rebecca’s world came crumbling down again after her father became paralyzed. She is grateful to God, however, that she still has him as part of her life. She is doing her best to provide him with the best medication she can afford. With all these burdens on her shoulders, Rebecca still manages to keep herself together and strive for excellence in life.

She is seeking a loan of KES 438,100 for higher education. A degree in Business Management will help her to increase her business skills: leadership, interpersonal communication, technology and other valuable hard skills in the business environment.

When Rebecca joined Juhudi Kilimo in 2010 as an Office Assistant, she was still a student. She used her monthly stipend to contribute to the tuition fees for a diploma in Business Management. In no time, she was promoted to become a Business Development Officer. She did a superb job as a BDO which led management to entrust her with more responsibilities of leading a Branch. Joining management has exposed her to a set of new challenges that have enabled her to identify some gaps which she seeks to fill through furthering her studies.

Rebecca says; “My zest is in helping farmers to become more productive and successful. By helping them to improve their enterprise, I am changing their lives. With your loan investment in my education, I promise to use the acquired knowledge and skills to become a better manager and deliver the promise of a better life to our farmers.”

Letter from Israel

Israel, from Bolivia, is turning into my best, most interesting, letter writer.  One of the advantages of sponsoring older children.

Hi, dear Beverly Sykes,

I greet you with much love and a hug to all your family.

I am very grateful with God because he allowed me to have a sponsor like you.  I also want to thank you for telling me the story of your family.  Also, the pictures of your dogs, Sheila, Lizzie and Polly are beautiful.  I think we have the same likes.  I love dogs too.

Dear Beverly, you are a very lucky mother for having children that love music and love playing musical instruments.  I like music too.  I like playing instruments.  When I was 15, I learned to play the electric guitar (bass) and when I was 16 I learned to play the electric guitar. My brother Javier bought an electric guitar and a pedal. Do you know what a pedal is?  It helps the electric guitar to have effects and distortion.  Javier plays the acoustic guitar.  Samuel is my youngest brother and he likes the piano, but he plays the keyboard.  My father is thinking of buying him a keyboard because the one he used got broken.  My brothers and I belong to the Praise Ministry of our church, its name is Casa de Dios.

The sports I like are basketball, soccer and volleyball.  My favorite sport is volleyball.  After my classes my friends and I play volleyball.  It is fun because I have friends who love this sport.

Let me tell you that this is my last year at school.  After I finish it I am thinking of going to college and I want to study civil engineering because I like constructions and structure of buildings like bridges and so, since I was a little kid.  I always liked the numbers, not theory very much.

When I read your letter, I knew that your granddaughter turned 6 years and I read that she likes reading books.  That is very good because she could be a novel writer.  The pictures you sent me are nice.

We only can trust that the Lord will supply our needs.  I read that your mother is not doing well and I will be praying for her health.  I hope your mother trusts in the Lord because God is our strength, shelter, and protector.

I see you like baseball because you watch your granddaughter's matches.  Brianna's pictures are beautiful.  She looks wonderful with her sport outfit.  I am about to learn what baseball is all about.

I aso saw the pictures of little Friday and his mother Abbie.  The pictures are so good.  Thank you for letting me look at them.

I loved reading the letters and the pictures.  I'll say goodbye with a hug.  May God bless you.

Israel

Please, pray for my family so God will bless them.

New Photo of Samuel

There was a new photo which appeared on my account, of Samuel in Kenya.  He looks healthier in this photo than he did in the first picture I saw of him.  I hope he is healthier!

They say the new photo was taken November 2012.  They say I'll get another one in 2 months, since they update every 2 years.