Living Hope

Samabul is a rural village located about 3 hours outside of the larger city of Eldoret. Known as “the bush,” this landscape is what an American might picture Africa as looking like. 

Grassy plains with the occasional acacia trees stretch out as far as the eye can see. Grass huts are scattered across the countryside and little children often run alongside our matatu. Maize crops are everywhere, as well as young cowherds that spend their days leading their families’ livestock to fresh pastures and streams. 

Samabul is full of kind souls who love Jesus and largely attend church at the little Church of Christ located on the school grounds of the Living Hope Primary Education Centre.

Living Hope isn’t only an orphan school, but as most of the families in this area are low-income farmers, school tuition is difficult to afford, especially when the families have multiple children.

Until this year, Living Hope has only had the classrooms through fourth grade. After this stage of education, children had to either drop out of school or come up with the extra fees and endurance to walk miles away to attend other elementary schools. 

This year a friend paid to build the 5^th and 6^th grade classrooms and my dad built the classes for the 7^th and 8^th grades. 2016 is the first year that Living Hope has functioned as a full elementary school with classes available from 1^st grade through 8^th grade. 

I am so thankful that my dad met such a huge need for a precious community—and I’m excited for my family to see the new classes with our own eyes when we visit Samabul in July.