Greetings Brethren,
In James 1:27, we are given insight into what pleases God: “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” The word for “unspotted” is translated “uncontaminated” in the Amplified.
We want to thank you donors who have been making your religion acceptable to God, as you continue to visit (or relieve) our orphans and widows in their afflictions.
Aside from the orphans living at Sengera House, we are also assisting 12 true widows, and 24 additional church orphans with food and clothes. One new orphan is now being cared for by church widow Grace Kwamboka. The boy’s name is Kevin, he is 8 years old.
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| Kevin |
We also received word earlier this week from the Getara church group that two of their orphans were hospitalized for starvation, but thanks to your donors, they are okay now, we were able to assist. World Vision is reporting that over 12 million children in E. Africa are experiencing high levels of malnutrition and at risk of starvation.
There are children dying from starvation often, even in our area. We cannot help everyone, and we do help according to priorities, orphans and widows come first. We also know the Scripture that says: “Do good unto all men, especially those of the household of faith.” Galatians 6:10. So again we ask for your prayers. Please pray that we be good stewards, and use every cent that comes in properly and according to our Heavenly Father’s will.
What we have been doing is buying the remote church widows and orphans the ingredients to make nutritional porridge, consisting of Wheat, Cassava, Maize (and also the funds for grinding) They continue to ration the little they have in order to survive. I received the following from Nehemiah (nicknamed “Nesh”) he is Sengera House’s eldest orphan, and the one who organizes and distributes the funds to these remote widows and orphans:
Receive my warm greetings.
Let me take this opportunity to thank you for your continued love and care, we also thank our almighty God for all you are doing to us here. And let God continue to protect all of you abundantly.
But now we thank God that our widows have mattresses, dry places to sleep and nutritional porridge, so we really thank God for the support that’s coming from you.
Thanks a lot for the love and concern, God, bless you.
Be blessed.
Nehemiah Sibwaga.”
It’s been a busy week at Sengera House, another school semester has begun. Thanks to you donors, all the children have returned to school. James and Jemima (both straight A students) have now started High School. They were escorted on opening day by Haron. So we currently have four of our Sengera House orphans attending High School. Manley is in grade 11, and Nehemiah is in grade 12.
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| James is now boarding at Moi Gesusu High School |
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| Jemima boarding at Tombe all Girls High School |
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| Sengera House orphans in their school uniforms. |
Let me update you on Kelvin and his five siblings. (A large number of orphaned households in Kenya are headed by the eldest sibling, like Kelvin, and then there is Thomas who is head of his 4 siblings [one died of starvation few Months back] and Kevin who also lost one of his 3 siblings from starvation.) As you may recall, thanks to your donations, we purchased Kelvin a singer sewing machine a while back, and also had him trained by a retiring Taylor. The local school has now contracted Kelvin to make all their school uniforms. So thank you donors for your wonderful “good works” in this area too, which is glorifying our Heavenly Father. Yes, the fruits you are producing are Very good fruits, as we continue to try and get these young brethren of ours to become self supportive.
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| Kelvin when he was learning Tailoring |
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| Bible Study at Kitembe Tanzania |
I haven’t visited this group in over 2 years, but hope to soon. As you can see the Bible study was attended by mostly women. One reason is that the men sometimes travel long distances to find work to support their families.
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| Some of the girls at Sengera House home for lunch |
The local school stopped serving lunch a while back due to lack of food, so the children return home to eat. As you can see, they are all quite happy. It’s no wonder, because all these children have experienced starvation before coming to Sengera House, and being cared for by you donors. Some of these children have also lost siblings due to starvation.
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| Naomi and Mildred preparing food from garden |
So let me end by thanking you donors for all you are doing. And let us pray for God’s Kingdom to come, because so many around this world are suffering, and many horrendously.
Your brother in Christ.
Bill Goff