Volume 26 Issue 2

2026 New Dawn Kenya
36 Form 1 Freshmen Students

We have just assimilated over 70 Form 1 Freshmen students into our New Dawn Communities in Tanzania and Kenya. These are orphan youth who come from all over their country.

Our new students quickly come to realize that New Dawn is much more than an ordinary school, it’s a safe home and a caring family for their next four years. They often tell us that their life and education is SO much better than anything that they ever could have even imagined. Without adequate support, these orphaned youth would surely face dire circumstances and challenges as they navigate their teenage years, which greatly complicating their adult lives.

Each year, since 2005, we have committed to providing this extraordinary opportunity to orphaned youth without charge. Our consistent operating budget for a community is a little over $200,000 per year. This is what it costs us to meet their real needs and fulfill their broken dreams. They often tell us that their life and education experience is a much better than anything that they ever even could have ever imagined.

One immediate need is to provide each new student with their own personal bible. This is an essential part of their spiritual life and growth. We invite you to consider providing this precious tool as a personal “welcome” gift from you and your family. They are only $15 each.

Here are some ways you can partner with us in changing a life:

$15 provides a personal bible for one of our students
$125 per student, per month provides what a student needs to succeed
$1,500 per student, per year covers a student’s expenses for one year
$6,000 per student, enables a student to earn a diploma during their four years
$ Any amount helps and makes a significant difference

Sharing the Campus Site Plan & Vision
for Expansion with the Village Elders

The Tanzanian Dept. of Education requires all schools to provide administrative facilities for teaching staff. New Dawn has accommodated our staff needs temporarily within our assembly hall with plywood cubicles. The government representatives have been very lenient with New Dawn because they have seen firsthand what kind of positive results we are achieving as we work through our development phases.

Yet it is now time to fulfill this requirement permanently, and by God’s grace we have had two donors pledge a total of $70,000 into a matching grant fund.

This means that your gift towards this campus development project is doubled!

There are three upcoming New Dawn presentations Scheduled:

Sunday, February 15 at Mountain Springs Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Sunday, February 22 at First Christian Church, Napa, California
Sunday, March 1 at Cornerstone Community Church, San Clemente, California

We would love to have you join us at your nearest location. Feel free to Contact us if you have questions or need directions.

As I consider Pastor James, memories from 1/4 of a century flood my mind and heart. It is not just Diane and I who are also grieving the lost of our dear Pastor James, it’s so many others who knew and loved James over the last 25 years.

We have all built New Dawn Communities together, and while we were together in Laikipia, James and Eunice invited us to stay in their home and welcomed us as part of their family: Donovan, Ian, Joy, Mike, Richard, Gina, Tatiana, Cathy, Chris, Violet, Ron Bircher, Jasmine, Darin, Ernesto, Tina, Zack, Robbie, Jordan, Dan, Jack, Erica, Joy, just to name a few…

God made James and I brothers in Christ, yet he was also my partner in ministry. Even more than that, he was my friend. I became acquainted with Pastor James in 1999, through Stan and Damaris. I heard of this Man of God in Kenya who was a Bishop of several Baptist Churches. He was a shepherd of God’s people and overseer who would often ride his bicycle to visit his flock. He was a man who would pray with other ministers in a little wooded church all night long. A man who wanted to meet the needs of his community, and prayed that God would supply him with the means to serve those who were suffering. I believe we were brought together as a result of those Spirit inspired prayers.

In those early days, Diane and I felt lead to partner with Stan & Damaris and World Christian Outreach (WCO) to help this precious man fulfill his calling by providing the funds to build that little wood church, as well as purchasing a few cows, and constructing rain water cisterns. One of our first bigger projects together was to drill a well, install a generator, and build a water storage tank, which was to provide water for the community. Even the children in our Sunday School classes helped to raise funds for the cows and well. As we worked together, we began to envision the establishing of a Christ Centered Community within the local community.

In a step towards this vision, WCO flew Pastor James to America in 2002 to cast the vision. James had never been on an airplane before. The day after he arrived, Stan and Damaris brought James down to our Cornerstone Community Church in San Clemente, California. This was the first time I met this wonderful Man of God in person. Cornerstone was where he preached his first sermon in America. Following the service, we went down to the beach, where James took off his shoes and got his bare feet in the beach sand and stepped into the ocean for the first time. As I recall, this was also the first time he ever ate fish from the sea.

Pastor James had a desire and vision to not just reach his neighbors, but also to reach his neighboring countries, Tanzania and Uganda, with the gospel. At this time, Stan and James invited me to join in this significant step of faith. The following year, 2003, Stan and one of our young worship leaders and I joined Pastor James and Kennedy for a kingdom expanding ministry that God has used to establish partnership and friendship that continues to this day. Since then, many of our friends and family and I have traveled back to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to continue this mission of serving God’s people. We have spent countless hours together with Pastor James, stuffed into his Pajero, driving countless kilometers, ministering in dozens of villages and towns, reaching, preaching and teaching.

I loved James and have missed him very much. I’ve learned that when God brings people together, He means for us to not just be in the same room or vehicle together. God wants us to truly be one. One of the final prayers Jesus prayed for us was, “Father make them ONE, even as We are ONE” James took us into his heart, which is why he took us into his home, and we shared life, as well as ministry together. We became family, and such close relationship comes with much joy and sometimes pain. Yet through all the years, love is never lost because “love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, Love Never Fails”. I have grown to love through the test of time and trial, I have grown to love James more than ever. Although our paths took a turn, our unity remains indivisible. I look forward to seeing my dearest friend at the Great Banquet. God made us family, but we worked very hard to become friends as well. Although our culture varied in many ways, we blended our ways and worked to achieve far more than we ever could have, had God not lead our paths to cross. It is when we lay down our individual lives and let God have His way, we experience “above and beyond all we could ask or think”.

We take teams to New Dawn once or twice a year. Our Project Trips are planned for the summers, typically in mid-July. These trips focus on a Community Enhancement Project and Team Workshops.

This summer’s project is a large community Gazebo.

Our Graduation and Commencement trips are planned for the end of November. For orphaned youth, this is an extraordinary life achievement, and it is our privilege and pleasure to attend their ceremony, celebrating with our Form 4 senior students as they receive their honors and diplomas.

The revised dates for our 2026 team Project Trip are:

• 22 July, Wed – Teams depart USA, from LAX, Spokane, San Francisco
• Team converge in airline Hub
• 23 July, Thu – Team arrives in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, lodging at Leopard Hotel, Moshi
• 24 July, Fri – Breakfast, drive to Same, lodging at Elephant Motel, visit New Dawn
• 25 July, Sat – Set posts for Gazebo
• ⁠26 July, Sun – Worship at New Dawn, lunch and fellowship
• ⁠27 July, Mon – Gazebo roof rafters
• ⁠28 July, Tue – Gazebo railing
• ⁠29 July, Wed – Gazebo bench, landscape
• ⁠30 July, Thu – Farewell meeting, drive to airport, return to USA
• Drive to Arusha with remainder of team, for Safari
• 31 July, Fri – Pick-up for Safari, drive to Game Reserve, check into Lodge
• Afternoon Game Drive, dinner
• 1 Aug, Sat – All day Game Drive
• ⁠2 Aug, Sun – Early morning Game Drive, breakfast, drive to Kilimanjaro airport
• Team Departure, teams arrive in USA
• Directors fly to Nairobi, lodging in Nairobi
• 3 Aug, Mon – Drive to Laikipia, afternoon at New Dawn Kenya
• 4 Aug, Tue – All Day at NDCK
• 5 Aug, Wed – Drive to Nairobi airport, fly back •Arrive in USA

PRAY

• Our freshmen students, as they assimilate into their new home, and for our return students, as they embrace them into their new family.
• Our indigenous staff, as they seek to meet some of the deeper needs of our students; to heal lost hope, raise dashed expectations, revive broken dreams, and reinforce their commitment to excellence, as they apply themselves in this rare opportunity.

GIVE

• Ask God if He would have you meet one of these needs:
• $20 provides one of our students with their very own bible
• $60 or $125 provides what a student needs to succeed at New Dawn for a month
• $100 – $1,000 or $10,000 is doubled when given towards our Admin Building

GO

• Will you GO to New Dawn with the team in July?
• Would you GO by sending someone who wants to GO to New Dawn in July?
• Would you GO tell somebody about New Dawn in the next couple of weeks?
• Would you GO by serving on a local area team, that New Dawn could mature?

… according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:16

Contact us – Watch for further details in future newsletters.

Email: ronsukut@newdawncommunities.org

Phone: (949) 275-4974