Going out on a limb

The one thing that seems to characterize all the "Orphans Know More" families is that they are continually going beyond their means to help the orphans.

Last year, Rich and I visited this family.

Missing 1 child, plus 2 who passed away in the last couple of years (one at a fire at school and one at an accident of the school bus)

They have been building their home for almost 10 years,

little by little.

this is the living room

The floors are of dirt,

there is no kitchen - yet



this is where the kitchen will be one day

there is 1 bedroom for the parents,

1 for the boys



and 1 for the girls.

one of the kids' bedrooms holds the dishes/kitchen supplies as well.

When a rather large donation was given for OKM a few months back,

we felt to pass it on to this family

towards the completion of their house.

We had found out that the dirt floors were causing some health problems in the family.

I was curious to see the progress they had made on the house

when I visited them recently.

This is what I found:

Instead of proper floors,

a kitchen

or walls plastered,

this family is using the money to add 2 more bedrooms to the house.

Why?

Because they want to make room for more orphans in their family!

They have 10 kids in 2 bedrooms.

They recently had 4 more kids for some weeks

as their widowed mother needed some respite care.

The teenage girls stayed in a tent in the living room

in order to have some privacy.


They are also looking after several children in the community that are not in good situations and need to be brought "home".

So - building was going on during our visit.

NOW - THIS IS THE HEART of all the OKM families I have met.

Always out on a limb to help more orphaned children!

The parents Mabel and Dickson need our prayers at the moment.
Mabel's brother just passed away a week ago

and her father needs to be looked after.

It's unbelievable HOW MUCH DEATH people in Africa have to deal with...




There's also a very exciting project I am working on together with this couple for next year.

Just giving some hints:

Streets of Europe

Dances, Songs, Testimonies

Ex-orphans ministering.

More on that another day...