I'm having a shoe-making party!

Ever since me and my mom got back from Africa, I've been doing a lot of thinking. The biggest thing I've been thinking about has been what I saw at Sole Hope.  For those of you who don't know what Sole Hope is, it's an organization that takes out jiggers from people's hands, feet, knees, and really any part of a person's body that gets them.

How does someone get them?  It's simple; by not having water to wash their hands and feet and by not having shoes to wear when walking in the dirt (which is everywhere in Uganda).  Jiggers live in the Ugandan dirt.

If the picture below grosses you out, I'm sorry.  But this is important and really, it's not nearly as bad as most feet I saw!

 So, what are jiggers?

They are a type of parasite (a sand flea that looks like a white worm) that gets into a person's body, sucks blood, eats away flesh, and multiplies by laying eggs).  Sounds gross, huh?  It is.  And it's sad.  
Jiggers are painful, and after a while a person can't walk. Someone with enough jiggers can even die.  And if that's not sad enough, many people there believe that jiggers are a curse.  And if someone has a curse, they are neglected and people stop caring about them and for them.

I went to a couple of clinic days with the Sole Hope staff (who are AWESOME), and washed feet and charted on a graph where jiggers were on people's hands and feet.  The first day was hard to watch!  But I did it. I had to.  I wanted to help little children feel better and I wanted to be there for them even though it made me sad at first.

The clinic that Sole Hope has is set up outside on colored wooden picnic tables. The jiggers are taken out by a safety pin, a razor blade and a cotton ball, by the jigger removers.  Note takers have a clipboard with footprints and handprints on a piece of paper, and they put dots where jiggers were found so the staff can re-check their hands and feet in a few days to make sure they are completely gone.

These kids have NO pain killer or "sleepy medicine" to help them not to scream. They just get a sucker to suck on for comfort.  I sat there plotting jiggers on a little girls foot chart and she had 83 jiggers!  She was only 6 or 7 years old. She never screamed or yelled or fought back. Only quiet little tears were shed.  I loved this girl and admired how brave and tough she was!

 

 

See the girl in with the hula hoop?  Notice she's wearing shoes?  And she's playing and having fun?  Well, that's what happens after a kid gets a simple pair of shoes made out of jeans.

This is me washing feet before jiggers are removed.

This is me taking notes while jiggers are being removed.

This is our team fitting kids for shoes after their jiggers are gone!

Shoes are made from jeans. Most kids there have never had a pair of shoes in their entire life, and one pair of shoes can keep their feet jigger free. 


I'm having a shoe-cutting party and if you want to have one too, click HERE.

If you are coming to my party, please bring some or all of the following items to help out:

• jeans (must be denim material, but can be any color)
• large safety pins
• fabric scissors
• soft plastic (milk jugs, 2 liter bottles, plastic folders, etc.)
• gallon sized ziploc baggies
• $10 donation to sponsor a pair of shoes                   

One highlight of my trip was the day we got to hop on a bus and drive through the middle of the African bush to bring children back home after their stay at the Sole Hope Clinic (the really bad cases have to stay at the medical clinic for several days or weeks).  I met a girl who was my age and I got to play with her a few times when I was there.  She was SO happy when she got home and her family was even happier that she was healthy and jigger free!

UPDATE:

My mom wrote about a little boy in her last blog post.  Well, please keep praying because things - good things - are happening!  Pray for a medical visa (whatever that is), pray for doctors who will help him for free if he comes to the US and pray for him because he needs to be healed.  Thank You!!!!!  

The "God is up to something" post I warned you about

“Once our eyes are opened, we can’t pretend we don’t know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act.”  (Proverbs 24:12)

 

That verse has resonated with me for several years now. A couple of weeks ago, that verse spoke to me through the eyes of a not-so-little boy in Uganda.    

Emma is 11 or 12 year old (don't let his Americanized name fool you).  As you can probably tell, Jiggers isn't the only medical problem he is facing.  From what we've gathered so far, preliminary tests have been done in Uganda, but no formal diagnosis or medical treatment plan has been made.  Why?  Because there are no children's hospitals or specialists in his home country that know what do do about the growing problem this young man is facing.  And even if there were, he wouldn't have the financial resources to pay for it anyway.  Sole Hope has helped his feet, but they aren't set up to handle something like this, despite desperately wishing they could do something to help this sweet young man.

And so a team member of mine and I chatted.  And we prayed.  We both agreed that going home and doing nothing wouldn't be possible for either of us. After all, our eyes were opened....

Collectively we are making calls to people we know (and people we don't) asking how a boy who desperately needs medical attention could get it here in the US or in Africa with some kind of surgical team that does this sort of thing.

I have NO idea what I'm doing, but I can pray.  And I can make calls.  And I can ask my friends who/what they may know.

And so I'm asking....

Will you pray?

For the right connections to fall into place.

For finances (whatever they may be) to NOT be a barrier.

For favor with any necessary governmental agencies that may try to stand in the way.

For God to move mountains and be glorified through Emma's story.

As for acclimating back home, I guess you could say Chelsea and I are acclimated.  We aren't sick, we aren't tired and as expected, we notice all the "problems" people at the pool and the grocery store have.  Problems we want to help eliminate by politely walking up to them and showing them pictures of children with jiggers in their feet. 

You see, my girl is more like me than I initially thought.  With that said, please pray for her!  She's at the age where she wants to change the world and I desperately want her to hold onto that for as long as possible.  But I also KNOW that there will be people out there who try to discourage her.  Or ignore her. Or distract her. 

For those of you who know us and how much "fun" we've had moving across the country, well, let's just say that the 7 of us are all on the same page now where certain things are concerned.  Certain things that will hopefully change everything.  Certain things we are "circling" and praying about each night.

I titled this blog "No More What If's" because I don't want to look back on my life and wonder what would have, could have or should have happened if I had taken a chance, took a risk or stepped out in faith when deep down the answer was "yes" even though the world around me said "no".  More importantly, I want others to change their "What if...." to "Why not?..." and Go For It.

In the meantime, our family's first Sole Hope Shoe Cutting party is being planned.  When I initially posted info. about it on FB, I was blown away at how many people wanted to attend one.  As of now friends in 6 states are talking about organizing a party of their own!  I sent info to those people, but if you aren't a FB friend and want to know how that works, here is the info.  It's easy to do and it TOTALLY changes lives!  In fact, the life it changes the most just might be yours!

Click the Logo below for information:

The Resettlement

Four days ago our team sat on picnic tables in the side yard of the Sole Hope outreach clinic, taking notes as to where jiggers had buried themselves on tiny, and not to tiny, feet.  We literally had a front row view of how jiggers are removed, what the tiny worm-like creatures look like, and what constitutes a “more severe case.”

Today, we got a front row seat to the beauty that came from the ashes of those formerly infected feet.  Today some of these courageous and tough people went home to anxiously awaiting family members.  We were blessed and got to go along for the ride - and boy was it a ride!  

They call it "resettlement".

 

This is how SH takes notes upon admission.  This was the
"before" chart for one special pre-teen girl.

 

  

This little girl is Chelsea's age and they spent three days together this week.  SO CUTE!  Chelsea got to be with her as she returned home this afternoon to a family who had obviously missed her very much.  Her family was over-joyed, to say the least!

 This is her family - excited to see her healed and home!

The scene at each home we stopped at was the same - joyful excitement.  What was once a painful inconvenience at best and a death sentence at worst had been completely healed!  Only God....

As you can see, each person treated at SH gets supplies to go home with.  Care-takers and social workers come along for the ride home because they educate family members - and any neighbors who show up for the surprise homecoming - on how to prevent infection in the future.  You see, jiggers are preventable.  It's just that when one lives in poverty, away from towns and facilities, the ability to perform simple hygiene isn't so simple, and it's not a priority; food, water and shelter takes precedence.

We drove for over 6 hours today - on a 30 passenger rickety bus - through the hills and villages of RURAL Uganda.  We were, literally, in the middle of NOWHERE most of the day.  And this is where SH goes every week - to the middle of nowhere to let those suffering from jiggers know that they are not forgotten.

Yes....this...happened....and then the storm moved in...and, thankfully, away from us.

The other amazing thing I didn't blog about yesterday was that we hung out with a missionary family here in Uganda.  They've been here for a few years, and are going through a lot of things most people couldn't possibly understand - unless they lived here too. 

And so we had a feet washing ceremony and time of prayer for them - after dinner and play-time, of course.  This precious family reminded me yet again how important it is to care for, pray for and serve those who are "in it"; those who have taken up their cross and sold everything to do what very, very, very few are willing to learn about, much less DO.  It was beautiful, and they deserved it!

I'm not posting pics of this event because it was sacred...and special...and just for them. 

Have you prayed for a missionary today?

 

A Day of Play - A Night of Pampering

Today we played with the same children who had jiggers removed from their feet and hands just two days ago.  Have I told you how tough these kids are?  Our team re-enacted a Bible story, played games and just spent time talking with them.  We even attended a class; a "Jigger Prevention 101" taught by one of the SH staff.

Each child has a story; every single one of them.  Sadly, nobody really asks them what it is until they show up at Sole Hope with painful jiggers blistering the bottoms of their feet.  But the beauty in their arrival, despite the pain about to be therapeutically inflected on them, is that they get to see and feel the love of Jesus all around them.

Tonight we were given the gift of hosting a party for the staff and volunteers who show up day in and day out to care for little hands and feet while telling the faces looking back at them about Jesus.  40 ish people in all attended.  Considering how big of a need jigger removal is here, the fact that only 40 people are doing it should give you a little bit of an idea as to how how hard these people work.  EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Some men and woman told us that this was the first party they had ever been invited to - another harsh reality that makes me sad. 

And so we pampered our party guests.   We provided Ugandan food, had amazing dance parties and "dance off's", gave manicures and pedicures and washed the feet of anyone who wanted to indulge.  They loved it.  They more than DESERVED someone pampering THEM for a change - even if only for one night.

Our team had just as much fun, I can assure you!  Every single person here has a heart to serve and love and come along side those who are "in the trenches" day in and day out. They get it.  They understand the importance of it.  That's what Jesus called them to do.

This is what Jesus calls ALL of us to do.

I have no clue what the Ugandan version of YouTube is, but I know our "western ways" of dancing were entertaining - so much so that a Ugandan man had his laptop and recorded almost every dance-off that took place between friends who are separated by an ocean, but forever connected by small brown children with beautiful smiles and mangled feet.

I wonder what the Ugandan version of YouTube is?

PS)  HAPPY GOTCHA DAY, Jacob.  I didn't forget - and I never will.  Meeting you pretty much changed not only my life, but all of our lives.  Love, mom

Face Time - the real deal

My head isn't spinning as much as it was, but it's still spinning.  So much to do, and see, and love.  Here is a brief summary of what we've been doing and a few random thoughts that popped into my head...

Day 1 Travel. We were on the unlucky side of the airplane – our personal tv's were broken for some reason. After about hour 6 with no “distraction” the 15 hour flight slowed....way...down. Thankfully our team was social because our seats became the last place any of us wanted to be, so we gathered around different people at different times, sharing funny stories and just getting to know one another. When you are 12 years old, though, it's much harder to “do nothing” for 15 hours – especially when you live in a country with iEverything and On Demand everything else. My pre-teen “travel buddy”, however, was a trooper and barely complained at all. She knew where she was headed and how much “nothing” kids she was about to meet did every single day of their lives.

Day 2 Baby Cottage. I'm not a baby person anymore, but babies are cute. Seeing a dozen of them laying in tiny box-cribs one on top of the other, on top of the other, in a room us Westerners would barely consider big enough to be called a nursery for one, was far from cute. The walking children, those anywhere from 18 months to 4 years old, all shared one room that housed two tiny picnic tables and one double mattress which laid on the floor. This room served at their dining room, their bedroom, their living room and their play room. In all, 34 children called this place home. The orphanage director has an incredibly powerful testimony and bucked the system, so to speak, as she grew up in Uganda. It seemed that God had a calling on a young Ugandan woman long before she even knew what a calling meant. Her motto, her mission, is to love the children from now until they have a family or go to heaven to be with Jesus – whichever comes first.
The staff at this orphanage is what makes this otherwise dreary place to live more than bearable, though. These women, day after day, hold these children, play with these children, and feed these children three times a day. They also bathe them and change their clothes every....single...day. In their free time, they are washing bottles and dishes and laundry. And oh, how much laundry they wash....in buckets....outside....by hand...in the hot sun....every single day.
Our team arrived one morning to help with bath time. There were 18 of us and despite our well-oiled, well-planned out process for getting children through the line, it took more than a couple of hours, and several trips to dump out and re-fill the make-shift bath tubs (buckets, really), before all of the children were laying down in their cribs or on the mattress.

Day 3 – Sole Hope Outreach Clinic. Today was tough – especially for my 12 year old. I knew it would be, but what I didn't know was how well she would handle what she saw and push through it anyway. Despite being given the choice to step away from watching jiggers being removed from the feet of children younger than her, all the while “note taking” for the Sole Hope worker removing them, she chose to stay...and watch...and help. I know not everyone has the stomach to do this, and not everyone can handle watching this process unfold before their very eyes. I get it. I do. But at the same time, everyone needs to see what we saw – what my daughter was brave enough to push through – because it's not fair. It's not fair for children to collect jiggers on their feet just because they don't have shoes or parents or a loved one who knows what to do about preventing them. It's not fair that kids with jiggers are considered “cursed” because of these tiny worms that crawl into their skin as they walk, sit and sleep on the red dirt that is Uganda.
Equally importantly, however, is that it's not fair that I have a choice to pretend things like this don't happen and have a choice to “change the channel” when something I come across is too disgusting or too tough to stomach. It's not fair that I can Google anything I want to entertain myself instead of first having to Google something that could change me; cause me to do something to improve the life of someone else. In a world that revolves around the internet, T.V., video conferencing and face-time, why do we spend so little time learning about the world outside our little, safe, comfortable bubble? Why do we make ourselves feel better first....and then, if time or money allows...then maybe....someday....we will do something...that might change the world.

Day 4 Sole Hope goes to school. Today the Sole Hope land rovers loaded up and drove to a school where more than 300 kids attended – barefoot kids. We followed, as our job was to be the extra hands their team needed to get as many kids' feet checked out as possible. The make-shift, portable, jigger-removal clinic runs like a well-oiled machine, but no matter how fast and efficiently they work, they can't possible get all the kids they visit through the line by the end of the day.

To be continued.....going to Sole Hope...to spend time with kids...in real Face Time

The "moment."

MOMENT - a) an instant.  b) importance in influence or effect

I had a moment.

The kind of moment you experience after "one more thing" finally gets the best of you and makes you wonder if the days, weeks and months of fighting so hard have been worth it.  The moment you experience when you've done everything right, crossed all of your t's and dotted all of your i's, and still you get "the call" that something went wrong - again.    The moment when you ask yourself  if you are doing the right thing, because at every corner someone or something is seemingly trying to take you out!  The moment when you scream "uncle" and end up in a hallway with a complete stranger who miraculously "gets it" and you know somehow that she truly does....so you go home...and start to remember other moments....

words from that song on the radio that took your breath away. The scene from that movie that stirred up feelings you didn't even know you had.  Words from a sermon you've heard before, but that took on a whole new meaning that Sunday.  The chapter in that book you read three times because something you'd been trying to figure out finally clicked.  The day you met one person you never should have met, only to find out in that conversation, that the coincidental run-in was actually a much needed divine appointment for the both of you.

Too many times we let our circumstances and our feelings dictate what we do and who and what we pursue.  We assume that if things are all upside down and topsy-turvy that we must be doing it all wrong.  We think if it's too hard or too painful then it's not worth doing.  We think God doesn't seem to care, so we give up on our assignments, our relationships, our ideas and our dreams.

And that's when we miss it.  We miss everything.

We miss watching the mountain move before our very eyes.  We give up our front row seat to a miracle about to unfold.  We miss the something-more-beautiful-than-we-ever-imagined outcome to heart-felt prayers; desperate pleas we thought had only been hitting the ceiling in our bedrooms.  We miss what is good and pure and right and perfect because we give up when the going gets tough instead of praying through and waiting a little longer.  We miss important lessons and answered prayers because we give up on God instead of waiting on Him to finish doing what only He knows has to be done; what He's been doing when we thought He wasn't doing anything.

We all have defining moments in our lives.  Moments that shape us, mold us, and make us into who and what we are today.  Moments that, in one split second, cause a small shift in the way we choose to live our lives, and result in something far bigger than we ever imagined.  Moments have the ability to grow us or destroy us.  We must make a choice.

I remember the moment that changed everything for me many years ago.  I remember how one little shift in my perception caused a domino effect I never could have dreamed up all by myself.  In fact, before that first domino fell, I was certain that moments like those didn't happen to people like me.

I was thankfully and wonderfully wrong!

Through the words of the apostle Paul, "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

This doesn't mean that what God asks of us will be easy.  Or comfortable.  Or cheap.  Or fit in our busy schedules. Or make sense to our friends or family.  Or make us feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.  Or give us recognition.  Or a promotion.  Or a break.

However, doing what God asks of us has a surprise waiting for us at the end.  A never-in-a-million-years-would-I-have-dreamed-that-I-would-be-here-and-doing-this surprise!


10 days from today I'll be Africa bound where I will no doubt experience other moments and watch from my front row seat as others on our team have moments too.  Moments they coulda, woulda, shoulda missed out on, but made a choice not too.

What choice will you make the next time you find yourself in a moment? 

A Thank You Letter from a "weird" and thankful girl

My mom just showed me my fundraising page!  WOW!  Most of the money I need is there now, and anything else that comes in will be special money to buy things for the orphans when I get there.  When my mom went on her first trip she told me about how some people from her team went looking for new mattresses for the kids, more baby formula and other things the orphanages needed but didn't have money for.  I plan to earn some more money too, so I can shop for things orphan children need.  Good thing my mom hates to vacuum out her van and my brothers hate mowing - that will earn me some money!

You have no idea how grateful I am right now.  I feel like another piece of the puzzle is in the right place.  Maybe I am going to live there someday?  I don't know yet, but God is working out something and connecting the dots - I just know it!  And I can feel it, too!

My parents have gone to great measures for me going to Uganda as a team member.  I don't know what some of you had to give up to help me (a vacation, lunch money, new clothes you planned to buy for yourself or you own kids, etc), but I know what it means to sacrifice something for someone else.  I gave my mom all my money a few weeks ago because whatever I was saving it for wasn't as important as this trip.  Whether I know your name or only know you as anonymous, I want you to know that I thanked God for you and your sacrifice.  I will also  make sure to write your name in the Ugandan dirt and take a picture of it for you.  I want you to always know that a piece of you went with me to "visit orphans".  

I can't wait to give the little kids toys, play games with them, talk about Jesus, feed them and remind them they are never alone.  I want to tell them that God will help them get up on their feet again and make them smile. When orphan children smiled at me when I was in Ethiopia it felt different than when a child here smiles at me.  When I am in Africa, it's like Jesus is smiling down on me through the eyes of a child.

You might think that it's weird a 12 year old kid want to do something totally different from what most normal kids here do.  I've heard some cool stories of other kids like me, though, and they make me want to stand up and do something too.  I think it's totally awesome that God created me with "weirdness" to stick way out from the crowd.  Isn't that what discipleship is?  To do something different and stick out from the crowd?  To tell others that your "weirdness" comes from Jesus who lives inside your heart?

I like being weird!  But being weird is actually not weird at all in my book.  It's cool and amazing and the way God made me from the moment I asked him into my heart. If you want to be weird someday too, just let me (or my parents) know!  We will start praying for you to find your "weirdness".

Oh, and I am making one more "string art" project.  If you want one, just donate to my missions page and e-mail my mom your address (if she doesn't know it already).  Just click the picture of me and Cinderella at the top of this blog.   If you notice that my fundraising goal is met later this week, it's because final money is due tomorrow and my parents are sending that in.  HOWEVER, your donation will still go with me to Uganda, because anything over my goal will go to the missionaries who live there and I will be able to go shopping for things the children an missionaries need.
     

                                                                                                                               
Thank You, again, for helping me have the best 12 year old birthday gift ever!  I feel like my birthday hasn't ended yet!!!    

I want....(a Chelsea perspective)

Hi, Chelsea here.  If you saw the video of my "birthday party"  you know how I got invited to go to Uganda.  I was so excited I literally had tears of happiness. Ever since I've been to Ethiopia, I always felt that that was my home.  And that I wanted to live in Africa.  I'm a tomboy and love to see creativity, play and love all at the same time.  That pretty much sums up my personalty.

Seeing that trash dump in Korah was sad and amazing all at the same time.  I felt so sad to see how people lived there, but amazed that they could survive in a trash dump.  Seeing creations for houses made me feel like these people had something in common with God.  They build houses out of nothing, just like God created everything out of nothing.  I wish I had some sort of super power to change "nothing" into "something" in those houses.  However, I would not just give them useful things to change their houses.  I want their whole perspective to change too - I want to tell them about God.

I feel that God wants me (as a 12 year old child) to show people how much I love them and for them to know that God is with everyone all the time.  I want  people to know that others love them so much and that people need them.  How would you feel if your child was in an orphanage or going through depression or knew that she might die because of the place she lived in?  How would you feel if your husband was dead and you, as a mother, were dying too?  How would you feel knowing your child wouldn't have anyone to take care of them after you were gone?

I believe that NO child should go through stuff like this.  Knowing that I can't change the whole world, well, it hurts me.  I know that there are children being stolen, killed and raped.  I know there are children feeling scared and not loved and not feeling they are "good enough"  for anyone.  Who do they turn to if they don't know God?

Not all kids can be adopted and have a family.  That makes me feel sad too.  But if everyone in North America adopted or sponsored children, there would be no more children living alone in orphanages!

I have a good life growing up.  I am known as the "nice girl" in school and have friends and family who care about me.  But it is a bit weird for me, as a kid, trying to change the world.  However, I think a kid can move the world just the same as an adult.  I honestly LOVE Africa and I don't know why.  I absolutely think WE, as the Hendren family, should adopt again (don't tell my parents!).

I love little kids and how they play together - even if they have nothing.  We in America have jobs,  money,  good shelter, and, most of all, family that loves each other and sticks together like glue.  I love the Lord Christ Jesus and my family.  I want to be a Godly woman growing up.  I want to be a famous person  in God's eyes.  I want for people to look at me and say, "Wow I want to be like her and connect with Christ."  I want to inspire people to sponsor a child, adopt one or two or three,  pass a law to make adoption easier and to make a difference in the world.  Isn't that why God created us in the first place?

Do you think your world is small?  Well it's not.  Its huge!!!!!   I am going to pray for all people out there to allow God to open up their eyes - wide!

Thank you for reading my first blog post.  I hope you enjoyed it and got inspired.  Thanks!!!  :)

PS)  In case you didn't see the video yet, here it is:

 

happy, sad, mad, glad,

Welcome to my new blog!  Nothing fancy yet, but I wanted to get something started now that I'm 96 days til departure. If you are wondering about the title of my blog, I will explain that next time around.

Below is what I shared in church 2011 after I first went to Ethiopia.  Some of you SMC'ers may remember it - and the video.  What you may not know, however, is that the photo at the end of the video would be a certain young man I started praying for before I boarded the plane to come home and before I even told Kyle about him.  We all know how that prayer was answered!  

When we went to pick up Jacob in 2012 we brought two of our kids along.  Looking back, my favorite aspect of that trip was seeing Ethiopia through the eyes of my daughter who was 9 at the time.  Hearing her thoughts and watching her "be" with other children was something that I cannot put into words.  She showed me first hand what I want to do for others more often - BE there with them as they GO show LOVE to children 1/2 way around the world.  I am honored to be able to do just that.

As of today $1500 is in my VO account.  THANK YOU to some very special people out there who stepped up to help almost immediately after I posted my trip on FB.  First payment of $2400 is due Saturday, February 28th.  I forgot to mention that items purchased from the VO site not only support VO's ministry but a portion of what you purchase goes directly to my trip cost, too. 

Click HERE if you would like to make a donation.  I plan to take my list of donors with me and write their names in Ugandan dirt and then send them a photo for their living room :o)  Doesn't that sound like something we all need in our living rooms? 

It’s so hard to do this.  It’s hard to get up here and sum up two weeks of my life into 8 short minutes including the video.  In fact, it’s not only hard…it’s impossible.  

My trip to ‘visit orphans’, as some of you have so lovingly put it, was wonderful.   It was terrible.  It was full of hope and joy.  It was full of despair and sadness.  I felt good, bad, happy, sad, glad, grieved, lonely, dirty, disgusted and loved all at the same time.

I’ve had a handful of honest friends tell me that my blog was too hard for them to read.  Too hard, in fact, that they couldn’t and just scrolled through the pictures making sure I was okay.   Making sure I was okay?  Initially, I thought “My gosh. I better apologize!”  I didn’t mean to scare or traumatize my friends, after all.  But then I spent some time thinking about what they said.  I realized they were right.  It was hard to read.  I promise you, most of it was hard to type!  In the end, I have decided not to apologize.  I feel like if I did, I would be apologizing for the very thing I asked God for from the beginning – His eyes to see what He sees and His heart to feel and love what he feels and loves.  

At first glance, one place I spent a lot of time at was depressing to see.  As our 3 - 12 passenger vans drove into a place known as Korah, we saw children wandering the streets - children whose clothes didn’t quite fit - children whose ribs were showing.  We saw men and women without fingers and toes wearing contraptions so they would still be able to walk and carry things.  We saw house after house after house made up of nothing other than materials found from the trash dump – literally.  

But once we exited our vans I quickly found out that these people who have absolutely nothing, have something most of the people I know, including myself, don’t have.  They have a living, active and joyful understanding of what God says in the Bible.  They know what “My grace is sufficient” truly means.  As we talked to the people who lived in Korah, they were overjoyed that another group of people came to bless them.  Funny thing, though, every one of us left feeling like we were the ones blessed.  I can’t tell you how many times I heard “I love Jesus because he always takes care of me.”  How do children who have nothing by the world’s standards, have much more than those of us who live in abundance do?  That is what I’ve been asking myself lately.

I read a quote recently that said “Only through the soil of brokenness will the greatest fruit for Jesus Christ be produced.”  I saw the truth of this in Korah.   There are men – young men – who have lived at the trash dump their entire lives.  They’ve seen terrible things and have experienced great heartache.  But every one of these young men are serving a church that has been planted there.  A church held together by nothing more than duct-tape.   They say that even though they were fortunate enough to have sponsors and get some sort of formal education, they won’t be leaving The Dump for a job in the city.  Instead, they are being called by God to raise their people out of the ashes – literally.  And they are.  They are doing this while living in the houses you will see in a few minutes in my video.  They are doing this with very little compensation – and even that they give away.  I saw them.  They are leading child after child and widow after widow to Christ.  They live in brokenness by choice, and they are producing more fruit than anyone I’ve ever met.

Some of you may be asking “What about the social welfare system?  That’s what I asked.  There isn’t one.   I also learned there is a lot of corruption in the government and with government agencies.  On two occasions, the van I was traveling in was pulled over for no reason other than to be pulled over.  After listening to the rather loud Amharic conversations between our drivers and the police officers, we were told “Don’t worry about that.  They do that all the time.  The police here aren’t even honest.  They look for passenger vans that might be carrying too many people and then ask for money to "look the other way.”  When we were at the one orphanage the missionaries there said “We are supposedly receiving everything the government can give us financially, but it is so little that I wonder where the money is really going.  They said there isn’t any way for them to look into it either.  And, if you start asking questions, you might find your work visa suddenly expired.  

Speaking of orphanages, our team visited several of them.  A couple of were well run and looked clean enough.  One was dirty and dingy and didn’t have running water, but did have caring nannies.  One was absolutely horrible and I think I’m still processing that one.  None of these orphanages, though, had enough food to feed the kids.  In talking with the missionaries who are working with these places now (most of whom have only been there a few months) we learned how they rationed everything, shared everything and prayed for teams to come and supply their formula, diapers and medicine needs.  One missionary looked at me as we talked about the 4 bowls 20 older kids shared for meals and said “When these kids pray for food and it comes, they praise God for answering their prayers, no matter how little they eat.”

The one orphanage that astounded all of us was the Mother Theresa HIV orphanage.  We didn’t get do anything there but go on a tour, and I’m telling you, I had my biggest realization while on this so-called tour.  My realization was, “If any of my children were orphaned and had to end up in an orphanage, I’d be praying that they would contract HIV so they could live here.”  Never in my wildest dreams would I wish anyone – especially my children – to have a disease of any kind.  But how this orphanage was set up, how it’s run, how it’s lovingly cared for and prayed over day after day made our entire team stand up and say: “This is what happens when the Church cares for orphans in their distress instead of waiting for someone else to do something about the orphan crisis.”

And there is a crisis, you know.  The number is 157 million.  Or 163 million  Nobody really knows, but it’s huge, it’s everywhere and there is nothing I can do to change it…not by myself anyway.  But there is also hope and joy in the ashes I saw and in the lives that touched me.  There are people who sold all they had and moved their families there – literally!  I met them.  I talked to them.  I couldn’t do what they did, but I know I can do something.  I strongly feel that God does not call the equipped.  He equips the called.  Let me say that again.  God does not call the equipped.  He equips the called.

I posted on my blog, towards the end of my trip, that I felt like I was leaving a piece of my heart in Africa.  I’m still not entirely sure why I feel that way, but it’s a feeling I can’t shake.  Because despite the pollution, the dirt, the lack of amenities, the hunger pains, the sadness and despair all around, it still felt a little like home to me.  I felt a connection with the people I met.  Maybe it’s because God uses broken people to reach broken people and I am one of them.  

Isaiah 61 talks about a God who brings beauty from ashes.  I saw the beauty.  I saw Jesus in the faces of so many of the people I met in Africa.  I read a quote on our team leader’s blog that said “The key to happiness is not being loved; it is having someone to love."  Maybe that’s why so many children over there – children with nobody to love them - are so joyful.  They know the key to happiness and love their Jesus – truly love Him.  

So, what did me and 23 people I’ve never met before do in Africa?  We loved on kids.  We brought formula and diapers and medicine to orphanages and then taught nannies how to stop the spread of sicknesses.  We did an Extreme Makeover Orphanage Edition for one orphanage and spent hours cleaning, painting, bathing babies, taking them to the doctor, filling drawers with clean clothes, buying dishes for them to eat out of, buying mattresses and beds and assembling them and more.  We acted out Bible stories, sang songs, played games and goofed off with children known as “orphans.”  And you know what?  We got more out of our trip than those kids did, I’m sure.  One young man I prayed with said “You pray good.  That was perfect.  I love you for coming from far away to pray for what I need.”  Talk about humbling….

Jesus wants us to show tangible love for God in how we care for the poor and those who are suffering.  That’s what he meant in Matthew 25 when he said:  “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these …you did for me”.

I asked myself a question a while back after reading about children ½ a world away:  Who will answer for these children when they stand before the Lord?  Honestly, my first response wasn’t an excited “I will, pick me!”  But now I feel differently - much differently.  I know I don’t have to be perfect or have it all together or be more spiritual or get a degree in theology or anything like that.  I just have to show up and let God do the rest. 

The video you are about to see doesn’t do justice to what I got to experience while in Africa, but it’s a start.  I don’t know how you will feel or what you will think about as you see it, but I do know one thing.  I will go back.  I don’t know when yet, but I will be going back.