House 6

The day had started like any other. We finished breakfast, squeezed 6 of us into the cab of the truck, took the 50 minute ride over the hills and rough roads, arrived to find the chairman missing without organizing guides, waited for guides to show up, and then headed out for the interviews/surveys.

However, today was going to be much different for me. I have been praying that God would place me in houses for surveys were I was needed. Not where I was needed for a surveys, but where I was needed to pray and meet the family. House number 4 of the morning was one of those houses. Last week, we were supposed to survey this community of Kigarama, but there had been a death and so people were going to the funeral. The house I walked into was the home of the deceased. I had noticed what looked like a grave being dug in the ground as we were walking up, so I made sure we added the question about deaths. We learned that the deceased was a little girl age 6. I was feeling blest to have the opportunity to talk to the mother and speak words of comfort into her life. It is still very difficult to hear how the cause was most likely preventable if they were in a different circumstance. She smiled and thanked me after we talked and prayed. As I walked away from the house, I prayed and thanked God for the opportunity to serve. Although, it had not been a happy moment it would have been enough for me to have a good day with my purpose fulfilled. However, I had no idea how I would be affected by house 6.

There was nothing out of the ordinary as we walked up to the house other than its neatly arranged flowers in the garden. Rose and I started the survey. The mother, Beteth, had a warm glow about her. The first question is how many people are in the family (14 with 12 children). I knew this was going to be interesting. However, there was nothing out of the ordinary in the survey. The only thing that stuck out was the distance she was traveling to get water. It was taking her 2 hours, while others near her had a tap that was still functioning until a month ago. (She later showed us her tap just 50 yards from her house, and it was obvious that hers had stopped years before) As we finished the survey and put away our sheets, Rose looked at me and smiled. I gave her a nod and so she asked if I could pray for her and what her prayer requests were.

She proceeded to tell us that 11 of the 12 children were in school. School fees are the hardest thing for people to pay around here, but she had 11 kids to try to get through school. 6 of them are in secondary school, which also means they board. Boarding school is obviously more expensive. As the smile on her face began to drop and the volume and urgency of her voice picked up, she explained about how they had no money to pay the fees. She told us that all the children excel in school and are at the top of their class. The oldest, who is in his last year before going to university, was in the most prestigious private school in the country. Rose explained to me how amazing it was for him to be there and how much of an honor it is to even be considered to be accepted. Beteth told us because the children were doing so well in school that she and her husband had done all they could to pay the school fees and not pull their kids out of school to work. So several years ago they decided to start selling portions of their land to pay the fees. Now, they had sold all of their land and had no prayer of getting the fees. So, the husband left to chase a low paying job to try to keep the family from starving. Beteth told us they did have a small portion of land where they grew food, but it was not enough for her and the primary children to eat. Several years before they had taken in two orphans and raised them as their own. These two were not treated any different than their children and both were getting close to finishing secondary school.

I could feel the spirit nudging me to not leave this story alone. It was tough for me to keep tears out of my eyes as she told the story. I told Rose I wanted to go ahead and pray and then get all of this information from her officially. Beteth smiled and we bowed are heads. I have been praying for miracles throughout my time here, especially since Christmas. So I prayed KNOWING God would provide help for this family whether I got to see that or not. It says over and over in the Bible that he is listening to these very prayers. We recorded the information and told Beteth that we were not promising to be able to do anything, but we would do all we could. A smile spread across her face and she thanked us both as we headed out the door. As she walked with us, she then told us of her own problems which she had kept quiet up to this point. She was stressed out about how she would pay and so she had not slept in months. The stress was also causing headaches. Imagine having all this upon you and still not sleeping. Well, unfortunately that wasn’t it. She then told us that she had had a pain in her side and had gone to the doctor. He told her that she needed to have surgery and have her appendix removed. As you can guess, she doesn’t have money to go have her appendix removed. We reached the branch in the path and stopped to say good bye. My heart was aching inside of me, but again I was so thankful to have been in this situation.

The rest of the afternoon my mind was on this house. I knew ACTS did some sponsorship of kids, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to get 11 help. I set my goal at getting the two orphans help and maybe the family would be able to survive. That night after dinner I pulled David, director of ACTS, aside to talk to him. Rose and I explained the situation and what we saw. As we finished, David looked at me and said, “I will make a deal with you. We will pay all of their school fees for one year, if you can find sponsors.” God was not only answering my prayer, but he was of course doing more than I could have imagined. All I wanted was a chance to help.

So the ball is in my court now. I have time to find sponsors to pay for these kids to go to school. Basically, ACTS has given me a loan. The sponsors will repay ACTS for this year and take over payments from then on. School started last week for all but two of them. That night I did not sleep well because I was so excited. Now all I have to do is figure out all the fees, what to do with the kids, find sponsors, and, the best thing, go and tell Beteth that God had provided a miracle. To be continued…