Virda Stevens

  Sadness and joy seem always mixed in our lives.  We have to say good-bye to a close friend.  Virda Stevens, the person who convinced us to visit Kenya in 1990, died, and we feel an empty space.  We often tell this story when people ask us how we came to work with street kids or why we do what we do.  In 1988 Bill and Virda visited Kenya, spent time with some missionaries, and fell in love with the concept of ministry the missionaries held.  And they developed a great vision for the work that led to a great school in Eastleigh Section II of Nairobi -- KCITI.  Under their vision and help, it became a computer and electronics school that excelled in training computer operators and technicians.  For many years KCITI produced more graduate than all the other schools in Nairobi combined, and they got the jobs because they had everyday experience on the computer.  

  But back to the story.  In 1989 they decided to join an evangelism campaign led by Lloyd Deal in Eastleigh.  They invited us to go with them, but we refused.  We had no intention of working in Africa, since we wanted to eventually go to Singapore and Malaysia.  Besides that, we were set on going on a backpacking trip in Europe that summer.  So they took several other people with them on the trip.  Deal's campaign, lasting over 2 months, baptized 360+ people, and a church was begun.  

  That was great, but Virda had another vision.  She saw hundreds of kids on the streets, and they were only evangelizing adults.  So she wanted to return and do a Vacation Bible School and train teachers, so they would one day have a good children's ministry and Sunday school.  She came to us and asked us to write a series of 5 classes and a two-day teaching training manual of the type she felt they needed for the kids in poverty in Eastleigh.  We said, "Okay, but we are not going."  It took about 3 months to write the material.  When we gave it to Virda, she read it and liked all the graphics and lesson plans and crafts.  A few weeks later she came back to us and said, "Uh, you are the ones who wrote this teacher training material; you really ought to be the one to do the training."  That was too much to resist.  So we went, and 35 people from the Eastleigh Church came for training, and it was wonderful. And on the last day of VBS, there were 435 kids.  

  She wanted to go again the next year, so we did the same thing.  This time 76 people came for training for the two long and grueling days of preparation.  And on the last day, 1003 kids showed up for VBS.  We could have died and gone to heaven then.

  But Virda has continued to serve the Lord, and so much more has been done in all the years since.  And we are still in Nairobi, now working with street children, still in the Eastleigh area, because of Virda's love for us and her perseverance. Thanks, Virda, for a friendship well lived.