York County residents helping one child at a time

It all started with a marathon.

In Chicago, in fall of 2002, a woman from Lake Wylie named Monique Boekhout wanted to do something extraordinary.

She wanted to help other people in a way that went beyond tossing money in a collection bucket. So she decided to run the Chicago Marathon.

"I had wanted to run a marathon anyway and I thought -- if I'm going to run all those miles, I'll raise money for something," Boekhout said.

And she did, to the step of $75,000. That led to her next question -- what to do with the money?

"My church, River Hills Community Church, didn't support any international missions. They focus on local missions but I wanted to do something international," she said.

Boekhout found Joe Symmon and his wife, Alyce Muangi, a Kenyan couple who had just built a church and were working to improve the area around it.

"I heard about it and it sounded like a great project," Boekhout said. "But they had no money. I thought -- sure, I like Africa."

Through Providence United Methodist Church outside Charlotte, Boekhout and Symmon set up a way to continuously raise money and organize the funds, and a new project was born.

What began as a church nearly a decade ago has grown into the Jubilee Children's Center. Located about 25 miles east of Nairobi, the capitol of Kenya and fourth largest city in Africa, the center consists of constantly expanding dormitories that currently house nearly 100 students, classrooms complete with desks and blackboards, and a kitchen.

"There are eight years of grade school and four years of high school," Boekhout said. "The students have textbooks and follow the Kenyan curriculum."

They study English and Swahili, the nation's two official languages, as well as math, history and science.

"The project has been wonderful," Boekhout said. "We took 32 kids out of the slums, the streets of Nairobi, and put them into the school - gave them a place to live. After you do something like that, you can't just say 'it was fun guys, goodbye.' You have to go back."

Kenya Orphanage Project is the continuation and expansion of the Jubilee Center, and Boekhout, who still lives in Lake Wylie, organizes a mission trip to Kenya every other year to work on the campus.

"The children, they kind of grab you by the heart. They're so sweet," said Elaine Myrick, a Clover resident who has traveled to Kenya with Boekhout's group twice.

She and her husband, Ernest, are going back for a third visit with Boekhout's group, which leaves March 26.

Ernest, a dentist, will clean and take care of the children's teeth.

"He's pretty much the only dentist the children get to see," Myrick said.

The couple has been on other trips to African nations Mozambique and South Africa.

"You really fall in love with Africa when you go. You always come back changed," Myrick said.

While this will be the third trip for the Myricks, it will be the fifth for Boekhout, who began bringing people from South Carolina in 2003.

This year will be the largest group ever, she said, with 34 members from as far away California, New York and Florida, as well as multiple travelers from Western York County.

Clover natives Ida and Ron Tenney will be making their first Kenya trip with the group, and said they have no idea what to expect but are excited.

"We spent about five weeks on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina and went to Brazil two or three years ago. We go on mission trips a lot but this will be very different," Ron said.

Sara and Billy Turner, also from Clover, will be going on their second trip to the center.

"We're just truly drawn to the people," Sara said. "It's really exciting to go and see everything we did -- see how the children and adults have grown in the Lord."

During this particular trip, the group will spend about eight hours a day expanding some of the classrooms into science labs and building more desks. In their free time, they can enjoy shopping, sightseeing or even a safari.

The group will be in Africa for about two weeks, and according to Boekhout, many of them will come back from one of the most impressive experiences of their lives.

Boekhout said she thinks she definitely chose the right project for her marathon money.

"I think mission work is one of the most rewarding things you can do. You get out of it so much more than you put in," she said. "Especially with the kids. They love you and you can see it in their eyes. They love you without conditions."

For information about KOP, visit www.kenyaorphanageproject.org.

This story was originally published March 19, 2009 at 4:28 PM with the headline "York County residents helping one child at a time."