My Favorite Orphanage

My favorite orphanage is Hope for Children Center.  It is located near Homa Bay, Kenya.  It was made to house 250 African orphans but is crowded with many more.

Pastor Maurice, the administrator, has worked tirelessly to help the orphans and to rescue girls that would otherwise be forced in to early marriages.  He also invited in hundreds of refugees during the post election violence without first asking which tribe they belonged to.

The story below is taken from the May 2008 issue of Spotlight on Orphans Newsletter.

Somewhere around the 25th of March 2008, just as we had begun to think things had calmed down in Kenya and I was even looking forward to scheduling another visit, Pastor Maurice had an experience that served as a confirmation for me that we are doing the right thing in helping those outside our gates and surely our God will come through with what is also needed inside. Let me tell you about it as he shared it with me.

Since the conflict seemed to have calmed, Pastor Maurice decided to take a long-awaited trip to Kisii. Hopping into a matatu, he settled down for the journey. However, just after they had crossed the border between Luo and Kisii land, they encountered a roadblock consisting of very many huge stones strewn across the road.

As soon as the vehicle came to a stop, people came running from homes near the road and ordered all Luos to get out of the matatu. About twelve apprehensive passengers got out. All twelve were then stripped totally naked and all of their possessions were taken, including their shoes. Then they were escorted to a nearby house where Pastor had no doubt that others had been killed in that very house. He knew that they were also to be killed by these Kisii people who were bent on avenging the deaths of their loved ones in Luo land.

As they were pushed into the house, all of a sudden the woman who owned the house started crying out, “You can’t kill that man. He is a pastor. He is the one who fed us and cared for us in Luo land.”  Pastor Maurice recognized this woman also; she was one of the displaced refugees who had been taken in to Hope Center near the beginning of the conflict. She and her husband had been caught in Homa Bay when the fighting broke out and her husband had been killed there.

After being detained for about seven hours, Pastor Maurice and the other Luos were finally given their clothes, anothermatatu was found and they were delivered into Kisii and let out. What if they/we had not cared for those refugees??? It was easy to feel burdened by so many (over 700) refugees who needed to be fed and who were overtaxing the compound’s  resources. What might have seemed a burden at the time became a great blessing, resulting in the life of our dear pastor, and the lives of the other Luo passengers, being spared. Surely God knew of the crisis Pastor Maurice would face that day on his way to Kisii, and made provision for it ahead of time!