Ruth and Children By Dawn Brown
Ruth has been a follower of Jesus and active in the church for many years. Her husband died of TB 8 years ago.
Ruth’s older brother and his wife had four children. Two were normal and two were seriously mentally handicapped. Four years ago, their mother died of typhoid and yellow fever. Shortly after that, their father, died of a lung problem, leaving the four children with no parents. Already widowed herself, Ruth took in her brother’s four orphaned children.
The girl is normal and in the 8th grade. She’s in and out of school because Ruth doesn’t always have funds to pay the costs, but when we visited, she was in school, thanks to those of YOU who donate to Child Arise.
The oldest is about 20, mentally handicapped, and can’t even speak. They think the youngest boy is 11 but looks more like 8. He doesn’t speak either and didn’t appear to be able to walk on his own. The little guy had some type of black fungus growing in globs out of the edges of his fingernails.
I can’t
figure out how people there take care of the basic needs of those who are
unable to do for themselves. Neither of
the handicapped boys can toilet themselves so they just go in their pants.
They
have no diapers, no wash cloths or towels, no easily available water to wash
them with, and soap is unaffordable for Ruth.
They have to go to the stream to do laundry by hand and they don’t even
have several changes of clothes.
It was such a struggle to sit there with this family; just heart breaking, and yet God loves them and sees their every need.
When Ruth goes to church she
said she has to lock the youngest boy in the house to keep him safe. When I heard this, my head screamed,
“Safe? That’s anything but safe? Not to mention, it looks dark and dungy in
that tiny house. This little guy must be
so scared in there alone.”
Then I
thought about where I was and the reality of life around me. I guess she must do the same when she gets
water, goes to the market, and does laundry at the stream. Things are different in Mbooni. They have to be, for the sake of
survival.
Mbooni Kenya, Now I’ve Been There by Dawn Brown
It was good for me to go to Mbooni to
see the ministry with my own eyes. Seeing
the logistics of everything has helped me.
I can understand things better than before and hopefully, I can convey
what I’ve learned to those of you here, who pray for and donate to this
ministry.
I got a much better idea of how orphaned children are cared for without orphanages in this area and how Elizabeth’s ministry just naturally included both widows and orphans.
In Kenya, orphan refers to a child who has lost one or both parents. I wrongly assumed that most of the orphans in Child Arise have lost only one parent. This is true for some, but not the majority.
Both parents of many of the
kids have died and they are taken care of by a widow who is a relative or
someone in the community takes them in.
Later, the husband dies, leaving the widow to take care of these
children alone. Some of these women are
in their 60s, 70s and even 80s.
When Elizabeth’s husband,
Pastor Mativo died, she started organizing this group of widowed women and it
just naturally included the orphans these women were taking care of.
Elizabeth
and I have spent a lot of time over the years, communicating about some of the
people in the
ministry. While in Kenya, I got to meet
many of the women that I’d heard about.
I’d
already heard their stories, seen their pictures and prayed for them by name
many times. It was so exciting for me to
actually meet them in person and visit them in their houses.
The conditions these woman and children live in are
unbelievable to say the least. Your donations are truly needed and helping. We have done so much and there is so much
more to do.
Prayer Requests from missionary Elizabeth Mativo
UI thank God for my health
& strength because without Him I am nothing. His grace has been sufficient & up to
this far I can say Ebenezer.
UWe have 2 candidates, Mutiso
Katei & Dennis Wambua who are sitting for the final national exams this
year. Please pray for them to perform
well. (Passing the national exams is
required for entrance into high school.)
U Pray for our country as we
are approaching the elections in March 2013.
Pray for peace & that God will choose a good leader that will take
the country forward. We have a lot of
corruption in our country that is getting in our way for development.
UPlease continue to pray for
electricity.
Donations can be made
to
Child
Arise Kenya
Widows
& Orphans Ministry
827 5 Ave Dr W, Andalusia
IL 61232
309-798-2596
ChildAriseKenya.com
Child
Arise Kenya is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit tax-exempt
ministry
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