Unlimited Grace

When Jacinta Akuwam was born in 1999 in northern Kenya with her legs bound close to her stomach, the doctors at Kakuma Mission Hospital determined that the only way forward was to amputate her legs. Life for a baby in this condition was sure to be limited. But God had plans for this child that were beyond anyone’s hopes or dreams.

In 2005, Jacinta began kindergarten at Olkalou Disability Center through sponsorship in Children of the Kingdom. While in this school, arrangements were made for her to get her first prosthetic legs. She went through tough training learning to walk for the first time.  In the Children of the Kingdom report from 2011, the coordinator of the program in Kenya wrote, “Praise be to the Lord!! Nobody could believe that this is the same girl whom we met over 10 years ago abandoned in a village hut. When other people would go to meetings and churches, this girl was abandoned at home with small goats because there was nobody to carry her because she had no legs.” 

​She transferred to St. Paul School from 4th- 8th grade and did so well on her national primary exams in 2013 that she qualified to go to one of the best schools in the region called Turkana Girls National Secondary School for high school.  She graduated in 2013, and she is now attending Turkana University College studying business management.  Over and over again, Jacinta has pushed through the limitations stacked against her and has relied on God’s unlimited love to see her through. 

​Over the past year, she was in need of a new wheelchair and new prosthetic legs, and the amount we needed for these was very steep. Some very generous sponsors in Children of the Kingdom were God’s hands and feet as they reached out to family and friends to raise the support.  We are so grateful for their contributions along with the support from our partners in ministry in Kenya to get this accomplished for Jacinta. 

Richard Stearns, former president of World Vision, writes, “Jesus understood loss. That’s why He touched the leper, welcomed the prostitute, showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery, and healed the crippled and the blind. He touched, healed, loved, cared, and even wept when confronted with human brokenness and vulnerability. And then He went to the cross so all who are broken might again be whole. Jesus restores, reclaims, and redeems. We could not do it by ourselves. And after Jesus rebuilds us, then He sends us, healed and restored, to take hope and healing to others, to be His hands and feet. Love in action, not just words, because people are fragile. We can’t do it by ourselves.”

​Children of the Kingdom continues to be a ministry through which God is sending and healing and restoring.  As we look forward to our celebration of Easter, I want to thank you for being a part of Children of the Kingdom’s story as God is reclaiming and redeeming the limited and broken things of this world through your love in action and through His unlimited grace.