Sunday, May 16, 2010

Simple Joy Saturday

My Kenyan friend, Pastor Jonah's auntie is ill with a form of nose cancer and requires surgery. Since they are humble villagers the cost of the $900. Canadian/US required for the treatment is astronomical and beyond the means of individual villagers.  So they held a Harambee on Saturday (Harambee is a Kenyan tradition of community self-help events, eg. fundraising or development activities. Harambee literally means "all pull together" in Swahili).

Here are photos of the Harambee.  You can see they went into the night with the fundraiser even though it was raining. These gentlemen are counting the funds.




Here is auntie addressing the participants.


I was pleased when I learned they raised $400. of the $900 fee required.  That is less than half of the total required but is a significant amount of money for those that only earn a few dollars a day.

Please pray that this family would be able to raise the rest soon to give this auntie the best chance at successful surgery. Thank you.

 Thank you to Jan of Australia for creating the Simple Joys meme.
Click here to participate.

11 comments:

Jan said...

Thank you so much for sharing about your Kenyan friends. I know nothing about their life there, and it is so interesting to learn a little.
I support a child in Chad ($44/month) though I don't know anything much about their life either.
Many Blessings - Jan

Katy ~ said...

She is on my prayer list. What a beautiful lady she is. And how heartening to hear of a community coming together to help one another. I wish we were more like that here.

Joyful said...

Thank you Jan. I'm so pleased to hear you can and do, support a child in Chad. There are so many needy orphans and widows in the continent. Perhaps some day you could visit your child or they could visit you :-)

Joyful said...

Katy, thank you for adding auntie to your prayer list. I appreciate your prayers so much. The Harambee is often done in Kenya where the people come together to help one another.

Anonymous said...

I will be praying!

Kilauea Poetry said...

Hi there..I found the Harambee really interesting and think it's neat you brought this into the light..I like the photos too! Hope you post more about how he's doing.
My best, Regina-

Joyful said...

Thank you so much for your prayers FT! I know you are a disciplined student of the Word and give praises to our King so it comforts me to know you will pray for this dear lady.

Regina, I'm glad you enjoyed the information about the Harambee. There are many traditions these people have which are community centered rather than individual centered and we could learn a lot from their way of life :-) I will let you know how auntie is doing. Please pray for her. God bless, xx

Joyful said...

I will be praying!

Joyful said...

Thank you so much for your prayers FT! I know you are a disciplined student of the Word and give praises to our King so it comforts me to know you will pray for this dear lady.

Regina, I'm glad you enjoyed the information about the Harambee. There are many traditions these people have which are community centered rather than individual centered and we could learn a lot from their way of life :-) I will let you know how auntie is doing. Please pray for her. God bless, xx

Brenda Green said...

Dear joyful,
I hope by now, they were able to raise some money for her surgery.

I think that it is great for the people to have a Harambee. I think that it would be great if the church would learn that word! hugs

Joyful said...

Hello my friend, they were able to raise enough money for this dear lady's surgery. Sadly it was not enough. This sister of God has now recently gone home to be with the Lord. She lived approx. one more year after surgery.

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