News from our Summer 2024 Trip!
Christophe and I just returned from Kalehe and the most important news I can tell you is that the children are all doing well! They are smiling, learning, feel loved, feel safe and feel that they are part of a big family at Christophe’s Children. I wish every person who prays for the children, sponsors a child, donates money to the organization, and donates/makes items for us to bring to the DRC could take this trip to see the impact you have. The children are so thankful for all of you, and all that you in West Michigan (and beyond) have done.
There are a lot of photos in the slideshow below, so let me summarize the trip. Christophe and I arrived in Bukavu, DRC and bought supplies that the children needed. The King of Kalehe donated his SUV and driver to us for the week so we had safe transportation. We purchased musical instruments with a special music grant from Trinity Lutheran Church, we purchased farming equipment (hoes, shovels, rakes, sickles, buckets), French bibles for each child, a new water container (to replace our leaking one), sewing fabric for our incredible sewing students, and cooking pans and utensils to replace worn out and broken ones. We brought in donations of new brightly colored bed sheets for all of the children’s beds, flashlights for each child, handmade washable/reusable feminine pads, two computers (with school lessons for science, math and other subjects downloaded in French for them), life straw water filters for each child, and letters from sponsors to each of the children. The children had a blast reading their personal letters of encouragement and writing back to their family members 7,000 miles away!
The donations of musical instruments went to our children of course who love to sing, play music and dance in the yard; but also two guitars went to two local churches to help support the community that surrounds our children. These congregations were so thankful! They each sang for us and each gave our children a chicken to use for food as a token of their appreciation. We also donated medical supplies to the local hospital in Kalehe and were given a tour of their facility. These doctors and nurses are so thankful for these donations from West Michigan and they will go a long way to helping our children and their neighbors.
It is truly beautiful to see the hope in the Childrens faces, and to see their smiles. They are so dedicated to their studies, all but 3 of our children moved on to their next grade level with high marks. The ones who did not move on had some health issues during the year and will have tutoring assistance to catch them up. Our children love playing music and soccer too. We are working to wall in the rest of Christophe’s surrounding land to allow the children to be able to eat the bananas and mangoes from the trees existing on the property and grow vegetables on the land like peas, tomatoes and potatoes. Walling the property will also allow us to keep goats and chickens without concern of disease or having the livestock being stolen. It will also allow us to consider building small unit housing for when the children get older and move out of the “dormitory” living but want to live close to their Christophe’s Children family while supporting themselves with work or when they come back from going to university. A lot of positive self sustaining plans are in the works to give our kids, and the children that we help in the future, a place to call home for a long time to come.