Relentless

                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 3^rd 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.

                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