For church yesterday I visited a new place that I’d never been before. I’d heard of this place called The Children’s Garden and another leader and I decided to check it out. It is a home for children from a slum area called Kwangare, located across
Nairobi from where we are in Kibera. A Kenyan couple with a heart for orphans started spending time in the slum a few years ago searching for orphans to take in and raise. Moses and his wife, the founders, now live there with the children and 7 other adults that are the teachers at the neighboring Children’s
Garden
School. Currently there are 78 children living here at this home, and the number continues to grow each month!! It is funded by a couple of Swedish and Canadian ministries, but operated completely by Kenyans. The children range in age from 2 to 16 years and the older ones take care of the younger ones. On the grounds, there is a garden where each child that is at least 5 years old has been given a tree or plant to tend to. They take great pride in their plants and work hard to make sure they grow properly. The teachers also spend a lot of time in the garden with the children teaching them about the environment through hands on experience. There is also a large garden in the back where they grow all of their produce and the older children tend that well.
Each Sunday they have church in the living room of the large house where all 78 children live. We arrived at the home at 10:15 for church to start at 10:30. It was amazing to see all the children crammed in this living room, sitting completely still and paying attention throughout the 2 hour church service. The kids are absolutely adorable! There was a very active choir and dance team that led worship time and we found ourselves almost in tears as Jesus shined so bright through these kids. After church was over, a few of the boys named Shadrach and
Antony insisted on showing us around their home. We saw everything from the school to the dining hall to the bedrooms to the toilets! They have such pride for this place and each of the kids wanted to show us their bed! After we were showed around the grounds, the pastor insisted that we stay for chapatti. We assumed we’d stick around for another 30 minutes or so until the food was ready. Little did we know that we’d spend the next 3 hours waiting for the food! The afternoon was spent in fellowship with the house parents, the pastor, the teachers, and playing with all the kids. Needless to say, by the time the food came out we were exhausted!
I fell in love with this place and the children there. A few of the children I got to know personally. One in particular is little Sammy who is 4 years old. He didn’t speak any English, so our communication was pretty limited. It’s a good thing laughter is a universal language. We had fun in the yard playing hide and seek, picking pretty flowers, and catching strange looking bugs. Everywhere I went, he attached himself to my leg. He was particularly fascinated with my hair and couldn’t keep his hands out of it. At one point in the afternoon, he found a plastic ring (I wouldn’t doubt that he took it from another child, being the mischievous child he is!), and brought it to me. He placed it on my finger and came close to whisper something in my ear. He said, “Kee-la, nakupenda!” Translation: “Kayla, I love you!” It was so sweet! I look forward to seeing all the kids again soon.
Seeing how God has developed this home to care for these orphans just warmed my heart. There’s something about this place that draws you in and we found it hard to leave. I think it’s because God is at work in so many obvious ways there. We will definitely be visiting the Children’s Garden again; even though it’s about an hour commute by matatu across town…the trip is well worth it!
