Lizzie’s OCMC Experience

To everyone who has given their time, their prayer, and/or their donations to St. Tabitha’s- thank you so so much!

My name is Lizzie Tobias, I am Father Peter’s daughter. I traveled with him about a year ago to Kenya for the first time. This year, I went back with a team from OCMC.

When I land in Nairobi, I inhale and exhale. I am so ready and excited to be back.

I immediately start sweating and smile as I notice the red dirt already collecting on my shoes. I know by the end of the trip my feet and my clothes will be stained red, no matter how many times I scrub them with soap in a bucket. But I am only dirty because I am constantly outside, running around with the kids at St. Tabitha’s and the neighborhood children. I am dirty because I, and my friends, spend our days carrying bricks, shoveling cement, and hauling wheelbarrows of dirt. We are helping to build a chicken coop for St. Tabitha’s, a massive brick and cement one. A chicken coop fit only for the 600 chickens that will live there.

It’s hard for me to answer questions about my time in Kenya. It’s hard for me to describe the joy and the peace that I feel there. But there isn’t a single person that I have traveled to Kenya with that doesn’t feel that same joy.

To simply call Kenya a place of poverty and need, would be a false statement. Yes, the poverty is very real and present, the need is great. But so is the beauty. The rolling green hills and farmland, popping out against the red dirt of the earth. The birds singing every morning, welcoming the sunrise. And of, course, the people.

Father Agapios and Papadia Dorah- faithful to their many many children at St. Tabitha’s, their family, the school’s mission, and God. Emmanuel- faithful to the children and teaching them music. Some of the music his own, beautiful lyrics born right out of his love for God. The local people in the villages, who come up to the open windows of our bus saying “Caribou! Welcome. This is our home and now it is your home too.”And, of course, the children. The children who tug at your heartstrings with their singing and big smiles. The children who can’t help but laugh at us crazy Americans as we attempt to speak their language and navigate daily life in Kenya. Honestly, we laugh at ourselves too. I hope so much to someday spend enough time with the children to build real relationships with them.

It is painful to know these people and their love, and call them your friends, and know the struggles they deal with daily. It is painful to see the homes built out of scraps of metal, the piles of trash being picked through, the child with no parent. It is painful to know I eat so well and have more than enough of what I need, and these people that Iknow don’t. It is painful to see so much beauty juxtaposed against so much poverty.

As Christians, God calls us to take care of the less fortunate. To give freely, as we have been given much. I hope you will find the way you can give, whether it be financially, prayerfully, or maybe going for a visit yourself and giving your time. You won’t be disappointed.

Please don’t underestimate the power of your prayers. I will never forget a conversation my dad and I had with the late Bishop Athanasius. He told us it was so good that we were simply there for a visit. It shows the people in Kenya that they are not alone, that there are other Orthodox Christians thinking of and praying for them. That they are just as loved and a part of the body of Christ as everyone else. So let us remember them in our prayers! By doing so, we extend our hands across oceans.

Thank you again for any kind of donation you have offered. I hope that through Christ, Father Agapios’ ministry will continue to grow, spreading the beauty of the Orthodox faith and creating a loving home for the children who deserve one.

 Here are some pictures!