Visuals

As I sit here tonight with my family, each of us caught up in our own thing, my mind wanders as it often does to my family on the other side of the world. Recently, our son Archadius Treasure had his 21st birthday! While we may not have been able to legally adopt him (although I still ask you world, can you adopt an adult???) we have certainly adopted him in our hearts. I wonder what they are doing at any given moment of the day, and often that is sleeping because of the time difference. By the time I've started my day, theirs is half over. 

More than just wonder what they are doing, I wonder HOW. I wonder about Archadius, I wonder about my dada wa roho (soul sister) Vicki, I wonder about my church family at DC Kakamega, I wonder about the VCH kids and staff and I wonder about the HOPE program kids. See once you have gone and experienced life in their shoes, or lack of, just for a little bit, you can't ever sit here and be ok again. At least I can't. 

You sometimes want to shake people and shout how this is not really life. How can you go about your normal business when life barely goes on for people around the world? But you know you can't, because that isn't fair to them. It is easy to ignore the orphan until you've giggled with them, snuggled them, prayed with them, and been prayed for by them. It is easy to ignore the street kid when he looks like a weathered old man. When he's rough and rugged and doesn't even know how to change this life he's grown in to. 

Vicki always smiles when we are trying to get the right picture and says ..."I know sissy...visuals". I've spent much of my last few years trying to shake people awake, trying to put together the right video, the right photo, the right words to make them see what I've seen. To make their heart ache for what my heart aches for...for what God's heart aches for. But I will never be able to do it justice. Is that fair to the kids we are trying to help? That they should go on the way they are because we can't be shocked into loving them? That they should continue to hunger, and cry for education and love because I can't figure out how to get a celebrity endorsement? I can't get the right person to say you should love them?

 It is the burden that people who have seen bear...and share. To make what people haven't seen for themselves a reality....to help them see the heart break. To help them see the pride in poverty. To help them see the smile in sadness. To help them see the generosity in starvation. We can't all go....that is true. My heart fell in love with a place that is expensive and time consuming to get to. But do you have to SEE to know? Do you have to put your feet on that red dirt and hold a little hand to believe? Maybe. I'm asking because I can't remember a time when I didn't care, when my mind didn't wander to what was happening at "home" or what task I could accomplish that would provide more. But I know that time existed just like it does for some of you. This time before you carried the burden of hundreds of kids on your shoulders. Burden isn't even the right word to use. Even though at times it can be exhausting and heartbreaking beyond belief, it is never a burden. It is joy in hard work. It is happiness in change. It is being called out and then called up and resting in the truth that you can do all things through Christ...and ONLY through Christ. Christ and a handful of people who love it like I do. 

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.