Bones Anthony: From orphan to evangelist

The following testimony is from Bones Anthony, an evangelist and church planter in Uganda, where Lisa Prather recently visited several orphanages and children's homes. Bones was legally orphaned as an infant, and here he relates his testimony of God's grace in rescuing him.

My mother was an Alcoholic; she was a single parent. By the time me and my twin brother (Chris) were being born, she was really in bad shape. I am told that she would spend days away without coming home even to see how we were.

When we were 3 months old, she came home one day in the afternoon, very drunk and wanting to commit suicide. She took the pair of us, her youngest kids, and headed for the river. Fortunately, other people followed her and just at the time she threw me in and jumped in with my twin, they jumped in and rescued us.

I still get tears in my eyes even today as I write when I remember this, how desperate her life was, and how fragile ours was.

Anyway, after being rescued we were taken to a foster home, and a court order was issued to her that she could not take us away. We then were raised by a British man and his Kenyan wife who took in orphans from the streets of Eldoret town.

This was God's doing. We grew up with 40 other kids, we went to good schools, and we had more going for us than even other kids in our estate. I am truly blessed for that experience. It has shaped my life, and I know God used my foster parents to be the best parents for me.

To this day I have never seen my father. I struggled with that as a teen a lot. My mother died in 1998; I got to see her for only the second time in my life a day before she died: she was in a coma at a mission hospital. I never got a lot of the answers i wanted from her, so that is still a void in me, but I really don't need to know all the details. My faith and relationship with God has given me peace even with the mysteries of my past.

Today, both me and my brother serve as pastors in Eldoret town. My brother is currently putting himself through Bible college and working as chaplain and pastor at the same children's home we grew up in. We didn't plan it this way. I think God chose us, and we hope to make a difference in someone else's life.

We are both married have kids -- and all because somebody else other than our biological parents took us into their home and loved and cared for us. We are alive today because many other people gave food and money donations to our foster home to meet our basic needs, and those of many other kids like us.

That's why I encourage all those who give of themselves, their time, or money for orphans. Do it wholeheartedly: it makes ALL the difference in that person's life. I know because my life is a testimony of this.

My life verse is Eccl. 3:11, "God has made all things beautiful it its/His Time." In His time God has made and is making beautiful the things in my life. I hope this will encourage you all. Keep praying for us and thank you for what you are doing for others in Africa and at home.

God bless

Bones Anthony