Fate Leads Orphaned Best Friends From Mozambique To The Same U.S. Town

Kelvin Lewis and Afonso Slater are best friends from Gilbert, Arizona, who have only a few weeks left of their high school careers.

However, unlike most American teenagers, the 18-year-olds never would have imagined they’d ever even get the chance to go to school at all.

The boys’ journey started back in Mozambique, where their respective parents died of AIDS during a time of crisis for the east African country before they were 4 years old.

Both children were brought to an orphanage where they remained close and became each other’s family, eating nothing but beans and rice, and fighting for survival together.

It was there that John Lewis, now Mayor of Gilbert, and his wife LaCinda decided that seven kids of their own just weren’t enough and adopted Kelvin through an organization called Care for Life.

Little did they know their neighbors from just two blocks away in Gilbert, Greg and Sharon Slater, were also in Mozambique helping with an AIDS-prevention program. However, after meeting a young man at the airport who told them his brothers and sisters were in an orphanage and needed help, their agenda changed.

“It haunted me the whole time I was there,” Sharon told USA Today. “I kept trying to push it out of my mind and it wouldn’t go away. I guess I had a spiritual experience and started to realize that my thought was maybe from above. At that moment I decided I better pay attention.”

The Slaters adopted Afonso and his two older siblings before discovering that 10,000 miles from home, the boy’s best friend was being adopted by their neighbor.

“We had found these children independently and we hadn’t realized they were best friends,” Sharon said. “Yes, I think it’s amazing but I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe in God-incidences. I don’t think this all happened by chance.”

Since judges in Mozambique fear children will be adopted for slave labor purposes, the grueling adoption process took both families multiple trips over nearly six years, but in 2008, the boys were finally reunited.

 

This fall, Kelvin and Afonso will remain together on their next journey, as roommates at Brigham Young University. Their lives have changed so much since the orphanage, but both teens have no doubt that they have remained in each other’s lives for a reason.

“There’s no way this could be chance,” Afonso told USA Today. “I feel like God is running my life and he wants me to stay with Kelvin for some reason.”

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[Featured Image: USA Today]

Fate Leads Orphaned Best Friends From Mozambique To The Same U.S. Town is an article from: LifeDaily