Gitathuru Hello and Farewell
Last night Ray and I found out that our sponsored child (“little” Elizabeth) has been moved to the Joska boarding school. If you have been following our entries each day you may remember that we were at Joska on Saturday and shared chapel with them. When I found out I had missed her I was crushed so MOHI arranged for her and the social worker at Joska to travel the 1.5 hours back to Nairobi so we could see her…more about that later.
Hello…today we were matched with our Gitathuru sponsor children. Most of us had picked out our “kids” the first day but were asked to wait until today to spend any individual time with them. We took tons of pictures, presented gifts, prayed and said goodbye. The Gitathuru children are quite young and they were pretty overwhelmed when they were brought from their classrooms to meet us. They are very limited English speakers so we used the social workers as translators. I’m attaching pictures of several of us with our kids.
In addition to meeting our kids we also gave out gifts that were sent by other sponsors from MVCC. We took pictures of the kids to bring back to each sponsor.
Our team also put together over 90 small gift bags for the kids who didn’t receive a gift from their sponsor. The “Common Threads” sewing group from MVCC made dresses and shorts that we put into each child’s gift bag along with a small toy or book.
Our “little” Elizabeth arrived around lunchtime from Joska. She is now 12 and Ray and I started sponsoring her in 2006. We met her for the first time in 2007 when she was 7 years old. She was very tiny and shy. Ray saw her again two years ago and her family had just lost their home to a fire. I had sent some socks and underwear and she was so grateful because she had lost all her clothes in the fire. Today when she walked in she was so much taller and grown up…such a big difference from the timid 7 year old I met five years ago. She immediately recognized us and came and hugged us and we had a wonderful visit. She is growing into such a fine young lady. I told her that we had been to Joska but didn’t know she was there. She had seen us at the chapel service but didn’t get to come find us later. What a joy to know that we have had a part in her education and that she will have a brighter future because of Missions of Hope. I can’t think of a more worthwhile investment.
Farewell… this afternoon we said goodbye to the Gitathuru school today but not until we had a celebration…singing, dancing, gifts, cake and prayers. The children recited their Bible verses, sang “Only a Boy Named David” then danced and thanked us for our time with them. The teachers sang and danced and presented us with shirts and wraps and of course we had to join in the dancing. Then pastor Tom was invited to speak, Merlin presented Buddy to the school and Tom and Ray helped cut a cake and everyone, including all the children, got a small bite. After cake we presented the school with a dozen soccer balls and gave gifts to all the teachers and staff. What a joyous ending to a wonderful week. After hugs and tears we loaded into the van for the last time and said our final farewell until (God willing) we return again.
Tomorrow we leave early for safari. Please continue to pray for our health and safety. We wish you could all join us for the next two days but we will take lots of pictures to share.
God’s blessings to you all…
Elizabeth
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