How does My Gift For Jesus Work?

What is My Gift for Jesus?

Our December challenge to give a gift to Jesus during this Christmas season by helping children who live in extreme poverty in Kenya and Nicaragua.

How Can I Get Involved?

Choose your level of engagement:

• GIVE: Start by making a life changing donation. Monthly sponsorship is just $25. You can give weekly, monthly or annually.

• PRAY: Stop by the missions booth after a weekend service and pick up a prayer card for Nicaragua or a Kenyan child. Hang them in a spot to remind you to pray for these ministries. Not able to make it to one of our campuses in December? No problem. Email us at missions@foxriverchristian.org and we’ll get them to you.

• CONNECT: Write letters to the Kenyan child on your prayer card or write an encouraging note to one of our partners in Nicaragua. Visit our Connect page to get started.

You can get involved through sponsorship here. Your pledge helps us to plan for the work we will be able to do in the year ahead.

 How Do I Give?

• Give online through Fox River’s website. Be sure to use the space marked for My Gift for Jesus.

• Place cash or check in the offering during a weekend service. Be sure it is marked for My Gift for Jesus.

• Mail a check to Fox River (S46 W24130 Lawnsdale Road, Waukesha, WI 53189) or drop off at the church office. Be sure it is marked for My Gift for Jesus.

 What Does Fox River Do in Kenya and Nicaragua?

Kenya: we partner with local churches to offer a great Christian education that will give these young people the opportunity to know God and break the cycle of poverty in their family and community.

• Fully sponsor 2 schools with about 800 students from preschool through middle school and 80 staff members. This includes all school supplies, 2 meals on school days, and basic health care.

• About 120 students sponsored in our partner high school.

• Clean water for the community surrounding the school.

• Farm project to supplement the feeding program.

• Adult literacy classes.

• A rescue center that provides a loving home for children who have been abandoned.

Nicaragua: we partner with the local church in La Esmeralda to provide healthcare in a remote location where no healthcare in available.

• A clinic staffed with a doctor that sees hundreds of patients each month.

• The clinic specializes in prenatal care and this year we were able to furnish it with a birthing suite.

• Beyond the physical care, the pastor and staff share the gospel and minister to the needs of the soul.

We also support a sports ministry that gives an outlet for hundreds of children and teens to engage in wholesome activities and hear about Jesus.

To all those who give and pray we would like to say THANK YOU, ASANTE, GRACIAS! We would not be able to make this impact on the world without you. Our partners in both Kenya and Nicaragua want you to know they are so grateful for your love and generosity towards them.

Etana Marie

Today you read a heavy blog.

With very heavy hearts we share with you that we have lost a member of our Fox River family. Early morning on Wednesday, October 21st we received a phone call from Pastor Gideon in Kenya to share that the daughter of our Missionaries, O’Neal and Jenna Nyanje, had passed away after an accident. As Jenna and O’Neal went for chemotherapy, Etana wandered away from the babysitter to a nearby pool where she fell in and passed away. Words nobody ever expects to hear.

I (Abbey) want to share a bit of Etana’s life with you so that we can remember her well and honor her life.

Just over a year ago, we shared the exciting news with you that our dear missionaries, O’Neal and Jenna, were welcoming the newest addition to their family, Etana Marie.

This sweet baby was welcomed after years of prayers and waiting to see how God would bring a child into their lives. As close friends of the Nyanjes, we prayed and waited anxiously with them to see God’s plan come to fruition. Etana, you were prayed for! Etana, you were waited for!

They got the call! They were told about this baby girl who was in need of a family. Then came your picture… STOP IT! There was no going back after they saw your face. Your mom and dad knew you were made to be theirs. On September 27, 2019, they picked Etana up and brought her home. Etana was 7 months old when they became a family of 3, a story that only a good, good Father could write. A story of redemption, faith, hope, healing, and saving grace. Etana, you were sought after!

This little girl captured the hearts of all who laid eyes on her and she knew it! Her laugh was so contagious and could make you smile on even the worst day. Her feisty personality made for days full of laughter and a whole lot of energy! Etana, you are SO loved!

Watching as O’Neal and Jenna became the parents they had waited to be was breathtaking. They jumped in with both feet ready to take on this new adventure. I’m not sure if they were completely ready for how deeply Etana would change their hearts. But girl did you! You took their lives by storm and they immersed themselves in every minute of it! Etana, you are cherished!

On September 25, 2020, Etana’s adoption became official!!! All the court dates completed, papers signed, and meetings logged. O’Neal, Jenna, and Etana were legally made a family. This just solidified that she was the child that God had in store for them. Etana, you were perfectly placed!

Etana Marie, I wrote these words for you on your first birthday and I think they are even truer today than they were then. “You sweet girl were prayed for, you were waited for, you were sought after. You are SO loved, you are cherished, you are perfectly placed!” This rings even more true today because today you are in the arms of your Creator.

Selfishly we wish Etana was still on this earth with us, but we believe she is in the arms of our good, good Father.

Will you pray God’s peace and comfort over O’Neal and Jenna with us? The loss of a child is a journey through grief that consumes and overwhelms. Pray with us for peace that passes all understanding, and for grace as they navigate this journey together.

WE ARE BACK

It’s been a whole 7 months since March when we first had to close our school due to the COVID Pandemic.

We stayed home faithfully and followed the ministry of health guidelines to curb the spreads of The diseases by social distancing.

Food supply

Maize Flour beans and maize rations

Thankfully we were able to work with our faithful partners to continue a variation of our past feeding program, distributing Whole Foods! We also tried as we could to continue our learning program while giving materials to assist them staying up to speed with learning during the time out.

small packaging

Food ration and school supplies packages

Now that we have done a partial open (class 4 and 8) there are plenty of new things we have have to set up to enable us stay healthy.
many things that were sure you’re also seeing in the state’s.
wearing masks, washing hands, and keeping space is something we’re all trying to uphold as we slowly open.

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Breakfast is served

Whole meal porridge is good meal to start the day.

As we said, Only our class 4 and 8 students are back and have checked in. We wait for directives as to when the rest of the classes will be back from the ministry of education. This is both New life Bomani and Crossroads Vipingo Academy’s . As for the High school, they reported later in the the day because they are boarding.

We are making a special prayer request this time round. We ask for good healthy and for understanding on how to run this new school program with Covid guidelines. We pray to understand how to manage the student and keeping them safe from any infections. Most of all for success in their academics now that they have missed a big amount to school.

Prayer for the Nyanje's

This is an update we can say we never wanted to write nor one that we would have ever imagined having to.  Yet, we share this so that you can join us in praying for and encouraging O’Neal and Jenna Nyanje, our Missionaries in Kenya.

Over a year ago O'Neal started having back pains that were unexplained and that have continued to get worse.  April and May brought severe amounts of uncontrollable pain.  Not only were they in quarantine, but O'Neal was stuck on the couch and couldn’t do normal things around the house.  At the beginning of June, O'Neal's pain became too great, they decided it was time to seek out a doctor who would be willing to see him. It was time to get some help with the pain and some answers.  O'Neal spent a few days in the hospital having tests run and his pain managed.  These were hard days.  They couldn't be together. Jenna could only visit for short periods because curfew is still set in their cities. 

After several tests, conversations, and second opinions, they have been given a diagnosis.  Never did they imagine that back pain could be something that world turn their world upside down.  O'Neal's biopsy has come back positive for a blood cancer called Multiple Myeloma. 

O’Neal will start 8 weekly chemotherapy sessions on Tuesday, June 23. Pray with us as we know everyone responds differently to chemo.

O’Neal and Jenna truly believe that God is at work and will walk in faith knowing that He holds their future.  In the times that it gets harder to do, they know that they have an army behind them.  Thank you for praying for O'Neal and his family.  

As you can imagine, expenses for O’Neal’s care will add up quickly. The Nyanje Help Fund has been set up for donations to help them prepare and to have peace of mind.

There is a Caring Bridge page that you can follow to get updates along the way.

Nyanje’s - Your Fox River family is praying! We love you!

We’re gonna see a victory
We’re gonna see a victory
For the battle belongs to you, Lord!

Counting It All Joy - Even in Loss

We have introduced to you in the past a particular Crossroads Academy Student who we are very proud of. Salim is now in the graduating class 8.

Salim

Salim is a special student of ours who came to the school in 2016 and has overcome many obstacles. He has put a LOT of work and devotion into his schooling. We are so proud of his accomplishments at the school - taking one of the top 3 positions in subjects like math and science.

Salim’s grandma

Salim lives with his grandmother who has been sick for some time. This last Sunday, May 24th, Salim's grandmother went home to be with the Lord. It is easy to talk about his accomplishments in the classroom but perhaps what has touched our hearts the most is his relationship and care-giving he has given to his grandmother. He is one outstanding young man who was responsible for more in the home than someone is at his age.

Salim with the grandma and his sponsor, Catherine

So we grieve along side him as he has lost someone so dear to him. Our safety precautions due to Covid have changed the way funerals are done here in Kenya. Now some of the standards include having the burial 24 hours after the passing of a loved one which doesn't always afford extended family members to get there in time, which is an important part of our tradition.

This hurts our whole community, but there is no other way. In light of this necessity - please pray for Salim.

Nixon Sanga

Pray also for our student Nixon Sanga and his family who lost his little sister Nuru. She was in kindergarten class at New Life Academy in Bomani. She fell ill and succumbed to illness after being taken to hospital.

Linah Nuru

Thankfully there was a good representation of our staff team that was there for the funerals in consideration with government directives on social distancing. Our teachers have stepped in before, during and in the days to come to help Salim and Nixon and their families to cope and navigate these hard times. We could not be more proud of the representation of Christ that they have been. Thank you so much for your prayers and for joining us as we trust God with the heartache of losing loved ones in our communities.

Let us stay safe and trust in God for better days to come to the honor and glory of His name.

Nicaragua Update

We have prayed and thought about how we would share an update from Nicaragua with you… as you can imagine the information we get is always changing. We will do our best to share with you how our partners and the clinic are doing as they face the pandemic in their country.

We have stayed in communication with our partners to keep up on the things and changes happening. As we have known Nicaragua’s timeline of this unfolding there has been delayed compared to here in the States. As it has here the day to day life has changed significantly. One of the biggest ways this has and will continue to impact Nicaragua is their access to nutrition. The lack of nutritional food is a great fear and a real possibility for the people of Nicaragua.

Our ships may look different, but we are all facing the same storm. Differently, yes. But, the same none the less. Our greatest similarity is the fear of how this impacts lives!

As for the Clinic and the Community of La Esmeralda… The clinic is open and serving the community as usual. Dr. Soza has worked hard to prepare the community for the impact Covid-19 could have on their community. We are so grateful for him and the service he is giving this community.

We asked them to share how has this impacted the clinic…

The truth is this has impacted us mostly because of our culture. It is so far outside of how we are used to living, people don’t want to respect some of the changes that need to be made for us to live wisely through this pandemic.

We have had to limit the number of people we allow to wait inside the clinic. Which means some have chosen to leave and not be seen by the Dr. Those who can’t wait inside wait around back.

The amount of respiratory issues has risen with the climate change to winter, which is a concern because of the fear of the virus.

We see patients as usual and give the care they need. And we continue to share the love of Christ with everyone who walks through the doors.

Ministry is still in action through the clinic and church in La Esmeralda. They are working hard at making sure the people of this community and the surrounding communities are loved, healthy and taken care of.

As it is here, fear of the unknown is real and it can so easily take away from God at work. Will you pray with us for the people of Nicaragua? For the health and economy as things change and shift like they have here. Pray for our partners as they make decisions for their ministries.

Some fun updates to share… As we shared previously the clinic has been getting some updates. We are excited to share the progress with you. Since we last shared about the labor and delivery room a lot has changed! All they have left are some finishing touches and we will be ready to have a mom and her baby in this space. It is so exciting to have a room dedicated just for labor and recovery which includes a room for the mother and baby, a full bathroom, and a waiting room for family members. They have also spruced up the area outside of the room and made it even more welcoming to visitors.

The new waiting room

Connecting hallway from waiting room

Covid Days in Kenya

We greet you again from Kenya! 


We hope you are still keeping safe and keeping clean as we go through these tough times in our life time.

I bet you can also identify that many of the day’s seem to look the same. We will be so thrilled when we can be back together with our students and our teachers. It might be a while before we take these long ministry days for granted.

Kenyan 47 counties

Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale and Nairobi counties in Kenya have been given another 21 days travel ban (no travel between counties) and an extension of 21 days of night curfew from 7pm to 5am. The numbers of the infections have been increasing but we thank God none of our staff or students have been found positive as yet. The Education Minister extended the schools closed until the end of May.

This is hard on a good number of our families that the schools are closed. It’s hard on ALL of them educationally. There are families who we know have depended greatly on the schools for food (breakfast and Lunch) each day. With seeking much wisdom and trying to help within the pandemic, we are so thankful to Fox River that we are still able to feed the students with food bundles we send home with them as they come to pick up study material packets to work from home.

Student with study material to take home.

Our teachers and other staff team have done this distribution beautifully with keeping as much social distancing and high hygiene standards as possible while getting the food out to the families. We have done this twice in both of our elementary schools and are planning to have a similar exercise for our high school students and their families this week.

Food bought in bulk

Packed in bundles of Maize flower, beans, cooking oil and some other essentials.

A teacher filling a container with cooking oil for a parent to take home.

The response from the community has been so positive. This pandemic has affected everyone. We are so grateful that through your giving the schools are STILL able to be a source of hope in the community. As missionaries here seeing some of the struggle first hand, we are boosted in spirit that there are still ways that we can meet real needs.

Here are some ways that you can continue to pray for our ministry partners and schools.

Teachers: Pray that our teachers and support staff (cooks, cleaners, gardeners) to remain healthy and well. We so look forward to being together soon.

Students: Plainly put, that they would stay at home. Normaly if there is no school, that would signal to all our kids that being outside and playing is the norm. Pray that they will remain safe and make healthy practices.

Kenya: For our leaders to have wisdom on how long our shut down will be and how the Ministry of Education will make up for this strange school year. (Our school year in Kenya starts in January!)

Isabella with her food bundle to take home.

Thank you for your ongoing support and prayers! We are so grateful for the support you give our communities.

~O’Neal Nyanje

World impact!

In light of the world wide pandemic we ask that you join us in praying for our students, staff, partners, and missionaries in both Kenya and Nicaragua. We really are, all in this together!

Read below to hear from O’Neal and Jenna as they give us the inside scoop on what is happening on their side of the world right now and how we can best pray and support them…

Faith, Love and Hope from Kenya

We wanted to share from our hearts how we are coping and give an accurate picture of what life has been like for our schools and our community.

Since the COVID-19 news broke we have been watching intently and waiting to hear from our leaders in the Kenyan government just how we need to respond.

On March 15th, the president addressed the nation and gave a directive to close all learning institutions for the sake of keeping physical interactions as low as possible. This has also reached to our places of worship. It is in the best interest of us all to individually steer on the side of caution and be responsible on our part - being quarantined.

Early Monday morning (March 16th) we sent the children home as some of them still came to school. It's not always easy to send mass communication easily with the region we are in. We have prayed over our students asking the Lord to watch over them. We have encouraged them to be hopeful and be helpful at home for whatever span of time we won’t be gathering.

Some of our students highly depend on the meals that they are getting at the school... our feeding program is such a big part of our ministry. We are working hard to make sure those families get the food that they WOULD have eaten during school for individual cooking. This takes a lot of wisdom and thought on how to distribute. Our intention is to meet the need... not cause any alarm.

We are so hopeful and have great peace in our hearts that the same God who has been sustaining us for so long has not forgotten about us. And will be the Rock upon which we stand on no mater what is down the road. We trust Him.

As for now, our students and staff will be at home. We pray for when we can resume back to our studies and see our students faces every day!

Let’s keep each other in prayer and ask God to grant us all peace of mind and heart that surpasses all understanding. May He meet all of us at our points of need and grant our leaders wisdom worldwide on how to lead during these hard and difficult times. May He also help our medical practitioners by giving them strength and wisdom to find an antidote for this ailment. May we keep the faith and not forget that God is in control even when things are not going as we know and expect.

We are praying for you!

As they mentioned, our God is bigger than this! We believe that He has gone before us and is in this with us! Let this be an encouragement to you as we walk through this together!

Fox River is praying for our World!!

Because their faces make our days brighter!

Clinic Updates

Updates that will make a huge impact on what the clinic is able to do.

Back in October they started some of the needed updates and additions needed at the Medical clinic in Nicaragua. We are so excited about how these updates will improve care at the clinic.

This first step was to build a storage building to be able to properly and conveniently store equipment and supplies. This space was built to open up the rooms currently used for storage to be used in new ways.

Now that the storage building is up they have started the process of updating the space inside the clinic to be used for labor and delivery room. This is the more exciting part of the projects! They will be creating a space that our mothers and babies can be cared for in specific ways to birth and after birth. A space designated for bringing new life into the world!

Follow along and we will share stories of how this changes things at the clinic!

Kenya Pastor’s Conference

Pastors from the Kenyan coastal area and regions beyond joined us for this year’s pastor’s conference.

Each heart connected with the challenge of EOBO (every one bring one) our in Kiswahili, KMLM (kila mmoja leta mmoja). Young and old alike personally accepted the challenge for themselves and their congregation.

Everyone had the opportunity to share the impact of God’s working in their life through the conference. On several occasions I was moved to tears as I listened to their stories - tears of joy and worship. This impact on church leaders all across Kenya makes the trip and the investment so worth while.

We concluded our time together with worship and communion which was holy and powerful!

The book that was given to each one was received as a great blessing with deep appreciation. I pass along a heartfelt thank you to each of you who gave to bless these servants of God.

Thanks you for all who prayed for me, Denise, Scott, Evan, Reid and Ginger. God has worked through this team!

Fox River and all who have joined us in My Gift for Jesus - YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE HERE IN KENYA - AM INCREDIBLE DIFFERENCE!

May God richly bless you in your generosity.

Blessings!

Pastor Guy

Guy teaching

Scout teaching

Reid teaching