Kathy Watson back in Saline County promoting book to feed more African children
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[With a food program, kids raising their school fees through raising animals and sewing school operating smoothly in Lela, Kenya, Dr. Kathy Watson of Freedom House Ministries has spent the last four months back in the United States promoting her missionary work.
In 2007 Watson, of Eldorado, sold about all of her possessions to answer God's call to start an orphanage in Kenya. She left the country with her home on the market. It had in it an old couch and some wicker furniture. The house drew no buyers, so it remains her U.S. home when she returns.
Just two months into her journey, living in a compound with another missionary in Eldorete, a controversial election led to war between tribes.
The need to help the hundreds of widows and children left homeless by the bloodshed was greater than ever, though Watson and the other missionaries had to be much more cautious about where and when they traveled.
The political strife calmed, but Watson's mission hit another snag. The village where Watson was working was governed by a family who apparently regarded the ministry as a threat.
"The family who runs the village didn't like the good things that were happening. They were losing control," Watson said.
For more than a year Watson has been supporting a town called Lela that has a school. Watson finds peace there.
"You have to go in and not thrust yourself on them and expect them to do it your way," Watson said.
"You have to expect to blend."
Watson believes the challenges are a part of God's plan and that the rural village of Lela is where her efforts and money were needed most.
She knows children and parents there are being fed. The food program feeds 200 widows and orphans a day at 4,000 meals a month. Teachers at the school say children are healthier and are performing better with their most immediate survival needs being met.
Freedom House Ministries helped to fund a cooking shelter built onto the school. While the food is prepared in pots over fire, there is a roof to keep the sun and rain off the cooks.
The food program provides the seeds and fertilizer for planting and the program with trained locals is largely self-sufficient. Many students raise animals to provide fees for school and the ministry helps others with fees and clothing.
Watson is glad one of the children the ministry has touched graduated from Bible college this year.
Watson believes the work has been done through divine guidance and through donations from individuals and organizations in the U.S.
"I shake my head in total amazement. Even in a tight economy we have not failed to feed these kids a single meal," Watson said.
When one source of funding stopped, there seems always another to take its place.
"There was always somebody else who helped or came," Watson said.
Before she returns to Kenya in mid-January, Watson is promoting her first children's book, "Meet Harry and Herman."
The book published by WinePress Publishing tells the story of two young frogs who venture into the world.
Watson is signing the book 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday at Harrisburg District Library and at Hands Full of Purpose book store in Marion 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
Watson reaches youngsters through storytelling and puppetry and has been telling the story of the two frogs for years.
"I've told it to a crowd of 30,000 when we were in the crisis in 2007," Watson said.
"It's a good story about obedience and trust."
At the library book signing there will also be a silent auction to raise money for the mission.
Watson said neither she nor her illustrator make any money from the sale of the book.
"She and I both have given every bit of this book to missions. It is a total mission profit," Watson said.
By Jan. 12 Watson hopes to return to Kenya where she will teach three classes at a Bible college in Eldorete for the first three months of the year and spend Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays ministering and helping different orphanages.
To reach Lela Watson must meet a taxi at 5:30 a.m. often with fertilizer, seeds and bulk food. The taxi drives her 20 minutes to a bus. The bus conductors take her load and throw it on top of the bus which will travel four hours. The last hour of the trip is over an old rutted road.
The bus drops her at the barobar, a dropping off spot with lean-to buildings for shelter.
Three men on motorcycles meet her at the barobar. One is her driver and the other two carry her supplies.
From that point she travels 30 minutes on dirt roads to Lela.
"I'm known as Piki Piki Mama. Piki is their word for motorcycle," Watson said.
"It's a unique situation and I really enjoy the adventure of it. But for all the turmoil of last year, there are other places I need to see and help other people. We can't pour all our energies into one spot," Watson said.
She said the feeding program and animals program will continue and people will continue to teach sewing.
"The local people can take over these things. And it's running so much better when I'm not there," Watson said.
She believes when the local people know she is away and the responsibility for operating the mission is theirs they no longer look to her as a source for their needs. She visits about every two months and stays in touch weekly.
News in Lela always seems to be getting better.
"Since we began the feeding project in Lela 2 1/2 years ago, at that time there were many children and adults dying of tuberculosis and AIDS. Since we began the program I would say there are 80-percent less deaths," Watson said.
Children are more eager to learn. Their parents are more eager to participate in the mission and school by cooking, farming, carrying water from the village's one well or gathering wood. Watson is ready to turn her attention to other less fortunate regions.
"Now I'm on a much more permanent basis in Eldorete. I'll be doing more traveling and more crusades across the country, some in very dangerous places," Watson said.
More information about Freedom House Ministries and donation information is at the Web site www.freedomhmin.org and Watson can be reached at (618) 273-3964.
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DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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