Beginnings

I am sat in a crowded internet cafe in Nairobi, catching up on emails and passing the day before Julie, Kate and Hil arrive tomorrow. We have a fun morning planned, visting the Sheldrick elephant orphanage and then Giraffe manor, before heading back to the airport for our flight to Kisumu.

I hadn't even heard of Kisumu 10 years ago. Then a friend, Nicky, said that she had been told of a Kenyan minister, who I got to know as James, and his wife, Sabina, who were in the UK with another charity - Skills for Living, raising awareness of the problem of street children in Kenya. She aksed If would go along with her an meet up with them.

I told her I would go and listen, but that I didn't feel called to start an orphanage.

Later that year we found ourselves on a small Kenya airways twin prop from Nairobi to Kisumu, to see with our own eyes what James and Sabina had told us about. We spent an emotional week, meeting the youngest of children who had lost their parents and now supported themselves and their younger brothers and sisters, children who were missing out on an education because they couldn't afford the fees or uniforms. We met so many children in so many desperate situations, that much of the week was spent with tears not far from our eyes.

But the day that changed my life was on the city rubbish tip. Hundreds of children made a living by sorting through the rubbish, finding what they could recycle and selling it for a few shillings. Often the younger ones would have that little money taken from them by gang leaders with self preservation in their minds. Children as young as 5 or 6, fighting off the effects of cold and fear by sniffing glue from small plastic bottles provided by the older ones, messing up their brains and missing out on life. It was heartbreaking stuff.

There was no way we would see that and walk away. No chance. We resolved there and then that we would do something. We didn't know what that would be, we knew it was a massive commitment of our funds and our work, but if we could help give just one of those kids an education, a family, hope, then it would be worth it.

I read a lovely story of a little girl, walking along a beach with her mum after a storm. Along the beach, washed up on the sand, were hundreds of starfish, stranded by the tide, drying out in the sun. the little girl went up to one, picked it up and placed it carefully back in the water. Her mum said to her to stop, that the couldn't possibly make much of a difference to all of the starfish on the beach. The girl replied, well maybe not to all of them, but it makes a difference to this one.

Over the last 10 years we have helped a few starfish into the water. We set up a charity, The Isaiah Trust, dedicated to helping and supporting street children. The Trust now runs 3 small centres for the children and a number of outreach programs to help and support them where they live. We care for over 60 children full time either in our centres in Kibos, Mamboleo and Kitale, in home resettlement programs or in foster homes, provide training for another ten or twelve and education for more than 100 children from the poorest slums.

From humble beginnings.

So tomorrow, Julie, Hil and Kate arrive, and next week, Phil (Nicky's husband), Tom and Emma. Nicky is gutted that she can't be here herself, but since she was last here in January she has been really unwell and had to undergo surgery for a problem which goes back a number of years. Though she is recovering, she has been advised that she can't yet travel.

So I am here instead, looking forward to Kisumu, to seeing Moses (who runs the operations) and Tatu, his wife. And of course, all of our children. The last time I was here was August, with my wife, Pam and our son, Harry. I am missing them already, but excited to be here with my extended family.

It is good to see God at work amongst the poor, the hungry and the naked. And more than a privilege to be a part of it.

Isaiah 58:

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

¹¹ The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

For me and for Nicky, that sun-scorched land is Kenya and the banks of Lake Victoria around Kisumu. Tomorrow with the elephants and giraffes will be fun. But the real Africa needs a bit more looking for.

www.theisaiahtrust.org