The Journey-ch.10* Many Miracles

---

Sometimes I go about my days and get to witness God right smack dab in my presence. I wish I could say I see His face or hear his audible voice. It’s not like that but I am learning to recognize some of the ways in which He reveals himself.

Two weeks ago I visited a friend of mine named Ebby. Ebby is an incredible, jolly lady who has helped start a Saturday feeding program in Kiangwara slums (one of the many slums in the city). Our team got to work with her for a day, serving food to smiling, hungry kids, playing, sharing, caring and being blessed by the people who come from such humble circumstances.

During our conversation Ebby told me about a small boy in the slums that was born with no legs. He is now 5 years old and if he is not scooting himself around on his arms then his mother is carrying him. Ebby asked if I knew where we could get a wheelchair. I did not.

Within a day or two I was at a computer club and I saw a white lady working on a computer, sitting in a wheelchair. Due to Kenya not being very handicap accessible it is rare to see wheelchairs in public buildings. It is not uncommon to see someone rolling themselves down the highway in their wheelchair. Some of the chairs are equipped with a wheel type structure at lap level and peddles that the occupant can “cycle” with their hands. There they go, cycling up and down the busy highways in the hot sun. I guess if one can not get on public transportation one finds a way to get around!

I approached the mzungu (white) lady, excused myself and asked if she knew of any organizations that provide wheelchairs. She looked at me in shock and and asked in her American accent, “Did someone tell you I have a wheelchair ministry?”. I replied, “No, I just thought I would ask you since you are in a wheelchair”. Now, my new friend Toby from Texas is going to find a wheelchair for this small child. She has a ministry called, “Wheels of Love” and they work with a local organizations that makes wheelchairs locally. They can be purchased at $150. The difference of a wheelchair made here and one made in America is the difference of a 4 wh. drive vehicle and a sports car…one does not want a sports car on Kenyan roads!

The second incidence happened just this week. A couple of the people from our wonderful summer team took up a collection of cash and asked me to buy shoes for some needy kids. I’ve held onto the money and prayed that God would show me exactly where to give it because there are about a thousand possibilities to find kids that need shoes. I wanted it to go to a place however that does not get much outside assistance, if any at all.

The other day I was at my insurance company renewing my car insurance. My agent, Mrs. Mboko and I were talking. She is a Christian and is always asking about our kids. She was telling me how she just traveled to her hometown for a funeral and for ministry outreach. They went to a middle school to meet the 7th and 8th graders and she said there were 23 kids that came to school with torn uniforms and bare feet. She saw them and her heart was torn by the fact that they can not even afford what we consider basic necessities. The village is very poor and here were these kids working so hard at school in their raggedy clothes and bare feet. She stated with a twinge of sorrow, “I am really praying for a way to at least buy shoes for these kids”.

A lightbulb went off and I heard a whisper in my heart about the shoe money I had been carrying for months. I reached in my purse, pulled out over $100 and handed it to her. She sat in shock, speechless. And I was jumping up and down (in my head) that there are going to be a bunch of happy kids with warm feet really soon.

Baby Dorm

It was quite a joyous occasion a few weeks ago to watch a work crew of about 45 strong men pull up to the site. (No, Amberly, we weren’t rejoicing over the fact that there were all these muscular men but in the fact that they were coming to pour the second floor on the baby dorm)! Talk about team work; Besides a motorized pulley to help get the large buckets of cement up and a motorized cement mixer, everything else was manual. These guys carried water, rocks, and cement; lifted, poured, smoothed and finished the floor after about 10 solid hours of hard work.

Funding has been a little low so we have put the building on hold. We are going to pick up again at the end of November. And, we are confident that next year we will be holding new babies in the warmth of the new dorm.

IAA Kids

Our IAA kids are doing quite well. They got their latest exam scores and most are still in the top 10% of their class! I got to take them on a fun day to the swimming pool and for a camel ride. We had a blast but felt a little sorry for the camel. I think he was way past retirement age because he wasn’t keen to lean down on his knobby knees and when the adults got on him, he simply stopped and would not go any further. The kids thought that the camel ride was the best thing since ice cream!

Our babies are growing and changing rapidly. They hear 3 languages on a daily basis so we are wondering which they will speak most fluently. One thing they both say is “Hayeyuya”!…Which in adult English is “Halleluhia”! They are so sweet.

Hope Given Children’s Home

Hope Given has 17 kids with 17 different stories of why they are in an orphanage. Last year when I wrote about their needs two families came on board to assist with financial support. This has been a HUGE help to the project. Now, they need a milk cow. $800 would purchase both the cow and enable them to build shelter for it. Due to the store being about 30 minutes away, and the price, the founders can’t just go down and pick up a couple gallons of milk each day. Having a “moo cow” (as our babies say) would enable the kids to have fresh milk each day.

Challenges

We sent our Musso (our Korean made SUV that used to act as our bus and now acts as our work truck) to the shop to get an overhaul. The poor car has served us faithfully but needed work in order to continue. Many weeks and a lot of cash later we took the car from the garage. Ten minutes down the road it broke down. It was towed, worked on and we took it out the next day. This time it took 20 minutes until it broke down. Back to the shop it went. A few days later we were able to take it. It worked for a whole one and a half days until it broke down with me, Monica (our boys’ house-mom), and Solomon. We were on the way back from the Dr. and it started sputtering and losing speed. Before we knew it we were stopped on the side of the road…by the forest. I have heard that this isn’t a place anyone should break down but it wasn’t like we had a choice.

I decided I would stay calm, call someone to come and get us and ignore the wild looking young man with matted hair and dazed eyes that walked up to our window and stared at us. If it is true there are people that live in the forest, this guy was one of them. He finally got bored and left. Monica and I were trying to reach someone at the site so that they could come and tow us. We found it was going to take some time because they were not home yet from the market. We were about 1 hour from the city and 25 minutes from our site. It wouldn’t have helped to call a towing company because it would have taken over an hour to get there and we simply could not stay there that long. Two men walked up and said, “You must leave, it is dangerous here”. By this time I was starting to loose my sense of calm. It was now dusk, I ran out of credit on my phone (I have pre-paid minutes), Monica’s phone suddenly said she had no coverage and then a policeman with his big gun walked up to us. I thought to myself, “Thank God, a big, brave policeman who can stand here and protect us”…I was wrong. I rolled down the window and he said in his broken English, “You must leave this place, very dangerous!”. I told him as calmly as possible that I was trying to leave but the car would not start, and we were waiting for people to come and take us. I said, “You have a big gun, you stay here with us”! He kept saying, “I can’t. I’m alone, I must go”. I was like “What the heck?! You are alone but you have a big gun”! Monica then spoke with him in their language and she explained that he was alone at his work post and he must get to work or he would be in trouble. He too had a phone but no credit. A lot of good that policeman turned out to be! He told me to get out and wave a car down to tow us and I told him “No Way, You do it”! He was kind enough to at least do that. Then, the big man with his big gun walked away. A small truck stopped, tied us up with rope that broke 3 times but finally pulled us to the next police barricade on the road. From there our people were finally able to reach us and get us home safely (after our rope broke twice and the front plastic protective guard fell off the car as we were towing it).

The shop apologized profusely and came and took the Musso the next day. The guy driving it back to the shop hit a pothole, swerved and rammed another car on his way back to Nairobi. So, our Musso is still in the shop.

As the Musso has been in the shop I have been using my car to run errands. I was downtown and stuck in a bus lane. A drugged street guy informed me to get out of that lane and in with the cars. So, as I was maneuvering to get from behind a bus into another lane, I saw him standing beside my car on the passenger side. I wondered if he was trying to make sure I didn’t hit the bus but no, he was busy shimmying something under my side mirror so that he could steal it. He popped it off as I watched then he ran away. Ohhh was I mad! However, what is one to do when someone is stealing something off your car while you are driving it?! The Answer: Nothing. Absolutely Nothing.

Travels

I am coming to America on Nov. 8th. I will be all over the place so I hope to meet up with as many of you as possible. My home number is 281-392-2747.

Thanksgiving

A grateful word of thanks for all those involved with me in this Exciting Journey. I love Kenya and even though there are desperate situations of poverty and pain, there are also tremendous testimonies of healing, life and joy!

I am so blessed to get to work with the orphans, knowing we are making a dynamic difference in their lives!

As Thanksgiving is arriving it is a good time to extend our thanks to God for all of His blessings. If you would like to bless someone as an expression of your thanks, ITHM can help.

If you would like you can help with the following:

1. A wheelchair for the small boy- $150
2. A cow and shelter for Hope Given- $800
3. A donation towards Christmas gifts for the poor and our girls we are supporting through school- any amount.
4. A donation towards the baby dorm- any amount.

Just earmark what you would like to your gift of thanks to be used for and I will get it there! There are already so many children benefiting from your generosity and I thank you on their behalf!

God bless,
Jennifer


Tax deductible checks can be made out to:
ITHM
23223 S. Warmstone Way
Katy, TX 77494

---

Photos

Legless boy
We are working on getting him a wheelchair.