As with any Family there will be new arrivals, and eventually they will grow up and move on and away. The ebb and tide of family life. For us, there seem more that COME than those that GO, but in fact no one stays for ever. THIS current year has seen fifteen come IN and nine go OUT.
This week, on Friday, we had a Farewell Fellowship at Jacaranda Cottage for two of their 'family' that have now left the home and are living independently! Usually each home likes to have a special time to say farewell to any of its members leaving. We spend time singing, encouraging, praying and sharing cake and soda. There is also Presentation of a Bible and a Gift of ten thousand Kenya Shillings to each one leaving. Always a good time of real family fellowship - a little emotional at times as well.On FRIDAY we were say goodbye to FAITH KIVITHE and DENNIS ASIEVERA.
FAITH came to Jacaranda in 1991, when she was just a few months old. She had been abandoned in a hotel in town; no one ever came forward to claim her, and no one was ever traced in efforts to find out more about her. She was truly orphaned and destitute. Joshua and Miriam Mbithi were the Mum and Dad in Jacaranda Cottage at that time, until 2003, and since there were vacancies in their home at Jacaranda, Faith was taken there. Faith was a quiet and rather introspective baby and child. She did not smile a lot, and was almost too serious and 'old fashioned' and 'staid'in her attitude and personality. I often wondered, as she grew up, what she would do, so severe and strict she seemed to be. But she was a well behaved, helpful person, and although not brilliant at School she was studious and attentive to her lessons. Suddenly in the midst of her teenage she began to come out of her shell, so to speak, and to blossom. She chose Early Childhood Education as a career, and amazingly the strict, severe, and unsmiling girl has become the teacher ALL the small children seek after. For the 22 years of her life Jacaranda has been her only home. For the ten years since Joshua and Miriam left, Joseph and Beatrice Rop have been parents in the home, and she has formed a close bond with them as well. There were a few tears on Friday Night, but no sense of insecurity about her. With Jesus, her Saviour, beside her she has gained strength and peace. She is working locally. She is not lost to us. She will be calling in for sure......God Bless you daughter!
DENNIS came to Jacaranda Cottage in 2001, ten years after Faith. he was from another town more than a hundred kilometres from Eldoret. He was just thirteen years old, older than we usually allow children to be admitted to us here. But his need was very special. One fateful night in April 2001 his father rose up and killed his wife and most of the family without any apparent reason or provocation. Dennis was one of those that survived, but it was considered urgent to remove him from the area for his own future safety. Dennis had no smiles on his arrival, and was a silent and lonesome boy. On the other hand he was keen to learn and at school and applied himself to study.On leaving High School he took a Course in Accountancy, and is now employed locally as a Stores and Procurement Officer. He has grown up and away from the trauma that brought him to us, and has become a smart, responsible young man of 25. He leaves many 'family' friends behind him,and we know that he also will be visiting what took time to become a home from home, and a refuge in a time of storm. The Lord be with you, our son.
ON WEDNESDAY we admitted four children from a single parent family of nine siblings. The Mother is still living in great squalor in one of our town's satellite areas. She is about 40,un-married and having born nine kids. She is at this time having the youngest at her breast, and another of two years, together with a 13 and 17 year old boy. They have until now ALL resided together in a small room of some 12'x12' without running water, electricity or sewer line. The case was reported to us as one of gross poverty rather than neglect or cruelty. Since then the Mother has been medically prevented from bearing further children, and we have agreed to relieve her immediate burden in caring for the four of her children now being admitted. Other parties will assist her with food and later when the baby has been weaned, steps will be taken to help her find employment or some way to support herself. Perhaps then, if the need seems apparent, she will have her children returned to her. She will of course have access to her children whilst they are with us, but they will not be able to return residentially to her, or even visit her until her material and moral situation has improved.
TWO of the children are in Jacaranda Cottage. The are June aged 9 years, and her elder brother Meshram aged 11. By Friday they had already settled down and seemed happy and glad to be with us. The other two are in the Drakeley Family - they are brothers Ronnie aged 7 and Brian aged 5. They too seem happy and without any trace of sadness All had their heads shaved in order to get rid of lice when they arrived - you might not immediately recognise the girl amongst them. (top right)
AND SO as some were leaving other were arriving for an indeterminate stay of what ultimately will be years. The beginning of a new chapter in their lives. And so the Ebb and Flow goes on.
 |
| from top left - Meshram, June, Brian, and Ronnie |
Life goes on. Right now it goes on whilst we are to all intents and purposes facing bankruptcy!
Don't be alarmed. There is nothing you can do for us that we might be saved in time...................
God must have arranged it all long ago - ours is but to wait. To WAIT and yet to also GO ON, and as we go, HE will provide and undertake for all our need. This is always how it has been for us since we began. God does not change. How Long, Lord? How long? We may often, all of us, be heard to ask that question in times like these 'seige situations'. Perhaps not for long. The Evil Power comes strongly upon the Church of the First Born, and we wait for and expect the coming of the KING soon. Somewhere I read recently that a Messianic Jewish Rabbi has said the Messiah must come soon - before the end of the decade. He says that He should come within the generation started in the year Israel was declared a State once more in 1947 - a generation generally calculated to be 70 years in Jewish thought. Do WE wait for and expect HIM to come more than the answer to our petty needs and aspirations? Do we want HIM more than the healing, the deliverance, the modern miracle? Will we be ready when HE comes; will we be hungering and thirsting for HIM more than the relief of our material problem of the moment.? Oh COME Lord Jesus. Surely these ARE the days of LOT - we have arrived in the midst of them SUDDENLY, when even 73 years ago they were considered inconceivable.................SUDDENLY He IS coming - WILL come and arrive......
Have mercy on us.\
Our continuing thought and prayer on the behalf of each and every one of you. We labour together = let us together receive the Prize with JOY/.
John and Esther & Daryl and Carol
No comments:
Post a Comment