ANOTHER UPDATE:
As of 6:56 a.m. Kenya time on Sunday, March 7, you have sponsored 107 children!!!!!!!!
UPDATE:
I mentioned in this post that 32 of you have sponsored children through Compassion since my husband and I left for Kenya. I was asked if I could keep you abreast of that number as it grows, so I certainly will!
As of 8:33 p.m. Mountain Time on March 5, 43 children have been sponsored! Do you guys think we should set a goal to reach? I’m so excited about this!!
ORIGINAL POST:
Friends, can I implore you? Can I ask you one thing?
Don’t turn away.
Will you do that? Will you read this post and see if your heart gets tugged on? Will you? For the children of Kenya….for your own heart….for your own family….don’t turn away!
If you do that, and don’t turn away, you will be a better woman than I. Oh, how I am filled with regrets tonight. Learn from my awful mistakes, friends. For I turned away. I turned away from these children of the world I now can’t wait to tell you about.
I’ve been turning away for years, my friends. My spirit is being broken before the Lord as I sit here surrounded by Kenyan love, poverty and hope. So focused have I been on myself and on my own family that I have chosen until now to not see God’s bigger picture. His heart for the world. For the needy, both in my backyard and in Africa and all over His beautiful world. Blinders have been on my eyes. Blinders that I myself created. Blinders of selfishness and pride and a desire, above all, to be comfortable.
But it’s not comfortable to travel the world and meet the hurting and needy. And it won’t be comfortable for me to get off my rear and do something with the faith I claim to hold so dearly.
When my dear friend Angie went to India with Compassion, I turned away. I read some of her posts, but not all of them. I couldn’t, or so I told myself. But the truth is, I just didn’t want to. My heart was cold. Not ready. If I were to read her posts, what if my heart became broken for the people of India? Then I might have to face the fact that I don’t practice what I preach. Not even freaking close.
So I turned away.
Today, as I find myself missing my children at home, I’m posting to my blog these photographs I took today of some Kenyan children behind their school fence we met at lunchtime, and I am wishing I was with my children. But I don’t want to be at home. Not yet. I am wishing they were here, with us. Meeting these children. Seeing this way of life. My husband and I were talking about that as we rode in the van along indescribably bumpy roads today. “How soon do you think we can come back, with the kids?”
Shamefully, until just this week, I’ve been turned away. I did it to protect my cold, pampered heart from having to change. But in the end, I did myself a disservice. And my family. And all of you. Narrow is the gate that leads to salvation and not all will enter it. Oh how I needed that ice cold splash of water to my face. How convicting that was to my heart when my new friend LV reminded me of that. Oh how I want to change. To hurt. To have God’s heart about things. To long to serve His people, all of them, no matter what the cost to my convenience and comfort.
This is not an excuse by any means, but I think our culture at large suffers from this problem. As my friend Kristen made me think about yesterday, imagine that an airplane filled with hundreds of American children crashes. For the next few weeks, new stations would be covering the crash, sharing snapshots of the lost children’s lives, wouldn’t they? But what about the fact that every single day, hundreds of those proverbial airplanes crash, killing thousands of children around the world from entirely preventable diseases!? Why don’t we hear about that? I’ll tell you why not:
Because we don’t want to hear about it.
I know I sure didn’t. I let myself turn away from the truth about a hurting globe, lying to myself about how I need to be helping the people in my own backyard before worrying about those around the globe, when I wasn’t even helping those in my backyard anyway. The regret I am feeling from my reprehensible past of turning away is suffocating me tonight. I know, however, that I cannot change the past. Only marching on into the future, this is all I have. It is all any of us have.
I’ve talked the talk for too long. It is (way past) time for me to walk the walk.
One way that God is tugging at my heart (Who am I kidding!? He’s long been tugging at my heart; I’ve just been ignoring Him.) is for the people of Kenya. And I wanted to ask if you all would become a part of caring for these amazing children. You don’t have to. I want to exert no pressure. But I will say: Don’t be like me! Don’t turn away for so long that your heart grows cold. Let’s show our children how to care for those in the world who have almost nothing. I know from reading emails, comments and messages from you wonderful people that many of you do practice what you preach. Forgive me for taking so long to catch up with you.
Do you have room in your heart for a Kenyan child?
Clearly, 32 of you do. Yes, since my husband and I have been here in Kenya, that is how many of you readers of my little blog have walked the walk and started to sponsor a child. On behalf of the children I am meeting here, thank you!!!! Some of you already had sponsored one, and you added room in your heart for another. You amaze me. You inspire me.
If you would like to sponsor a child or even just see the faces and read the names of those who are waiting for help, just click right here to Compassion’s Sponsor A Child page. Whatever you do, just don’t turn away. It’s not a fun place to be, trust me.
I can’t wait to tell you in my next post about how utterly, breathtakingly amazing the work that Compassion is doing here in Africa is. So impactful can our $38 a month be on familes, you might not even believe it. But I’m seeing it with my own eyes. It’s so amazing, I bet you’re going to want to sign 38 of your dollars away yet today once you see how opening our hearts to Kenyans, even a little bit, can literally mean the differnce between life and death for them.
And that is what this trip is about. I am here (along with some other amazing people…click here to read what other bloggers on this trip are having to say) to learn first-hand what a difference we can make in the lives on these children. And I want to share that with you, so that you will be even more inspired to action. Simple, beautiful, $38 a month action that is transforming lives.
We are seeing both what life is like for a Kenyan child who is sponsored and what it is life for a child who isn’t. The difference? Drastic. And you don’t have to help. You can absolutely help hurting children in the US or just raise an awesome family of your own. But here is the beauty: You can also help Kenya. You get to help. I consider it an honor, my privilege, to do my small part in helping a Kenyan child’s life.
So, friend, will you refuse to turn away? Will you help a child from Kenya?
