The story of Espra - a life touched

One of last year's volunteers visited with a young man at one of our schools and felt that God wanted him to stay in touch with this young friend, offering him help. Espra's family are refugees from the war in the Congo. His mother and dad are dead. He lives with his grandmother who is 68, a sister (probably 18), and a brother ( 10). The grandmother is not well. An uncle is their only support, when he does send money. Espra is 16 and in 6th grade. They arrived from the Congo four years ago. He didn't speak any English at the time, but is now in the top ten of his class - very bright young man. He is well liked at school and never a discipline problem. He walks to school - which was a ten minute ride on a fast boda, but he doesn't seem to mind. I visited with him yesterday and then we got on bodas and went to his home to meet his family. The headmaster suggested perhaps he could board at the school for a year, as those children always do better in school. The secretary is getting the figures together for me and I will let our 'donor' know. I talked to Espra's grandmother about boarding school. (Espra translated. She only speaks Swahili). She was so excited; she kept bowing to me and clapping her hands. I have told the school we will need Espra's grades every term and any comments. As we rode a boda together, Espra said, “I have never had a chance before; this is my first chance.” I tried not to cry the rest of the way. The brother was extremely sick. The grandmother said she thought it was typhoid, but they didn't have any money to go to the doctor. The Illinois group left some money - so I gave her funding to take the boy to the hospital to have him checked and get medicine. May God bless our volunteer/donor (who I will identify later if he and his wife give permission) and the Illinois team. -Trudy