Lavin's Story

When I was 15, I chose Lavin’s photograph from a stack that represented children waiting to be sponsored. 

Lavin was her name. She was 9 years old and her smile was captivating. She was the only daughter of a poor widow named Ruth who sold wooden spoons on the roadside and earned less than a dollar per day. We wrote letters back and forth for a year before I visited Kenya for the first time at age 16. 

Meeting your sponsored child for the first time is truly life-changing. This was the girl I had thought about and written to and prayed over and sacrificed for over the last 18 months. And she was worth that and so much more. 

Lavin is 17 now. She is in high school. She is intelligent and beautiful and godly. One day she would like to be a nurse. 

When Lavin and I see each other, we no longer interact as strangers—we run to each other like sisters long-separated. 

Lavin was one of the reasons why I quickly fell in love with Ringroad Orphan’s Day School 7 years ago. She has been raised up by people who love Jesus and it shows in her. I love the teachers there, the children, the campus, the church, the neighborhood. And I absolutely love Lavin.