I'm sorry the following will be a little long, but I heard this story first-hand from Mama Vickie in Kenya and wept along with Vickie, it really hit me at a tough moment when I needed to see again how big God is. Now she wrote it to the HEART email list. I had to share in a somewhat edited format her WEEP (Women's Equality and EmpowermentProject) update. This is what keeps drawing me back to Kenya:

One lady lived with her daughter in her brother’s house (it is not really a house it is more like a 10 by 10 room) with his wife and four children. There was no room on the floor to sleep, as his children were on the floor, so she had to sit up at night, in a chair, holding her daughter. We rented her a “home” of her own for 1,600 Kenyan Shillings or $22.50 a month. We went to visit this “home”; stepping across raw sewage running down the street; trash of various kinds; walked through various twisting little alleyways; to find this home. It was clean and neat. The only furnishings were a borrowed Jiko (little stove that cooks with charcoal), some clothes and a hanging sheet that divided the small room. The blanket I had given her the week before was on the cement floor – spread out so nicely; no other blankets or mattress and no bed.&nb! sp;It has been very cold here. It is winter in Kenya and the stone flooring is cold and damp.

Another lady had a similar “home” but had a borrowed mattress and a chair loaned by a neighbor. She was also so happy to have a place of her own. She had been beaten by her husband and thrown out of the house with her daughter when she told him she had AIDS (he probably brought the disease home to her, but he could not face the truth so accused her of being unfaithful). She had been staying with neighbors and friends but had worn out her welcome, as all live in such tight quarters. Mary had found her living on the street; very dangerous; very cold; very terrible. Now she had her own place!

I told Mary to buy them each a mattress, and we paid the rent through August for the other ladies, except one that Mary wanted us to visit. Mary said “Now, this lady really lives in the slums. “ Our team looked at me as if to ask: “Could it be worse than where we have been?”. Well it was. It was deeper into the slums and the deterioration of the surroundings was much worse. We finally reached her little shack, not a stone building but one made of tin, with many large holes in the walls. She had a bed and two chairs and a Jiko. Her daughter was at home because this mom did not have the money to buy her a uniform for school. We sat for a minute in her home, and then she said to me “Moma Vickie, can I tell you something that is distressing me?” I said “Sure”. She said, “I have TB bes! ides AIDS. I am not supposed to sleep with my children because of my coughing but when I put the children on the floor the rats run over them at night”. I tried not to show the horror I felt. I looked around at the large holes in her walls; I told Mary to find her a place to live.

Well, when I got home that night I received a call from the hospital; a child that we had paid for to have his bilateral cleft lip and bilateral cleft palate repaired a few days prior was to be discharged the next morning and the amount of money that was paid to the hospital, which we thought would cover the bill, was not enough. This child had a severe cleft palate and the surgery had been 3 ½ hours. He was not able to get enough nutrition, and was very tiny except for a big tummy; skinny little arms and legs; all signs of malnutrition. He was in great need of this surgery but I did not have enough money to pay the hospital bill which must be paid prior to discharge from the hospital.

The funds I had spent on the WEEP ladies at this location were stretching our WEEP budget. They were just now learning how to sew so it would be another month we would need to help with food and rent. Not to mention that this is only one of our six WEEP centers … and now the hospital bill. I lay down very tired and prayed, but felt discouraged. Later I got up and checked my e-mails and found an e-mail from Beverly in our Colorado office. A young girl named Alexandra was turning 9 years old and her parents were planning a party. This is the e-mail below:

“This past weekend, a little girl was celebrating her 9th Birthday. She told her mom she didn't want any presents from her friends but instead wanted them to give the money they would have spent on a present for her, to the little children in Africa. Her mother made gift baskets, using the Maasai baskets we had left over from our HEART Dinner, filled with candy and a note asking them to use the baskets to save their change for the children of Africa. She gave each guest one of the baskets. The little girl received over $400 in lieu of presents! And besides that!! Her mother and father recently celebrated their 15th Wedding Anniversary. Her husband asked her what she wanted for their Anniversary - a cruise, a gift ?? &! nbsp; She asked for a check for HEART - he gave her a check for $4,000! This went for the WEEP Project.” (The $4,000 had been sent previously and spent, but I didn’t know the story behind it).

I wept; now I had enough to pay the hospital bill and knew that the Lord will provide for the WEEP Ladies.