I’M BACK FROM CAMEROON!
Many of you don’t know that I went to Cameroon for my first time ever since we have been serving orphans! My trip was amazing! The children were excited to see me. They didn’t immediately know me because they’ve never seen me. But when they were told who I was, they almost knocked me down as they ran to hug me!
( I went with 50 new quilts for the kids that were donated by Quilts Beyond Borders
I didn’t announce my visit because I wanted to show up and see how the work was being done. I didn’t want anyone to clean up something just because they know I’ll be there.
So, I showed up at the children’s home when they had just eaten breakfast on the 23rd of May. I caught everyone by surprise.
I was happy to find that the children were very clean, their new home was also very clean.
For the rest of my two weeks there, I was at work. I looked at everything with a critical eye to find ways to improve the lives of the children and the organization there. I decided to deny myself any of my usual luxuries and live like the kids and staff lived so that I could understand them better.
I also went from house to house and visited all the children we have in our foster care program. Most of them were doing extremely well and obeying their foster parents. In two cases, the children were disobedient. These two cases kept me at the houses for hours judging the cases and pleading with both children and foster parents. They were threatening to throw out the children!
Actually one of them eventually did send away their child. But the foster care program is the future of our work in many cases. We have only been able to keep 50% of the children with their foster parents. That was because of horrible pre-placement training for both staff, kids, guardians, and foster parents.
(Foster mother and one of our foster care children. Mother said she loved her child. She is very obedient!)
While there, even though Cameroon is my native country, I was in meetings from 9:00am till 6:00pm on several days training staff on how to approach the children and families. God was gracious to me and he filled me with wisdom that I spoke and taught things that I didn’t know I could. There was no problem that a solution didn’t readily come to me. I am so grateful to God for that.
With the foster care program, we can help ten children at the cost of one child that we were helping in the orphanage. And the quality of care could be better than in the orphanage! Many local citizens are willing to help orphans, they just need help and we are excited to provide that help.
The work in Cameroon has a amazing potential. But because we will be changing a lot, I will be praying that God will open doors for me to go at least four times per year. You will be amazed by how much we got done in the two weeks that I was there.
Please continue to pray for the work and for me. Also continue to support financially. We need a lot of help now.
There is a lot to write about but I want to keep it short so that you can read it easily. With time, I will share more of the amazing things I learned, the changes I made while I was there etc.
God bless
Kenneth Acha, MD
Shaping Destiny