House Warming

I attended a housewarming on Saturday, not for me, but for some special friends. Four years ago a widow in our community died. She left behind three children who lived with her, Jane, Shadrack and Chepchirchir. The children had several older married siblings. At the funeral everyone packed up and went home leaving the three youngest standing at the graveside. David Tarus (the director of ELI Kenya) saw them standing there with no one to care for them. He announced "get in the car, let's go home!". The children have moved around a bit since that time but always being under the supervision of David. At times they have been able to live under the same roof, but for the last year and a half they were split up. Jane is now 22 and Shadrack is about to enter his final year of high school. I think Chepchirchir is 12 or 13. I first met them in 2004 and have watched them grow in confidence over the last three years during my visits to Kenya.

Here is where the exciting part of the story comes in. Before she died, the children's mother had been involved in the Paper Making Project through ELI. She assisted in making paper for stationary to be sold in the United States. See www.empoweringlives.org for more info on how to support this project. She did not collect her earnings before passing away. Now that the children are old enough to be on their own they were granted the money their mother earned. With the money they built a small house on a tenth of an acre of property.

As a community we joined together for a house warming. Many speeches were made, the tears of joy flowed that day. As I watched my friends Juli and Allison share about how they had watched these three children grow and hold on to their hope in Christ my heart was deeply moved. I looked to the side and noticed that my parents were crying as well. I was reminded that the Bible says that this is true religion, to care for orphans and widows. And boy do we have a lot of orphans and widows in this community. But what a story of hope! To watch these three spread their wings and not only survive, but thrive in their environment is a true blessing!