A Kenyan baby birthed in a cornfield and left there to die didn’t.

The tiny girl survived thanks to the vision of an Anacortes woman who cared.

Rehema Grace’s story is not the only one that Joyce Panzero can tell.

Panzero opened an orphanage in Kenya two years ago. What started with one baby has now blossomed to a safe place that houses, feeds and provides basic medical care for about 60 unwanted babies and toddlers.

“The orphanage is much more of a great big home than an institution,” Panzero said. “We love on those kids all the time. Who wouldn’t?”

Panzero founded Anacortes-based Rehema Ministries in October 2006. Shortly after came In Step Foundation and a permit from the Kenyan government to open an orphanage.

Now the orphanage is bustling. In May, it moved into a new facility. And founders have plans to continue expanding.

The orphanage is named Rehema after that first baby.

“The first baby to arrive was nothing short of a miracle,” Panzero said.

Children passing on a nearby dirt road on their way to school heard the infant crying in the field. Knowing that no locals would take her, the children brought the little bundle to the orphanage.

She had animal scratches on her belly and her umbilical chord was still attached. She was named Rehema Grace. Rehema (pronounced “Rah-HAY-mah”) means mercy in Swahili.

“She was so named because God’s mercy and grace were upon her,” Panzero said. “At the time the orphanage had not been named either and the name Rehema naturally fit, since our mission is one of mercy and grace.”



Panzero dreamed of going to Africa from the time she was little.

“I was always told to finish my food because children in Africa were starving,” she said.

It took years, but eventually she got her wish.

In September 2002, at the age of 56, she embarked on her first trip to Kenya with her husband Ron, a retired 26-year veteran of law enforcement.

The Panzeros, who live in Anacortes, have three kids and seven grandkids of their own.

Panzero previously served nine years as the Children’s Pastor at His Place Church in Burlington. In 2000, she founded the Missions Program at Christ the King Community Church in Mount Vernon and established TREK Ministries in Kenya. That mission focused on building a church as well as clean water systems.

When the Panzeros met another couple interested in world mission work, they teamed up and the foundation for the orphanage was laid.

Early in 2006, money was donated to purchase 10 acres of land in the Cherangani Hills. Shortly after, Panzero founded Rehema Ministries.

Joyce, president and founder, and Ron, director, don’t draw a salary from the organization. To supplement their retirement income, Ron operates R & R Charters in the San Juan Islands for five months during the fishing season.

They are then free to travel to Kenya every year.

“Circumstances are unlike anything you can imagine,” Panzero said. “Many of the unwanted babies are the result of rape between warring tribes, or the mother is HIV-positive and knows the baby will be too, or she simply lacks the resources to feed and care for a baby.”

There is no support for unwanted children in the Kenyan system.

“It’s heartbreaking and unbelievable. They are simply left to die — even in the hospitals,” she said.

But even at the orphanage there is only so much they can do.

Panzero received an e-mail recently that Levy, an HIV-positive baby, had died.

“We may have been able to do more for him if we had an on-site clinic,” Panzero said. “But all we could do was make him comfortable and try to fill his days with joy. He had the sweetest little face and smile.”

Levy was found three months earlier bundled in a sack with rags and left on the side of the road. The only personal item with him was an immunization record.

Panzero remembers cuddling baby Levy when he first arrived.

“When he lay his head down you felt like he melted into you,” she said.

He is buried under a tree on a slope where there are now four tiny graves.

A clinic is one of the Rehema Ministries’ goals. Its vision also includes a church, a preschool and school, greenhouses and a Technical Training Center. The Training Center will teach the older kids practical skills that can sustain them once they leave the orphanage.

It will also be a source of income as an educational facility, since it will offer training to locals for a small tuition.

In May, the orphanage moved into a new facility. The building has two wings connected by an enclosed verandah. There are 14 bedrooms, six bathrooms, a living room and an office. The verandah is used as a dining room, playroom, preschool and church.

Founders hope to build a fully functioning housing and educational facility by 2010. They have plans to build 20 more homes to house up to 400 children.

The organization currently runs entirely on donations.

This year it has raised about $82,000. With operating expenses at $7,000 per month, there isn’t much left over to move forward, Panzero said.

She said they are working to get kids supported at $50 a month.

Many of the donations come from local supporters or others who learn of the organization’s mission.

“Part of it has a lot to do with our integrity,” Panzero said.

Leaders are hoping to add grants to the money mix in 2009.

The orphanage employs 20 Kenyans from the local area: six field-workers hand-till and farm fresh produce; two cooks are kept busy with many mouths to feed; two wash-women stoop (in traditional Kenyan fashion) to hand wash clothes in simple basins on the floor; three shifts of three caregivers attend to the needs of the children as well as housekeeping; and two guards oversee the site and ensure that staff and children are safe from any intruders.

Although they grow much of their own food, they buy fresh meat from the local market.

“Fresh is a relative term when buying from a market without refrigeration,” Panzero said. “We go into town three times a week so we maintain as good of standards as possible.”

They hope to raise their own livestock in the future so they can become fully self-sufficient.

One of the organization’s largest expenses is disposable diapers.

Because they will not turn away babies who are HIV-positive, the government will not allow them to hand wash cloth diapers for fear of cross-contaminating water supplies. 

So, the organization is hoping to save enough money for a commercial washer.

“With a commercial washer the government would allow us to switch to cloth and we could greatly reduce our diaper expense — not to mention the enormous waste going to the landfill,” Panzero said.

For now, they load a van with bags and bags of soiled diapers every two days and make the “perfume run” to the dump.

Leaders are also working to get permission from the Kenyan government to establish an adoption agency. The orphanage is one of just three documented children’s homes in the country (Catholic organizations run the other two).

“They come up and go through what you’re doing and background,” Panzero said.

The government recently asked if they would be interested in offering adoptions. Panzero said at the time they hadn’t thought about adoption.

“Our goal is to raise these kids to be good citizens to their country,” she said.

Her husband Ron, added “We all look forward to returning these discarded children to their people as well-loved and skilled young adults who know about the very real love of God they have experienced through others.”

If they end up adding the adoption option, Panzero said she would like to see babies come to the Anacortes area.

“I’d like to be able to meet the families that adopt the kids,” she said. “It’s important to know where they’re going and be where you can check on them once in a while,” she said.

“We know of families right now that would love to adopt one of these little ones,” Ron added. 

They are hopeful they will receive approval from the government in 2009.

“It’s a process that puts one foot of faith in front of the next,” Panzero said.

She encouraged other baby boomers to do something with their retirement years.

“My challenge to everyone sitting here in the position Ron and I are in is to do something,” she said.

She said they are always open to generosity from others to keep the orphanage running and expanding.

“If you’d like to come to Kenya, we can always use help building, painting or providing for the kids’ medical needs. We have much to do in the next two years,” Panzero said.

How you can help
Rehema Ministries and Christian ConneXions have teamed up to raise money for the Rehema Orphanage in Kenya. 

The two nonprofits are asking for donations of $100 per adult or $50 per child (living in the same household) to create a tile that will then be used to decorate the orphanage. The gift-giver can choose between an art tile (painted by them at Johnny Picasso’s) or a photo tile that may include their photo, name and/or greeting (produced by That Photo Shoppe). The tiles will be produced in January.

“We knew instantly that they should frame the 10 arched windows in the children’s dining hall,” said Joyce Panzero, founder of Anacortes-based Rehema Ministries. “They will not only add color — which Kenyans love — but the kids will enjoy seeing the designs and happy faces.”

Christian ConneXions, an Anacortes-based organization founded two years ago by sisters Maureen “Mo” Gallagher Jensen and Mary Lou Childs, has a mission of connecting Christians with each other and the community.

“For the past two years the foundation has received in excess of $70,000,” Panzero said. “The minimum level to apply for grants is $100,000. This year we are at $82,000. With operating expenses at $7,000 per month, there isn’t much (if anything) left over to move forward.”

Panzero said the added donations would go toward buying a much-needed commercial washing machine.

“The tiles offer such a heartfelt alternative to traditional gift-giving,” Childs said. “I love the idea of brightening the dining hall with lots of love and being a tiny part of what they are doing.”

For more information or to purchase a tile, contact Panzero at 293-2992 or e-mail or Gallagher at (360) 840-1032 or e-mail . Checks, made payable to Rehema Ministries, can be mailed to 1117 Third St., Anacortes, WA 98221.

Learn more at http://www.rehemaministries.com.