When they graduated from Otselic Valley High School in the early 1970s, neither Timothy MacLean nor his future wife Kathy Richer had any idea that their future paths would lead them to Africa, Afghanistan and India, or that they would wind up working there to build homes for orphaned children.
In the mid 1990s, Timothy explained, he had been working as a pastor in Syracuse and he realized it was not what he was called to do. When a friend asked him what he wanted to do, Timothy responded that he wanted to go overseas and help build things for people who couldn’t build for themselves. Shortly after he met a missionary from Africa, a few months later he was there helping to put a roof on a new church. Timothy enjoyed the work and the knowledge that he was helping people. When he returned to the states, it didn’t take long before he found other projects to assist with in Mexico and eventually again in Africa.
During one of his trips, Timothy traveled to Kenya, and it was there that he was inspired to start working to help children. “I felt the Lord speak to me. He asked ‘What about the children?’ I’d never thought of focusing on kids before, but that planted the seed in my heart and my mind,” Tim said.
Tim and Kathy formed a non-profit organization called Foundation Stone Ministries. With a 501c3 designation, the organization was able to solicit for donations and do more work overseas.
Tim, Kathy and their children moved to Kenya in February of 2003 and began laying the groundwork to build an orphanage there. Although the moved back to the United States in late 2004, Tim continued to travel to Kenya three or four times a year with teams of people to help work on the children’s home. In October of 2005, the Foundation Stone Children’s Center was able to start taking in children. “We started with eight kids in a rented building in 2005. Now we have a house with five acres, a staff of 10 people and 20 children,” Tim said. The goal for the center is to eventually house 50 to 60 children. On the five acres, the center has gardens to grow food for the children, goats, sheep and chickens. “Our goal is to be a self supporting facility. We want to start micro businesses on site, so the funds from the US can slowly trickle down and can be used in a different place,” Tim said. Additionally, the site has a school where the children are given a basic education and each are taught a trade, so when they age out of the home, they will have a way to earn a living.
