Thursday, September 29, 2005

God is the Defender of the Fatherless

Christ's Gift Academy (CGA) has been struggling for many years to get the school fully registered.  What should be an easy process has become so challenging as just a couple of men are standing in the way because of their own need for control.  

Let me attempt to summarize what has transpired since the last urgent update…

After waiting outside the office for 1 ½ hours, 12 of us piled into a tiny office to discuss the contentious issues between the school and these two local community leaders.  The assistant District Commissioner chaired the meeting because the DC was away.  The meeting was a mirror image of a meeting we had last December in the Education office with most of the same people.  It started with a dispute over land, but that didn’t last long because every document concerning the land is in the school or YWAM’s name.  So then these people start moving on to many other things trying to keep our school from getting registered such as telling us that 85% of the orphans need to be natives of this specific sub-location (any other orphan living here would have to be left out) and telling us to hire only staff and teachers from here, etc.  It was extremely tense and heated.  I was worried for a while that a fight was close to breaking out (and if not, I was so angry that I was about ready to start one).  They told many lies and brought many accusations against us such as saying our school doesn’t benefit the community at all, calling all of us missionaries “opportunists,” and insinuating that we are taking advantage of the goodwill that the community had in donating the land. 


The assistant DC was pretty overwhelmed.  He just moved to Mbita a couple of weeks ago and had no idea what a huge issue this is and how “rough” these two people are. 

We stood firm as a team though and would not bend from the truth or compromise our position.  At the end, the asst. DC concluded that we needed to get together with these people and compromise to reach a conclusion.  Ben Ouko, the YWAM base director, looked at him and told him that is not an acceptable conclusion.  He said that we have been meeting and discussing these issues for too many years and we are finished talking.  Then he told him that the DC’s office needs to make the decision to register us or come and close the school down.  That was it.  We returned to school.

Needless to say, we departed very frustrated.  We talked as a leadership team about the possibility of holding a large community meeting for all of Mbita so we could explain what is happening and we talked about the possibility of having to shut the school down in December and moving to another community that would accept us.  If the DC’s office wasn’t going to act, then we would have to do something drastic because we can’t go on as a school without this registration.  We were just praying that God would perform a miracle.  That He would rise up and defend the orphans and the fatherless. We knew we had done all we could, but it was all in God’s hands.  

One day went by and then on Thursday morning we received a letter from the DC’s office saying they were coming to the school that afternoon and asking us to make the necessary arrangements.  We had no idea what to expect.  It could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing.


On Thursday afternoon the real DC showed up with the asst. DC that chaired our meeting Tuesday and another asst. DC who happened to be the husband of our newly hired Kiswahili teacher.  This meeting was short.  They walked in, sat down, and the real DC proceeded to thank us for what our school is doing in the community.  He said that it is a wonderful benefit to so many people and he would do anything he could to help us.  After we described the whole story to him, he explained to us that he knew how corrupt these few individuals are and that they are against development in the district.  They want to hold things back so they can control everything.  He listed a number of other organizations and schools in the community that this group has deterred and frustrated.  He said that he would not allow them to stand in our way.  He concluded by saying that he would get in touch with the Education office on Monday to how he can help.  He also promised that the school would be registered as soon as their board meets again later this year.

Wow!!! Praise be to God!! I can’t even explain to you what I am feeling currently.  I wanted to scream out for joy in excitement and cry all at the same time.  God came through in such a miraculous way.   So many thoughts have been rolling through my mind about these children and what will become of them if this issue is not settled. 

Thank you so much for all your prayers.  I appreciate all of your e-mails of encouragement.  Sorry I haven’t had time to respond to them.  I know hundreds of people in the states have been praying for this situation along with our staff and children.  It is wonderful for our children to see how God answers prayer and how much He loves them.

It is not over yet though.  We still don’t have the piece of paper in hand.  Please continue to pray for this situation and for the process to be completed.  And also pray for closure with these few individuals who have been hindering this process.  Pray that God would shut their mouths from talking more evil about the school.  Ultimately we are praying for their salvation.  That they would come to know the transforming power of Jesus Christ in their lives. 

A side note…
This morning we also found out that through the Constituency Development Fund here in Kenya, we will be receiving the equivalent of about $2,000 this year to help in providing for the needs of orphans.  This is really the first time that the Kenyan Government has contributed to our ministry to help the orphan children in Kenya.

Praises, Praises and more praises!!!

What a Day!!!

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