When he was a 10th-grader, Edward Phillips’ Sunday school teacher told him she imagined him working in missions overseas someday – specifically, in Africa.
Twenty-two-year-old Edward Phillips, whose heart was “molded for missions” while growing up at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, Lynchburg, hopes to establish an orphanage in Kenya within the next year.The teenager was taken aback by the prophecy. But, three short years later, he began to see that his Sunday school teacher might just be onto something.
Today, Phillips, 22, a recent graduate of Clemson University, is working to open an orphanage in Kenya and he hopes to break ground in about a year.
Phillips grew up at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, a small, rural congregation in Lynchburg, S.C. He said it was there his heart for missions was molded.
He made his first trip to Kenya at Christmastime in 2009 to distribute food and gifts and to share the Word of God. But it wasn’t until a four-week trip in 2010 with the missions organization Choose to Invest that his calling came into focus.
He had never been to an orphanage, but as he was walking into Happy Life orphanage in Nairobi, he asked God what he was trying to reveal, and the answer was to start a children’s home – a pretty tall order for a 19-year-old. “I literally felt like something moved in me,” Phillips said.
He immediately hit it off with a 4-year-old orphan named Samuel. Later that day, the boy forgot Phillips’ name and called him “Dad.”
“That’s what cemented the dream,” Phillips said.
In 2011, it was agreed that Phillips would be working with Choose to Invest to open the orphanage. That spring, he began praying hard about what to name the children’s home. It was a verse in 2 Samuel (ironically, the same name as the little boy who stole his heart) that eventually gave him the name. The verse said, “Find refuge in the Lord.”
Phillips decided to name the home Kimbilio, which is Swahili for “refuge.”
There are 2.6 million orphans in Kenya, Phillips said. Some of the children are taken in by relatives, and some are living on the streets, while others are abandoned at hospitals or find themselves alone through other unfortunate circumstances.
Phillips said most of the children’s homes in Kenya are understaffed and underfunded. He said it’s not unusual to find one person caring for 10 babies who can barely sit up. He said most of the homes provide for only the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.
What he has in mind is to offer them more. “The biggest thing is to care for them spiritually,” he said.
Phillips said he wants to provide the children with tools to promote physical, emotional, social and spiritual development. He often sees orphans who are completely devoid of emotion; they neither laugh nor cry. He wants to give them a nurturing environment and counselors to help them process the “burden of being an orphan.”
His initial goal is to be able to house 75 children, focusing primarily on children 5 years old and younger. He said he will work toward getting the children adopted.
The second phase will be more of a family environment with a live-in “mom” for older children who are not adopted.
Phillips hopes to purchase 10 acres in November and is working to raise $10,000 to pay for it. He said the plan is for construction to begin in nine to 12 months.
Phillips can be reached at Edward@choosetoinvest.org.