You may have heard that, in honor of their birthdays, we're having a friendly competition to see which of our founders - Bucky or Julie Rogers - can raise the most money for our Transitional Homes. Our goal is $10,000 or one full year of Family Restoration operations. That may seem like a big goal for just 3 months, but it's just that important. Here's why:

For as long as he can remember, Ibra's mother and father have been separated and while he was young his father cared for him. When his father took a new wife, she refused to cook for Ibra and his siblings. Naturally, they told their father and, to their surprise, he immediately kicked their step-mother out of their home. Soon after, their father regretted his actions, knowing they were made in anger, and pleaded with his new wife to return.
Ibra believed that he was the problem; he was the cause of his step-mother's banishment. When Ibra heard that his step-mother might return, he fled out of fear that she might blame him for his father's actions and mistreat him. Ibra was only 10 years old.

For the next 4 years of his life, Ibra was homeless and lived on the streets of Kampala - the capital of Uganda. Each day, he dug through rubbish pits for food and re-sold plastic bottles in front of street shops to try to earn money. At night he would sleep on the sidewalk and hide from policemen, ordered to arrest homeless children and send them to Reprimand "Rimand" Houses. Throughout the years, a few non-profits occasionally fed him, but none did anything to get him off of the streets.

If our Transitional Homes didn't exist, Ibra's story would end here. He would continue to roam the streets of Kampala, like many children before him, and be one of thousands. No one would know his name, remember his birth day, or care to hear his story. But God had another plan.
Ibra was found by Benjamin House staff. He moved into our Transitional Homes, where his House Parents, Abraham and Phiona, lovingly took care of him for 3 months as his social worker dove into his case in order to discover whether Ibra had any living relatives who would care for and raise him. The bonds formed between the Rogers family, Abraham, Phiona, and Ibra during those months will not quickly be forgotten.

After 4 years of homelessness as an orphan and 3 months of rehabilitation and family research, Ibra has a family. On Thursday, May 17, 2018 Benjamin House Ministries reunited Ibra and his birth mother! Her ex-husband never told her their son had run away and you can only imagine her horror as she discovered that he'd been living as a homeless orphan.
In 12 short weeks, Ibra's life is radically different than it was before. He has a future, a family, a home.