As I write this there’s a party going on in the dining hall! 200+ kids are pasting stickers, coloring frames and inserting a bible verse to create a reminder of God’s love for them. The verse from Jeremiah 1:7-8 says “Do not say, “I am only a youth,” for you will go to everyone I send you to and speak whatever I tell you. Do not be afraid of anyone for I will be with you to rescue you. This is the Lord’s declaration.” Our team is helping the kids decorate a frame to go with the verse and they’ll be able to hang over their beds here at the Seeds Children’s home. In a few minutes the frisbee’s and soccer balls will fly around the courtyard as our team spends time with the children here. I really think I am standing on hallowed ground! You can read the story of the orphanage that Richard and Hellen founded here in Kitale but let me try to paint just a short word picture.
As I’m trying to type this I am sitting on the porch of the main orphanage building with 7 sets of eyes watching me type (that’s pressure!) I think I’ve been asked ‘How are you?’ a few hundred times today. Just a moment ago the kids started spilling out of the dining directly in front of me, craft frames in hand. A little boy across the yard is rolling a homemade toy of a wheel and a stick and he’s having a ball. The kids are showing me the pictures they just finished. Several of the kids are running back up from the 4 tilapia ponds at the bottom of the hill. A couple of our team members are going on ‘adventure tours’ around the property, hand in hand with a couple of children! The brand-new boy’s dorm is over to my right and the guys are really proud they now have a new house just like the girls. The team has started playing field day games on the soccer pitch behind the girls dorm. The boys standing around me tell me they like to play football (soccer to us Americans), they like to chase each other and play tag and they like to catch fish out of the pond. Oh, and not a one of them is staring at a screen! It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon in one of the most joyous places you can imagine!
Tomorrow we will be going to the new high school to celebrate the first of many classes to attend all the way through 4 years at the school. If today was a party, tomorrow will be a carnival! Until then…