Greetings!

My hope and prayer for each of you is that you will be surrounded by friends and family during this season of Thanksgiving, sharing in the blessings of loved ones and enjoying a joyful celebration. In spite of our economic challenges, we in the USA have so muchto be thankful for, no doubt about it.  And thanks to so many of you, there are several hundred orphaned or abandoned children in Kenya who will also have food to eat, clothing to wear, loving adults to care for them, and the knowledge that God is watching over them, no matter what.  So let us all join together this Thanksgiving season, with gratitude to God for His goodness and mercy, joining the Psalmist who declares:   

• EXCITEMENT:  The Eilers share with us the wonderful visit they had with their sponsored child in Kenya;
• URGENCY:  Our continued appeal for (now) $5,000 to help with a critical food shortage at Mary's Shelter Children Rehabilitation Centre in Ngong; and
• MIRACULOUS:  Meet Judith and Scholastica, our two longest-in-residence Shepherds Home children who have now begun their higher education at Daystar University.    

 A Visit with Henry 

The Eilers and Henry

"Our last day in Kenya we visited Henry Osiro, a 9 year-old boy we sponsor through Discover the World.  Henry lives at this Sheltered Children Rehabilitation Home because his father was killed and his mother paralyzed in a car accident.  Mary, the director of the center, is one amazing woman.   She along with staff are responsible for 170 children.  The older ones are in boarding schools  much of the year while Mary is bit by bit adding classrooms and dormitories to ultimately be able to house and school them all. We send her $50 a month to help feed, house, clothe and educate Henry, and provide medical care. On our way to the shelter we picked up a boy, Bradan, who had recently had jaw surgery.

Bradan, 2 months after jaw surgery

He had been in a car accident where his parents had been killed and his facial bones so fractured that he had been unable to hardly open his mouth and had been living on a liquid diet.  Mary was able to get him to a surgeon to correct the problem.  We spent a full day at the children's center and saw Mary's desperate attempts to provide for the children.  She, as most Kenyans, is very creative and enterprising trying to find ways to increase their revenue so to have money for the raising food prices and the overwhelming costs of everything.  At the children's home they raise their own vegetables, they have cows for the children's milk, they have a water tower so to sell water to the village, they are starting a fish farm, the children make bags and beaded jewelry to sell and on and on.  It is a daily act of faith trying to make ends meet.  We would encourage anyone who is moved by the plight of Kenya to adopt one of these children or give an amount toward whatever the urgent need of the moment might be...which is usually food for the children.  Mary won my trust wholeheartedly and we found the center to be a very loving, healthy place for children.  The teachers showed us their teaching materials which were actually quite good. I am shamelessly am encouraging others to help these children..."

Henry, Benson, and Francisco, Henry's twin brother (taken during VBS on August trip)