The people and land are so beautiful. My small words can’t portray the enormous beauty of the mountains, trees, sunsets, animals and land. Even the stars shine brighter there. Which is something I’ve been thinking a lot about – really the stars shine just as brightly over us here in the US, but because we have all our individual, artificial lights on we can’t see the beauty above our heads every night God lays out for us. I see a huge metaphor in this. Our small lights can’t compare to the beauty I’ve seen, but until we turn off our own lights, our own desires, our own conveniences and give them up for the beauty the Creator has for us we live unaware of the blessings hanging above our heads.
Then there is the people. Oh, the PEOPLE! Faith like I’ve rarely experienced before. No clean water, no clean floor, no clean clothes, no clean bathrooms – doesn’t damper their spirits! They know and trust God as Provider and Protector in a way I’m truly jealous. There faith is so trusting, like a child who doesn’t hesitate to jump off the pool edge for the first time into their Father’s arms – its not even a question, the Father reaches out His arms and they jump! And they dance! And they sing! And they love! Every place we went to we were welcomed with open arms and hearts. And we ate their food and slept on their floors – totally in their way – and they counted it all a joy. I observed people who are loving, joyful, and hopeful even in the most desperate, heartbreaking circumstances because they cling to & know a King who loves them overwhelmingly. And this same love is over our heads every day – too many days do I miss it. One specific example of the people’s faith and the Father’s blessing I would like to share with you was electricity coming to the orphanage Strong Tower. I think about a month prior to our arrivial the headmaster of Strong Tower when to the electricity company to see how much it would cost to get electricity installed – he was told millions. He walked away knowing they could never afford that – so he prayed and asked the caretakers & children to pray with him. A few weeks later they saw men drills holes on the road coming up to their property – but they didn’t ask about it. Then the men drilled a hole right on their property – so he went to ask what they were doing. “We are putting in poles for electricity.” They explained. He told them they could not afford the set up fees for the electricity. They asked, “Is this the children’s home?” He replied yes, and they explained everything was taken care of, they would only have to pay a $2,000 shilling set up fee – which is about $27 US dollars! Praise the Lord!! I know however this happened it was a direct answer to their prayers!
And then there is the poverty. It still makes me so angry I want to scream!!! Who am I that I was born into a family with clothes, education, food, water, my own room, my own phone, my own car, etc? One day we visited a slum that was poverty like I’ve never seen before. Each child you picked up was soaked with urine because they couldn’t afford diapers or even to wash clothes regularly because water was so precious. When we were walking around I stopped to talk with a teenage boy – I’d guess about 12. We had to keep moving so I said goodbye. A few minutes later he popped up again and handed me a baby. It was obvious from holding him the baby had a high fever. I didn’t know what to do – so I started to pray over the child. We didn’t have any infant medication with us. I saw a few older woman just staring at me as I held the child. Then I turned back to the boy and gave the baby back – but I’ll never forget his face. I could tell he was hoping I would fix the situation. After all, hadn’t I come to help? I was obviously well fed, showered, and had no tears or rips in my clothes – a real queen by their standards of living. The boys’ face still haunts me. He wasn’t looking for a handout – he handed me a baby – and I really believe I could've taken the child away and no one would’ve stopped me. How does a family’s finances became so desperate where something like that could happened? Why wasn’t I born into that situation and they were? I’m sorry I don’t have a happy-ending to this section because they are still out there. Thousands, maybe even millions of people living in this poverty. All I can say right now is I’m praying God will show me how He wants me to respond. What can we do with our financial blessings to save lives? After seeing Compassion International in Ecuador and Brightpoint in Kenya in action on the ground, child sponsorship seems like a really good place to me for us all to pray about starting.
I have more I want to share, I'll try to update again soon. I’d like to finish this entry with words from John Mark McMillian’s blog (yes he wrote “How He Loves”) about his trip to Africa – I think these words express my knot of emotions and thoughts better than I can right now:
“I wish I had a great way to "wrap this one up", but the truth is that it's almost impossible to bring any resolve to this blog when I'm totally unresolved in my heart. Meaning that it's difficult to think about how my Starbucks budget alone can feed a kid for a year, and my car payment can send a young Ugandan man or woman to law or medical school. I guess what I would have to say is that it isn't the level of poverty that blows me away it's our level of ignorance.
Don't feel guilty. Feel informed. Feel empowered. And for God's sake do something about it.
You can help.”
