Monthly Newsletter and Missions Update: May-June 2022:
Partnership with the Community
As the most of the world goes on summer break, Kenyan schools are on a different schedule and are in full swing since a new school year began in April. The Embrace team has been busy throughout the months of May and June to facilitate the process of rehabilitation and reintegration of boys back into their families, and back into school.
As we look back on all that God has been doing, we are most grateful for the partnerships that we have been able to build over the last year with other organizations working with street children in Nairobi, to keep our center full to near capacity (30 boys) on a regular basis now. Normally our social workers have to go to the streets to do rescue work and identify those who desire change and are ready to come to Embrace, which can be time consuming and at times yielding little result. So it’s a huge blessing when other organizations can identify those who are willing to leave the streets and bring them directly to our center. This enables our social workers to focus on tracing families, and reintegrating more boys home!
The Work Continues
Four more boys have been reunited with their families: Kevin, Daniel, Rambo and Stephen. Daniel Kahoro had been on the streets for several years since his mother died of alcohol abuse, and his father left him with his grandparents. Without proper supervision, he was influenced by his friends to try drugs and street life. His older brother is a gang leader, and is also not a positive influence in his life. At Embrace he underwent rehabilitation from drug addiction and counseling on peer influence, and was noted for developing a serious interest in reading God’s Word and being an example to other boys in obedience. He has successfully been placed with his aunt and uncle and returned back to school.
Kevin Karioki was really struggling with drug addiction, and was at Embrace on and off several times as he fought the battle against drugs. Finally, when he came at the beginning of this year, he was able to fight the temptation to leave, but still unmotivated to go to school, and with very poor conflict resolution. Recently, he has shown much improvement, and expressed an interest in his studies. He was reunited with his grandparents, and is back in school.
Stephen had been living with his mother who couldn’t provide for the family and moved around a lot, which caused him to run away. Recently she got remarried and settled down in Western Kenya. Upon a recent visit to her new home, she was much more determined to take her role as a mother more seriously and in a better position to provide for her children. After undergoing rehabilitation and showing improvement in his anger management, Stephen has reintegrated there, provided uniforms and has been placed in school and he is doing well.
Many of our cases are the opposite of smooth and predictable, and Rambo is an example of this. After the death of his mother, he lived with his grandmother since he doesn’t know where his dad is. He was influenced by friends to start using drugs and sleeping on the streets. After being rehabilitated, and reconciled with his aunt last month, he picked up some bad friends and together they were caught stealing tomatoes from a neighbor’s yard. For which the neighbor threatened to take them to the police, so out of fear, Rambo ran away from home, and has been seen on the streets.
Goodbyes and Welcomes at Embrace
A lot has been happening in the lives of missionaries as well. At the end of May we said goodbye to a dear team member, Marfa Katsiuba. She came to Kenya in September 2019 along with 2 other missionaries to help start up Embrace, Nairobi. She was responsible for various parts of the ministry and used her many talents to make Embrace a more creative and memorable place. Marfa left a valuable impact on our boys, staff team and community members. She is currently home in Ukraine, serving those affected by the war.
Mary has been serving on our team since 2020 and got engaged in the beginning of June to David, who is working to share the gospel in a predominately Muslim country in North Africa. The team used this opportunity to show a skit showing the choices we make to guard our hearts according to God’s Word or not, and the two outcomes of how one ends in heartbreak and destruction, and the other in a Godly and beautiful marriage. Mary and David shared the testimony of their relationship, and how God richly blesses and brings together those who are obedient to Him. This was an Embrace-wide celebration since most of our boys come from broken families, and witness abuse, divorce, and unfaithfulness from an early age. In their communities it is very rare to find an example of a faithful and Christ-centered relationship between one man and one woman. Living on the streets they are also exposed to very explicit media and behaviors that girls or older boys influence them to engage in, which really cripple their perspective on the family unit.
