This story is an update on a previous Thirteenth Sabbath Offering, also known as the Quarterly Mission Project Offering.

Obiero has his work cut out for him as the principal of Kenya’s first Seventh-day Adventist school for children who are deaf.

It hasn’t been easy to find children to study at the boarding school. 

In some Kenyan communities, deafness is mistakenly seen as evidence of sin in the family. Perhaps the child’s mother or grandfather did something wrong and, as a result, the child has been punished by God with deafness. People don’t accept the idea that hearing loss could be the result of genetics, a birth defect, an illness, or a myriad of other reasons. 

Deafness is seen as a punishment, and some parents hide affected children at home. 

Obiero’s mission is to teach parents that deafness is not a punishment. He sees his own life as evidence of this belief. He learned as a boy that hearing loss can occur as the result of medicine.

Obiero was born with normal hearing. His father died when he was young, and his mother, who was blind, walked with him to the Adventist church to worship on Sabbaths.

But when he was 13, he fell ill with malaria. 

At the hospital, he was given an emergency injection of medicine. A sharp pain filled his ears immediately after the jab, and he began to bleed. He was transferred to a second hospital, and the doctors there said that the medicine from the first hospital had affected his hearing. They said he would go deaf.

The boy stayed in the hospital for a long time. He saw other people with malaria who didn’t go home. But he recovered and was finally discharged. 

At home, his own hearing began to fade. For a while, he could discern loud noises. Hearing aids also helped. But when he was 14, he lost all hearing.

Obiero felt discouraged. He had been born able to hear, and now he couldn’t hear a thing. He wondered if he was being punished by God.

In his despair, he found hope in the Bible. He read in Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (NIV). 

He thought, “Maybe being deaf is God’s plan for my prosperity. Maybe by being deaf I will be able to help others.”

Today, he is convinced that his loss of hearing was part of God’s plan to bless him and to bless others. 

He completed his education and became a teacher at Mwata Adventist School for Deaf Children. Then he became the school principal.

The school has 73 children between the ages of 4 and 18. They receive an education and are taught basic life skills. They also learn to read the Bible and have a personal relationship with God. They see that even the Bible has stories about people who were deaf and, most importantly, Jesus did not curse them but healed them.

Obiero tells the children that Jesus is coming soon, and He will open their ears. “You will not be deaf forever,” he says. “There will be a time when we will hear.”

A total of 97 children have studied at the school since it opened in 2012, and 26 of them have been baptized.

Obiero praises God for being deaf and for the opportunity to lead as the principal of Mwata Adventist School for Deaf Children.

“Now I know that it was God’s plan for me to be deaf,” he said. “By becoming deaf, God has used me to help children at this school and to complete His mission here. I thank Him for being deaf.”

Part of a 2023 offering went to help expand Mwata Adventist School for Deaf Children in Kenya with the construction of a new dormitory for the boys and girls and a multipurpose hall with a modern kitchen and dining area. Previously, the children ate in an open field, and their food was cooked over an open fire in a makeshift kitchen built of iron sheeting. Thank you for your generosity, which is helping to share Jesus’ love with the children at Mwata Adventist School for Deaf Children and beyond. One of the mission projects for this quarter is another school, Merisho Advent Community Nursery School, which also teaches children about God in Kenya. Thank you for giving to this important project.