Domnic and Millicent Owigo Wed!

Hello Grace Family!

We have some very exciting news regarding our Kenya Directors, Pastor Domnic & Sis. Millie... On December 28th, Domnic and Millicent were married in Migori, Kenya! This has been well over a year in the making to put together a wedding program as well as raise the funds to pay dowry and other costs; I am sure they are happy to have arrived at their long awaited special day. This couple has been a very special part of my and Carl's life for over a year through email correspondence after I met them on my August 2007 mission trip to Karatina, Kenya. To make them even more special, they are also our Kenya Directors who will be heading up the ground work to this ministry there while we work hard in the US to raise the funds and create more resources, volunteers, and opportunities for the orphan community we envision building in the coming years. Currently they are working to get reliable legal information for operating this nonprofit in Kenya and US simultaneously which includes securing Kenyan attorneys and relaying information for our monthly Board Meetings here in the states as well as working to build a Kenyan GFM Team.

Brother Domnic wrote recently to me and included a bio-like excerpt. I thought it would be appropriate to share this with the GFM Family so that you can get to know our Kenyan Director, especially how blessed we are to have him and his wife serving with us. His english is African/British style but I believe he writes/speaks most beautifully, almost in poetic form at times, and find my own style of writing a bit simple in comparison. Just one of the little differences in culture and geography that I enjoy so much!

Enjoy!
Bobbi Jo Miller


ABOUT DOMNIC OWIGO

I (Domnic) got saved at the age of 21 years old in the year 1997. This is the year that the Lord made for my life transformation after living a lost life in the world for some year.

After this great transformation of life from one destiny to the other, the Lord Himself planted in me a seed of preaching the gospel. For the rest of the years that I’ve lived for the Lord, I’ve been involved in the ministry of serving the Lord amongst His people for His glory according to the grace given to me in services.

The grace of doing Lord’s work stated on my life as a great burden with a need towards Lord’s people. I was burdened with the needs of people and these need sparked my passion. When I made it to action in response towards this need by doing Lord’s service, the action moved others to cooperate and through this, a team was formed to focus on a common goal upholding unity for work force unto the Lord. Though this work was moving effectively, but it met a shake down when the leader (Domnic) and the secretary left for a Bible school and all wagons of this train stopped moving.

Being that the seed of God can not be locked or dumped permanently by the absent of men; I can testify that the Lord is rising up this broken wall with a great revival desire. Many people are coming up again for this work and God is connecting strings to over seas with friends. There is one woman by the name Bobbi Jo Miller who is over burdened and moved by God’s power to serve in this area as he do the Lord's work. Bobbi Jo has adopted the same spirit which was with Othniel (one of Bible judges) who found the people of God surrounded by their enemies (Mesopotamian); He matched in to the battle to lead Hebrew’s army and prevailed against their enemies. This brought 40 years of peace in the land.
The need which Bobbi saw in Nairobi Kenya among the Orphans/Street Kids, during her first visit has moved her heart to act as she leads a team from US to cooperate with Kenya leaders who are also partaking in this same burden so that they may work in helping these defeated people of God.

HOW DOMNIC & BOBBI MET.

Bobbi Jo Miller came for a mission to Africa Kenya with a fellow servant called Lori Shinar. This was in the year 2007 when I was still in a Bible school. Their mission extended to reach us in this school whereby we had a youth camp together for 7 days.
This is the time we first met for a week and shared visions of ministries together with them. We were all moved by each other’s as the visions were matching as twins. Through this we began planning for a joint work force pursuing it as one vision of reaching Lord’s people in Africa beginning from Kenya to other nations.

This plan is on the ground whereby Bobbi Jo is the president in operation of this ministry in U.S. for organizing the sources and resources, while Domnic and Millicent Owigo are the Kenya Directors of all ground work and mobility with other co-workers.

The ministry is focused on developing capability to disable people who are struggling with life but defeated. This is to enable them gain their lives of today living and future, both spiritually and materially.

We are working towards mitigating the needs of:-

- Orphans/Street Kids
- Widows
- Spreading the Word of God to the lost world.

Rummage Success!

Carl and Andrew working hard at the rummage sale and having some fun too... folding clothes. Ha!


The first GFM Rummage Sale Event was last weekend and it was a SUCCESS! We could not have done it without Bob & Heather Overly whose home driveway was donated to us for the sale along with breakfast sandwiches and much hard work volunteering on their part. A BIG THANKS to both of them!
As the sale was winding down Sunday, a kind gentleman who happened to be an attorney came by. Bob and I got the chance to talk to him about the ministry resulting in an offer from him to help incorporate us at a discounted price! What an answered prayer. We also raised $500 in cash plus took in a private pledge that will cover the remaining costs of incorporating. Now we move forward into the Inc. application process and wait for the paperwork to be finished, thanks to an attorney, and approved by the state. We are hoping by January sometime we will be changing our name to: Grace Family Ministry, Inc.

Once we have incorporation status we get our EIN and Tax ID numbers, our bank account and PO Box, and begin to work on the 501(c)3 application. We will be applying as early as April for our 501(c)3 if not by July of 2009. Upon the approval, all donations received anytime in the year of 2009 will be TAX-DEDUCTIBLE! This is possibly the most exciting news we have received this month as donations are few and far between when a nonprofit is not tax-deductible for the giver; understandably so. Soon this will no longer be a problem for us!


To all those who donated money or sale items = THANK YOU!!!!!

Many Thanks to Andrew Gwati, Shauna Reich, and Phil for your hours given to working the Rummage Sale last weekend.

Also a very Special Thanks and appreciation to Carl Miller. Carl worked 3 weeks straight begging everyone he knew or ran into for item donations; picking them up all over the valley, dropping them off at sale location, and much more. 75% of our Rummage Sale Items were brought in by Carl! GREAT JOB!!!!

God Bless,
Bobbi Jo Miller

GFM RUMMAGE SALE!!!!!

Hello GFM Family!

GFM is having a Rummage Sale to raise start-up costs. The money raised will go towards our Incorporation Application Fee, 501(c) App. Fee, and all Legal Fees associated with such. Our goal is to raise $2,000 to fully fund start-up cost. Come shop, come give, come enjoy!


What? Rummage Sale
When? December 6 & 7, 2008, 7am - 3pm
Where? 14617 N. 45th Place, Phoenix, 85032
Details: We will have a wide variety of items for sale including computer monitors and printers, dvd player, bread machine, rice cooker, TONS of good conditioned clothes, FURNITURE, books, ceiling fans, vases, dishes, decorations... and on and on. Also will have a African import table!

***We are still collecting donations for this event until December 5th, Friday. If you have any item you can donate, we have a couple drop off locations or we can come to you and pick up (we have trucks for large items). Please call Bobbi @ 480-430-8089 or email her at gracefamilyministry@gmail.com to arrange. We will do all we can to make it easy on you. WE NEED ALL WE CAN GET - PLEASE HELP US RAISE THIS MONEY. If you have nothing to donate - COME SHOP AT OUR SALE! :-)

God Bless!

The Beginning.

Grace. One word seemingly small and simple yet one of the most powerful in our local vocabulary, in The Holy Bible, in our lives. If we could only share our grace with the children orphaned and living on the streets of Africa hopelessly. Guess what? We can! God said YES!


The beginning of Grace Family Ministry was born long before accepting Christ in my life. God has been working on it throughout my life; developing the empathy for children in need, developing my leadership, growing me spiritually through many sufferings of my own and years living in the dark. Not only has He been working on it in me, but also in many people he has recently brought into my life for GFM.

For myself, the love of Africa has been in my heart from my first breath on, only until last year, I did not know why. Everything Africa I magnetized to - African elephants, African-Americans, African movies, African news, African music. With time this passion only grew more strong yet I still had no idea what to do with it. By age 32 I had collected over 100 African elephant items but nothing was scratching my African itch! I always knew I would go to Africa some day. August of 2007 that came true. Only 5 years ago I turned my life over to Christ, taking on the will of God instead of own; not an easy journey and never ending. Last year I was invited to Africa on mission with a church friend, Lori Shinar, who is also obsessed with Africa. By the grace of God my husband found the money for the trip, I booked my ticket, and there was no turning back. This was the largest leap of faith I had yet to take; traveling alone for 3 days through countries by air just to get to Nairobi since Lori and I could not match up our flight plans. Lori came into Nairobi the morning after me, thank God! I had never traveled outside the US let alone done so Solo with 3 bends of cargo to get to Kenya - but every time I felt I was in trouble or beat, giving up that control to Christ, the Lord provided abundantly. After 3 weeks in Kenya spent on the Masai Mara for 3 days of safari, at the Gift Orphanage in Nairobi bringing soccer balls & craft items, and in Karatina for 8 days during a Christian youth conference at Antioch teaching music, spiritual gifting, and most importantly about sex-marriage-AIDS/HIV-courtship-dating to the youth, my life was forever changed.




I finally knew what this growing desire for Africa was for... to serve the children of Africa in the name of Christ. During my stay in Nairobi we had dinner with Sandy Wilson who was a founder of a local Nairobi Street Kids Ministry for boys.

After hearing about the children living on the streets there, the daily struggles most children of Africa are up against, and the hopeless situation for orphans my heart was bleeding. Upon returning home from Kenya, I could not stop thinking about those orphans and street kids. The pain in my heart for them was crying out for a plan; a way to help them. But not to just Band-Aid their situation; to truly change their lives forever.

July of 2008, after months of knowing I had to start a nonprofit ministry for these kids and after receiving more of Gods vision for that, I was faced with finding a name for this work. The name Grace has been in my heart as long as Africa. It was the one name as a child that I knew I would be using; that was given to my heart to use for something very special. Up until 3 years ago, I "assumed" that special thing to receive the name of Grace would be my first born daughter. After doctors removed my uterus due to stage 4 endometriosis at 29 years old, I knew I was way off. God had a plan for Grace and revealed that the Family we hope to create out of the wreckage of an orphans life in Africa is nothing short of Grace. The creation of this family is only done so upon God's Grace... our African sons and daughters will be given Grace and will be known by Grace. For I now know this ministry and all these children are my first born child; I hope to enjoy hundreds of children through my new family. We will all be apart of Gods family gifted to us by Jesus - The Grace Family.

The plan of our Lord has been revealed to myself and those others brought into my life all in His perfect timing. We have received His vision and now begin to take the first steps. Our second board meeting takes place this week on the 15th where we will discuss and vote on our Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, and Business Plan and plan a rummage sale in order to raise our Start-Up Costs. These costs include our Incorporation Application, Lawyer Fees, Ground-laying Mission Trip to Kenya early 2009, 501(c) application fees, AZ Corporate Commission Name Reservation Fee, GFM Website, P.O. Box, and any office supplies. Once we get incorporated we can apply for 501(c). This will more than likely happen early 2009 as we are hoping for official Incorporation to take place by end of year. We have reserved our name with the AZCC but will have to renew that reservation if our application if not complete and lawyer approved by December 14th.

Current Board Members:
Bobbi Jo Miller = President/Founder
Andrew Gwati = Vice President
Shuana Riech = Secretary
Carl Miller = Treasurer

Kenyan Directors:
Pst. Domnic & Sis. Millicent Owigo

Please help us pray over the needs of this nonprofit, praying that start up costs are provided and applications are approved quickly, and for the needs of our children orphaned and living on the streets of Kenya and all over Africa. May we hold steadfast to this vision placed faithfully in us by the Lord, living for our purpose in helping these abandoned children and putting them first. May we follow the will of God and only His will in every step we take as we begin this life work in Africa through Grace Family Ministry. May our Family grow!

In Christ's Love,
Bobbi Jo Miller

PS. And... may I never get "founders syndrome" too! ;-)