Well I am even more ready for Kenya than I was before! After an exhausting week of vacation bible school I am just smiling at the week behind me. It was an amazing week. I spent a great week with great friends, both big and little. Some truly amazing things happened.
We take up penny offering at our VBS and for the past few years we have given the proceeds to our friends in Kenya. The boys and girls take up their offering to separate buckets and they each try to overflow them. When they were told that Vicki would be at our first night of VBS and the money would go directly to her kids, our kids overflowed the buckets on the FIRST NIGHT. That has never happened before. They brought in over $700! The other amazing thing was when Gail told them that it cost about a dollar a day to feed one of the kids in Kenya and she asked the kids how many kids they were going to feed tomorrow. They overflowed the bucket again on Thursday, they overflowed BOTH buckets with one amazing girl bringing in the $220 she had saved for an IPod and her family trip to Disney this year. To see these kids give so generously is absolutely amazing. Some of them will begin tonight, saving for next year.
I know that we will not have all of the props and music and lights and sound system and stage and stuff that we use here while we are in Kenya. I know that we will not have 100 volunteers. But the message will still get across. They will still have an amazing time. They will still feel loved. Without all the bells and whistles. To watch kids here just sing their hearts out and to come running proudly down the isle to accept their salvation and baptism letters and to come dragging buckets of pennies is amazing. It makes me cry. All of their special stories, makes me cry.
To watch kids who are using glitter for the first time ever, crayons for the first time ever is even more amazing. Kids who sing their hearts out without a sound system and a big screen. Who are eager to learn every game you want to teach them and who will absolutely mob you over a soccer ball.
All of these kids, here and there, they just want you to love them. They just want you to be proud of them. They just want you to take an interest in them.
It doesn't have to be fancy, just genuine.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
About A Friend
You know how sometimes a friend can just make you feel inadequate? Not on purpose, at least not if they are a real friend, but just because, well they do something so much better than you. Well I have a friend named Vicki who makes me feel that way, but at the same time she makes me feel all warm and fuzzy too. I don't think you could ever meet a person like her and forget about it. She is all smiles and kind words. She is all patience and kindness. She is one of the best examples of Christ-likeness that I have ever experienced. Of course I saw a lot of God when I went to Kenya which is where I met Vicki. Did I tell you that she has 51 kids?
Therein lies the inadequate part, I have five and I feel like there are days I barely hang on. Lots of her kids are pre-teens and teenagers, and I have trouble with my three.
Vicki runs an orphanage, or more a home, in Kakamega, Kenya called Victorious Children's Home. I hesitate to call it an orphanage because they are really a big family. And while Vicki will kindly tell you that she knows her kids could have better, I am not sure what they would do without her. To top it off, Vicki won a goat for being mother of the year!! Yeah there are lots of days I certainly do NOT feel like mother of the year!
I don't want to tell Vicki's story for her, but let me just tell you how she started her "home".
It started out with a simple call from God and a heart for kids. She would spend what money she had giving the street kids in Kakamega soda and bread on special days like Christmas and Easter. One Christmas she asked a nine year old boy if he could have anything in the world for Christmas what would it be? He said a bath with soap. I don't care who you are, you have to drop your jaw over that. Tell me any child you know would give that answer. She knew she had to provide more for them and now she does for 51 of the hundreds of kids who live on the streets. She still does what she can for the kids who don't actually live in her home. Needless to say, I will be packing as many little bars of soap as I can in my suitcase.
I tell you this story, not to make you feel inadequate, but to just point out, that on your worst day, some have it worse....and on your best day, some are doing better than you.
Therein lies the inadequate part, I have five and I feel like there are days I barely hang on. Lots of her kids are pre-teens and teenagers, and I have trouble with my three.
Vicki runs an orphanage, or more a home, in Kakamega, Kenya called Victorious Children's Home. I hesitate to call it an orphanage because they are really a big family. And while Vicki will kindly tell you that she knows her kids could have better, I am not sure what they would do without her. To top it off, Vicki won a goat for being mother of the year!! Yeah there are lots of days I certainly do NOT feel like mother of the year!
I don't want to tell Vicki's story for her, but let me just tell you how she started her "home".
It started out with a simple call from God and a heart for kids. She would spend what money she had giving the street kids in Kakamega soda and bread on special days like Christmas and Easter. One Christmas she asked a nine year old boy if he could have anything in the world for Christmas what would it be? He said a bath with soap. I don't care who you are, you have to drop your jaw over that. Tell me any child you know would give that answer. She knew she had to provide more for them and now she does for 51 of the hundreds of kids who live on the streets. She still does what she can for the kids who don't actually live in her home. Needless to say, I will be packing as many little bars of soap as I can in my suitcase.
I tell you this story, not to make you feel inadequate, but to just point out, that on your worst day, some have it worse....and on your best day, some are doing better than you.
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