I want to keep informing you about Pudde and her six children who had to share a ¾ bed.
We finally managed to find a new and better place for them to live.
At present they have not one room only, but two. We had a bunk bed made for the children so their sleep has improved a lot. They received the rooms on a Saturday and were able to move in on the Sunday. Pudde reckoned, “We will stay home from church and spend the time moving in.” But one of the children suggested, “Pudde, I think we should go to church first and thank the Lord Jesus because He gave us a new place to live. Then we can move in after that.”
During the service, one of the girls named Queen went up to the pastor and asked permission to say something. The pastor passed the microphone to the girl and she proclaimed, “We have a tremendous thanksgiving to share because the Lord Jesus sent some one on our way who helped us. Instead of having just one room we now have two.” Queen continued to tell that there is a cement floor, brick walls, electric current and running water – and the roof is tight!” Then she started to cry in front of the entire congregation and continued saying, “I would like for all here to ask our Lord Jesus to bless Mama Tabitha and Baba Torkild whom the Lord has sent on our way in such a wonderful way.”
There was not at try eye in the church. What happened then was that one after the other stood up saying, “I want to give you a bed,” another, “.. a cupboard,” a third, “.. a sofa set” (all second-hand) and finally some one stood up and said, “I would like to move for you, for free.” It became an unforgettable morning to all in the church, who were reminded of the loving care of the Lord and the fact that He is still in the miracle working business.
During the Easter holiday we went to see Pudde and the children. I was bringing a home baked cake which made a hit with the children. As we were getting ready to leave, one of the boys went up to Torkild and whispered in his ear, “Can we come and visit you one day?”
In the meantime another orphaned girl of 15 years moved in with Pudde. The name of the girl is Loveness and both of her parents died from aids. She lives with an aunt who is very nice to her, but the aunt’s husband is nasty. He sometimes hits her and demands that she works all the time because she is living with them for free. Also he says that there is no reason for her to go to school. He refuses to pay the tuition for her secondary school. He says, “It is useless to pay for a girl with aids,” – although the girl is totally healthy and NOT infected with aids. The girl was so unhappy and desperate and saw no other way than to drink poison. By a coincidence Dorris, who lives with Pudde, got to talk to this girl and told her, “Don’t feel bad. Come to Pudde’s house, she’ll help you!”
The other day Pudde came to our house with Loveness. It is truly an unhappy situation for the girl and we would like to send her to the same secondary school as Dorris so that the two can help and support one another. If any one would like to support this unhappy girl and help her to a good schooling we would be very grateful.
By the way, we have a very serious prayer subject concerning Pudde. She had been feeling bad for quite some time and had seen several local doctors. She was curetted and was ordered a lot of different medicine. None the less she was getting weaker and weaker and we decided to take her to a good gynaecologist. It appeared that she has two lumps in her abdomen and she needs to have surgery as soon as possible. Since she is very weak and needs blood they have not been able to operate on her yet. We are helping her by seeing to it that her diet is full of nutrition so that she may be ready for surgery.
Pudde will be operated on 21 July 2011, the date is now set and she is waiting to get get through it. She is sometimes very great pain.
Please pray with us that the lumps are not malignant.
The father disappeared and they have had no contact with him for several years. Ruth is a bright girl in school. Her school decided to sponsor her schooling because they are really poor. For various reasons the school recently shut down and Ruth had to find another school.
The mother cannot afford to send Ruth to another school. Ruth’s grandfather is a Maasai and he wants to have her back in Maasai land. He does not want a girl to get eductaed, but instead follow the Maasai traditions for girls: to be married. Maasais think that only boys should get educated.
Ruth’s mother told me that Ruth’s grandfather had received an offer from an elderly, wealthy Maasai who wanted to pay a very large dowry in the form of many cows in order to marry Ruth. Ruth had been desperate because she wanted to stay in school, get her education and choose her husband when the time was ripe. For this reason the mother and Ruth came to our office asking for help.
We trusted God and sent Ruth to a good, Christian school where she is thriving.
We received a sponsor who will support her until Form 4 is completed. But Ruth wishes to continue for another two years and graduate from High School. If any of you would like to support Ruth for a few more years please write us or send a gift to our missions account. Please earmark it “Ruth”.
