Freddie

Frederick Gichuhi (16) is our Kenyan foster-son — an orphan lad who lived next door to us in Kenya. Through a whole series of circumstances he came into our lives and accepted Jesus as his Saviour.  He is now studying at a Christian boarding school in Kenya; but in December–January he visited us here in England…

History

We first saw Freddie when he was about 10 years old: he would walk every day down the long road through the coffee plantation where we lived, to his local primary school. Together with his older brother and sister, Anthony and Rosalyn, he had come to live with his grandmother after his mother died. His father had died when he was still very young, so they were orphans. We knew the rest of his family quite well: his elderly grandmother and two of her adult daughters, Freddie’s aunts, who were also living with her. So it was a large household, and having three extra grandchildren to care for was a heavy financial burden for the old lady.

Crisis!

One evening in May 1997 when Freddie was 13, he came to our door. Feeling very embarrassed, he shared with us that his grandmother was unable to pay the small contribution towards school fees for that term (about £5 / $8.50). His grandmother had not wanted to come and ask us, but the money was required at school. We gave him the money, but told him to come back again and talk to us, as we wanted to offer more help than just £5. He did come back, and his visits became regular. Johanna lost her mother at the age of 14, and her father fell out of touch with her, so she well understood his distress. In his grief he had started to withdraw, often wandering around the estate alone. His family was suspicious that he would get himself into trouble. This in turn led to tensions between him and his aunts and grandmother.

Johanna told him that the Lord had plans for his life; plans for good, not for evil. He gave his life to the Lord and started coming to church with us. He regularly spent time at our house, and he and Stephen became very close friends. As a brand new Christian, he started to make a few faltering steps towards helping more at home. However at school the problems were just as great: with 90 children in his class, he did not get much personal attention... But despite all the difficulties, we saw him gradually changing from a desperate young teenager into a happy Christian lad. It was such a joy to see the change that took place during the months that followed. He had walked into our house and straight into our hearts. Somehow he just fitted in with our family. Our totally different lifestyles and ethnic background just didn’t seem to matter. He called us Mum and Dad, and he felt like another son. He got on so well with both Stephen and Jennifer, and often the three of them would go out and play together in the coffee fields.

Bombshell

The bombshell came with the news that we were having to leave Kenya. Our hearts broke at the thought of leaving him behind. Again and again he pleaded with us to adopt him. His family, who were rather jealous of his friendship with us, said OK, let him just go with us to England! The very thought was out of the question: he didn’t even have a passport, and a passport application can take months or even years. How could we ease his pain, now that he would again be losing his ‘parents’? How could we say Jesus loved him, when we were in the process of abandoning him—leaving him with his aunts and grandmother, and the school where he was so unhappy? There seemed to be only one solution: to find a boarding school for him in Kenya.

New School

With the help of friends we enrolled him in Busara Academy at Nyahururu, 3 hours drive northwest of Nairobi in the Rift Valley. It is a private Christian school, but the fees are incredibly low by British standards: about £1,000 per year ($1,650). He started at Busara in January 1998 (the beginning of the school year in Kenya), so has been there now for two years. Their standard of education is far higher than his previous school, which meant he was set back two years.

Now, in 2000, he has moved to a sister-school of Busara, Mustard Seed School, which is in Nakuru, a lot closer to Nairobi. It follows the British curriculum (which is no disadvantage in Kenya), preparing students for GCSE and ultimately A-levels. He has settled in well there. (See extracts from his letters home...)

We are committed to supporting him through secondary school.

Goodbye

The most heartbreaking moment was when we had to leave Freddie behind at Nairobi airport. He spent that night with our Wycliffe colleagues, Nick and Lynne Swanepoel; they said he wept all through the night. The least we could do to ease the pain of separation, was to promise him that we would arrange for him to visit us here in England... and that promise, by God’s provision, we have now been able to keep.

Retrospect

Looking back over the past two years, we are able to see that Freddie has made good progress at school; and his relationship with his family has greatly improved. As a Christian he has matured also. Friends have been taking him to school and collecting him on our behalf: the Tongoi family, who are members of our former church in Nairobi. Dennis Tongoi is director of the Navigators in Kenya. They have given Freddie a fine example of a Kenyan Christian family. During school holidays he still goes to our former church in Nairobi, even if he has to walk the 8 miles from his home!! We provided him later with the money for a bicycle.

The Future

Here in England we have seriously considered legal adoption. We have looked at all aspects. But right at the outset there is an insurmountable obstacle: just to start an adoption application for an overseas child we would have to put up £2,500 ($4,125)!  Plus, we would be required to have a 4-bedroom house, so he could have a separate room. Such a house in the area where we live would be out of the question for us. In addition, he is very much a Kenyan. If he were to become our son, he would end up with no real identity at all: neither Kenyan nor British.

With a good foundation of family support, Christian maturity and education, Freddie can become a pillar in his own society and in the Kenyan church. In that way, we will have invested not only in his own life, but also in the country where we served the Lord for so many years.

] Click here to see copies of Freddie’s latest letters home.

] Click here to see pictures of Freddie’s visit to England in 1999–2000.