A better way to celebrate Easter…

We were at first startled when we met Abednego Musyoka and wondered how a boy with such a unique character found himself in a place where most of his peers have developed a rebellious attitude.

Pastor! Pastor! Pastor! That’s what we heard other children calling Abednego when we met him at a government rehabilitation centre. Upon further probe, we came to understand that the boy was actually playing pastoral roles and others had come to accept it as such.

Once you sit down, and create friendship with him to an extent of building trust in you, he opens up and shares what he has gone through. Abednego comes from a family where parents separated and he was left under the care of the maternal grandmother since his early childhood days. Together with other siblings, they have been raised up by their grandmother who is a devoted Christian….No wonder the pastoral roles.

The parting of the parents was huge and messy. This left their mother emotionally traumatized, which made her to abscond the responsibility of raising her children and passing it on to her mother. She even threatened to poison the children when confronted about her negligence. These confessions made the grandmother to give up on her and from then on, took the responsibility of her grandchildren. At some point, the grandmother had taken the children to their father only to be rejected again, and because he had remarried, their stepmother could not cope with them.

Rejection from parents  had a bad effect on Abednego who developed the habit of running away from home and sleeping out. Fortunately, his grandmother is well known in their locality and so every time he attempted to sneak away, he could be brought back home. This one time, he prepared to go to school but he had other plans in mind. He boarded a vehicle far away from home lest someone who knew him cut short his mission, and managed to find his way to Nairobi where he made the streets his abode. One day the city council inspectorate caught up with him and together with others, was taken to the rehabilitation centre. We were glad that when we met him at the centre, he agreed to go back home and over the Easter eve, Abednego was reintegrated back home amid shouts of jubilation from his siblings.

There was no better way to celebrate Easter than taking Abednego home…..!!