This is the wonderful project that started all of the work in Kenya.
Bujumba Village is a small place in Western Kenya. Very few people within the village have enough money to pay for electricity and most bring in water every day. Boys and girls who need to get their school work done in the evening have to travel to visit those neighbors who do have lights. These young people were experiences many horrible things during this time wandering in the dark to reach the lights. The girls were coming up pregnant and the boys were getting into drugs. They needed a safe place to study after the schools closed at 5 pm. In 2016, they reached out to a woman from Northern California, Judith Munson, who worked with anti-bullying, to find a solution. She was very involved in her home church which had a small private school and she recommended creating a safe place for kids to study. Apollo, a primary teacher from the government school had an old building on the property that could be fixed up and used for this purpose.
Tom and Judith Munson sponsored the renovation of this building and they begin to fix it up. Apollo tried to register the library according to local government regulations, but the Director of Education recommended they register it as a school with a library that could be used by non-students. This gave birth to the St. Jude Kindergarten to teach village kids to read and write English which was a requirement to attend government schools. They decided to expand the school every year into new grades as the children progressed and now St. Jude School has over 40 students and is estimating growth to over 300 students in the next few years. The students, early on, would often get jiggers due to the earthen floor, but tile has now been put in. They are also working to get much need electricity, which should be connected sometime during the summer of 2020. They still need furniture and supplies to help it continue to grow.
During this period of development, Tom and Judith’s son Dale passed away. Apollo and others from the village had been praying for the family and felt it appropriate to name the library, The Dale Munson Children’s Library in honor of their son. Since that time Judith Munson has also passed away and this page is a tribute to her heart and ministry that allowed so many around the world to get better acquainted to a loving God.
Today, the library continues to grow. Tom continues to sponsor much of the library’s needs including book shelves and materials. This is a safe place that is being used to help children, as well as being an academic center in the area to provide books and Bibles for ministers and community members. It is set to serve over 3,000 people in and around the village. You can be a part of this amazing ministry. Pray about what you could do. Reach out to us for more information or simply send a tax deductible gift.
Updates!!!! (July 2020)
Thanks to your continued support the Library is improving every day while the school is closed. They will have electricity by mid-July, the water collection system is complete and being used by the village, the exterior has been finished and the new book shelves are looking great! They have found out that they will not be able to reopen until the new school year in January 21, but they will be an amazing place by then.
Won’t you consider helping us make a difference by donating to St. Jude school and Dale Munson Children’s Library.