MEDICAL CAMP – WIDOWS CENTER – MAJENGO
When we arrived today at the widows center we found several hundred people waiting outside for medical treatment. The first man I greeted was a Muslim man who I welcomed with a passionate embrace. When the Bible says, “Love conquers all” it is a very true statement. Muslims live in a loveless world and when unconditional love comes there way they just melt. When Valerie walked in, all the women here started clapping about shouting “Vegusa, vegusa”. Vegusa is the name local name they have given Valerie and it means “Seeds”. Valerie is “The seed planter”. If you know Valerie, you know the truth of this statement, she is a fountain of inspiration, new ideas, and encouragement.
I love this place so much. More than half of crowd here are old women and widows from the immediate area. Many of them have brought a gaggle of grandkids for immunizations, deworming and checkups. You talk about love; these old women have it in huge amounts. Just hanging around them is something special. Let me tell you a few things about the Solid Rock Widows Center. The center now serves over 500 widows. They are divided into “community groups”, each one having their own board and leadership. Over the years Nancy and a few very dynamic widows have taught these women spiritual principles and principles of life that I have never seen anywhere else in Kenya. Nancy says, “we sat around for years waiting for help from our families, waiting for help from the church, waiting for help from the government, but finally one day it dawned on us, that God was waiting for us to commit ourselves to helping each other.” The Scripture says in Psalm 133:1-3 “ Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon; coming down upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forever.” These widows have realized that dwelling together in love and unity is the only way for them to be blessed by God. Here among the widows there are no tribal divisions and they have worked hard to create a climate of serving and sharing and compassion for each other. I have to say the Nancy is the perfect role model for them all. In all the years we have known her she has been a continual fountain of love and life to others.
THE YEAR OF BLESSING
Yesterday as we were riding in the car with Nancy and James (who has been the general contractor on the widows facility) they were talking the miracles that have happened since January 1st. They are calling 2014 “The year of blessing”. The widows facility has been in construction for almost 6 years. Last year things came to a standstill for a while. The Canadian couple who has given most of money for the construction of this place had said “once the roof is on, we believe that God wants you to trust him to finish the rest.” So last year the roof was completed and things came to a halt. The widows went to prayer because, believe me, they do not have a dime and the completion of this building is going to take about $15 -20 thousand dollars. But sovereign things have begun to happen in this place. Last year the Lord spoke to us at Worldcomp about helping the widows move on from here. We gave $1500 for the completion of the roof. We also gave several thousand dollars for cement when things had come to a halt. But get this! Last month a woman Dutch woman who Nancy has not seen for 20 years called Nancy and said “We have a new ministry of digging wells, and we want to come and dig a deep well at your Widows Center and then at your house”. Nancy said “but we don’t have any money” and the woman said “It’s all going to be free”. They came the very next day and completed the well in less than one week. I was out there yesterday pumping clean water up from the ground with my own two hands. The electric pump goes in the ground in a few days. Once this is done the tanks are already installed up in the rafters of the building to provide an endless supply of clean water to this building.
Two weeks later another women, who is a prayer partner of Nancy’s from Kisumu, literally snuck up in the night with a contractor and measured all the widow panes and she showed up two weeks later with the glass for all the downstairs widows. It is here on the site waiting for installation. Nancy told us that the windows could not go in until they finished plastering the walls with cement and so we prayed with her for God’s provision to do that. Yesterday when we visited the facility one of the Nurses said “My parents gave me $500 to give to a worthy ministry while I am in Kenya and I know that I am suppose to give it to the Center to buy cement for the finishing of the downstairs walls. I immediately felt that we should match it, so we now half of the enough money to finish the walls and install the glass on one of the three floors in this building. So James is going to buy cement and sand tomorrow to begin to get the job done. It’s been one thing after another since the first of January. God is answering the prayers of these women and doing the impossible. That is why they are calling 2014, the year of blessing.
The other thing that has happened since January 1st is vision. When we came in January Nancy really had no idea of how this big building was going to be used by the Lord. But since January 1st God has been unfolding His vision for the place. We showed up with 3 commercial sewing machines and we felt very strongly that the Lord was going to start a vocational training center here. The top floor will be a guest house, staffed by widows, the second floor will be a vocational training center and work area for women to make things to sell and the ground floor will be a meeting place for widows, at little shop for selling the things made by widows, and a nice clean little restaurant. All staffed by widows and all the proceeds will go to things like microfinance and welfare for widows.
Nancy is so excited because on Monday we are taking her to Nairobi with us to see a woman’s ministry called Amani Ya Juu (Peace from above), where 90 women are working together to make beautiful things that are being marketed all over the world. I mentioned this ministry in my blog last week. When we were there, we knew that Nancy had to see it for herself in order to fully catch the vision. This facility is the perfect place for this kind of ministry.
I know this is long, but it’s so exciting. I particularly want to encourage those of you who are widows and single women back home to consider becoming involved with this widow’s ministry. You can do so much to help! When many people give a little, it adds up to a lot. I Wondbelieve that many of you who are widows back home would be very blessed by participating in and following the progress of this ministry.
At this point I must go, because there are over 600 people on the grounds who need to be served.
Bless you all back home.
Richard
Worldcomp Kenya
7758 Earl Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98117
Online giving at: www.worldcompkenya.com/ways-to-help