Last week, while we were in Kenya, a very dear friend went to be with the Lord.  Jarius had graduated with the first class, of the bible School, and had been one of our employees since then.  His first job was to take care of the garden.  He would check in with me every day on his way to work and then say in his gravely voice, “I have to go to my office.”  That is what he called his garden.  In his later years he was promoted to being one of our night guards, but he would still check in with us. 

Jarius was very ill for a long time and was ready to meet his Lord.   We are at  peace with his moving into the Glory of the Lord and know he is really enjoying being pain free, and seeing his Savior face to face.

Life in Africa for those that live here  can be hard to deal with.  We had been paying social security for Jarius for years but when it came time for him to retire they said ,”No, he is a Kenyan and has been working for you illegally.”  He had come here as a child, and lived here all of his life.  They were going to arrest him and then jail him for ten years with a fine of $10,000 US dollars.   We have learned to just let things ride and they never do what they are threatening. So after he no longer could work we kept paying his salary and all his medical bills The laws are crazy and now his wife can’t draw on his social security because he was illegally here.

Jarius has children of multiple ages.  The oldest is in high school, a boy in secondary school, another girl that just graduated from the seventh grade in our primary school. She will be in secondary school in January.  There is a younger boy in our primary school and two more little boys, one in our school and another onr not  old enough for school yet.  We had picked up the school fees for the boy currently in secondary school so he wouldn’t have to drop out of school.

This story gets really complicated.  First of all they were living basically in a small unimproved house that was built on the side of another building.  Jarius owned this house.  We had never known the condition of their home.  We don’t monioter our employees personal lives unless there is a crises, which now the family has one.

Jarius was a very giving man and had cosigned a loan for a friend.  The friend had failed to fulfill the payments. When the  man giving the loan found out Jarius was dying, he came and took everything in the house, including all the food, to settle the debt, leaving them nothing just days before Jarius died.

So now there is a griving widow, who is mentally ill, with six kids and nothing but her small house to live in.

The funeral was four hour long and very hot, under a tarp in the yard.  No lawn, nothing pretty just blowing dust, knee high brush, a few goats and a few scraggly trees scattered around.  The crowd was large. They sought shade anywhere there was  some. Jarius was buried right there just feet from the house.  The regulation for a grave is it must be six feet deep, but after two days of digging, thru rocks, they just used it at five feet.

Jarius’ pastor was a friend of ours and the pastor giving the first hour long sermon was one of our early graduates.  During  part of the sevice they take up an offering.  We have a clause in our employee’s contract that we will pay for the service and an additional amount for the family.  So that part of their need had been taken care of. 

After the burial there were more speakers and another offering was taken.  We had heard the word Calvary during the pastor’s exortation.  They then handed Domenic the money and he said they had told the congregation that our minisrty would build the widow a new house.  Domenic says this always happens when he attends a funeral, the pastor puts him on the spot to meet a financial need of some sort for the grieving family.  The offering that was taken was very small and wasn’t nearly enough to build a house .

After we got home Domenic took two our our older employees and met with two of the men that seemed to be in charge of all of this, to discuss what had happened and what would be a better plan for the use of the money they had collected.  They agreed that her house could be made more comfortable to live in, and that paying the school fees for the two older girls was a better way to use the money.  At this point we don’t know how much the repairs will be or how much the school fees are but if the girls can’t continue in school they will end up in an early marriage or something worse.  Everyone agreed to the plan and we don’t have to build her a house.

Navigating issues like this in another culture, are never really cut and dry.  It even frustrates Domenic but he is better at understanding  things than we are and we know we can trust his wisdom in every issue.

I’m sorry this is a long message with no pictures, but it just wasn’t approiate to take any, and we wanted you to understand what life is like for manyhere in  Africa.

So today we are back to work at the school and letting our minds settle down from the drama of burying our dear friend.

Thank you for your caring hearts and prayers.

Harry & Kathy