Kevina’s story…

Before the storm that changed everything, Kevina’s home was made of woven strips of wood called wattle, held in place by a sticky mud. She lived there for years, a widow in the same home her husband left her when he died in 1990.

Then one Saturday in 2016, a relentless storm caused the roof to cave in, nearly striking and killing Kevina – and setting in motion one of the most powerful weeks of her life. Pastor Ronald of Living Spring Church in Fort Portal, Uganda, arrived on the scene to survey the damage.

“I was left in tears,” he recalled. “I took pictures and showed them to church the following morning and challenged the church to do something about our sister’s situation.”

As he spoke, men and women came forward and donated 210,000 schillings (about $58), “a ton of money” for his people, Pastor Ronald recalled. And then a woman, Christine, promised two trips of sand and 10 bags of cement. A man, Fred, pledged to give a tin roof from a home he was dismantling. Others donated nails, and a friend of Kizito’s donated lumber.

“So we put together all the materials gathered, and we built her house in that week,” Pastor Ronald said.

As beautiful as that week after the storm was, the story didn’t end there. Kevina is one of the widows of Living Spring Church who looks after orphans the church takes in to care for. She currently has six orphans she is caring for and raising in her home. On her property, she also cares for a dairy cow that was donated to the widows of Living Spring Church, using milk from the cow to nourish her own children and other widows and orphans in her neighborhood. Kevina also serves as a member of Living Spring Church by hosting a cell group at her home and looking after the church flower gardens.

“Kevina is so, so happy that she never stops thanking God for the house and the cow,” Kizito said. “Many people who have seen what God has done in her life have given their lives to Christ, and they include (some who originally) mocked and tormented her for her decision (to become a Christian).”

Recently, repairs have been carried out to Kevina’s home to make the environment more healthy and safe for Kevina and the orphans she cares for, part of a wider movement undertaken at Living Spring Church.

“We have started building and repairing widows’ houses such that they can have better homes to live healthy lives,” Pastor Ronald said. “We have dubbed this campaign, ‘Better Homes, Healthier Lives,’ and we use donated funds to improve the widows homes.”

As with the story of Kevina’s home, this movement is funded in part by Living Spring Church members, with support from donations from partner churches in America and ABIDE Worldwide.

Want to help a widow like Kevina take care of orphans in a secure, healthy home environment? Contribute through ABIDE to Living Spring’s “Better Homes, Healthier Lives” movement.