Rosa's Party

Happy Monday!  Oh, I forgot that the Panthers lost…not a happy Monday in North Carolina.  There are a lot of Bronco fans here so this might be a rough day for us too.  We could have watched the game at 2:30 AM but decided against it.   Perhaps we had a premonition!   More likely we were lazy!   One of the men Face-timed with his son in Charlotte who projected his computer on the game.  Then the father here projected his computer onto the wall for a giant screen. The wonders of modern technology sure made a lot of people happy here!  

On Saturday, Marv posted a picture of the nursing graduation and told you that we had gone to Rosa's party.   Let me tell you the story of how this happened.  It begins in 2009 on my first trip to Tenwek.  An elderly (probably about my age now!) long term missionary called our apartment and asked me to come with a friend to her house.  When we got there she told us about a young Rwandan refugee widow who had six children and had come to her asking for help and hopefully for a job.  My friend and I agreed to provide support for the child who would be starting the equivalent of our high school and also to give some support to the family.   At that time Mary, the mother, did not know that we were the donors and in fact she did not know this for many years to come.  Over the years the mother became a trusted employee for several of the missionaries and I came to know her well.  A couple of years ago she did find out that Marv and I were supporting her children and has been very grateful.  We always heard how the children were doing but we never had the opportunity to meet them as they were away at school or at school around here during the day.  This all changed on Saturday.   

We were invited to Rosa's graduation party from the chaplaincy program here at Tenwek. What a joyous day it was!  What a beautiful young woman she is, and what a proud mother Mary is!  How very special that we were able to be a part of this celebration after all these years!  We were here at the right time!  Now we're  praying that Rosa is able to find a job either as a chaplain at the hospital or in a local church; especially we are hoping for a paying job as many churches are not able to pay their pastors.

We almost felt like proud grandparents!