It was time for me to come back. My friend Tom Stickney, director of ACO, moved his family back to the states in June of this year for safety reasons (they lived in Nairobi) so he is no longer "boots on the ground" and able to check in on the Virginia Home (he will still be a missionary in Kenya, just "home base" is now in the states). ACO has also decided to have limited emphasis on the Virginia Home as their main area of focus has always been the University students and evangelizing them. We've talked (or dreamed) about taking some of the children from Virginia and starting our own "home", but my family's passion has always been the children of Virginia. Ever since we saw these hauntingly precious faces,
(Ann and Carol, March 2011)
(Harrison, March 2011)
we knew we couldn't turn away from them. One day we were making sure they had food, and the next we were moving onto other, "more glamorous" projects? That just did not feel right. I guess you could say we are "accidental" missionaries. We never thought of ourselves as the missionary type, would never pretend to have the calling and "success" of REAL missionaries like Tom and many others, but we feel strangely called to the kids of the Virginia Home. I have stepped down from the ACO board to concentrate all of my efforts into the feeding and schooling of these kiddos, but that is proving to be a monumental task when you live on the other side of the world. You can't just send money and not follow up...
We actually had a Kenyan man on staff with ACO that we sent money to, but temptation must have gotten the best of him as he took some of the money for his personal use, and then disappeared for a time. It wasn't a large sum of money by our standards, but it's the principle. He took food out of the mouths of the children. This was tough, because I personally (and I am not alone) considered him a friend. We trusted him with our own children when we were in Kenya, we tried to help him any way that we could...to say I am disappointed (again I am not alone) is an understatement. I sincerely hope he finds his way. So, we had a dilemma: how do we continue feeding and schooling these kids while living in the USA?
We have communicated back and forth with the director of the Virginia Home. We have set up a plan, a budget, and an accountability system with him. He has seen the great things our support has done for the school (his words), and he has told me on numerous occasions that he could never have imagined all of this would be possible. By his own account, he would be crazy to abuse the support, and he has assured us that he will do the right thing with the money each week (and I say "each week" because we are trying to reduce temptation. If we give a month's worth of money, it's awfully tempting to use a bit of it to pay the electric bill or whatever, and get the money back in the account as quickly as possible...), he will keep receipts, records and communicate regularly with our Kenyan contact as well as with us.
This is our third month of working directly with the director. We still have a safeguard that we send the money to and he sends it on to the director, but we are counting on Philip (the director) to use this money as intended. We are ready to pull the plug at a moment's notice if it is abused. This is the reason I kept my visit to Kenya quiet. I wanted to surprise them and see if things were going as they were supposed to without giving them warning to "put on their Sunday best" for our benefit. We wanted to "see who they were when no one was watching". I have had many of you asking to support a student or help with food, and I may be hitting more of you up, but not unless I felt confident your money would truly touch the intended cause. I do feel that Phillip cares about the kids and truly appreciates what has been done for them and that is half the battle, right?
So as I titled this entry, here I am...and I'll be telling more of my visit this week, whether it is a successful or not. (but I get a feeling it will be successful)
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