To the Least of These

Children need love, guidance, security, as any caring parent knows. How desperate is their situation when bereft of such necessary care! When we see the suffering of neglect on a little one's face, do see our call of duty? Do we respond in the love of our heavenly Father, who continually seeks to restore the desolate?

The pictures above show a group of children that gathered for a meeting in Mbisu Mbiu. "Twelve are orphans," we are told.

Ministering to the "fatherless and widow" is very much a part of the labors God has given his servants in this dry Savannah region. Besides Dorcas and Duncan and other orphans under the care of their aged grandmothers (see September 2010), Lawrence introduces us to the Musyoka family.

"We met Emily in church," the minister explains. "She described her experiences with her maimed grandmother and siblings. We were touched by her story and we went to visit them in their place of residence."

She has two brothers, David (above) and John. "The grandmother cannot work because her hands were permanently injured, and also she is old. She takes care of these three who lost both their father and mother years ago. They have been housed by a well wisher in a house he has built beside his home. They depend entirely on help for food, clothes and educational needs."

Brother Lawrence shares: "We are grateful to God to have met them, as the grandmother has given herself to the Lord after Emily. We enjoy services with them at their house in the middle of the week. Please pray for them."

It is these "least" that our Lord identifies with closest. Isn't that a precious thought? Though the demands are high and the work involved, we are promised His blessing and help to bring up and nurture them in the Lord. (Eph 6:4; Deut. 11:18-19) The brother asks for prayer to be given "the needed wisdom, strength, and consecration to spiritually care for these young and old ones, until they can be able to physically fend for themselves and stand firmly in the Lord.

We teach the poor that they should seek the Kingdom of God first, and that the earthly goods would be added to them afterward (Matt. 6:33)," he states, seeking to live to the same standard himself. His guiding principal for this outreach to these needy ones is: "'Teach a man how to catch a fish and you have fed him for life.' We have seen how the free handouts have ruined people's lives and encourage them to live in poverty, as they fail to look to God for wisdom to work to lift themselves out from poverty."

The desire is to train the orphans in self-sustaining skills that will help them be a blessing to others. Please pray for this need, as it has been stalled due to the lack of a building to work in. Based on the command in James 1:27, the brother concludes, "We have placed ourselves in the hands of the Lord to be used as He wills so that these souls are helped."

Though there be no maize in the field...

The drought has settled in around Makindu. The blasted corn crop pictures the days of famine ahead for these poverty-stricken people:

From where will their help come?
Recently brother Lawrence traveled to visit some of the people in their homes.

Here Dominic shares his testimony at a Bible study. "He is a very humble brother, very keen to know the truth and live it," the minister says. "He is learning slowly, after the Lord healed his wife of a serious case of ulcers. She was hospitalized for two years, but she never got healed. When we met, she was desperate and hopeless. But the Lord has now healed her and they are rejoicing."

This sister is newly saved, and was "very happy after the service in her home."


Here brother Dominic stands in his failed maize crop. "Not a single maize cob to harvest. He had a reasonable harvest of beans however, which is family is now enjoying. He shared some with us," Lawrence says.

Despite the reality of hard times ahead, these people are finding reason to rejoice. As Habakkuk of old, is it not our privilege to lift our eyes above the circumstances...

to the Maker of heaven and earth, the God of our salvation? Let us continue to pray for these dear ones as they look to their very present Help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1)