This blog is about savoring the good and small things in life and being thankful for what I have. I am retired now and trying to do my part to live simply and frugally so I can help on the mission field.
When I was a young child I wanted to be a missionary to Africa. I was really in love with my Lord and I went to Bible camp each summer where I met a woman who became house mother in my cabin of girls. She was a missionary to Africa and I thought some day I might do the same. Life got in the way and I found many needs here at home in Canada to keep me fully occupied. However when I retired early due to illness the Lord brought a way for me to realize my childhood longing.
I met a prophetess virtually in around 2006. She lived in New York State at the time and she was involved in a humble work with a few servants of God to help some pastors and orphans in Kenya and several other African nations. I volunteered to help her and soon I was invited to visit Kenya by a pastor there. I accepted but decided to also visit Ghana and meet some of the people there. My interest at the time was in the plight of refugees in Accra at the Buduburam Refugee Camp. The refugee camp was closed by the government in early 2011 and everyone told to return to their homes of origin. By then I had settled on helping in Kenya and that is where my focus remains to this day. I have travelled several times to the nation and along the way assisted many people. The giving is not sponsored and not supported by any church or organization in Canada. From time to time well wishers help me as they are led and for that I am grateful.
My charitable giving in Kenya started in the villages around Kericho and extended at times to Nakuru, Kisii, Narok and Nairobi and small villages in northern Kenya. I now mainly focus in the villages around Kericho. From time to time, I also help villagers from Pokot areas of Kenya in the north, with their medical needs and sometimes food needs. In the last few years most of my giving has been in the area of medical missions because Kenya does not have a universal health care system and if anyone needs medical help they will die if they do not get it because they don't have the money for simple medical needs let alone expensive medical procedures. It is challenging work but I am thankful to be able to assist some villagers in this way.
My work in Kenya also led me to sponsor several children through Compassion International's Canadian office. I first sponsored two young boys named Peter and John. Peter has now left the program and I am sponsoring another young boy named Ian.
John is the first boy I sponsored and he will turn 17 years old in June 2020. John lives in a slum in Nairobi. |
I also corresponded for years with Haile from Ethiopia. He was sponsored financially but for whatever reason his sponsor didn't write to him so I volunteered. When Haile graduated from the program in June 2013 I was permitted to send him a financial gift to help with his transition to adulthood. Throughout the time I corresponded with him I was also allowed to send birthday gifts and family gifts.
Haile through the years starting on the left from oldest and moving right to the youngest.. He is age 21 in the photo on the far left. |
I am now the correspondent for another boy from Ethiopia. His name is Wondimu and he turned 10 in March 2020 The photo below is when he was about 3 years old.
All my boys are sponsored through Compassion Canada and I've been sponsoring children with Compassion since November 2010. It is my joy to receive letters from these boys and to write to them too.
It is nice to know what is on their hearts and to receive their prayer requests.
In the last few years, John started to write me letters in English and in his own hand. He has excellent printing and is very neat. Haile was able to write me his own letters but since they were written in Amharic, they needed to be translated into English. We only had about one and a half years together but in that time I could see that he was interested in the world around him and the broader economic activity in Ethiopia, soccer, animal husbandry and his developing relationship with God. I miss hearing from him and continue to pray for his needs.
In December 2017, I decided to sponsor my first child from Uganda through an organization called "Food for the Hungry". His name is Kevin and he is 13 years old. Since then, Kevin's community graduated from the program and Kevin is no longer my sponsored child. What it means is that Food for the Hungry has been working with the community for about a decade to help them become self sufficient. Once the community is taught what they need to know the sponsorships stop and the community cares for it's own. I think this is a great way to help people but it requires a lot of money up front and some consistent hands on work wit the locals.
In my personal projects in Kenya I have undertaken a number of things: including helping a few women start small business, helping farmers with seeds & fertilizer, helping the sick with medicine and hospital costs, helping students with school needs and clothing, building jiko stoves for village women and providing food and evangelistic outreach at Christmas. For the past 6 years I have also been helping two Engineering students while they transition to the real world. One with a business start up who has now moved on to India to work on a Master's level degree and another who is job hunting, helping a large, extended family with monthly food and daily needs, and helping others with expensive hospital and medical treatments costs and sadly, sometimes funeral costs.
This blog is my primary outlet for sharing about my simple life: simple joys, simple activities, my faith and charitable works. It is also my way to encourage others to join in with me in helping the villagers of Kenya although I focussed less on gaining financial sponsors. I may decide to open another blog for this purpose.
Although I do not yet have any sponsored children in the highlands of Kenya I very much want to find a way to do that in future. In the meantime, I help as I am able.
No organization or church is sponsoring any of this work. This is a completely volunteer effort. The two primary volunteers (myself and Jonah in Kenya) are Christian and many of the people we help are believers though not all. Helping non Christians gives an opportunity to demonstrate Christ's love and faith in action so the unsaved can believe that Christ died for and loves and cares for them today. From time to time, friends of mine and well wishers who read my blog or who find me in other ways, have contributed to various of the works we have undertaken. Jonah's church in Kenya has also assisted with manpower from time to time such as when I visited the women in 4 communities and delivered food for Christmas.
I always need help with the missions. There are far more needs than I can deal with on my own so I am always looking for others to stand alongside those of us who are volunteering time and funds. The exception is the boys I sponsor through organizations. These are my own responsibility and I'm not seeking funds to help with that, only for all the projects and other needs in Kenya if God is speaking to you about any of this work.
You can contact me with messages of prayer and practical support or simply send a donation to me viahttps://paypal.me/snapthatpenny?locale.x=en_US
paypal.me/snapthatpennyhttps://paypal.me/snapthatpenny?locale.x=en_US
https://paypal.me/snapthatpenny?locale.x=en_US https://paypal.me/snapthatpenny?locale.x=en_USIf you like you can mention how you you wish your funds to be used. Please note that this is not a registered organization and all funds are used by and for the grassroots people who mainly live in villages in and around Kericho.
EMAIL contact here (kindly click). It is hidden so as to minimize spam and bots.
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