Hello family and friends! I pray that all of you are doing well. Here in Kenya we are having a hard time believing it’s already March! Our time here is flying by. All is well in Kibera these days. We are continuing to experience God’s goodness and favor in the many ministry opportunities we have.
For this week’s update, I wanted to bring you up to date on how things at our orphanage are going. Our plan to have the house parents move out took a couple of weeks longer than we expected, but the transition finally happened this past Friday. These 12 kids have been through a lot and change is not ever easy for them. However, they seemed very excited about the adjustments being made. For the last several weeks, we’ve been doing a make-over for the orphanage. We had all the rooms repainted and moved all 8 girls back into the same room at their request.
The oldest of these kids, Zitah, has moved back in and is in charge of cooking for the family. She just graduated from boarding school and we’ve employed her at this job for a little while, as she prepares to apply for college. There is also a very sweet elderly woman named Charity living there now. Everyone just calls her “Shosho” which is Swahili for “grandmother.” Shosho goes to our church and has loved on these kids for many years now. All of her children and grandchildren are grown and she lives by herself. We asked her if she would be interested in moving in with the kids to be a grandmother to them and to help Zitah run the house. She jumped at the opportunity. I love spending time with Shosho! She doesn’t speak a word of English and doesn’t fully understand that my Swahili is limited but her smile lights up the room. This results in many conversations where she just rambles off in Swahili and I stand there and smile. She smiles back and all is well. Ha. Shosho makes baskets in her spare time. I’ve spent some time watching her in this craft and it is pretty intriguing. Yesterday as I was sitting with her she told me that next time she will teach me this trade. We’ll see how that works out for me, as I’ve never been the crafty one!
J
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As a team, we have pen pals with our kids. Each week we write them letters and deliver them to their house. They get really excited about receiving mail and we also have fun with it. My pen pal is Ivon. She is 10 and is one of the youngest kids. Since she is so young, she doesn’t know much English yet, but we still have a great time together. Ivon is very shy and at first wouldn’t say much more than “hi,” but she has now opened up and it’s neat to see her personality emerging.
Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon at the orphanage just hanging out with the kids. Ivon decided it would be a good idea for her to teach me how to wash clothes by hand. It’s a lot harder than it looks and I don’t think I was even doing it right! Ivon was very patient with me, but she just giggled the whole time. It was quite humorous.
As we were washing clothes I told Ivon that we should attack Purity and Effy who were also washing their clothes nearby. It started out as a little water splashing, but soon it developed into a full blown water fight!
We had a great time and Shosho even joined in on the fun!
J
I love all of these kids and I thank God for placing them in my life! They are growing into strong men and women of the Lord and it’s a privilege to be able to love on them. Please continue to pray for them. Most of them are teenagers now and they face the same pressures that teens in the US face. Pray that they will make good decisions and that they will continue to be Christian examples to their peers.
Have a wonderful week! I think about you guys and pray for you often. I hope to hear from you all soon.
Much love,
Kayla
