It
doesn’t take long to find out how awesome Jesus is. All it takes is responding
to the voice of the relentless God. Relentless is a deep word, and I have added
it to my vocabulary when describing God’s love for his children. I know this
because I feel this relentless love every day. When I am on the street and see
children that have lost their innocence I feel a burning passion, a fire ball
of love that consumes my soul and says “Haden these are my children, they are
lost in a world of sin, but I am a Relentless God that has already won them, go
and take back what is rightfully mine.” That’s
what we do here in Busia. We seek after his lost children with the burning
relentless love he has put in our hearts. We run through walls of fear that
have stood for long enough. And we are vessels to carry his banner of victory
reminding the innocent of their freedom in Christ.
Since
my arrival in Busia we have had 3 man goals as far as getting the ministry
going. Start a local based organization and train the local Kenyans to run it,
buy transportation, and find land to begin growing crops and building a Shelter
for United Love. Since June 3rd
we have accomplished 2 out of 3! Jesus is awesome. We are a registered
Community Based Organization, we just received our first ministry motorcycle,
and we have the finances to purchase land.
When we get time off from working
with the street kids we use it to accomplish these things. Much time has been
spent finding the perfect land to host a bunch of kids that need lots of love.
After a number of tries we found a lot of land but none of it felt like “The
Land”. So what do you do? Well Cornel and I knew of a ministry in Kitale, and
from the children’s home there is a massive mountain by the name of Mount Elgon
(sounds like Lord of the Rings). It catches your eye every time you look it’s
direction. Of course the answer is going and climbing the mountain and build a raging
fire at the top and cry out to God right? We thought so. This awesome Kenyan
and I did our prep packing and took off the next free time we had. We arrived
at the amazing ministry Challenge Farm and were greeted with a lot of other
guest already there. We had a great dinner and updated Momma Cheri (the
founder) on the amazing work God had been doing in Busia. That’s when she gave
us the statement “Wow that’s amazing well I am so glad you came because we have
our friend Stewart her from North Carolina representing Hand up Africa and he
has brought his brick machine along with him. He has and will be making 17,000
bricks for our girl’s dormitory being built. I am sure he would love to have
you guys stay and help work considering the lack of helping hands he has.”
Boom, just like that Cornel and I looked at each other and realized we would not
be scaling a large chunk of earth anymore, we would be building bricks…..lots
of bricks. Over the next couple of days we helped build bricks and it was
amazing but we left Stewart with about 15,000 left to build. So we got back to
Busia with sore muscles and I just kept feeling that I needed to go back and
help this guy Stewart. Something about his amazing energy and fatherly love
made me want to help and learn from him. So after our weekly activates had
finished myself I paid 3 dollars and headed toward Kitale riding in a dirty
matatu made for 14 but sitting about 30 people (awesomeness).
Upon
arrival it was super late I had just walked about a mile alone with no one with
me except a couple of cows, the beautiful Kenyan stars, and my best friend
Jesus. I made it to the gate an was greeted by a man with a bow and arrow which
was comforting to say the least. Stewart was waiting for me and greeted me with
a big Roll Tide! as I entered the house.
The next morning before dawn we were up, and eating the amazing
breakfast Momma Cheri had prepared for us. I know building bricks sounds like a
simple task right? Wrong! We had a big pile of dirt, a big pile of sand, a
whole room of cement, a mixing and pressing machine, and a 55 year old North
Carolinian that was like a high school football coach making sure we made at
least 1,000 bricks a day, and that we did. We worked from sun up to sun down
and did not stop until we hit our mark. At night, our bodies felt like we just
got through getting stampeded by Japanese sumo wrestlers, we had calluses in places
I didn’t know existed but one thing rested ashore; we always had full stomachs
of amazing food. Momma Cheri’s cooking was so good it reminded me of back home.
After two weeks we had finished all 17,000 bricks, and I had made two lifelong
friends and brothers. Stewart and I had
a talk at the end of the trip that left me realizing why God had me help him.
He had heard the stories of The Shelter of United love, seen the pictures, and knew
the dreams. Stewart told me if all possible he is going to bring his ministry
Hand up Africa to Busia to help us build bricks for our future rehabilitation
center! Jesus is awesome.
Upon
arrival it was super late I had just walked about a mile alone with no one with
me except a couple of cows, the beautiful Kenyan stars, and my best friend
Jesus. I made it to the gate an was greeted by a man with a bow and arrow which
was comforting to say the least. Stewart was waiting for me and greeted me with
a big Roll Tide! as I entered the house.
The next morning before dawn we were up, and eating the amazing
breakfast Momma Cheri had prepared for us. I know building bricks sounds like a
simple task right? Wrong! We had a big pile of dirt, a big pile of sand, a
whole room of cement, a mixing and pressing machine, and a 55 year old North
Carolinian that was like a high school football coach making sure we made at
least 1,000 bricks a day, and that we did. We worked from sun up to sun down
and did not stop until we hit our mark. At night, our bodies felt like we just
got through getting stampeded by Japanese sumo wrestlers, we had calluses in places
I didn’t know existed but one thing rested ashore; we always had full stomachs
of amazing food. Momma Cheri’s cooking was so good it reminded me of back home.
After two weeks we had finished all 17,000 bricks, and I had made two lifelong
friends and brothers. Stewart and I had
a talk at the end of the trip that left me realizing why God had me help him.
He had heard the stories of The Shelter of United love, seen the pictures, and knew
the dreams. Stewart told me if all possible he is going to bring his ministry
Hand up Africa to Busia to help us build bricks for our future rehabilitation
center! Jesus is awesome.
We said
our difficult goodbyes and I headed back to the children I had missed so much.
When I returned Cornel as usual had done an amazing job with the ministry and
had seen to it that three children were home and off the streets. We were able
to right away get two of the boys Benjamin and Dennis back in school, and Laban
is in the process of going to an orphanage in his home district. Not only that but Jesus blessed us with our
first ministry transportation. A brand new Yamaha Street and trail motorcycle
that we paid for in cash with the money rose from the amazing supporters back
home. With this motorcycle it has made our ministry two times faster, the
search
for land a lot easier, and the process for getting children home/
visiting kids who are home a simple crank and ride away. With all the work
going on and the amazing things God has been doing one of the big things with
running an organization dealing with children is to work together with the
children’s department on every level.
Jesus has not only given us amazing favor with the children’s department
but also with all the officers in the county. It is great knowing the
government around you is on
your side. The only issue we had to fix was the
matter of having an office for our Organization. Not even 4 days after the
issue arose; we had an office in our favorite building in Busia. 
The Shelter of United Love has been blessed with its first
successful rehabilitation. A boy named Andrew. Until we are able to get a
children’s home we do not allow street children in our house, due to the Kenyan
laws. But for the teenage boys over 18 we are able to help them in the ways we
can. Andrew had been on the street since his father died and his mother was
left with more children than she could care for. She left him with his elderly
grandmother that could not even take care of herself. After visiting his home
and seeing what he was telling us was true we allowed him to stay with us in our
small home. Now after 3 months of teaching, training, and discipline Andrew is
an amazing man of God with an identification car, a bright smile and bicycle taxi
business.
I can’t
possible write this blog without stopping to recognize the impact an individual
has made on this ministry. Her name is Olivia Mill’s and though she was not on
this earth long enough to see the impact she has made I know she is seeing
right now from the amazing paradise of Glory where all of our souls long to
be. Olivia was an amazing woman of God
that was in a car accident last week leaving her with a critical brain injury.
What happened in the week following can only be described as a miracle at work
by a powerful God through an amazing girl. Over 40,000 people had join Olivia
facebook page Pray for Olivia Mills. Entire student bodies gathered to pray and
worship God together and thousands of lives were touched by the amazing love of
Jesus Christ including my own. Olivia was a missionary everywhere she went and
she wanted to join her radical sister and brother in law last summer in coming
to helo The Shelter of United Love. The impact she has made on my life gives me
the inspiration and strength to push through the hard times, when the darkness
is relevant and things seem impossible. I look at the children and now not only
do I think about how my father Jesus would love them, but I also think about
how my sister Olivia would love them had she been able to hold them and cover their
pain with his love. Olivia’s legacy lives on through her fruits. And if good
tree bears many fruits you can call Olivia an orchard. Olivia was an angel that came to this earth
and reminded us how Jesus loved people and then went to be with him forever. I
am beyond blessed to have been able to call her my friend and I only hope to
meet another woman as amazing as she was. Olivia I know your spirit is still
with us and I praise Jesus you are healed, just know I will live everyday her
in Africa remembering the amazing impact you left on this world and the amazing
impact your still making in Kenya Africa. I will end this blog with a message I
received form Olivia Mills right before her accident.
“Haden!! This is random but I have recently gotten caught up
of what all has been happening over there and how much god is working and
putting all his plans into action and its just so encouraging! It's so awesome!
I really felt like i needed to tell you about this dream I had a couple of
weeks ago before i knew of your organization that god has started. But the
dream had a lot of power behind it. I didn't wanna bother you but It was so
random and spirit filled that I really feel like I should tell you about it. In
the dream I first saw this building that was under construction. I knew I was
somewhere in Africa and I remember seeing all these glowing kids running around
filled with Gods love and they were painting the walls of this place. Then I
remember seeing you and some others working on constructing this home. At that
point i knew that this building was going to be an orphanage for these awesome
kids and you and whoever else that was willing was going to run it! It was so
incredible. This may not be on y'all's hearts right now but I feel like it
needed to be said! I am praying for y'all and cannot wait to see how Jesus is
just going to turn people's lives upside down with his love through what he is
doing through you”
Thank You for Always Believing Olivia, I know you will be
with us while this dream is fulfilled.
Jesus is awesome
