We invite you, and your friends and family to Daylight’s first annual Family Fun Fall Hayride.

There will be hot dogs, s’mores, a fire pit, music, face paint, and of course: horses and hayrides!

Suggested Donation:
$20 Individual
$35 Couples
$50 Families

Come have some family fun and support the work Daylight Center and School is doing!

When: October 6th, 12:30-3:00pm

Where: Bunker Park Stables, 550 Bunker Lake Blvd NW, Andover, MN

Invite your friends by forwarding this email, or through our Facebook event.
You can also print the PDF event flyer.

See you there!

Joyce Schwartz
Board Chair, Daylight U.S.

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Answered prayer: supporters have already given funds for 4 out of 20 bunk beds needed. This number includes the bed Tilly gave a few weeks ago.

We are encouraging people who donate for a bunk bed to take a picture of themselves and write down a prayer for Daylight students. The picture and prayer will be framed and hung by a bunk bed for the students to see each night before bed.

Join Tilly. Give a bunk bed!

Throughout the month of August, Daylight students have been on break from class and spending sunrise to sunset on the soccer field.

Daylight has year round school that begins each January. There is no big summer break, but three breaks during the year when boarding students can return home to visit family in nearby villages: three weeks in August, four weeks in December, and 2 weeks in April.

Those that live in the area or chose not to return home this last August, spent the break playing soccer and volleyball, doing pull-ups, swinging, and singing.

They are heading back to class this week and the new classrooms are under construction!

Thank you for making Daylight a place of joy for so many children!

Nathan Roberts
U.S. Director

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Answered prayer: we have reached our $5,500 goal for a new Phase 1 classroom! Special thanks to First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater.

Meet Tilly. She’s nine years old, starting 4th grade, and lives in Minnesota.

Last week, she came up to me before church and held up a brown paper lunch bag that had “Tilly’s Summer Sale for Daylight” scrawled on the front in black permanent marker. In the paper bag was over $350!

The Duct Tape club Tilly started has been busy for a good part of this year making coffee cup cozies, decorating note cards, and repurposing oatmeal canisters into piggy banks.

On the morning of August 17th, they set up a table to display the duct tape crafts and information about Daylight. To top it off, they mixed up some lemonade, including exotic flavors of mint, and purple basil pink.

Tilly’s Summer Sale was open for business that single day from 10am until 5pm. She sold out of one of the lemonade flavors and most of the duct tape crafts. Her father told me “The only thing I would amend would be her estimation of how many people came to her stand,” (Tilly surmised about 50), “It was a hot day and by the end of it more than a hundred had stopped by.”

When I asked Tilly why she chose to give her Summer Sale money to Daylight, she said: “Because Daylight has taken [in] kids that can’t move parts of their bodies, or orphaned and displaced kids.” She explained that she has heard about other programs, but that those programs already have many people supporting them.

Tilly has decided to use the Summer Sale money to buy 1 bunk bed ($200) for Daylight’s new dormitory, and the rest she wants to go toward food for Daylight students. There is enough to cover the cost of meals for 2 students for an entire year!

I am so inspired and encouraged by Tilly! I hope you are too.

Rachel Finsaas
U.S. Director of Operations

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Answered prayer: we have reached our $5,500 goal for the Phase 1 classroom! Construction will begin this week. Special thanks to First Presbyterian Church of Stillwater.

Grace is a Daylight student that is very close to our hearts.

Her Pokot name is Kakuko. I met Kakuko in 2011 standing next to a hut made of sticks and mud. She had a scarf tied around her head; hidden beneath was the worst ear growth I had ever seen. So we took her to Daylight and a doctor.

After taking antibiotics, her ear infection was gone! She can fully hear again and there is no more pain. She had many new experiences at Daylight: from using an outhouse, washing her hands, even entering other peoples’ homes without an invitation, Kakuko has a lot to learn about living in a town!

But after her ear was healed, her stepfather came to bring her back to the desert. She spent the next year panning for gold in the stream by her stepfather’s hut. But earlier this year, Michael Kimpur and Nathan Roberts were able to convince the stepfather to allow Kakuko to go back to school. She is now back studying at Daylight!

Soon, she will be staying in the dormitory instead of sleeping on a mattress in the Kimpur’s living room. However, there are still a few steps before she can move into the dorm! Currently, our 4th and 5th grade classes are studying in the dormitory until a new Phase 1 corrugated tin classroom can be built ($5,500).

Within the last week, supporters have donated $3,000 toward the Phase 1 classroom! This is a great start! We still need $2,500 to build the classroom. Then bunk beds with mattresses, sheets, blankets and mosquito nets must be purchased ($4,000). We also need an additional $300 per month pledged toward operating expenses to provide the necessary food and staff for overnight care of Grace and 39 other students to stay in the dormitory.

Please continue praying for the students, the necessary funds to be given, and health of the workers throughout this process. And thank God for Daylight!

Lauren Soderstrom
Daylight U.S. Board Member

Last November, a missions team from Autumn Ridge Church in Rochester, MN went to Daylight to help build a dormitory for 40 orphaned students from the desert. The team fundraised for the construction of the dormitory and spent 10 days in Kenya roofing, building desks, sharing stories and studying the Bible with the staff and builders at Daylight.

The project was set to be completed in early spring, but as with many things, malaria got in the way. The Kenyan builder, David, spent a month in bed with malaria in March, then a few weeks in May, and again in July. But when he was strong enough to work, he faithfully returned to the property to finish the work he had been paid to do.

However, there are still a few steps before the students can move in! Currently, our 4th and 5th grade classes are studying in the dormitory until a new Phase 1 corrugated tin classroom can be built ($5,500). Then bunk beds with mattresses, sheets, blankets and mosquito nets must be purchased ($4,000). We also need an additional $300 per month pledged toward operating expenses to provide the necessary food and staff for overnight care of the 40 students to stay in the dormitory.

Please be praying for the children, the necessary funds to be given, and continued health of the workers as we continue this process.

Nathan Roberts
US Director