Kennedy Weds Grace

Saturday was another banner day at Made in the Streets. Kennedy Odhiambo came through our program, finishing in January 2006. He was unwanted by his birth family, with one of his sisters calling him "cockroach" when he would come around the family after running to the streets. He has endured much abuse and ill-will in his life. He did not get a continuing job after leaving MITS, so when we did a hiring in summer 2006, he applied for one of the positions. We had intended to hire 6 people. 45 people applied, and after extensive interviews we invited 19 of them to join us for training.

These 19 lived at MITS for the next 9 weeks. We taught them classes every day for several hours, and the rest of the time they worked with the team and students. After 6 weeks, we took them all to Eastleigh and had them work daily on the streets for 2 weeks. Then we had one more week back at Kamulu. At the end of the 9 weeks, we voted on who ought to be hired, and Mbuvi and Coulston did exit interviews with the rest of them. We ended up hiring 9 people, because 3 of our own kids had applied and did a great job in training. We hired Kennedy to go back to the same streets he came from as a street minister. He has done a great job for the past 3 1/2 years. We have great appreciation for him.

And Saturday was his wedding day, to a girl named Grace who works at another orphanage in Nairobi. We had a delightful day, with about 250 people present. They ate a meal, witnessed the wedding ceremony, tasted wedding cake (baked and decorated by Darlene Coulston and Laurent Mogambi). They received a gift of a one-night honeymoon at a resort lodge at Lake Naivasha.

We are proud of the young people who come from the streets, who do not forget the streets but rejoice that God has been with them through it all, and who return something of their lives to make a better world for the poorest of the poor. Rejoice with us!