Children’s Relief International

Told by Emmanuel Chege, Mayatima staff
:

One morning I asked Jane if I could tag along as she made her medical rounds. She replied, I wondered when you would ask! Just before we left, she handed me a suitcase, which I assumed would be filled with medications. But no. It was empty – until we stopped at a store on the way and filled it with potatoes, spinach and corn flour. With a twinkle in her eye, she said, This is why God sent you to walk with me today. You can carry it.

At our first stop we found Wairimu sitting just outside her small house. She looked tired and maybe a little sick. She had lost a son and a daughter, and now had two grandsons under her care. What would she say to us? I was surprised to hear this elderly woman express such a sense of joy and gratitude. Her mouth was full of praises to God for the small suitcase of food we bought. I left humbled.

We made several other stops and then as the day waned, headed home. On the long walk back I thought about the privileged position I have with the Mayatima project. Because of your donations, so far away in America and elsewhere, I get to help those who have so much less than I. I am learning to be thankful for my place and for God’s people, wherever they are.

Told by a Rock Quarry widow:

It was almost 20 years ago that I first came to the Rock Quarry. It was a long trip from a remote village. I came with my husband and two young children. We are all Dalits (untouchables) and our lives have been shaped and sized by that fact of fate.

Before we came to the Rock Quarry my husband Sanjeev and I ran a tiny tea shop in our village. We made only a $1 or so per day. We weren’t in business all that long when some members of the upper caste of our village complained that we didn’t have separate glasses for them. How could we? We didn’t hardly have enough money for the six cups we owned. They said they would not drink out of cups, even if they were washed, that had been used by untouchables. There was nothing we could do. From that day our business started to fail.

My children were allowed to attend school by law, but when they tried, there was opposition from the teachers and the students. They had to sit in the back of the room away from the rest. Kids would say, ‘Why don’t you go back to your brooms and street sweeping?’ My children preferred working in the quarry breaking rocks with me rather than being pushed, snubbed and ridiculed at school. This is the way life is here.

When my husband Sanjeev unexpectedly died from an unknown disease we tried to give him a traditional cremation. But we didn’t have the money for the necessary firewood and oil. They wouldn’t let us bury him in the village cemetery because there were upper caste people in it. You could say that the caste system here in India persists even beyond the grave.

I and my children are doing better now since we received a microloan from Children’s Relief International. It’s amazing the difference it has made. I’ve been able to buy some new clothes and we eat a meal twice a day now. It’s been years since I’ve seen a smile on my children’s face. Now I see them smiling every day. What a difference a little food can make. I know that these loans came from Christians and I now say that Jesus Christ is Lord.

As shared by Shared by Noemia Cessito:

600! That’s how many are enrolled in our schools this year. How far we have come!

Back in 1982, I heard that said the children in Africa were dying from hunger and hopelessness. I prayed, God I want to go to Africa. I want to talk with these children about Jesus. God said, Yes!

I arrived in Mozambique two years later. It was a time of civil war and a communist regime. All the children in the country were considered the property of the government. I couldn’t get permission to do any evangelism because of opposition to the church. So I volunteered to work in the pediatric and orthopedic wards of a hospital. I saw a lot of soldiers return with wounds from battle and broken bones. But my heart remained with the children. There were so many wandering the streets. Finally we were able to start a small work in the villages of Dondo and Mafarinha.

Later Children’s Relief International began a partnership with us. We needed a classroom and they helped us build it. We needed chairs and tables and supplies and we got these too. Then a kitchen.

I began to dream bigger dreams. But I never imagined our work would become what it is today. We are going to educate a new generation of Mozambicans who know God and who live with hope and integrity.

God bless you for your part in making these 600 possible.