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 By Kim Krull
 In a country with nearly one million AIDS orphans, the opening of a new Lutheran orphanage for 24 Kenyan boys may sound small.
But it was a big day for these youngsters who once lived in a crowded mud hut -- and for four LCMS pastors from the United States who attended the dedication of the relatively spacious brick center in Orthoro.
"It has been a dramatic transformation for these boys who lost their parents to AIDS," said Rev. Jamison J. Hardy, pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church, Mt. Lebanon, Pa. "They showed such joy in their faith and love for the Lord that I wish everyone in our church could have seen."
Hardy was among those who attended the dedication of the Orthoro Rescue Center as part of a project review trip sponsored by LCMS WorldRelief/Human Care in late March. The orphanage is a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK), an LCMS partner church, and was built with contributions to LCMS World Relief/Human Care, the Synod's worldwide arm of mercy.
The new orphanage sits near the ELCK congregation where the boys --whose ages range from about 10 to 18-were baptized, worship, and study the Bible. It replaces the mud hut where some of the youngsters lived as many as nine years.
The ELCK built and equipped the center with a $35,000 grant from LCMS World Relief/Human Care.
"A little can make such a big difference in Kenya," said Rev. Matthew
Harrison, LCMS World Relief/Human Care executive director, who first met the orphans more than a year ago when he visited the African country
with Rev. Walter Obare, ELCK bishop. "Every congregation or pastor of the ELCK is caring for orphans, mostly in the midst of desperate poverty. The Othoro congregation orphanage is a community-based solution that we can replicate and, in time, profoundly affect thousands of lives, body and soul."
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