Sharon's reflections on her trip to Kenya

Hi everyone!

I'm back in Alpharetta safe and sound after a 21-hour trip home from Kenya!  It feels great to be home, though it seems like I've been gone much longer than just a week!  I guess that's what happens when God packs so many experiences into such a short timespan.

As you know from my previous updates, I had the opportunity to experience every Partners for Care program in Kenya except our ministry in Marsabit.

Everywhere I went, I saw people who by our standards are extremely "materially poor."  And I wondered....... Why am I so blessed Lord to have a home, more than enough food to eat, clothing, electricity, clean running water, an automobile.....?  Why me Lord?  Why do some people have so little and I have so much?

The only answer that makes any sense is that God wants me to use my blessings to help others. Our Partners for Care team does just that. And so do you! Every time you pray for this ministry and donate financially, you make it possible for our guys on the ground to bless the people, and especially the children, of Kenya!

Lunch at Gembuga in Maai Maihui

When we visited Kathi's House in Maai Maihui (a PFC program for widows and orphans), I walked into a tiny little concrete house with no electricity and no running water.

Pastor John and his wife Mary, currently care for 4 children of their own plus two little girls they recently rescued from desperate circumstances, Mineh and Jaridad.  In the coming weeks, they will begin caring for 8 more children who will be moving there from the children's home called Tree House. These are some of Nick and Charles' children who were living in Mathare Slum. There will be 10 children in a house the size of a college dorm room.  Can you imagine if your spouse came home one day and said, "by the way honey, we'll be adding 8 more children to our family, are you okay with that?"

Kathi's house has no washer and dryer for laundry and Mary cooks all the family's meals on a tiny little cooktop over an open flame. The children sleep 2-3 to a bed in a small dormitory next to the main house.  But here the children will be well cared for and loved.  They'll help cultivate the crops from the Hope Farm which is used to grow food like corn (maize) and beans and feed the family.  They'll be free of the dangers and darkness of life in a slum and instead, will experience the beauty of life in the Rift Valley, one of the most beautiful areas of the country.

Obviously, we will need to raise additional funds to help Pastor John and Mary feed and clothe the children and for fees and uniforms to attend school.

My experiences in Kenya have taught me a great deal.  I'm very humbled. Most of the world does not live the way I do.  I am blessed to be a blessing.

I can't thank everyone enough who contributed prayer and financial support to send me to Kenya.  You helped me to trust God in an area of my life I had never totally surrendered and I'm grateful for all that He taught me from the experience.  The work I do for PFC already had significance, but now it means so much more. Now it's personal.

Thank you Connie for allowing me the opportunity to meet and personally witness the incredible, life-saving work of our Partners for Care team on the ground.  These brave guys and young women give new meaning to the term "servant-hearted."

If any of you are interested in going to Kenya with PFC and seeing for yourself how PFC is changing lives, let me know -- it may be also be the answer for you to the question of "Why me Lord?"
Be sure to check our blog in the next day or so for photos of my trip:

Sharon Dicks
Partners for Care
Director of Development
sharon@partnersforcare.org
(770) 294-3586

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