We’ll start with the question “What is Rachel’s Home?”
Rachel’s Children’s Home is an orphanage, located in Ha Nyenye on the outskirts of Maputsoe, a border town in the tiny African country of Lesotho. The origin story of Rachel’s Home, though far from unique, is a beautiful example of local heroes responding to a crisis and sharing God’s love in remarkable ways.
Hilda Seforo and her husband Godwill, created Rachel’s Home to care for abandoned and orphaned children. Theirs is an amazing story, well worth the read, and it can be found on the Rachel’s Home page on our site.
How did Central end up there?
It’s quite a convoluted story. Our Lord often goes about things in quite unexpected ways and this story is a wild demonstration of that.
I’ll start by introducing you to a man named Stephen Lewis. Stephen Lewis was a politician. He was the leader of the Ontario NDP and, from 1988-1992, he was the Leader of the Opposition in the Ontario Legislature. After leaving politics, he was named Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, before leaving that role to become the United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
It was in this role that he was invited to speak to the annual convention of the Ontario Hospital Association in 2003. He was an incredible orator and, by all accounts, he gave an impassioned speech describing the AIDS crisis gripping Africa. At the end of his speech, the audience rose as one to give him a standing ovation, but he cut them off. “NO STOP. Don’t clap! Do something!”
And they did. Within a week OH Africa was born and within a year, it had established clinics in a couple of countries in Southern Africa, including one in a community called Leribe, about a 20 minute drive north of Maputsoe (Rachel’s Home).
Johan
In the beginning, these clinics were primarily staffed by volunteers from Ontario, including a young (at the time…sorry, Johan, I couldn’t resist) South African doctor, working at Cambridge Memorial Hospital. Dr. Johan Redelinghuyes, spent six months at the Leribe clinic. During that time, he met Hilda. As you may recall, Hilda had founded Rachel’s Home. Many of the orphans in her care had lost their parents to HIV/AIDS and quite a few of them had contracted AIDS in their mother’s womb.
When the clinic opened, Hilda began to bring her children there for treatment and this is how she and Johan got to know each other and how Johan got to know about Rachel’s Home.
Johan was a good friend of Aubrey and Elsie. In fact, when he first moved to Cambridge, he rented a room in their basement for a time, until he found a place of his own. So, Johan, through his stories, introduced Aubrey and Elsie to Hilda and to her mission at Rachel’s Home.
Elsie
Elsie, at that time, was Central’s Children’s Ministry leader. Stephanie and Jocelyn and so many young people started their journey with God in those classrooms. Elsie was an amazing Children’s Ministry Leader and the strong leadership we have today is, in no small part, a result of her tireless work. Elsie also has a heart for mission, and God placed this mission, the mission to Rachel’s Home, on her heart.
This was the beginning of the Penny Project.
And what was the Penny Project?
The penny project was a fundraiser that the Children’s Ministry adopted to support Rachel’s Home. Yes, the children collected pennies, but that was just the beginning. Pillows, clothing and other essentials were collected and sent to Rachel’s Home. That’s a long, and very expensive, way to ship stuff. However, Johan was still doing volunteer stints at the clinic in Leribe. Whenever he flew back from Canada, he went with a suitcase full of donations from the Children’s Ministry.
And so it continued.
2009
Then in 2008, Elsie decided that we should send a team from Central to Lesotho to build an extension on the classroom at the school. And our 2009 mission trip to Lesotho was born. I was a member of that team and it was in Lesotho that I accepted Christ and became a Christian, but that is yet another story. We built the classrooms and, more importantly, we built relationships and connections of our own with Hilda, Godwill and the children.
2012
In 2012, we returned with another team and we built an ablution facility onsite. Although we haven’t sent another team, we continue, to this day, to support Hilda’s work at Rachel’s Home. Though we haven’t sent another team, our efforts and our involvement continue.
And Beyond
There is far more to the story than just this little snippet. Many children have found shelter at Rachel’s Home in the intervening years and their stories are quite remarkable. In a country where very few ever have the opportunity to complete their primary education, Rachel’s Home has produced a number of university grads, in fields as varied as accounting, nursing and child psychology. Rachel’s Home grads have gone on to become skilled tradesmen and politicians.
This tiny orphanage has contributed much to the fabric of Lesotho. It has also contributed so much to the fabric of Central. Many of those team members from the two trips still attend Central and each has their own story. Lives were changed both in Lesotho and right here in Cambridge.
And Central has been there with them, from almost the beginning.
It’s quite the story. Who would have thought that a speech at a conference that had nothing to do with Central, would somehow plant the seed that has become a defining mission at our church?
Our Lord does work in mysterious ways.
