Every year, the Sunday school at the Chapel, called The Great Adventure (TGA), does a fundraiser for Oasis for Orphans.  This year the leaders at TGA and Oasis decided that the fundraiser should not just be focused on the Oasis kids but on all of the children at the local school there.  The school that the Oasis children attend has about 350 children plus 50 staff members that serve those children.  So, after talking to the staff on The Hill it was decided that a large need of the children was shoes.  Many of these kids have never had a new pair of shoes, especially a pair of new tennis shoes, and it would be an incredible gift to them.

Then the campaign began.   Starting around Thanksgiving and all the way until Christmas the kids of TGA brought in their "ten dollars to cover ten toes".  It was so humbling to watch kids come in with their allowances and count their change out with big smiles on their faces, so excited to give to those who had less than them.   By Christmas day all of the money had been raised for every pair of shoes needed!  Now all we had to do was call the Smith family in Kenya and ask them to pick up the shoes.

The Smith Family then had a big challenge in front of them, which was to find 400 high quality pairs of shoes in Kenya.  Most stores in Kenya have never had to sell that many shoes at once.  Day after day the Smith family went to try to find the shoes and came up empty.  Then came a shoe miracle.  The day before all of the shoes were needed on The Hill, the Smith family found a shoe warehouse filled from top to bottom with all of the shoes needed for the kids at the school!   The next day, a group of sponsors from America, the Smith family, and many other TMD staff gathered all of the children from the school and put their new shoes on their feet.  The children were so excited to have new shoes and kept dancing and running around trying to already get the most out of their new shoes.  A BIG THANK YOU to all of the TGA staff and kids for making this a day these children will never forget!

Meet Emmanuel.  Emmanuel is the driver for Trans Mara Development (TMD) and for the Children's Home.  He has been on staff with TMD for a little over one year now, although he has been a part of the community on The Hill since he was born. 

When Emmanuel's mother was pregnant with him, his father walked out on his mother and their four daughters, leaving them to survive on their own.  Desperate to provide for her children, his mother went to live with her brother Joseph (the current director of the Children's Home).  Emmanuel was raised by his mother and lived in Joseph's home until Joseph paid for and sent Emmanuel to get a high school education.  After high school, in 2005, Emmanuel moved home to help his mother care for their land.  During his time at home Emmanuel met his wife Patricia.  They married in 2009 and had their first baby, Hope, in 2010.  However, it was also during this time that Emmanuel's mother passed away from kidney failure.  Emmanuel wasn't sure of where he would work nex. But then Joseph offered Emmanuel a job at the Children's Home as a driver and sent him to driving school.  His first official drive was taking the Oasis board from Nairobi to The Hill.  Emmanuel has said, "The reason I like working at the Children's Home is that I am able to provide for my family, meet people from all over the world, and interact with these children everyday."

In the next few years, Emmanuel would like to go to college to get his degree in management so that he may work at The Children's Home as a coordinator.  Emmanuel is a wonderful, godly man of the highest integrity and because of this he is an excellent example to our kids on The Hill of a life well lived.  We are so blessed to have him on our staff.