Last week was to say the least, very busy for all of us back in Kenya as we made preparations and purchases of items for distribution on Friday the 2nd of December. The entire leadership team went round doing the purchases. We included Christabel in the team to help with the girly stuff and David was also present to take pictures. This marked one year of service in the orphan program. We began in December last year with fifteen sponsored children and we are now serving thirty children and counting. Glory to God. This time round we got several photos of the entire process and David is sorting them out and should be sending them soon. I wish you were here to feel the atmosphere on Friday as the blessings were presented to the children. There was ululation, screams, shouts of joy and celebration chants all over the place.
I pray that you get an account of the day from different people because we all felt it somewhat differently so here is my share of the same. While Joseph and I were busy having an interesting discussion on Witchcraft in our society with the guardians, Jack was busy teaching the little children about Jesus whereas Lawrence was busy with the older children discussing how they can be productive during this holiday season. During this time, Agnes and Judy together with one of our guardians were busy preparing a meal for everyone comprising of rice, beans, cabbages and chapati (We opted to prepare a meal instead of the usual bread and juice). We also had fruit salad being prepared for the children. The rest were kept busy sorting a myriad of items to be given to the children and as usual David was all over the place making memories of the day.
The monthly distribution this time was almost double their usual ration and it had
• Two litres of cholesterol free cooking oil.
• Two kilos of sugar
• Two kilos of rice
• Ten kilos of maize
• Four kilos of beans
• One kilo washing bar soap
• Two bars of disinfectant bathing soap
• Tea leaves
• A box of matchboxes
• Two kilos of cooking salt
• Four kilos of wheat flour
• Two kilos of baking flour
• One kilo of millet for preparing porridge
• Petroleum jelly
• Toothpaste and tooth brushes
• Four rolls of tissue paper
• Sanitary pads for the older girls
In addition to these Fredrick, Frida, Yvonne and Asman received 1 litre of Aloe Vera juice each and a 2kg pack of Amaranth to mix with millet flour when preparing porridge. This was just a start as the best was yet to come. Look at this added list of what everyone got and imagine the reaction of the guardians and children when they saw these items.
1. A pair of genuine leather black school shoes
2. A pair of canvas shoes for games
3. A pair of slippers and sandals for the younger children
4. School bags
5. Three pairs of socks
6. Three pairs of underclothing
7. An umbrella
8. Skipping ropes and teddy bears and dolls for the girls and toy cars, flutes and balls for the boys
9. Three handkerchiefs
10. A nail cutter
11. Suits for boys and dresses for the girls
12. Another set of clothes for both boys and girls
13. Belts
14. Marbles
15. A blanket for Chrispinus
16. Towels
17. Children Bibles and Bible story books for a number of children
18. Jane received a big suitcase for keeping her personal items
19. Combs and mirrors
20. Shoe polish and shoe brush
As you can see, this requires a lot of work and effort. We spent most of the day sorting the items , then there was fitting and checking sizes and finally distributing the items while taking snaps. It rained heavily and we finished late in the evening. We had not told the guardians what was in store and took the children aside, dressed them, then introduced them to the guardians. You could not help but smile at the facial expressions of shock and disbelief in their eyes. All the children looked transformed and were very happy and excited at the things they were getting. At this point, the camera was dead on battery power so some shots had to be taken using camera phones
Obviously not all clothes and shoes were a perfect fit and so the following day Christabel, Joseph and I went round again exchanging these items for the right sizes. Currently Joseph and I are visiting each and every home getting appreciation videos and better pictures which we will send to you later after we are done. We are also profiling the new girls to be sent to you by Joseph. Oh how I wish I could just send all these images at once as well as the videos. We are also working on a short video that shows how the orphan program works and we pray that it will shed a lot of light to many. Joseph is waiting for me to continue the home visits so I will catch up with you later in the evening. Till then…
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