Elisha was the youngest of 14 children and when he was a
little less than 1 years old his father got TB of the spine and he was
paralyzed from waist down and unable to work. Because of this their family had
no money and there was no one who was able to provide food for the family. Only
7 of the 14 children in his family survived during this stretch of time. Elisha
said that there was one time his mom left his dad and his siblings in order to
go get food for them but she was gone more days than expected and he said “We
were all almost dead. I would say we were half dead, almost full dead.” At this
time there was someone in their village who came and gave them milk and Elisha
said that the milk kept him and the rest of his family alive. He reported that
at the moment he remembers vowing to himself and to God that someday he would
provide the starving with food just like this man had done for him and his
family.
When Elisha was 18 years old he knew he had to leave his
village if he ever wanted to make a living for himself. He walked for 1 full month,
a total of 100 kilometers, with no shoes and no money because he heard that there
were missionaries at Kijabe hospital that helped people in poverty like him.
When Elisha got to Kijabe his clothes were torn up, he was starving and
exhausted. Elisha was able to meet a missionary at Kijabe and the missionary and
his wife welcomed Elisha into their family and “adopted” him as their own. They
gave him his first pair of shoes, new clothes, they fed him, gave him a roof
over his head, and paid for him to go to school, and helped him get a job etc. They
also were able to teach him English so that he could get a good education. This
missionary family literally gave him everything he needed to start his life
anew. Because of this Elisha was able to get a good education and a job where
he met his wife. Fast forwarding in his life he started a business driving the Kijabe
missionaries around because the driving is CRAZY here and the roads are AWFUL
and most missionaries don’t feel comfortable doing it on their own. He was able
to raise 4 kids with his wife and 2 of them were able to go to college in the
US because he “sold everything to pay for their education”. He has now been
able to go to the US twice over the last 5 years and it was so fun to hear him
describe his initial impressions, especially when he described riding on a boat
on Table Rock Lake in Branson, MO! (he had the biggest smile ever when
describing how much fun it was)
Elisha says that through it all, from his rough childhood
until now he can “always see God” in his life. There are several parts of
Elisha’s story that stick out to me. One of them is that the couple that
“adopted him” literally saved his life. I don’t know if they realized at the
time how they were changing Elisha’s life and his whole future families lives
as well. This makes me think about how much of a difference ONE PERSON can make
by reaching out to another person in need.
The other part of the story that is so cool is that when
Elisha told himself that someday he would help feed others who were starving he
was serious. 20 years ago Elisha was driving around a short term medical missionary
couple and he was sharing with them his dream of feeding the hungry kids like
he had once been fed. This couple continued to come back to serve at Kijabe and
they stayed friends and when the couple moved to Kenya from Texas 5 years ago
to start an orphanage called Naiomi’s village Elisha gave all of his farmland that
he owned to them so that they could profit from all of the crops. Now those
crops are used to feed the 50 children that live at the orphanage. I love the “pay
it forward” example that he was able to live out. His life was saved by one man
at a young age and now Elisha gets to be a part of feeding 50 orphaned children.
I have been so blessed to have gotten to interact with such
a Godly Kenyan man. May we all live with this same kind of faith, courage and
love for the Lord!
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