February 17, 2012
Dear Friends and Family –
We
are back! Heather and I are home
and recovering from the jet lag from our whirlwind trip to Kenya. It was an amazing trip and I am so
thankful for your support and prayers.
God was very evidently at work in the ministry of Care for Aids
in the Nairobi area. Heather and I
(and the rest of the team) were SO privileged to get a glimpse into all that
God is doing through this ministry.
We were able to learn about the ministry and participate in several
aspects of it.
Care for Aids is a program that partners with the local
church to offer a Care for Aids center.
This center employs a Kenyan spiritual counselor and a medical counselor
to guide clients who are HIV+ through a 9-month program of education and
care. In addition to learning how
to take care of themselves physically, the clients are discipled spiritually.
They are also “empowered” by seminars on how to start a business, farm, raise
animals, and many other things that could help them take care of themselves and
their families.
CFA (Care for Aids) is all about restoring relationships and
community. When a client is diagnosed as “Positive”, they are rejected by their
community, their family, and often lose their job as well. Upon receiving the diagnosis, they are
inclined to just curl up and wait to die.
CFA lets them know that there is hope – they can become healthier, grow
in the Lord, have a meaningful work and life, raise their children, and restore
the relationships with their family and community. These lives are transformed by this program and the hope
that it offers them. We worked
with Cornel Onyango & Duncan Kimani (Kenyan pastors & CFA founders) and
the American representative, Caleb Davison. We served with Chuck & Terri Bateman, Ashley Humble, and
Angie Albee from our church.
We
were so blessed by being able to go with the counselors to several client homes
for their weekly home visits. We
were able to see the sewing business that Veronica has started. We visited Rose, whose daughter Carol
has been in the program. Carol
cannot walk but you can see the joy on her face as we came into her home. Rose has lost her husband and another
daughter but she kept talking about the blessings that God has given her
despite her losses. Marietta lived
in a small rental home (maybe about 6 – 10 feet square for four people to live
in) but she has learned to have a “kitchen garden” in feed sacks outside her
home and to raise rabbits to help take care of her family. |
| Medical Counselor Esther with Heather |
We
also got to sit with the spiritual counselor, David, and the medical counselor,
Esther, at another church while clients came to them for their weekly
visits. I was SO blessed to be
able to pray with these precious people and help hand out their weekly food
gifts from CFA. I was particularly
touched by a woman whose husband had abused her and left her when she was
diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. She is my
age exactly and has children my children’s ages – 15 & 13, in addition to a
younger child who is 8. Another
lady was 23 with two children aged 7 and 5. She was not married and never got to go to school since her
parents couldn’t afford the uniforms.
She was not a Christian yet but was definitely seeking the Lord and
learning about Him through this program.
Care for Aids has great standing in the community and is
able to refer clients for hospital or medical care for illnesses that come up
due to their lowered immune system.
They also help them get to a hospital to deliver their children so that
the babies are not automatically born with HIV as well. So far, 100% of the
babies born in the program have been HIV Negative!
We were honored to hand out diplomas to the graduating class
of 80 in Ruiru. It was a blessing
to hear the stories of how the Lord and the ministry of Care for Aids has
transformed their lives!
Guess
what else we got to do? We got to help cook dinner and eat in the home of
Ann. Ann is married with 5
children and she and her husband had taken in two other orphans. Two of Ann’s children were also
HIV+. Her oldest child, Mary, was
13 just like Heather and spent a lot of time holding Heather’s hand and playing
with her hair. Heather got to make
balloon animals (with Chuck, another team member) and play with the kids. What an amazing experience that was!
On Friday through Sunday, Heather and I got to head off to
Rift Valley Academy to visit some of our church’s missionaries – Jon, Susan,
Caroline & Ben Stocksdale. The
amazing blessing of this is that they are also our family (Susan is my husband
Bruce’s sister)! They have been in
Kenya as missionaries for over 20 years and we’ve never gotten to visit them
until now! They serve at a K – 12
boarding school for missionary kids. Their ministry supports many other
missionaries and enables these missionaries to serve in places all over Africa
because they have a safe place to send their kids to be educated and
loved. We met a couple of these
missionaries who are serving in truly dangerous places (such as Muslim countries
in North Africa). It was a
blessing to be in their home and to tour the campus and the other related
Africa Inland Missions/Church ministries such as Kijabe Hospital and Moffat
Bible College.
The last day of our trip was amazing. We got to do a
conference to train and encourage the Kenyan counselors and pastors who have a
Care for Aids center. They are always pouring out to others so we encouraged
them with ways that they can fill back up with the Lord so that they might have
the strength to continue to serve.
The
grand finale was so enjoyable – we got to go on a safari at Lake Nakuru
National Park. We saw so many
animals – Zebras, Giraffes, lots of gazelles and deer, birds, and LIONS! We saw two females and 6 cubs then a
while later, we saw two male lions cross right in front of our safari van!
As in so many trips where you go to serve others, we
received blessings that seemed so far above what we were able to give. Heather got a glimpse of the world of
poverty and suffering beyond what she had ever seen but we still got to see the
joy of Christ in the lives of these people and the hope that they were
receiving from the Care for Aids program.
We visited homes and churches located in slums and saw the wealthy homes
of diplomats and businessmen just a block away from such poverty. The contrast of rich and poor in Kenya
is striking.
Most of all, we were SO blessed to be prayed for and sent by
all of you! You have had a part in
enriching lives and encouraging missionaries and Christian workers by sending
Heather and I (and the rest of the team) over to Kenya. Thank you for your part in this work!
God bless you and thank you again for the support you gave
us!
In Him –
Brooke (& Heather) Marsh
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