Tears of Happiness
“I have never slept on a bed since I was born. Since my childhood, I have always imagined what sleeping on a bed would feel like. I used to ask my friends if I could go to their homes to at least test the feeling of sleeping on a bed,” says Aloice Obama, a 13-year-old boy from Langas—the largest slum in Eldoret, Kenya.
Langas houses over 200,000 individuals that face issues of hunger, lack of water and other basic needs on a daily basis.
Being the youngest in the family, Aloice has always been burdened with the need to change the circumstances of his family. Issues like a lack of food, clothing, and water, have continually disadvantaged his childhood.
Aloice suffered constantly at home and felt blamed for the family’s misfortunes. According to Aloice, this was always the case, especially when the family had no food because his parents were old and could not take care of him. When Aloice asked his sponsor to have his home equipped with beds, he never thought his request would become a reality.
When CRF’s program staff delivered the beds to the family on January 10, 2021, all the family could do was to cry tears of happiness. Aloice’s mother was repentant after the incident. “I always blamed my son for bringing misfortune to our family. All this I did without knowing that he was destined to save our family.” Aloice’s father was short of words but could not hide his joy and expressed being grateful to CRF for restoring dignity to
his family.
To the family, the beds became a miracle that restored the broken family. Imagine a simple bed bringing hope that all is possible when we trust in Jesus Christ. Indeed tears of joy and restoration were made possible by Greg and Lori Bergeron, Aloice’s sponsor.
This caught me thinking about the story of Hanna in the Bible. Despite waiting for many years for God to give her a son, she received her miracle in the end.