Jambo! Update from Belwop!

Jambo! Hello, from Belwop!

I'm finally here and it is amazing...really no words can describe what it is like, but amazing will do for now.

When Lauren, David, Sammy, Veronica, and our driver Charles picked me up from the airport I could hardly believe that they were standing in front of me. I hadn't seen Lauren since New Years 2010 and I had never met any of the others, only seen them in pictures.

Almus, Lauren, and Jane.

Lauren, for those of you who don't know is the sort of leader of the pack. I met her on my mission trip to New Orleans in July 2009 and we bonded because we had a mutual friend, Geoff Spencer. From that moment on we have been friends and even as God called me to New Orleans Lauren and I stayed in touch and she continued to talk about Belwop and Veronica. This is Lauren's third trip to Belwop, although much shorter than her last two trips (1 month and 5 months)

David Martinez with Peris

David, has also played a large part in helping Belwop, being sort of the green thumb of the group. Helping with the shamba (farm) so that the kids can feed themselves with food they plant. This is his second trip and he is also the wonderful boyfriend of the wonderful Lauren. Sammy, a friend of Lauren's from La is on his first trip to Belwop, just like me!

Sammy teaching (L to R) Sharon, Irene, Caroline,
Sammy, Michek, Moses, and Zipporah.

Veronica Mumbi (Mum)

Lastly, VERONICA, also known as Mum, is the Mum of all 23 of the kids that live at Belwop as well as 5 of her own kids, and of course she has adopted all of us who come here to visit as our Kenya Mum! Meeting Veronica has been the most surreal, she is in a sense famous, well at least to me, because I had only seen her in videos, pictures, on the webstie and of course on facebook. She is an incredible woman of God, her faith is unfailing and continuous. Her laugh is beautiful and her smile is infectious, and most of all her unconditional love towards everyone she meets is incredible.

The first few days here has been busy. We have visited another farm, planned out what we want to do with our trip, played with all the kids, gave them their gifts, started building a dehydrator (something they can use to dehydrate the food that comes from the shamba (farm)). Sunday was so special, we held church at the orphanage and the kids lead the whole thing. It brought me to tears to see these kids worship God. A lot of them have been through so much...from abuse to neglect to abandonment but through Christ using Belwop and Veronica they have found joy and peace. This is an incredible place. Below is a picture of everyone with all the clothes, toys, and supplies that ya'll have donated!



Originally I thought this trip would involve a lot of moving the kids to the new house, but in Africa you have to pay off the entire cost of the house. So, before we can do that we must raise the remainder of the money. At the beginning of this month we had 30,000 left to raise in order to completely pay it off, as of today, we have only $2,900 left! God is good.

So, perhaps, with your help we will be able to move them after all! You can help us by either buying some belwop kicks here: belwopkicks.blogspot.com or by donating belwopproject.com/give.

Lastly, I want to send my prayers and love to those in New Orleans who are dealing with Hurricane Isaac. All of us over here in Kenya are lifting you up.

Na Upendo (with love),

Heidi sMiles