While we were in Kenya we had the privilege of visiting The Boaz Project children’s home. We were able to see the old building and see their new building. It was a stark contrast. If you’ve known our family for long you know we just love The Boaz Project. They do great work and their love for the 99% of orphans that are NOT adoptable is powerful and impactful.

God put us in this orphanage in Burundi, He orchestrated it in ways we could not. It was extremely beneficial to see first hand the work The Boaz Project is doing in Kenya and to see their family style model first hand. I completely agree with them and pray that one day the orphanage in Burundi could benefit from such a model.

The thing that made my heart overflow so much at El Shaddai was the way the staff spoke about the U.S. staff and leadership of The Boaz Project. In all honesty, it is 100% the way any organization would want their staff to speak of the leadership. I think you can tell a lot about leadership by asking those “at the bottom” their perception of the leadership. In this case, they were spot on. They spoke of April and Jim and the staff being true, genuine Christians. Genuinely faithful people who served God and helped orphans.

Seeing the beautiful new building was amazing too. They have family style apartments that are set up to serve the children in the best possible scenario. Each child has their own bed, the boys are separate from the girls with a small room in between which houses the house mom or the house mom and dad. Their attention to detail was evident that it was just a detail, it was an important detail that impacted a child’s life. The details said, “you’re important, child.”

We ended our time with a photo of everyone together and a prayer over the home, children and staff. It was a blessing.

The last photo is of their previous home, like in Burundi, they use straw as insulation.