"Auntie Jesus will take care of me."

One of WGM's ministries in Kenya is the Africa Gospel Church Baby Center, a home for orphaned or abandoned babies and toddlers. It's actually one of the few orphanage-like places in Kenya that accept HIV-positive babies. Staci Keter is serving there, and she and her husband, Wycliff, are in the process of adopting two twin boys, Gifton and Solomon. The whole family is in the US right now, and Staci and the boys stopped by our office yesterday.

They're three years old now, and like all three-year-olds, they got their little paws into anything that was shiny or looked like it would be fun to throw. They only speak Swahili, but Staci said they can understand English; they just chose not to use it. While we watched them rearrange our carpet squares into a more pleasing pattern (Staci said they were making them into a train track) and play with a couple blow-up toys (What? We're a creative department. We also have play-doh in our meeting room.), Staci talked about how they handled the plane ride over from Kenya, and she said, "Solomon was afraid at first. But then he turned to me and said, "Mommy, I know I shouldn't be afraid, because Auntie Jesus will take care of me."

After we stopped laughing, I started thinking about what he said. It really makes sense, considering that except for Wycliff, all of his caregivers have been women. Also, an "auntie" is someone you trust, someone who loves you, someone who takes care of you. Which is what Jesus does.

And then Staci cracked up and said that during the trip, when he would hear any other children cry, he would say, "That one is afraid." Staci would ask, "What would you want to tell them?" Solomon would reply, "I would tell them that it's okay, because Auntie Jesus will take care of them."

Here's a picture of Staci with a bunch of the babies in Kenya, baskin' in some sunshine.