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Housing the Children

Housing the Children

Will Schmit—who belongs to Port City Community Church in Wilmington, NC is currently in Kenya. His church has joined with Victorious Gospel Church of Nakuru, Kenya to build an orphanage for street children of Nakuru. The following are excerpts from his travel journals:

Mission Statement:

To reach people and help them walk with Christ. The application of that in Nakuru, Kenya is to rescue children from a life of street violence, garbage picking and glue sniffing. Each personal contact begins a new international fellowship with eternal consequence.

Update:

Since the start of the project in January, two floors of the projected three stories are finished and 24 boys—ages 8-16—have already taken residence and begun classes. Port City sends two missionary teams of 6-12 people each year (January/July) to help with construction and assist in teaching classes. The experience of watching the desert literally bloom (Isaiah 35:1) with this project will deepen anyone’s faith walk. The light that one sees in the eyes of the boys after just a few months of regular meals and detoxing is truly Christ, the Light of the World. I have carried hand cut stones to raise the building, laid irrigation pipe to raise crops, taught music classes, took a drubbing on the soccer field and begun to share favorite Bible verses in Swahili. Each day has been a new page, a new chapter in becoming a living epistle.

January 21, 2006

The streets of heaven are paved with gold, not so with the road to Nakuru! The bore hole drilling team had struck a gush of water 20 minutes after chauffeur Jackson brought us to site! We met with some 20 boys already living in the orphanage—they were in class studying mathematics they have been there two months and are already showing signs of a civilized manner. For the first time in their lives they have a bed, mattress and blanket and personal footlocker!

We can be very grateful that the mission of reaching people and helping them walk with God is indeed also reaching us!

January 24, 2006

We are in the midst of a world-changing project. It is marvelous before our eyes, enormous and expensive. We’re erecting a three-story building for 100 orphans on a site that was previously home to dust and wind. We’re drilling through hundreds of feet of rock to find a water source to irrigate acres that have only produced thorns since creation.

These miracles of missionary vision are mere background for the transformation of an orphan’s heart with penny candy

There are now 27 boys living and studying at the site. They are the first "test cases"—one new boy has been off the street for only four days. As we tossed out lollipops he naturally hurried to grab as much as he could. He was asked to share with a younger boy who wasn’t as quick. If you think Swahili and English can be foreign languages, try to imagine the mental and emotional hurdle of being asked to give away what you have so recently obtained and never had before.

Pastor explained to the boy he had been given new life of security and provision by God and that his new life is free and continuous and he can trust God and his new family. To show he understands God’s gift, it is necessary for him to share. All the other boys stopped chattering and waited as he walked over to hand out his candy hoard.

Pastor told us "Here is a change from the street. He has given of himself for the first time"

"Do you mean since he got here?"

"No it is more likely he has never shared before in his entire life."

The boy is 11 years old.

January 26, 2006

The builders of the pyramids are unknown and forgotten, however everyone who has contributed to or worked on the "Mama Helen Center for Rehabilitation of Street Kids" are known and remembered in heaven.

If you put $20 in the church basket for Kenya you paid the wages for a skilled craftsman for a week. Labor and supplies are inexpensive by our standards, but the tragedy of this week’s building collapse in Nairobi underscores that the true cost of a brick is the life it supports.

At the Center every stone has been donated, dedicated and sanctified. The design and execution are supervised by godly counsel, and even though it is being constructed without power tools, cranes or cement trucks it will stand in service for generations. In contrast, the Kenya government has already made arrests of contractors, engineers and inspectors who conspired to cut costs and pocket the difference. The fruit of their labor will result in criminal charges, perhaps as severe as murder.

In conversation with our construction crew it is constantly revealed that the joy of the Lord is the strength of this project. It is a constant marvel to watch the expert work happening before our eyes. Thousands of pounds of concrete are wheel barrowed two stories high on wooden ramps to pour the roof and floor of the rooms that house the kids and the classrooms. And every day the finishing touches reveal the smooth cool rooms to be home to a vision that crosses generations, oceans, genders and race.

As Pastor Jackson says, "We humans are just fingers of a much larger Hand, Who is forming the future for these kids."

Persons interested in joining or supporting a team should contact Christie Kole [email protected].

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