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Published: April 16th 2008
When I was little we had a garden out back of our house. My favorite part of the garden was the strawberry patch. Our dad would come home from work and take us down and teach us how to weed it; picking the innocent looking weeds from the brown soil and stopping them in their path as they grew to take over our delicious little paradise. It was a small chore and when we would actually perform it the benefit we would reap was succulent, sweet strawberries. When we would get lazy the weeds would grow, slowly choking the life out of our strawberries. We would ignore them and then were dismayed when we went to check and found dried, brown little bean looking things that used to be strawberries. It was amazing the amount of time we invested meant the difference between life and death for our little berries.
Last week I went to a place that reminded me of a well tended strawberry patch. In the village of Ruia on the outskirts of Nairobi there is a gardener named Christine. Instead of growing strawberries she grows children; saving them from the weeds of disease and poverty that threaten
3 girls from Horec
Posing in their school uniformsto choke out their valuable lives. The fruits of her work are children that survive and produce joy, love and hope. And, just like with the strawberries, this work is a matter of life and death...just vastly more important.
Christine worked with women with HIV/AIDS. As she watched the women die she saw the children lose hope as fast as they were losing their parents to the deadly weed of AIDS. Many had no one to sufficiently care for them. So, as many other amazing Kenyans I’ve met, she decided to do something about it. With very little outside support she created HOREC: Home for Orphans Rehabilitation Center and took 18 orphaned girls and 3 orphaned boys into a tiny 1,200 sq. feet decaying house that she rents for $162 a month. The walls are lined with bunk beds where the children double up, there is one toilet, no shower and a dark and dingy kitchen the size of a broom closet.
She knew if she did not act with urgency their lives would wither away and the work of restoration would be much harder, if at all possible. Five of the children’s cases were especially in need
Rachel
Making us feel welcome. of tending because they too are HIV+. The love shown to these kids has a way of melting boundaries (the children come from 5 different tribes) and healing wounds that no band-aid could touch.
I believe the fact that I got to visit HOREC was a Divine appointment. My friend Jacci Knight that worked in Romania the same time as I did works with an organization called Global Hope. They have 3 homes in Arad, Romania and were looking to expand their work. Christine found them on the internet and to make a long story a bit shorter, Jacci found herself coming to Nairobi to check the place out.
As we were travelling down the congested, muddy road laden with potholes to reach HOREC I noticed that I had been that way before. The road was a bit better last November but for the last five months it has been rotting away like an abscessed tooth; threatening to fall to pieces. However, one thing I’ve found is that no road does not mean no traffic. If there is a sidewalk, a path or a field it makes a sudden transformation and becomes as busy as I-10 running right
Pastor Stanley
Standing in his humble office with his new computer. through Houston. Its just not as smooth and a bit more treacherous.
The road was the same one that leads to Spring Valley which I often refer to. So here Jacci and I are again, after about 5 years, working towards the same goals in the same city, on a different continent. Spring Valley and HOREC are five miles away from one another. At times it is difficult to be productive here but this journey helped me tremendously as I had a delivery to make to Spring Valley (SV).
A friend from Houston had given me an older laptop to donate and a friend of a friend had left some money for food. I also wanted to see the new classroom that was built from a donation from our friends in Florida. I pulled up through the mud with Jacci to SV, thanking God for my rough and rugged 4 wheel drive. We walked down the mucky path, by the outhouses that continually exude an unpleasant aroma, and up to Pastor Stanley’s humble office constructed from sheet metal. He invited us in to sit and visit. Pastor Stanley is an exuberant man with an impressive faith…one has to
Spring Valley
The new classroom built with help of Pinellas Community Church, Fl. be in order to take up the immense challenge of feeding over 200 hungry children a day and educating them. No one hired him to do this, it was a burden placed on his heart by God. On this particular day Stanley was feeling a bit discouraged. He stated in conversation that it is hard for him to communicate via email because his laptop is broken. I said, “Well, I have something for you”. I had carried the laptop with me and hung the black computer bag on the back of my chipped wooden chair. I felt it was my cue to bring it out. I lay the bag on his desk, unzipped it and said, “Maybe this will help. It is yours, given by a friend in Texas”. Stanley’s eyes widened with surprise and he was rather shocked. I asked him how the feeding program was going and he said, “We’ve had to add 40 children due to people being displaced from their homes”. He then looked down as if the heaviness of his burden pulled his whole countenance toward the ground and he stated, “By Tuesday we will be out of food and I am not sure what
Little House on the Prairie
The kids can move here once we can get the inside walls built and put some glass in the windows. we will do”. Yet another cue…I unzipped my purse and pulled out 6,000 Kenya shillings ($95). said, “Maybe this will help, it was given by a friend from Tennessee”. Immediately we could see the burden lighten and his face glow with gratitude. He said, “Even though I am a pastor, I still get discouraged. I just needed a reminder that God is still in control”. I left feeling very privileged that I get to play messenger and deliver good news and great gifts because of the generosity of so many people in America! I am so thankful for that love being extended across land and sea!
The goal of HOREC is to move onto a piece of property that was donated. This will save them rent that they have a hard time paying and allow them to build a bigger facility. Someone donated a small wooden house and placed it on their permanent piece of land. They could move into temporarily until they have their stone structure up and later use it as classrooms. It has only 3 rooms but would be rent free. Currently the house is like something out of Little House on the Prairie. It has
Jack in the kitchen
Try cooking for 21 people on the small charcoal jiko (open stove) on the bottom right corner. no kitchen and the inside is not lined with anything, leaving gaping cracks through the wooden slabs. For $1000 they can line the inside walls and move in. For them it is a monumental amount of money, especially when they want to make sure the kids are fed each day. Christine has faith however as these are God’s children and she feels she is simply doing her chore of tending to them (if it were only so easy as taking care of strawberries!).
We spent 2 days with the kids, hearing their stories, interacting with them and assessing the situation to see how we can assist. We also were served ugali and fried kale and corn which I assumed might be a mistake. I walked into the “kitchen” and was even more sure of my assumption that accepting the food cooked over an open charcoal oven, served on dishes that are washed outside might not have been a good idea. The next day I felt I had amoebas and parasites doing the tango in my tummy with stilettos. Ugh…
The children are lovely and after hearing stories of how they had been beaten, starved, watched their parents die,
Kitchen
Not quite big or clean enough to accommodate over 20 people. etc. I am thankful that HOREC exists, that Christine is not bound by what she can not do but is progressing by doing what she can. How great to come alongside people like this and do what we can as well.
I would love to raise $1000 to get the wooden house ready for them to move into. If you desire to assist growing this little patch of garden and getting them to a safer and cleaner place you can make your tax-deductible check to:
ITHM
23223 S. Warmstone Way
Katy, Texas 77494
*mark it for HOREC
As always I am overflowing with gratitude for your prayers and generosity of support.
Asante-Jennifer
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myra hutchison
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Your hair rocks my sista friend...I miss YOU.....I am glad you can do the work of the LOrd and look hot.....you are an inspiration...!!!!