News
Check out our latest news, newsletters, reports, testimonials, videos.
History of Rehema for Kids
Learn more about where we started with Founders, Jeff and Carla Picicci and the beautiful children of Kenya!
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Each month, we send out our Jambo newsletter via email. This fun update is written by Mama Carla and gives updates about life at our In Step campus.
You will also receive other emails with the inside scoop on what's happening in the ministry.
Newsletters & Updates
“Each time I visit I sense a change in the atmosphere as you enter through the large doors at the entrance to the Home property – the atmosphere changes from desperation and vulnerability to hope, belonging and restoration.”
Does time fly on that side of the world like it does here? I can hardly believe another month has passed! The weather can’t decide what it wants to do! When it was supposed to be raining, it was only showering. Around here there are three classifications of rain; 1. Rain – what most people would call a downpour. 2. Shower – what most people would call rain. 3. Drizzle – think Seattle. Many farmers anticipated this and planted their maize early in hopes of harvesting before the predicted El Nino conditions hit. We have been here for 20 years, and I don’t…
Jambo everyone! I hope you are all doing well! I know many of you are winding up your summer break and preparing for your kids to start a new school year. While here, we are just starting the last term of our school year before our “summer” break! It has been a busy few weeks as the kids have all been home for end-term break, but now that everyone is back in school, things should settle down a bit! I am doing much better than I was when you last heard from me! Malaria has cleared and I’ve got my strength back – both…
Jambo everyone! Here I am, back in Kenya, enjoying the grind of real life and rainy season, after a wonderful time with my family, at home in Washington! I’ve been struggling to get caught up on everything left undone while I was gone, and I feel like I’m finally getting there! Okay, I’m never completely caught up, but I’m as close as I ever have been. LOL! Getting back in the groove was a bit of a struggle this time around. I’m not sure why, but I just couldn’t seem to get my mind back in Kenya! I was jet-lagged…
“We were blessed and changed by the time we spent at In Step Children’s Home. To use our skills and experience to serve the kids and staff there truly brought us joy. To see the way each child’s life was changed by having a home and a family brought to light the way that we are all changed when we are adopted by our Father into an eternal home and family! The names and faces of many of the beautiful children there will forever be in our memory!”
Jambo everyone! Surprise! It’s Jeff writing this month’s Jambo letter. Carla has been back in Washington state, taking a well-deserved respite, visiting with her folks, and enjoying our kids and grandkids. So, we (we being Carla, me and Estha, and Tori) thought we’d try something a little different this month, and that I’d give you the update on how I am holding down the fort without her – which I could not do without an awesome staff! While on school break earlier this month, Class 8 recently did a community service project. They visited the home of an 84-year-old woman…
Jambo everyone! I’m so sorry that this update is so late! Things have been crazy at home, with all high school kids on break! They are now at the age that if you keep them home, within the campus, they become very restless, which isn’t pleasant for any of us! LOL! I thank God for our amazing social workers who arrange outings, Bible camps, community service projects, visits to the market, long walks around our neighborhood, etc. In addition, they are dealing with fourteen different high schools and one culinary school, to make sure that all 47 students have completed their homework assignments and have…
Upon visiting our Children’s Home and School, “I have never seen a place like this in all my years of serving the courts. Congratulations, we’re very proud of you!”
Jambo everyone! The rains are here! Farmers are planting maize! The grass is turning green! Flowers are blooming! Kids are roping off their shambas (farms), some with innovative irrigation systems! Rain water is being “harvested from the metal roofs around our place and a strange relief, which always seems to accompany the first rains, is felt everywhere you go! I think I mentioned our water crisis last month. The boreholes just could not keep up with our needs and we were paying hundreds of dollars to bring water for domestic chores, watering crops and doing construction. The start of the rainy season was…
“Upon arriving at In Step Children’s Home, I was amazed at how loving and caring the environment was. It truly feels like a home and I immediately felt part of this family. Being able to join this community in loving and serving the children here is such an amazing and life changing experience. I hope to continue to come back!”