God Provides for the Hungry
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matthew 6:25)
Libby Dixon, USA Director with VHL, was preparing to escort a team from the Vine Community Church in Cumming, GA on a mission trip to Vijiji Home of Light in 2011. She traveled to Kenya ahead of the team to arrange for housing and transportation and to define the work required once the team arrived.
Arriving at VHL, Libby found bare cupboards and very little food available for the children. Nothing but three extremely wilted cabbages were on the shelves for the children to eat. The house “Mums” with smiling faces cleaned the cabbage and provided the best meal they could for that day. There was no more funding for additional food.
Libby and Mum Sarah, began to pray for provisions, crying to God to help them feed the children. After praying, the women joined the children in the yard to play. After a few hours following their prayer, there was a knock at the gate and upon opening the gate, Mum Sarah was greeted by a woman who belonged to a church two hours away. She had met Sarah years ago and explained that she had been at the Market that day when a sudden thought prompted her to buy additional groceries and take them to Vijiji Home of Light, not knowing if the home still existed. She had never been to the home before and had asked directions along her way. Multiple people along her travels had directed her to the home where she was received with much appreciation.
She led Mum Sarah and Ronald to her car where they were gifted with three months of food for the children. God had heard their prayers and fulfilled his promises. The Holy Spirit led the woman to the home and she gave all from her heart. Today the children are fed well and have fields of cabbages that can be sold at market or given to those in need providing for others just as God has given to them so freely.
God Provides Shelter
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. (John 14:1)
In 2014, after years of bad living conditions and aggressive landlords, a local adoptee named Peter, donated a large plot of land to the VHL team to relocate and build a new home. The team traveled the next day and did a prayer walk on the two acres so freely given to them.
The land was gifted in early September, and at the time there were no structures, gates or a place for the children to sleep. The Vine held a Sponsorship luncheon and Libby Dixon made a plea to the congregation for a $10,000 donation to build a structure to get the home started. There were funds to assist Libby with travel expenses but no funding for a build. The very next day, there was a $10,000 donation provided and Libby returned in December to Kenya to begin the build of the new location for VHL.
She met a retired contractor who assisted with the purchase of supplies and laborers to begin building. Within two weeks, the foundation, temporary home and the latrine were completed. Two weeks later, the team transported their furnishings and the children to their new home, just days before the next year’s rent would have been due for the existing, unbearable location. They were finally in a sanctuary they could call home and the children were enrolled in the local school within days.
Once again, the Lord had provided and fulfilled his promises.
God Provides Relief
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. (Psalm 23: 1-3)
As Vijiji Home of Light settled into their new location in 2014, they had limited water supplies. Kenya was inflicted with a drought that year, cows and people in the community were dying due to the lack of water. VHL had several large water containers that they paid to have filled so that they could feed and bath the 30 children in the home.
As the days passed, winds blew dry sand into the faces of the children. The team prayed for a miracle and for the rains to come. The team had saved funds of $15,000 to dig a well but could not find a company to handle the job. There was no water to be found. Funds saved for the daily operations of the home were soon to be impacted when Mum Sarah was prompted to take a call from a caller she didn’t recognize. She was soon in contact with a representative from the Christian Broadcasting Network of Kenya. The gentleman was requesting permission to visit so that he could assess the needs and to provide a donation of a well for the home.
Sarah agreed to meet with the man. Libby Dixon attended the meeting and provided all the information on the supporting programs from the Vine and banking information required for the CBN to confirm the authenticity of the home. And the drilling began several months later. The surveyors had trouble finding water and the team prayed that God would guide them. As Libby and Sarah watched from the roof of the building, the drilling was finally successful, and water shot out of the ground towards the sky. The drilling team was able to get it capped and noted that they had never seen that much water and that geographically they never expected to find it. The water pressure was better than ever expected and all tests found the water to be clean and free of bacteria. Praise God!
Today, the home has a donated tower with several tanks for water. A solar pump fills the tanks on the tower. One of the tanks pipes water out to the crops and chickens. Currently the team is praying for the funding ($10,000) for new generator that will help provide the water to the towers during long periods of no solar power due to lack of sunshine in the area.