I spent this past weekend up in Boston for my first in person board meeting for the aid organization Kupenda for the Children. I have to tell you it was an immensely affirming experience. For one thing I am a nerd so getting lost in the weeds and inertia of budgets and strategy kind of gets me going. But mostly it was the people.
The Kupenda board is populated with people who have simply fallen in love with this little neighbourhood in the Kingdom of God. Kupenda supports somewhere in the neighbourhood of 500 children in Kenya born with one form of disability or another. And every one on the board but me has gone over there (most of them more than once) and the experience has become a calling in their life to dedicate themselves to this ministry.
One couple has raised probably close to fifty thousand dollars by this point doing fund raisers from riding their bikes across the country to having a mustache growing contest in a local bar. Another couple has planned at least one volunteer trip per year for the last several years, with all the work that goes into something like that. Another lady has used her connections in local schools to collect resources that teachers are done with to ship to the teachers in Kenya.
And then there’s the director, Cindy, who has simply poured herself out like a drink offering for these kids. Completely re-arranging her life to fit in the margins around her work with Kupenda. She has been living this way for nearly a decade now and received nothing in return for it! Thankfully this past weekend the board convinced her to take a small monthly stipend and set it as a goal to pay her full time soon.
To see these people, their passion, dedication and creativity gave me hope in the possibility of what me and my friends can do when and if we put our minds to it.
If you’d like to see how you can support Kupenda, go here. But basically the need is money, so feel free to send a check to “Kupenda for the Children” PO Box 473 Hampton, NH 03843. And put “General Fund” in the subject line.