Childcare Worldwide

One sponsor tells the story of her 20-year relationship with her sponsored daughter

Kathi and Selinah, 1990

She came into our office one day about a month ago. “My name is Kathi,” and “I want to tell my church about Childcare Worldwide and your Child Sponsorship Program. Can I have some informational materials?”

Our answer to this question is always a joyful, “Of course!” It is wonderful when our sponsors have been so impacted by their relationship with their sponsored child that they cannot keep it to themselves. Kathi showed us a book she had written about her relationship with her sponsored daughter, Selinah. This is part of her story:

I met Selinah face to face at her village in Kenya in November of 1990, but our story begins about a year prior. I went to a meeting at a friend’s house where she planned to share about Childcare Worldwide. It was at this meeting where I was first introduced to Selinah. I chose her from a pile of sponsorship packets. They were all children who desired an education, but their parents could not afford it. I was told if you sponsor a child they would be given this opportunity.

I started sending my monthly check to Childcare, along with a card or letter to Selinah every couple months. A year after I started sponsoring Selinah, I went to visit her in Kenya. When I arrived at Selinah’s village there were several children under the trees and they started singing to us. It was an amazing moment I will never forget. Selinah and I were able to talk together and visit her family home made of sticks and mud. She slept on a bed of sticks and above it was a string holding the cards I had sent to her. I met her mother, grandmother, and brother and was able to give her some blankets and gifts. I encouraged her to continue her education and reassured her that I would support her.

Earlier I had sent Selinah a picture of myself working in the office at Bellingham Travel. While I was visiting her in Kenya she told me that she wanted to go to business school to get a job like mine—BIG DREAMS for a young girl in a small village out in the desert of Kenya.

I returned to the U.S. with a heart for Selinah and her country. I made a commitment to help finance her education through Childcare for as long as she needed. Selinah wrote letters to our family about once a year with school information, how her family was doing and little glimpses of what her life was like in Kenya. She was growing up to become a beautiful young lady. We were slowly building a relationship through long distance communication.

I knew God had a purpose for our relationship; I had the role to support and encourage her, while Selinah was preparing to become a strong leader.

Selinah with her students and teachers at her school

Since then Selinah went to business school, got married, had four beautiful children, opened a business, went back to school to get a degree in education and has started a school that now has over 100 students. Through joyful times and in times of suffering, Kathi has been supporting and encouraging Selinah, above and beyond her commitment as a sponsor.

At times I would be thinking and praying for Selinah and her family and within 24 hours I would receive correspondence from her. The distance is far, yet we are close in our hearts because we are connected through Christ. In one letter I learned that Selinah named her fourth daughter “Kathi,” after me, her grandmother in the United States. I was touched and felt blessed to have this relationship with our family in Africa. I longed to hug each of my grandchildren—God willing, the day will come.

We received the following e-mail message from Selinah on New Year Eve 2010:
“This year we started sponsoring one orphan child who is living with us and now he is joining standard one the coming year in our school.  May God help us so that in the future we can build a full children’s home so that we can take care of the orphans.  May the Lord bless you all—Happy New Year.”

What BIG DREAMS for a mother of four, teacher and administrator with her own school of over 100 students. I am so proud of our daughter Selinah and excited to see what God has planned for the future.

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