A Little Papaya and a Lot of Love

As he walked along the dusty road with his crying little sister Mbilisi, eight-year-old Kpalafio wondered where he could get help for her. He was hungry too, but knew he needed to get help for her bad cough. If only they had a mother to help, but she had died the month before. People were talking about a sickness called AIDS that had killed both his parents. Kpalafio didn’t know what that word meant but it sounded really bad.

His mother, Kondoma 

Life had been good before. His mother Kondoma was a good cook and a hard worker in their garden. They didn’t see their father very often because he was a soldier and gone much of the time in the war in East Congo. But when he did come home he was often very angry and drank a lot of palm wine. Often he would beat up Kondoma until she would cry or run out to the garden.

His father’s death

The last time he saw his father, Kpalafio knew something was very wrong. He was thin, and very weak. He couldn’t even climb the palm tree to get wine. He went to the hospital down the road and died there. Kpalafio was sad, but when his mother started getting thin and weak, he started worrying a lot.  What would happen if she died too?

Kondoma had AIDS 

Sadly, Kondoma did get very sick and died after the nurses told the family that she had AIDS like her husband. Some relatives took Kpalafio and Mbilisi into their home for awhile, but they were very poor and didn’t have much food themselves. Finally they told him that he needed to find another relative down the road a couple villages who might be able to help them.

Learning of the Congo EFC

Walking along that road in the heat of the day, not even sure where he was going, Kpalafio kicked at the stones and tried to cheer up his sister. Tears were coming to his eyes too. As they stumbled along, they noticed a nice lady with a basin of fruit on her head going by. She asked why they were crying. Soon she cut open a luscious papaya fruit for each of them as they sat by the road. As they ate she told them that she was a cousin of their mother and wanted to help. She also mentioned a Health Center in that village where they could get help, run by the Congo Evangelical Free Church. She walked with them and they soon found the African nurse who gave Mbilisi some cough syrup while the lady told them about a wonderful man named Jesus who cared for children like them.

GlobalFingerprints and a new life

In a few days Kpalafio and Mbilisi were living with Mama Kamba and her family. The greatest part was that caring people came and helped get them enrolled in a program called GlobalFingerprints so they could get food, clothing, medical care and money for their school fees. And best of all they learned much more about Jesus, the man who cares for children.

GlobalFingerprints is a program helping people  sponsor children like Kpalafio and Mbilisi. To learn more about GlobalFingerprints and how to sponsor a child, visit www.globalfingerprints.org.

Questions? Contact globalfingerprints@efca.org

Learn more about ministry in Congo.