Photos of Mary, Mercy, Anthony and Jeddiah

These four wonderful children who we have become friends with have been able to leave the hospital in Kijabe and move to a boarding school about 1 hour away.  The school is called Valley’s Lilly School.  The school is a beautiful place owned and managed by a Christian couple.  We went and visited the children at the school.

All of us together at the school

Anthony, Jeddiah, Hannah and Beatrice playing

Mary and Jeddiah

Mercy

Anthony

In front of the school - Mary with Hannah

The children have been given their own room so that they can stay together.  The other children in the school are boarded into rooms based on their grade.  The school grows all their own vegetables and fruits – in fact we were told that they grow so much that they are able to sell the extra food to add some income to the school.  As well they have animals such as cows to provide milk and meat for the children. 

Anthony was very proud to have his own bed

The school has their own cows for milk and meat

The school has their own gardens for food

Jeddiah and us taking a tour of the gardens

The children’s mothers have found a place to live about 5 minutes from the school.  They have small concrete rooms.  As the mothers have very little donations were taken from people in Kijabe, both from individuals from the school and the hospital, to provide them with matrices, blankets, food and other necessary items.

We brought many items for the mothers - who are living close by

Each mother has a small concrete room - this is Mama Mary

A few days I was confronted with a situation which I never knew existed so close to where we live.  The issue of malnutrition and starvation.  I was called by my friend to go down to the hospital and see this little guy named Wiki.  He is 4 years old and weighs only 12 pounds (he looks like he is one).  Ideally a child his age should weigh at least 30-35 pounds.  His hair had turned brownish/red, a sign of severe malnutrition and he had a bad curvature in his spine.  His mom looked extremely ill and the pastor was saying, it is likely she has AIDS.  This child will die unless there is immediate intervention.   As I looked into his mother’s eyes, she turned her head away, with a sense of dread, no hope. 

I can’t even begin to share with you the emotions and conflict that I felt as I held his weak body, too weak to even shoo away the flies that were landing on his face.  I asked, God, why?  Why are there starving children in Kenya – this country is so advanced, so wealthy compared to so many other African nations.  And yet, here in my arms is a child, so close to death.  As I held him, I knew that this was another opportunity to share the love of Jesus – there is so much more we can do, we must do, that we are called to do.  I want to share with you how this precious little Wiki has been a direct answer to our prayers.

We had mentioned in our last email that we were looking into the possibility of adopting a baby here in Kenya, and for several months we have been looking into our options.  Last Friday we met with a well known lawyer who deals with foreign adoptions and after our meeting it became quite obvious to Andrew and I that adoption was out of the picture for us – unfortunately there is an Ontario adoption clause which states that if we want to do an adoption as Kenyan residents (which we now are), then we would have to give up our Canadian residency.  The other option would be to do an International adoption which would mean that we would have to come back to Ontario, register with a Canadian adoption agency which would do a home study on us and have to approve us and then have them contact a Kenyan adoption agency on our behalf.  We’ve been told that this could cost upwards of $20,000.   So, we’ve been feeling a bit discouraged.

Over the past weekend we were praying and asking God to show us, if we are not to adopt a baby, then for Him to direct us to more opportunities to support children and babies who are in need and perhaps even support an orphanage in need.  At the same time I have been reading the autobiography of George Mueller – a man of faith from the 1800’s who relied fully on God’s provision through prayer and faith.  He and his wife sold everything they had to give to the poor and asked that God would use them in a mighty way.  They never asked for money but shared the needs and he writes story after story in this book of how God provided for all his needs in miraculous ways!  In his lifetime he started several orphanages, schools, Sunday-schools and other ministries and depended on God to finance all of these things.  If you need a story to encourage you on how God provides in miraculous ways, I encourage you to read this book!

Well it was on Monday when Elisheba who works in our home told me about many children who live in a village in Naivasha who are extremely poor.  There is currently a pastor named Charles and his wife who are in this village who are deeply involved in this ministry and run a feeding program to feed 73 children a daily lunch.  If these children do not receive this lunch, then likely they would not eat anything else.  Many of them are orphaned, some of them have AIDS and their parents have AIDS.  She told me that on Wednesday, Pastor Charles was bringing two of these children to Kijabe hospital – one baby girl with a severe cleft lip/palate and the other boy suffering from starvation and malnutrition. 

So, That’s how we met little Wiki.

So, on Wednesday, as I mentioned at the beginning of this letter, I went down to the hospital to go and see for myself the condition of both the children. The one infant girl was only one month old, she had a severe cleft lip/palate and had a hard time drinking from her mother’s breast.  She was seen by the surgeon here and given a surgery date for March 09 to start corrective surgery. 

After spending some time with both the children and their mother’s, I was able to sit down and talk with Pastor Charles.  He shared with me extensively about the situation, his heart’s desire to increase the numbers of the children in the feeding program.  Little Wiki and his siblings were not officially a part of the feeding program but Pastor Charles had been sharing his own limited supply of food with this family.  He said that there were at least 20 other children who are in desperate need for food and on the waiting list for the feeding program but there were just no additional funds to pay for it.  He told me it would cost about $18 a month to feed one child a nutritious meal each day.

Pastor Charles also shared about a deep desire to start an orphanage for so many of the kids who are orphaned as their parents die of AIDS.   He and his wife remind me of George Mueller – they share everything they have with the villagers around them – he is passionate to serve and to love those who are in extreme poverty.  As I listened to him talk and heard the passion in his voice to make a difference, I knew that God had answered our prayers and directed us into an opportunity to partner with Pastor Charles and his work.

After talking with Pastor I rushed back home and raided my pantry for food – flour, oil, sugar, onions, carrots, cookies, beans, lentils and boxed milk to feed these two families.  I also had a huge bottle of children’s cartoon vitamins to give little Wiki.  Another missionary lady gave me 9 kilos of protein enriched porridge for Wiki.  We pray that this food will save his life.

We are planning to visit Pastor Charles tomorrow and to see for ourselves the state of this community and the huge obstacles that he faces as he lives and works amongst these people.   We are also planning to visit our special friends who were burnt so terribly in the Eldoret fire in January – Mary, Mercy, Jeddiah and Anthony – you can read about their story in our past blog entries.  They have now been moved from Kijabe hospital to a school in Naivasha as well.  We will be bringing their families food and supplies. 

So tomorrow will be a very busy day.  We appreciate your prayers.

We pray that God will continue to guide and direct us how best we can help.  

As I write this to you I am reminded of these verses in the Bible from Matthew 25:

I was hungry and you fed me,
   I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
   I was homeless and you gave me a room,
   I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
   I was sick and you stopped to visit,
   I was in prison and you came to me.’

‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone     overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

Matthew 25:34-40 (Excerpts from The Message)

We’ll update you again as we find out more.  For now, we thank you for reading this, for encouraging us with your prayers, your letters and emails.  We know as we do this work, we are not alone – that you are behind us!

God Bless!

Love,

Andrew, Sue, Hannah and Beatrice Faber