Hamjambo Marafiki! (Hi Friends)! Happy Belated Mother's Days to all the wonderful women who have connected to My Rafiki Around the World through their children or as volunteers. Asante sana! Thank you very much for bringing all your love to our family! And we really love your kids. We hope you felt and continue to feel very celebrated.
Can I tell you about MY Mother's Day?
I'm like that woman God describes in Isaiah 54:1.
“Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child;
shout for joy and cry aloud,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”
I have a LOT of kids y'all, and I do have a lot of joy. WE share a lot of joy.
A lot of my kids — not all, but many — have experienced some form of abandonment. Many fathers left to start other families — like a boy tired of playing one game, and switching to another — or others abandoned their families because (unbeknownst to the wife) she was the second wife and now she's alone to raise his kids.
Let's just say, I've run into a lot of Hagars. Not the woman whose life has been squashed and flattened into a symbol in the New Testament — a slave and nothing more — but Hagar, the mother in Genesis 21. Truly Church, we've been disrespectful to Hagar. She was not despised by God. We just never put respect on her name because of her station or how she became a mother, or because of the other mother we preferred to identify with.
But, I met Hagar — many Hagars — where God met Hagar. And I met Ishmael, her son, when Hagar left him. [See: Genesis 21: 14 - 21]
Like the wilderness Hagar and Ishmael wandered in, there are no social safety nets in Kenya when one drops below the poverty line. There were no stimulus checks, W.I.C., or food stamps, and the government just cut education subsidies in January, making education (and the meals they received at school) out of reach for many when they fall through the cracks.
If you know where to look (and how to read Swahili), you'll see stories on social media from news outlets and citizen reporters telling of children being sent home from school because of fees, and committing suicide because they didn't want to be a burden on their families. Many who see and care deeply are powerless to do something - alone. Together, we let parents, guardians, and youth know they are not alone.
I'm not a mother. I'm not Pharoah's daughter who finds a child from another nation or in poverty, plucks him from the water and calls him my own. I'm just someone who heard Ishmael's cries about being alone and believes in empowering parents and guardians - whenever possible - to provide for the children they love.
Three of our boys were homeless. One, because he could no longer live in the one room home his mother could afford because he reached the age of circumcision, and a circumcised man can't be under the roof with a woman who's not his wife. He was a 14 year old boy, illegally working as a night watchman so that he could have a place to sleep, but finishing grade 8 at the top of his class.
We met him when he ran into one of our teachers while boldly asking local businesses to help sponsor him so he could go to the big boarding school where he had been accepted. He was feeling his hope and future slip away from him — a 14 year old boy, tearful, unable to imagine what he would do without school (and housing).
The other teenage boy — much like Ishmael — was left behind by his mother. Her new husband didn't want him to be his heir. So, he was left alone while she went on to a new life with her husband and his sisters. But his teacher felt his absence. She brought him home and she brought him to us to partner in supporting him. Now, he is well loved and admired.
The third boy who was homeless, now lives with our ministry partner — an African-American woman who came to Kenya as a missionary to street children in Eldoret. The boy was just a child, struggling to keep up in school when she enrolled him After fighting to have him tested, he was diagnosed with a learning disability which was hindering his ability to speak and comprehend English and Swahili - the 2 official languages of Kenya. Now, he's in a special needs boarding school thriving, and for the first time since I've known him in 3 years, he's talkative and confident.
Additionally, two other boys of ours live with grandparents — one of whom was our first teenage boy. His mother took him to the village, left him with his elderly grandfather, and never returned or communicated with him after that. That was about 3 years ago. Another precious boy — this one in primary school — lives with his grandmother because his mother has schizophrenia, and simply can't care for him. It wasn't a choice on her part, but who knows where his father is.
Then there are the grandparents in Meru who are caring for their 7 grandchildren. The fuller story - the father abandoned the family and the mother committed suicide after health complications, post-partum depression, and being rejected by her husband. She just succumbed to it all and left her 7 children behind. Sadly, because of cultural superstitions, the children were rejected because of the stigma of their mother's death, except for the love of their grandparents, uncle, and, now, the Christian school that has embraced their needs. The oldest in that family is a 13 year old girl, and the youngest just turned 1 year old in April.
Like the children in Meru, another family on the other side of Mt. Kenya, too experienced father abandonment, except, like Abraham, the father sent the wife and children away to struggle. He later rejected his teenage daughter to her face, when she came to her old home where he now lives with his new family.
There are many more variations of these stories in our group.
Like the wilderness Hagar and Ishmael wandered in, there are no social safety nets in Kenya when one drops below the poverty line. There were no stimulus checks, W.I.C., or food stamps, and the government just cut education subsidies in January, making education (and the meals they received at school) out of reach for many when they fall through the cracks.
If you know where to look (and how to read Swahili), you'll see stories on social media from news outlets and citizen reporters telling of children being sent home from school because of fees, and committing suicide because they didn't want to be a burden on their families. Many who see and care deeply are powerless to do something - alone. Together, we let parents, guardians, and youth know they are not alone.
I'm not a mother. I'm not Pharoah's daughter who finds a child from another nation or in poverty, plucks him from the water and calls him my own. I'm just someone who heard Ishmael's cries about being alone and believes in empowering parents and guardians - whenever possible - to provide for the children they love.
Hagar Needs A Well.
Hagar needs to see a well. A well changes everything. It changes her relationship with her son. It changes how he grows up. It instantly gave her hope.
We talk about Jesus meeting a woman at the well who had been unmarried (divorced or widowed) 5 times, but we don't talk about the well of water that God provided for Hagar in the wilderness. He didn't terraform the wilderness into a lush oasis, and he didn't lead her away into an established nation like Egypt to get help. She remained in the wilderness, but with a well, and with this well, this boy was able to grow up into the promise that God had said about him. Better yet, God was with him in that wilderness. He was able to settle down in that place, grow up and become great. He increased and the wilderness no longer a place of certain death for him.
I don't think I nor we can change the wilderness, but we can change what happens in the wilderness.
If you have Living Water, will you BE A WELL for a family without resources to meet their children's need? To be clear, I'm asking will you partner with us and remain a part of the lives of our families for a period of time? You can give monthly or quarterly to cover our ongoing needs.
However, if you're not sure you're able to commit, can we ask you to give a refreshing CUP OF SUPPORT? This a modest, one-time amount that hits the spot (a.k.a. meets an immediate need).
Matt 10:42 “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”
We thank God for your generosity (past and present) and look forward to reporting how God is answering prayers through your willingness to give. PLEASE SHARE THIS EMAIL! P.S. - I can't wait until Father's Day to tell you about the amazing men we have in the My Rafiki Community.
Sincerely, Jayne Marie Smith (A.k.a. Auntie Jayne)
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