God gave the Matheny family a vision to equip the local church to be the answer to the orphan crises in their area. Together with local government and church leaders, they began a family-based type of orphan care (similar to our foster care system in the USA). When you visit this town, you cannot tell who the orphans are because they are strapped on the back of their host mom shopping at the market, sitting in church with their host families, or playing with the kids in their neighborhood.Please consider giving to the Host Family Program Fund, or become a monthly sponsor for one of our families below.
Mr. & Mrs. Kambou were both Christians by the time they married. When Mrs. Kambou was young her father became very ill. There were some missionaries from Europe in her village at the time, and when they prayed for her father he was healed. Her family saw that their idol worshiping did not help, and so they left it all and accepted Jesus. They have been married many years now and have had five children. Two of their children died, and they have three daughters still living. They would like a son, and might adopt one day. Mr. Kambou works as the cook in one of the local schools, and Mrs. Kambou is a homemaker also now working as a Host Mom. They would ask you keep the education of their daughters in prayer. Mr. and Mrs. Kambou want all three daughters to continue in school so they have better opportunities than they did.
Many infants in crisis do not need a placement away from their extended families, if the family has access to formula. You can keep babies in their families by helping provide this often unattainable resource to families in need.
Our ministry began in a city in West Africa where the local church and the government agency over orphans worked with us to raise up Host Families to address the needs of vulnerable children under the age of 7. Learning our way into orphan care, we discovered an overwhelming majority of the cases did not need to be placed in our Host Families, but only needed the resources to keep the baby alive after losing the mother. Because extended families are strong in West Africa, our Formula Distribution Ministry was birthed and now meets ninety percent of the needs that come to us. For the children who truly do not have anywhere to go, we have six Christian Host Families ready to bring them into their homes and care for them as their own. In 2018, our family transitioned Stateside, where Philip works as the Missions Director for Sheltering Wings while continuing the work with our national ministry team in Africa.
