Update on Hope House Ladies

Thank you to everyone who has purchased a piece of jewelry, prayed for these ladies, visited them, or just plain old loves them!!! Here is an updated on how some of the ladies are doing (and what they would appreciate prayer for) that have graduated from the Hope House!

Jennifer showing off one of her books

Jennifer's products (its her on the jelly label!)

Jennifer, after the programs she wanted to open up a store and sell produce but she did not have enough saved. She used some of the money to pay for her school fees. Then she spent half of her savings on jewelry, jelly, and book supplies. She has sold lots of jelly and school books because it is the beginning of term. It took a while to start business; she is working from home, and looking for a customer base. She has lots to sell, she has a whole packet of books ready to sell, and that will go for 25,000 shillings. When she realized her book making skills weren’t up to par with the store standards, she sought out additional training to improve her books. She started with 50 jars of jelly now she has seven. Jennifer supplied to us all of the books that we needed for our boys to go back to school.  She enjoys making the jewelry. She wants prayer for a strong customer base and that she will be able to save enough to but a place to sell produce.

Gertrude at home with her produce

Gertrude, she says she is finding it easier to sell jelly cans and books then jewelry. The program has taught her a lot about hard work and God. She is still saving the money she is earning in hopes she can buy a piece of land someday. She said the program has changed her life so much she will never go back. She asks for prayer for her children, business, for a house, and for a location for her business. 

Kate in front of her boutique (she built it herself!)

Kate infront of her "blouse" section (she has tops, jeans, skirts, jewelry and purses)

Kate in front of her jewelry display case

Kate, most of her savings went into building and decorating her shop. She wants to buy her own land so she doesn’t have to live with her mother. She has regular customers and is thankfully she can provide for her children. She mostly sells tops and skirts. She recently bought a fridge and is now selling soda as well. She wants to be able to fill her boutique with all sorts of stuff. She asked prayer to be able to send her kids to school.

Joy showing off some of her jewelry

Joy has made 130 books to sell; she is just kicking off her business so she needs to find a customer base. She wants to have a boutique someday. She makes jewelry at the foot of her house to advertise. She wants prayer for customers, that her house won’t fall down, and her son has been missing for 5 months.

Beatrice infront of her every popular shop (it's all about location!)

Beatrice with her baby Joseph in her shop

Beatrice wakes up early to open her business at 7:30. She built her shop with her savings from the program and purchased a small plot of land that she eventually wants to build a house on. Her shop location is very good and she gets a lot of customers. She is usually very busy. At first fixing shop up was a problem. She runs out of produce to sell sometimes. She sells the clothes washing soap from Kenya; the one she used to buy didn’t sell well. She wants prayer for her business to grow so she can build a house on her land.

Harriet with some of her jewelry and jelly

Some of Harriet's clothing that she sells

Harriet in order to save money on renting a shop to sell from, moves around a lot to sell clothing so sometimes it hard to find costumers. She is looking for a cheap place so she can sell things. She is believing in God helps her move on. People compliment her jewelry and they say it is very hard to make. She wants prayer for a store and for her children to be well.

Rose at her sewing machine holding one of her coin purses she has made

Rose's sewing machine

Rose has been selling produce at the local market. She still sells jewelry and loves to make it. She learned so much about the bible from the program, she tithes what she can. She wants prayer for confidence to work, for her 4 children and the she be able to buy some land and a house someday.  Rose received a sewing machine from the program and has been learning tailoring. She now can make beautiful bags. Her kids sometimes go around Kivulu telling people, "that looks like a rip in your clothing... I know a great tailor that can fix that for you!" helping to find business! =-) Rose couldn’t start working at first because her brother became very sick. She plans to buy a “finishing sewing machine”. She is getting connections with a school to make their school uniform. She also wants to learn to sow traditional clothing. She wants prayer for training so she can sow better and different things.

Jolly in front of her restaurant

Jolly spent most of her money on making a building to start her restaurant. She is going to start making jewelry to finish up creating her restaurant. She wants prayer for enough money to keep going.

Mama Cook showing off her chickens

Some of the chicks

More chicks!

Mama Cook, after learning to make a chicken coop from a friend, she started with 250 chickens, she bought them at 1,300 shilling each and after a month she can sell them for 10,000 each. She has hired a boy to help her with chickens. She has to buy medicine for the chickens and coals to warm them. At the moment she is just selling chickens for meat but she hopes to be able to sell eggs someday. She said she is slowly learning to spread out her income because at the program it was a steady income but now she gets more money but it happens less often. She has learned to be patience. She asks for prayer for serious customers and for their Agape Church meetings where the ladies who have graduated from the Hope House still meet.