There are three large slums in Nairobi, Kenya. The living conditions and poverty in these slums are some of the most extreme I have ever seen. There are close to a half million people living in each of these three slums. Many are barely surviving and most all are trapped in a cycle of poverty that is complex and difficult to break. Their dire situation is fueled by HIV-AIDS, drugs, prostitution, violence, malaria, typhoid, dysentery, illiteracy, alcoholism, malnutrition and more.
Now, imagine being a child born into this environment. Your parents, if they are around, always seem to be sick, there never seems to be enough food, and you have been sent home from school because your family cannot pay the required tuition. You share a bed in a one room tin shed that has no running water, may or may not have electricity, and likely has raw open sewage flowing a few feet from your front door. You worry that your parents will die and wonder what will happen to you and your siblings if they do. Your only hope comes from a few people from a small church that visits your home every week.
Pastor Gideon leads the Home Based Care ministry for Fountain Of Life Church in Nairobi, Kenya. Week after week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays he leads a small group of college students and church members into each of these three large Nairobi slums. Each week they visit over 60 families with over 150 children. They make sure the parents are getting their HIV medication with enough food in order to keep the medication down. If the parents are too sick to work they often provide them with food, maybe rent money, and if needed, school tuition fees for their children. In addition they pray, encourage, and develop trusting relationships with these fragile families. Should the day arrive that the parents die, the church stands ready and prepared to soften the trauma for the children left behind as they are lovingly received into their church based group care home. FOL’s work prevents and delays the orphaning event by keeping these fragile families together for as long as possible. It is work that is meaningful and impactful. Fountain of Life’s Home Based Care model has become a model for other World Orphan’s project partners.
I asked Pastor Gideon how I could pray for him and his family. He said, “Pray that God would enable us to expand this ministry. There are many more families with children that need our help.” And then he asked me if it would be possible for us to furnish his team with elbow length, commercial grade rubber gloves and hand sanitizer. He told me that sometimes he needs them when tending to the severely ill who have been bed ridden for several days and have soiled themselves. I put my arms around this humble Godly man and hugged him as I promised him we would do so. Please join me in prayer for the work God is doing through churches with brothers and sisters like Pastor Gideon.
Until they all have homes,
Alan Hunt
Vice President Advocacy (ec)3
World Orphans :: ec3 :: each church, each child, each community
Cell (214) 636-3887
Having been there, this still shocks me. Not Gideon that he would serve these people, but the depth of the need and the intensity of the suffering.
Posted by: B.J. Murrey | June 02, 2009 at 07:15 PM