A Chance

Leaving all the stress and struggles of daily life in College Station to go help the mission efforts in Africa would seem to be the obvious decision, if there ever was one. Who wouldn't want to leave all their troubles behind and take off to an unknown land? That's the catch though, you can try and leave your troubles-but your troubles won't leave you. They in fact pursue you with relentless determination. It is no easier for me to designate my time with God daily, than it was back home. I am not constantly on fire for the Lord, or this inspiringly passionate person. Yes, sometimes I am so consumed with a passion for the Lord I'm not sure how to handle it-but other times, I'm complacent, I don't know what to say to God, or how to talk to Him. I get comfortable, I feel safe. I feel immuned. I know these are probably normal feelings for everyone, but I was naive in thinking that leaving your current setting will automatically leave your problems there as well. God says multiple times in the Bible to seek Him. To seek means to pursue, to follow, to find, to search. I feel that I’ve been more of a drifter lately, and everyone knows that it is far too easy to drift away from God than towards Him. He says to seek and you will find when you seek Him with all of your heart. He makes it sound so simple, what should have been said is when you finally decide to put down your cell phone, your computer, your books, your t.v., your friends, your music, your games-and seek ME, you will find Me. Easier said than done. These thoughts have been on my mind a lot lately and is definitely something I am trying to work on. As of lately, the team made the 9 hour trip to Malindi, Africa. Malindi is on the coast, and an absolutely beautiful place. The Indian ocean is right outside our door. Monday morning the team headed out to the Mahenzo school which is located at what everyone calls “9 poles.” 9 poles is out in the “bush”, as in there are mud huts and a lot of coconut trees, mango trees and pretty much exactly what you picture when you think of Africa. The women carry water on their heads and all! At the Mahenzo school, we have worked all week on tearing down one of their huts, in order to make a new building of stone. This has consisted of digging trenches, lining them with rocks, carrying cinder blocks and making cement. (It’s pretty hard work and our guys have done an amazing job!) The girls have helped as much as we can, and learned to carry jugs of water pretty efficiently on our heads! Me and a friend, Taryn, both were sent to the medical dispensary to take inventory of all the new medicine they had acquired from previous medical missions. The medical dispensary is the only medical facility for miles and miles and it employs one doctor-for 7,000 people. He and the cleaning man are the only two there all day. It was extremely insightful talking with the Kenyan doctor as he described the frustrations of having no help, hoping his support from the States held up, and having to take the entire inventory manually as he has no computer. The doctor explained how prevalent AIDS is to Malindi, and that most of the children at the school are AIDS orphans. As Taryn and I talked with the doctor, we told him about Made in the Streets, and what we had been doing the past month. When we finished explaining it something he said really permeated in my mind. He explained that he thought it was great that we would give the kids a home, and an education. He said, “give them a chance.” That phrase caught me off guard. If it had been coming from anyone else it may not have. But here is a doctor, that works by himself, he makes 100 shillings per doctor visit which is a little over a dollar. He lives in the “bush” meaning he lives in a mud hut. He is entirely supported by a church in the States-and relies on them to keep him running. His career rest on the generosity of people thousands and thousands of miles away. Yet he has a home and a place to sleep and a family. He has had an education and when he asked for the kids of the streets to be given a chance, I don’t think he was hoping for them to have a chance to be successful or have things in life, but I think his hope was for them to have a chance to be happy. A man who lives in a mud hut, wants those kids to have the chance to become educated, to have a home, to be clean, to have friends, to not be in a constant state of delirium due to drugs, to have a chance to experience love, to be given a chance to know God, to be given a chance at happiness, to be given a chance at LIFE. There are about 170 kids at the Mahenzo school, and they are the cutest kids I have ever seen in my life (I want to bring them all home!) Most of them don’t have parents, but they are some of the happiest kids I have ever met. They have been given a chance.