Meet my friend, Rev. Lydia Kamau. She wouldn’t like me saying it, but she’s a modern-day saint. Really.

Years ago, Lydia—faced with the tremendous needs in her Kenyan village—felt led to start a feeding program for children. She thought a few hot meals could make a big difference for the hungry children she saw each day on her way to and from work. So, all on her own time and funding, Lydia began feeding children—many of them.

But as Lydia fed the children, she came to know them, to learn their names and hear their stories. Soon, she saw that many of the children she was feeding had no home and no parents. Troubled, she turned to friends and family for help. She was determined to provide a home for them, but couldn’t imagine how.

If you’d met Lydia (and I truly hope you get the opportunity someday), it wouldn’t surprise you to learn that she cajoled folks into helping her. She’s a spit-fire kind of gal, and her prayers wield a lot of power.

For years, the home for 18 ran under her leadership. She not only saw to it that these boys were fed, but also clothed, housed, educated, and taught the Word of God. Things seemed to be going smoothly. Maybe too smoothly, in fact.

Apparently word spread that El Shaddai Children’s Center was a good home for orphans. So one day, a government official appeared at the door with 12 children whose terms were up at a nearby camp for internally displaced persons. He announced that these boys were her new charges.

Lydia knew this was more than the home’s already-stretched budget could handle, but she took the boys and loved on them anyway. In the evenings, she banged on neighbors’ doors, begging them to pray for more support for the now fledgling home. The needs at El Shaddai Home had nearly doubled overnight, and she was desperate to find a way to meet them.

What Lydia didn’t know was that even as she prayed, friends of hers were sitting in The Boaz Project’s office in Indiana, telling us about her work, her character, her needs. God had begun answering her prayers even as she uttered them.

When a leadership team from The Boaz Project visited El Shaddai Children’s Center, we were impressed by the boys as well as the leadership. The staff was compassionate, wanting the children to know the love and care of their Heavenly Father.

Rev. Lydia stated that those who run the children’s center do it, “…on behalf of God, because it is God who has commanded us, who has commissioned us.”

She added, “The greatest blessing (we get from our work) is the fulfillment we receive when we become a part of God’s destiny for these boys…They become the persons God purposed them to be. They become a joy to us.”

Partnering with Rev. Lydia and the others at El Shaddai has become a great joy to us, too!

Believing in Miracles,
April