Letter from Murugi

Dated November 2012

Greetings in Jesus Name!

I am well in the Lord.  Are you fine too?  I am very happy for the many letters I have received from you.  How is Ned faring?  I have been praying for a quick recovery.  (Not sure what that means!)

It's great to have a great family as that of yours where you have many generations meeting once in a while to make merry.

I was happy to hear that your mother celebrated her 93rd birthday.  This is great and we give thanks to God.

I received the letter with my photo as you had asked in your last letter to me.  I realized I look beautiful, as you mentioned, and I gave thanks to God.  You all look beautiful too.

I am excited to hear how you take care for the less fortunate people and givethem fod.  This is how God expects me to be kind to his people.  Keep up the good work.  I always thank God for you and ask him to meet all the desires of your heart.

I am preparing to celebrate Christmas by serving the old people.  I will visit them and assist them with work at their homes.  I will also go to Church and after my service I wish you well and thanks for being a wonderful friend.

Your loving friend,
Dorvin Murugi

Letter from Murugi

This was written September 6, 2012

Dear Beverly Sykes,

How is everybody in the family?  We are doing well here at home.  I thank God for keeping us safe all through.

I was so happy to receive your letter and seeing the pictures of your wonderful grandchildren.  I have never eaten cherries before, but I hope that one day I will.

It is now sunny and people are now preparing land for the next season of plantation.  Though the previous season was not so good, we hope that the next season will be full of God's blessings and that we will harvest much from our gardens.  How is the weather in your country?  When do you plant?

I would like to thank you for all the support you have given me.  May God bless you abundantly.  I love you a lot.

Good bye!

Letter from Murugi

Dear Beverly Sykes,

Let me take this chance to greet you in the name of Jesus our Lord and Saviour.  God is so wonderful for he has given me such an awesome sponsor.  I thank God for all.

This Easter holiday has been marvelous and I hope that you celebrated well too.  Jesus Christ has shown us a lot of love by dying for us on the cross.  By him we are saved and we are able to get the eternal life from him that is great. 

I attended church service and I am able to learn about the love of God who gave his only begotten son to the people of the world.  This is so amazing.  I believe that you have accepted Jesus as your personal saviour so that you may have the eternal life through him.

My family members are doing well too and they also celebrated the Easter holiday in style.  I have much to share with you next time.  Thank you so much for your good support.

Yours faithfully,
Murugi.

A special gift

I received such a special gift today.

A couple of months ago, I heard from a woman who was going to Kenya and offered to take my child Murugi a doll or something.  It would be something she would buy because she had no room in her suitcase for me to make up a package, as I did for Fred.  I thanked her but said that as Murugi is 19, she wouldn't be interested in dolls.  But she said she would try to take some pictures of her for me.

I actually had forgotten all about that.  I remembered briefly, when I heard from Fred thanking me for his gifts, but I had not yet heard from Murugi.

Tonight I received an e-mail from the woman who had gone to Kenya, apologizing for not having contacted me sooner and telling me about her visit with Murugi.

In my talk with her, she wanted to know why you weren't able to come but hoped that you would be healthy and be able to come visit her one day as she wants you to be proud of her. Her dreams are now to be a businesswoman rather than a nurse. She is in college program and she hopes to become rich so that she can help others like herself. As we talked, she wanted to know if it was true that we Americans kept dogs in the house! She and her friend were laughing so hard at the thought.

They asked too if we Americans would call her, a black person, a dirty N---- and tell her to go away. This shocked me as I couldn't imagine what brought on this thought, but I reassured her that if she did come to the US, it might be hard but that not everyone was this way and that the church would accept her with loving arms and help her.

She mentioned the idea of becoming rich a few times - so if I were her sponsor and I tried to be her mentor, I might remind her that rich is good but gently remind her that "love of money" can quickly take over ....though I have a hard time trying to say such a thing in the face of my own wealth and such poverty around us.

She really wanted me to share email information with her, but I told her that I was sad not to be able to do so but wanted to follow guidelines. It would appear as though she does have some access to email, so that is a thought for when she graduates.

Embu is very rural and is considered a village. There are some things that you might find within a town but it takes some time to get to this project but they are taking care of their girls and boys

I loved the photos especially.  I had only seen one photo of Murugi since I began writing to her and she was so solemn.  It's so nice to see her smiling and to see her with the photos and letters I've been sending her.

It makes me feel more like she is a part of our family.

The woman who visited her promised video some time when her life settle down again.  How special that will be!

Message from Murugi

Murugi is 19 years old and lives in Kenya.  The other day I received a package from a guy named Greg Birgy, who had led a sponsor tour to Kenya.  They visited Murugi's center and took this picture:

They also had each child trace around his or her hand, decorate the paper, and put on each finger something they are asking you to pray for.  Birgy writes, "The hope was that you could symbolically "join hands" in prayer with your sponsored child by placing your hand over the traced outline of your sponsored child's hand as you prayed."  He also said he hoped this would be a tangible reminder to pray for our children.

I was very touched by this "gift" from my Compassion child.

Letter from Murugi

Murugi is a correspondence child, which means I don't sponsor her financially, but I write to her, since her financial sponsor doesn't. She is 19 and her letter today had exciting news.

Dear Beverly Sykes,

It is my hope and prayer that you are fine under God's Care. Back at home we are fine, experiencing the cold August weather. How is the weather back there?

We are now harvesting our crops from the shamba (a garden, in Kenya) at our place. We are happy and thankful to God because we are able to harvest a lot of maize and beans.

I'm happy that I did my secondary examination well and I've joined college. (I'm so happy for her!) My grandmother is very proud of me for that.

How are you doing back there? Do you take part in church activities like I do? I usually attend the church every Sunday. I'm also a member of youth choir in our church. When I'm not in school other youth members and I take part in cleaning the church and its compound and also visit the sick in hospitals and in their homes. What do you usually do?

• This is where I get uncomfortable. These children want so desperately to know what you do in church, what prayers you say, what Bible verses you like to read. It's difficult for someone who does not attend church and doesn't read the Bible to know how to respond!)

Receive greetings from my family member. I'm grateful for you and your support and I pray that God blesses you so much. I will continue praying for you and thank God for giving me a good friend like you. Thank you for your support and may God bless the work of your hands.

Bye.
Yours,
Murugi

Murugi

I'm amazed that my first letter from Murugi came so quickly.

"She says thank you for picking her for sponsorship and wishes you God's blessing in all you do. She asks you to pray that she asses her forthcoming exams."

She also says that she would like to be a nurse when she grows up and includes a couple of puzzles that she did on the backside of this page.

Welcome packet

Murugi's welcome packet finally arrived today, though I still have not had any mail about little Henrique in Brasil. This packet is to facilitate my sending her a short note of welcome, but I sent that two weeks ago, so it's kind of redundant.

The new packets that Compassion is sending out are great--regular little booklets with all the information in them, along with photos as well. I like them.

Murugi

Murugi is a new correspondence child, someone whose sponsor does not write to her.

She is 18 years old and in the St. Paul's (Episcopal) Cathedral program in Embu, Kenya.

Embu is home to approximately 45,000 residents. Typical houses are constructed of dirt floors, mud walls and tin roofs. The primary ethnic group is Embu and the most commonly spoken language is Kiembu.

The regional diet consists of beans and corn. Common health problems in this area include dental decay, malaria, amoeba infections, typhoid fever and malnutrition. Most adults in Embu are unemployed but some work as day laborers and earn the equivalent of $18 per month. This community needs educational opportunities, literacy programs and employment opportunities.

Murugi's mother is dead and she lives with her grandmother and works at gardening, animal care, and kitchen help.