|PIC1|We've recently been in contact with one of our partners, Lucy Gacheru (Sister Lucy), asking for some information about her and the orphanage she runs in Kenya for an article WER is contributing to a UK magazine.

I first met Lucy and visited her 'Hope Community Centre', which is some 100 miles north of Nairobi, in 2002. As I arrived at Hope Community Centre it was raining hard and the muddy track was more suitable for rally driving. Through the gate there were a few flimsy buildings and around 80 children who had been waiting for my arrival. The singing started immediately.

Lucy is an amazing young woman. She used to see street children in Nairobi, Nakuru and Naivasha and knew that God wanted her to do something to rescue them, and in fact more than that. Her vision was to love, care, educate and give them a family.

So she started with a plot of land in a rural setting, which was all she could afford. The buildings had cardboard and plastic on the inside to keep out the wind and rain. A few rooms had rough desks, with at least three children to each one. This was the school. The 'bedrooms' had just flimsy beds, each shared at times by up to four small children.

And that was the start of a great partnership between WER and Hope Community Centre. The initial cash grant we were able to give helped Sister Lucy buy a cow to provide fresh and safe milk for the children. On my next visit Lucy told me that she wanted to start keeping chickens so that each child in the orphanage could eat eggs on a regular basis. With just over £2,000 from WER, Lucy built some sheds and bought some young chicks.

On my next visit some months later I ate the first piece of meat from the first chicken to be slaughtered! By this time all the children were getting at least one egg a week and today eggs are regularly on the menu, as well as being sold at the local market to provide some income for the centre. The older children look after the chicken farm and handle the sales, so learning valuable management and business skills.

There are now cows, chickens and pigs all producing offspring. Lucy is an amazing entrepreneur, that is for sure.

In recent years WER has provided funding to build a new dormitory and washing facilities for the boys and girls, as well as a new kitchen and dining room, plus a room from where produce, including clothes sewn by the children, is sold.

There are currently 170 children at Hope Community Centre and I do not know of a happier group of children. Lucy is a mother in God to them all. They are mature and confident children who are a blessing to all who meet them. Thanks to Lucy they have hope and a future.

This week we have heard that Lucy has taken in her first two abandoned babies at Hope Community Centre. I smile as I wonder how many will be there when we next visit. Lucy tells us that this has always been at the heart of God's vision for her life. She never expects anything from us but always gives thanks for blessings she receives. I always feel we have received so much more than we have given.

So if anyone asks you, 'Why should we go on helping all these people in Africa and elsewhere?', then tell them about Lucy and the children God has given her to love and nurture.

For the magazine feature about Lucy, we were asked for personal information including her age. 'Don't tell them my age', was her response. So all I can tell you is that when I first met her she was still in her 20s ... Amazing!


About Alex Haxton:

Alex has been Director of Operations at Christian humanitarian agency World Emergency Relief (WER) for the past seven years and before that worked as a consultant to the charity.

His business career was spent in the catering equipment industry for over 20 years before he moved on to Christian ministry which is how he first came to go to Africa.

A few months spent at Roffey Place Christian Centre brought a more radical change than anticipated, and it was there that Alex met a Pastor from Burundi who became a central influence on his life, even to this day.

He has since worked in Christian ministry, which he describes as "a call of God we must not ignore".

It was the work in Burundi and Rwanda, post genocide, which eventually brought Alex into contact with WER as he sought funding for relief and medical work in those countries. He remains heavily involved with humanitarian and development work worldwide through WER.

About World Emergency Relief:

World Emergency Relief is a non-denominational, global fellowship of Christians, working together, and with others, to help people in need. Underlying World Emergency Relief's efforts are God's love for this WORLD He created, the physical, emotional, spiritual, social and economic EMERGENCIES afflicting millions, and the RELIEF we can bring to hurting people, especially children, thanks to God's unending mercy coupled with the generosity of our donors.