MISSION OF THE MONTH
October 2008

The United Orphanage & Academy, Kenya

For three years now, Lewinsville has supported the United Orphanage & Academy, in Moi’s Bridge Kenya, which houses and teaches 43 orphans (28 girls and 15 boys ages 4-15 years).  All of the students, without family or guardian support, would otherwise be utterly destitute.

Opened in 2004, the UOA has been supported by contributions and visitors from Lewinsville to Kenya.  

The Rev. Stephen Chege, a former schoolteacher and retired pastor with the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, manages UOA.
 
Aside from Rev. Chege, UOA hires three elementary teachers, two cooks, a manager, two security guards, a housekeeper, a housemother, and a grounds keeper.  They plan to hire a nurse and a gardener next year, as well as a fourth teacher.  Their building contains three classrooms, dormitory rooms for the boys and for the girls, and a kitchen.  As the children age, they hope to be able to pay the costs of securing a high school education for them.

If this project stirs your heart, consider increasing your contribution to Lewinsville and our Mission & Service activities.

UOA is primarily supported by Westminister PC and the Old Presbyterian Meeting House in Alexandria (each providing $5,000 annually), in addition to help from Lewinsville.  UOA received a grant of $7,000 from Lewinsville’s Presbytery’s Second Alexandria Fund (administered by the Global Mission Network, which funded about a dozen projects around the world), which is being used to build a second, more permanent building for the orphanage.  UOA plans to ask for an additional grant of $10,000 from this fund next year.

Henri Rush, an elder from Westminister, handles the financial management of the project.  Henri, who pays regular visits to Moi’s Bridge (most recently this summer), chairs an Oversight Council composed of members of the supporting churches.  This council includes Steve Hiemstra from Lewinsville, who heads National and International Missions for our Mission & Service committee.  Steve will represent Lewinsville at the next meeting on the UOA on October 12.
 
Lewinsville contributed $2,800 to the UOA from our 2008 Mission & Service budget.  We have been more generous in the past, with $4,000 for each of the two previous years (each time from LPC Foundation funds).