Travel days in Africa officially out do the chicken buses in Central America, they out smell the the crowded buses in Cambodia and they definitely pack everyone in tighter than anything I have ever seen!
Erica and I went with our Kenyan brother Patrick to visit a children's home that he works at, 5 hours north of our home in Kenya . We took the local Matatu. Which legally holds 14 passengers. Guess what? We had 27. Yes, 27 people in one van. Oh Africa. I think I can safely say after 9 months, it is going to be strange driving my car alone when I get home. And wearing a seatbelt… I've only done it once in 9 months!
But, the drive was definitely worth the discomfort when we got to see the changes this children's home is making in so many lives. When we arrived in Kitale at Challenge Farm we learned it was started in 1999 by a women named Cheri Thompson and her husband Rick from Florida. They felt called to Kenya without any idea what they were going to do, other than serve the people. They started by working in homes to feed the hungry and when they saw all the children living on the streets their hearts broke for them.
In this small town there are hundreds of children who are living without anything more than the tattered clothes on their backs. We saw so many while we were there. Most of them were so skinny with little bloated bellies, running around bare footed. Patrick told me that most of them beg for food just to get through the day. That is actually what sparked Cheri and her husband to take in children, in 1992 they witnessed ten boys being beaten by the police for begging for food.
This couple decided they had to take these children in and do everything they could to take care of them. So that's when they started The Challenge Farm. Since then they have taken in 122 street children. Patrick explained to us that they wanted to take in the worst children, the ones that no other orphanage or home would take. And the Lord has blessed this home. It is ten acres with a school on the property, a self sustaining farm and dorm rooms that remind me of Montlure Church Camp, a camp I attended in junior high. They have daily counseling for the children and rehabilitation programs that helps with the withdrawal taking 5-10 year olds off glue and kerosene. This home is healing lives, they explained to us that it is the stories of these children that drives them to care so much. This is one of the first homes I have seen with so much life! These children are God's gift, and its the first time in their lives they have been loved and cared for by such incredible people! Thank God, for places like this!
One of my favorite parts of the past 9 months is getting to witness places that really make a difference, people who spend their lives caring and loving orphans even when its hard, and the passionate lives they live because of that love.
I love you all!
