In addition to the Palau festival, I am also going to be making a connection for a friend of mine. She has a Rwandan friend who has taken in a number of orphans. Here is an excerpt from an email she recently sent about him:
Steven pastors a small church in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Kigali. He and his wife live on very little as their small urban congregation is mostly comprised of widows and orphans. He is known to have great integrity and a heart for widows and orphans, so, babies are frequently left abandoned on his doorstep. Together he and his wife are 'parents' now to 19 orphans as well as two of their own young children.
Truly he runs an orphanage without support and without a proper building. They trust God to provide and they love these kids and let them know they matter. His tiny home is overflowing.
He also "adopted" the rural village of Gasogi which had no pastor and is mostly comprised of widows and orphans. With literally no resources at all other than trust that God loves these marginalized ones even more than he does, he has established a micro-finance cooperative and soccer league that give these villagers a positive way to come together and to encourage each other- as well as a way to try to earn money to get by. He serves as pastor to this whole community in many, many ways. Many of the women and children in the village are HIV positive and receive little medical attention. Some months he performs numerous funerals for the little ones who do not make it. Again, this village has no way to help support him but still he faithfully continues. I would love to see him receive some sort of encouragement.
I am going to be bringing an extra suitcase with school supplies, clothes and shoes... whatever we can pull together in the next 3 days. I'd love to have a large variety of clothing sizes. The children range in age from 1 to 18, but more of them are 8 and older. Also, Steven has been praying to get a laptop, but has not yet been able to. If anyone has a laptop they were planning on getting rid of, he would be very blessed to have it.
If you want to donate something to this family, let me know and I can arrange to pick up stuff or you can drop it off with me.
Thanks so much!
Amy
Amy, I'm so excited for you to be able to experience this. I can't really gather the words, but I wish I could go too. I've been able to see and deal with alot of suffering like when I mentioned my trip to Vietnam, but I know this is a whole different story. I think I'm way too empathetic and might cry the whole time being useless. I'm praying for you.
ReplyDeletePlease save some pictures especially for me "children if you can" and someday they might make you famous.