GIVING TUESDAY...are you ready?
Today is GIVING TUESDAY and though my heart is attached to many organizations that I know need funds to continue their mission this post is dedicated to a specific one that is particularly close to my heart this year.
Abby, the founder of Blue Door Sponsorship, has declared that every child that goes through our school in Kenya should also be given a chance at going to college. So she has made a goal of $50,000 to build a college campus on our school's grounds.
It is a huge undertaking, but I know in my soul that this is from the Lord and that He has given her this vision.
Let me tell you why this is so incredibly important to me this year:
One of our dear sponsor children, Natalia, lives with her single mother who works hard day after day to provide for the two of them. When I first met Natalia and her mother Margaret in 2016 she was digging in the dump each day for plastic bags to clean and resale on the street. These are not just any plastic bags however, no, they are used as what is called "flying toilets". Due to so few toilets in the slums, poor sanitation, and having to pay to use the hole in the ground many people will urinate and defecate in plastic bags, tie them up, and throw them in the street or dump. Now, imagine finding these and cleaning them out by hand (and don't even think about gloves or masks being part of the process) just to put some small amount of food in your child's mouth. This was what she was doing every day and the pain of a life not well lived was written all over her face.
Flash forward to 2017 when I saw them again, this year my Natalia had grown and so had her mother's spirits. Because we had provided school, clothing, and food for Natalia, Margaret now had more time and energy to invest in different kinds of work. This year she was getting laundry washing jobs in the city which was earning enough where they could eat and have a mattress (which they did not have the year before). Her spirits were higher because she was not longer doing the dirtiest of dirty work to feed them.
Flash forward to this July 2018, I had the opportunity to spend several hours with Margaret and discuss her life and her dreams. This year she was able to share her dreams, because she wasn't just digging in the garbage anymore. She has dreams to open a retail stand on the street to sell clothing items. Get this, she has been able to save money for this endeavor...once again because we have given Natalia school, clothing, and food. To hear Margaret laugh and dream will forever be the sweetest sound.
This is all amazing right? Natalia AND Margaret's lives have been changed through our $30 monthly sponsorship. So why am I so struck by the GIVING TUESDAY plea to have a college?
The answer is simple. Without continued education for our children, the statistic of being right where Margaret was in 2016 is extremely high. See, Margaret has a decent education, but without trade school or college she didn't get very far. My hope is that I will not see a single child from our ABC schools end up right where they started. The cycles of poverty MUST end and we are the only ones who can be the catalysts for it. My prayer is that GIVING TUESDAY starts a movement...a movement that sees every child that passes Class 8 and goes to high school and passes their exams at the end knows that their future is shining brighter than the brightest star because college is right there waiting for them.
I cannot and I will not sit by while my Natalia, Wyckliffe, Salome, and every single child I have held hands with or prayed prayers with in the Nairobi and Maasai Land schools looses a chance and breaking free of poverty when $50,000 is all that stands in the way. Will you?
To donate today or any day that follows follow the link below:
DONATE
Abby, the founder of Blue Door Sponsorship, has declared that every child that goes through our school in Kenya should also be given a chance at going to college. So she has made a goal of $50,000 to build a college campus on our school's grounds.
It is a huge undertaking, but I know in my soul that this is from the Lord and that He has given her this vision.
Let me tell you why this is so incredibly important to me this year:
One of our dear sponsor children, Natalia, lives with her single mother who works hard day after day to provide for the two of them. When I first met Natalia and her mother Margaret in 2016 she was digging in the dump each day for plastic bags to clean and resale on the street. These are not just any plastic bags however, no, they are used as what is called "flying toilets". Due to so few toilets in the slums, poor sanitation, and having to pay to use the hole in the ground many people will urinate and defecate in plastic bags, tie them up, and throw them in the street or dump. Now, imagine finding these and cleaning them out by hand (and don't even think about gloves or masks being part of the process) just to put some small amount of food in your child's mouth. This was what she was doing every day and the pain of a life not well lived was written all over her face.
Flash forward to 2017 when I saw them again, this year my Natalia had grown and so had her mother's spirits. Because we had provided school, clothing, and food for Natalia, Margaret now had more time and energy to invest in different kinds of work. This year she was getting laundry washing jobs in the city which was earning enough where they could eat and have a mattress (which they did not have the year before). Her spirits were higher because she was not longer doing the dirtiest of dirty work to feed them.
Flash forward to this July 2018, I had the opportunity to spend several hours with Margaret and discuss her life and her dreams. This year she was able to share her dreams, because she wasn't just digging in the garbage anymore. She has dreams to open a retail stand on the street to sell clothing items. Get this, she has been able to save money for this endeavor...once again because we have given Natalia school, clothing, and food. To hear Margaret laugh and dream will forever be the sweetest sound.
This is all amazing right? Natalia AND Margaret's lives have been changed through our $30 monthly sponsorship. So why am I so struck by the GIVING TUESDAY plea to have a college?
The answer is simple. Without continued education for our children, the statistic of being right where Margaret was in 2016 is extremely high. See, Margaret has a decent education, but without trade school or college she didn't get very far. My hope is that I will not see a single child from our ABC schools end up right where they started. The cycles of poverty MUST end and we are the only ones who can be the catalysts for it. My prayer is that GIVING TUESDAY starts a movement...a movement that sees every child that passes Class 8 and goes to high school and passes their exams at the end knows that their future is shining brighter than the brightest star because college is right there waiting for them.
I cannot and I will not sit by while my Natalia, Wyckliffe, Salome, and every single child I have held hands with or prayed prayers with in the Nairobi and Maasai Land schools looses a chance and breaking free of poverty when $50,000 is all that stands in the way. Will you?
To donate today or any day that follows follow the link below:
DONATE
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