Tumaini Children's Home

In Eldoret, Kenya, there lives a foster family. There is a father, a mother, and forty-four children. Each one of these children was abandoned and left for dead in streets, fields, latrines, or garbage dumps. These kids and their parents, Horace and Phyllis Leister, make up the Tumaini Children’s Home. A home rightly named because Tumaini means hope.

One bright smile that calls the Tumaini Children’s Home her family is named Zuriel. As a newborn, she was abandoned in a grocery bag in a field. She was not rescued from that bag for a week. Despite the desperate state she was found in, she flourished in the care of Horace and Phyllis Leister. Today Zuriel is completely healthy and has one of the most caring hearts and kindest smiles you can find.
These children know their abandonment stories, and along with their parents, they will tell you that it is only by the Lord’s hand they survived at all. Many abandoned babies do not survive or cannot recover from their injuries and malnourishment. By the grace of God, and only through His healing hand, has every child placed with the Leisters survived.

These children know God has spared their lives, and they are grateful to grow up in a home filled with God’s love. They are typical children who love to draw, make bracelets, and hate math class. They have fears and hopes, just like every other child. Dad or mom’s lap is the place to be, and if both laps are full, a pillow and blanket by the fireplace are second best as the children await their evening devotions and worship time.

The Leister family is not your typical “foster family” or “children’s home.” It is a family—a large family built on the love and the Tumaini (hope) of Christ.