Hello all! I’m back in Kenya, though only for 2 weeks. Here’s a little video taken at Gathiga Children’s Hope Home to say hello! Enjoy!
March 4, 2010
February 25, 2010
Jump Crew- the Brittany episode
Brittany is a Junior here at UIS and is really excited to be apart of the Jump Crew. She hasn’t been to Kenya yet but has plans to make that happen this summer. We’re completely stoked to have her on board!
Get to know her a little better here:
February 23, 2010
Moving Up- Amelia goes full time
Amelia has been a part of Jump for Joel since the beginning, so if you’re familiar with our work, you’ve probably heard or seen her before. But what you may not know is that Amelia will soon be the first “official” staff member of Jump for Joel!! Amelia starts full-time with J4J in June 2010. We can’t wait!
Rochester Junior High = Awesome!!
We stopped in at Rochester (IL) Junior High on Friday to pick up a donation from their Student Council. The students raised $2100 for Jump for Joel, all of which will be used to build a new kitchen building at the Gathiga Children’s Hope Home in Kenya. Here’s some footage of before & after the visit. And yes, we really are this dorky. 
After a visit by our lovely Amelia the Rochester Junior High Student Council decided they wanted to help out. They planned a spirit week and visited classrooms each morning for a week collecting money for J4J. They were so excited not only to collect and give us the donation but to hear that it will be going to work just as soon as they gave it to us!
Check back soon for progress on our kitchen project and other updates from Shana as she spends the next two weeks at Gathiga.
February 20, 2010
Meet the Jump Crew! The Casey episode
It’s time to start meeting our new Jump Crew members and first up is Casey! Casey joined after her trip with us in 2009 and we are so excited to have her on board.
Meet Casey:
February 2, 2010
Meet our [1st] Intern!!
We are so excited to have our first-ever intern!!! I’ll be honest, it’s a little strange for us to use the word intern, as it implies a hierarchy of paid staff…which we don’t have! So in a way, Amelia & I are also interns, and yet directors?… Hmm…go, grassroots organization, go! :)
We asked our lovely intern, Amanda, to make a little introduction video for our supporters. So here you go!
Meet Amanda:
January 24, 2010
The Dream Job
Amelia recently posted this on her blog, and we thought it would be a good thing to share with you all! Enjoy!
—–
So I am a senior in college… which I find to be one of the most exciting, and yet most frightening times of my life. I love the idea that the future is open to me. That I can make decisions now, because I’m young and not tied down to anyone, that other people don’t have the freedom to make. But those limitless possibilities can be quite daunting.
This past summer I made Jump for Joel my summer internship to fulfill a university requirement. And when I began my work I really thought that it was just another step on the way to my career goals. Instead, it has become my career goal. One night during this past summer’s trip, I was sitting one night on Shana’s bunk-bed talking about being in Kenya and where we could see this going in the future. She brought up this idea that we would both become Jump for Joel staff – make this little project our full-time jobs. While I’d always seen her life heading that way, it was a new idea that this would be my fate as well. She proposed that we would alternate, one of us being in the US and one of us being in Kenya. The plan seemed brilliant! But when she said she thought this could happen by the time I graduated, well… I thought she was crazy! It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it… I just thought that there was no way we’d have things established enough that I’d be able to do this by the time I graduated. We do this quite often – one of us will come up with some idea, the other one will think it’s crazy, but then we go with it, and to our amazement it works out. Now of course you all know that this is not due to our ability, but because of God’s infinite grace that this “project” has had any success.
So here I am. Sitting at my little library job. Typing this out and thinking how things have changed in so short an amount of time. I’ve committed to working for Jump for Joel full-time. Starting June 1st 2010! This morning we meet with our Board of Directors – and I gave them a proposal and my job description. And now, just a few hours later, I can’t help but think how smoothly the whole thing has gone. Sure I have a long way to go – and so much to learn. I have the terrifying task of raising my own support – the part of this whole affair that really made me question if I could do this. But at the end of the day I always come to the conclusion that I don’t want to do something else because I was too afraid that this might fail. This may very well fail. I’m well aware of that. I’ve signed on for a job that involves intimate contact with poverty – something most Americans avoid like the plague. This year, well the past couple months anyway, have shown me the sort of grief I must prepare for as I take on this job, or really this life. We lost our very dear friend James in December, and I’m afraid that is only the beginning as I grow close with people living in uncertain places, working to change a broken world. I know that this won’t be easy. But I can’t help it! This is where my heart is! And right now, I can’t see myself doing anything else!
Each day the fact that Jump for Joel is going to be my job becomes a little more real. And there was something about the meeting with the Board of Directors today that only added to that. If you plan on keeping up with this little blog I’ve started, you’ll be hearing a lot more of this as it continues to develop. For now I would ask that you pray for Jump for Joel, and for me!
——
Go, Amelia, go!!!!
January 16, 2010
J4J in 2010!
As you can see, we’re making some major changes to jumpforjoel.org!! It’s a long process, so stick with us.
Thanks for your patience!
January 10, 2009
9.
A few weeks ago Joel Muriithi turned 9 years old.
Do you remember your 9th birthday?
I don’t quite recall mine. But I’m sure my birthday was spent inside my nice Chicagoland home, surrounded by family, friends, food, and fun. When I blew out the candles I probably wasn’t wishing for something as simple as a good meal, a sturdy pair of shoes, or a bed mattress. No, I had all that and my mind was probably selfishly focusing on getting the latest Sega Genesis game. Tucked inside all of my presents was the stability of having parents who provided everything I needed and the ignorance that let me take for granted what I had been blessed with.
I bet Joel has his own friends and his own special celebration, but when I think about his 9th birthday and my own, I see stark differences. Joel doesn’t have a mother and a father nor does he have some of the same comforts my privileged lifestyle afforded me. Instead of filling up on cake and the promise of having a long, gratifying life ahead, Joel probably ate some rice and was just happy to have something to eat.
This isn’t to say that I think Joel’s life would be more fulfilling by having more stuff—no I think he is blessed in a different way by his family of fellow orphans and caretakers like “Momma” Lucy and “Uncle” Duncan. Rather, I can hardly comprehend the difficult differences in our lives.
I was born into a prosperous family (by world standards) while Joel was born with nothing. Whereas I had the security and comfort of having regular meals under a big house with a wardrobe of clothes and my own bed to sleep in, Joel lives in a state of economic and social insecurity. While I had the whole world in front of me, Joel only has about 16 more years ahead of him.
Joel is one of 22 million Africans living with HIV. But Joel is more than a statistic. Having met this little shy and playful Kenyan boy, my heart breaks at the thought of him going through all the emotional, physical, and social pain of having HIV.
I find comfort though in what Hillsong United sings in “You Deserve”: in the darkness, God’s light shines.
No matter how many years Joel lives, God has, is and will use Joel to impact others and ultimately advance God’s plan of restoring Creation. This 9-year-old has already inspired one advocacy organization that has touched and united many souls under the banner of compassion and love—truly timeless, borderless, and classless gifts from God.
December 8, 2008
A BIG thanks to The Simple Dollar!!
This past Friday The Simple Dollar announced Jump for Joel as the official Christmas charity for 2008!! Check out the article here. This may or may not have been linked to the fact that the author, Trent Hamm, is my (favorite) brother-in-law. The Simple Dollar is a blog all about personal finance. This gives Trent’s thousands of readers a chance to be introduced to some cool kids in Kenya. God works in weird ways… sometimes he uses blogs and brothers-in-law.
As a thank you to Trent I would now like to return the favor.
I, Vicky Knoke, would like to announce thesimpledollar.com as my favorite personal finance blog for 2008!!!
Now the thousands (ish) readers of the J4J blog can be linked with some financial advice.
Thanks again to Trent and all of the readers of The Simple Dollar!!!
Jump Crew- the Brittany episode
Brittany is a Junior here at UIS and is really excited to be apart of the Jump Crew. She hasn’t been to Kenya yet but has plans to make that happen this summer. We’re completely stoked to have her on board!
Get to know her a little better here:
Moving Up- Amelia goes full time
Amelia has been a part of Jump for Joel since the beginning, so if you’re familiar with our work, you’ve probably heard or seen her before. But what you may not know is that Amelia will soon be the first “official” staff member of Jump for Joel!! Amelia starts full-time with J4J in June 2010. We can’t wait!
Rochester Junior High = Awesome!!
We stopped in at Rochester (IL) Junior High on Friday to pick up a donation from their Student Council. The students raised $2100 for Jump for Joel, all of which will be used to build a new kitchen building at the Gathiga Children’s Hope Home in Kenya. Here’s some footage of before & after the visit. And yes, we really are this dorky.
After a visit by our lovely Amelia the Rochester Junior High Student Council decided they wanted to help out. They planned a spirit week and visited classrooms each morning for a week collecting money for J4J. They were so excited not only to collect and give us the donation but to hear that it will be going to work just as soon as they gave it to us!
Check back soon for progress on our kitchen project and other updates from Shana as she spends the next two weeks at Gathiga.
Meet the Jump Crew! The Casey episode
It’s time to start meeting our new Jump Crew members and first up is Casey! Casey joined after her trip with us in 2009 and we are so excited to have her on board.
Meet Casey:
Meet our [1st] Intern!!
We are so excited to have our first-ever intern!!! I’ll be honest, it’s a little strange for us to use the word intern, as it implies a hierarchy of paid staff…which we don’t have! So in a way, Amelia & I are also interns, and yet directors?… Hmm…go, grassroots organization, go! :)
We asked our lovely intern, Amanda, to make a little introduction video for our supporters. So here you go!
Meet Amanda:
The Dream Job
Amelia recently posted this on her blog, and we thought it would be a good thing to share with you all! Enjoy!
—–
So I am a senior in college… which I find to be one of the most exciting, and yet most frightening times of my life. I love the idea that the future is open to me. That I can make decisions now, because I’m young and not tied down to anyone, that other people don’t have the freedom to make. But those limitless possibilities can be quite daunting.
This past summer I made Jump for Joel my summer internship to fulfill a university requirement. And when I began my work I really thought that it was just another step on the way to my career goals. Instead, it has become my career goal. One night during this past summer’s trip, I was sitting one night on Shana’s bunk-bed talking about being in Kenya and where we could see this going in the future. She brought up this idea that we would both become Jump for Joel staff – make this little project our full-time jobs. While I’d always seen her life heading that way, it was a new idea that this would be my fate as well. She proposed that we would alternate, one of us being in the US and one of us being in Kenya. The plan seemed brilliant! But when she said she thought this could happen by the time I graduated, well… I thought she was crazy! It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it… I just thought that there was no way we’d have things established enough that I’d be able to do this by the time I graduated. We do this quite often – one of us will come up with some idea, the other one will think it’s crazy, but then we go with it, and to our amazement it works out. Now of course you all know that this is not due to our ability, but because of God’s infinite grace that this “project” has had any success.
So here I am. Sitting at my little library job. Typing this out and thinking how things have changed in so short an amount of time. I’ve committed to working for Jump for Joel full-time. Starting June 1st 2010! This morning we meet with our Board of Directors – and I gave them a proposal and my job description. And now, just a few hours later, I can’t help but think how smoothly the whole thing has gone. Sure I have a long way to go – and so much to learn. I have the terrifying task of raising my own support – the part of this whole affair that really made me question if I could do this. But at the end of the day I always come to the conclusion that I don’t want to do something else because I was too afraid that this might fail. This may very well fail. I’m well aware of that. I’ve signed on for a job that involves intimate contact with poverty – something most Americans avoid like the plague. This year, well the past couple months anyway, have shown me the sort of grief I must prepare for as I take on this job, or really this life. We lost our very dear friend James in December, and I’m afraid that is only the beginning as I grow close with people living in uncertain places, working to change a broken world. I know that this won’t be easy. But I can’t help it! This is where my heart is! And right now, I can’t see myself doing anything else!
Each day the fact that Jump for Joel is going to be my job becomes a little more real. And there was something about the meeting with the Board of Directors today that only added to that. If you plan on keeping up with this little blog I’ve started, you’ll be hearing a lot more of this as it continues to develop. For now I would ask that you pray for Jump for Joel, and for me!
——
Go, Amelia, go!!!!
J4J in 2010!
As you can see, we’re making some major changes to jumpforjoel.org!! It’s a long process, so stick with us.
Thanks for your patience!
9.
A few weeks ago Joel Muriithi turned 9 years old.
Do you remember your 9th birthday?
I don’t quite recall mine. But I’m sure my birthday was spent inside my nice Chicagoland home, surrounded by family, friends, food, and fun. When I blew out the candles I probably wasn’t wishing for something as simple as a good meal, a sturdy pair of shoes, or a bed mattress. No, I had all that and my mind was probably selfishly focusing on getting the latest Sega Genesis game. Tucked inside all of my presents was the stability of having parents who provided everything I needed and the ignorance that let me take for granted what I had been blessed with.
I bet Joel has his own friends and his own special celebration, but when I think about his 9th birthday and my own, I see stark differences. Joel doesn’t have a mother and a father nor does he have some of the same comforts my privileged lifestyle afforded me. Instead of filling up on cake and the promise of having a long, gratifying life ahead, Joel probably ate some rice and was just happy to have something to eat.
This isn’t to say that I think Joel’s life would be more fulfilling by having more stuff—no I think he is blessed in a different way by his family of fellow orphans and caretakers like “Momma” Lucy and “Uncle” Duncan. Rather, I can hardly comprehend the difficult differences in our lives.
I was born into a prosperous family (by world standards) while Joel was born with nothing. Whereas I had the security and comfort of having regular meals under a big house with a wardrobe of clothes and my own bed to sleep in, Joel lives in a state of economic and social insecurity. While I had the whole world in front of me, Joel only has about 16 more years ahead of him.
Joel is one of 22 million Africans living with HIV. But Joel is more than a statistic. Having met this little shy and playful Kenyan boy, my heart breaks at the thought of him going through all the emotional, physical, and social pain of having HIV.
I find comfort though in what Hillsong United sings in “You Deserve”: in the darkness, God’s light shines.
No matter how many years Joel lives, God has, is and will use Joel to impact others and ultimately advance God’s plan of restoring Creation. This 9-year-old has already inspired one advocacy organization that has touched and united many souls under the banner of compassion and love—truly timeless, borderless, and classless gifts from God.
A BIG thanks to The Simple Dollar!!
This past Friday The Simple Dollar announced Jump for Joel as the official Christmas charity for 2008!! Check out the article here. This may or may not have been linked to the fact that the author, Trent Hamm, is my (favorite) brother-in-law. The Simple Dollar is a blog all about personal finance. This gives Trent’s thousands of readers a chance to be introduced to some cool kids in Kenya. God works in weird ways… sometimes he uses blogs and brothers-in-law.
As a thank you to Trent I would now like to return the favor.
I, Vicky Knoke, would like to announce thesimpledollar.com as my favorite personal finance blog for 2008!!!
Now the thousands (ish) readers of the J4J blog can be linked with some financial advice.
Thanks again to Trent and all of the readers of The Simple Dollar!!!