7.09.2006

Africa

Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, clothe him, and not to turn away from you own flesh and blood?  Then your ligh will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.  Then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say Here I AM. (Isaiah 58:7-9)

We here a lot about it, starving nations, aids epidemic, poverty, live aid, The ONE campaign, debt forgiveness, bono, etc. 
2/5 of the worlds population lives on less than $2 a day. Half of that live on $1 a day.

10 year old Elijah.  Both his parents have passed away, yet he is happy and his joy is found in Jesus.
10 year old Promise. Another Ugadan orphan. Dreams of being a musician.

Watoto. It means children in swahili. If you had asked me if i'd do missions a year ago.. i'd have said no.. i think i should stay in N.America.  God's been working and changing, stretching me and growing my heart.  Even knowing all these live aid and THE ONE campaign, supporting aids through aldo etc... Meeting a child from that part of the world.  Who has nothing even close to what we have in N. America. Not even parents. But who's love for Jesus is so much more real then half the people i know who have everything.  You can't say their faith isn't real... or it's that of a child.  They have had a harder life in their 10 years than i have ever had and may ever have.  Yet they dream and hope and love God. My problems may seem suck to me, but really they a'int bad, they a'int anything. 

The hello i recieved from the children today when i entered the room, blew me away.  The love they showed us when they thanked us, for really not doing much (i just handed out plates and helped my mom scoop rice), it was the best thank you i have ever gotten, they sang us a thank you, a blessing and then they hugged us.

Africa, since i was a younger it's always been somewhere my heart has had a heart for.  I did economics because i wanted to make a difference in the World Bank or IMF.  I did development, because i thought i'd always end up there...
I think i'll be a missionary one day, i'm shocked i can say this, but it fits my heart. Africa.

posted by SilQ @ 12:25 AM

2 Comments:

At 7/10/2006 8:39 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

AFRICAN MISSION CHANGES LIVES OF COUPLE
Spruce Grove Examiner
Fri 07 Jul 2006
Page: B8
Section: News
Byline: BY VICTORIA HANDYSIDES, STAFF WRITER

Gordon and Linda Brown are your average Stony Plain couple -- at least they were until a trip to Africa with hopes of helping disadvantaged children changed their perspective on the world.

"Its one thing to watch the programs on TV and see the need," Linda reflected.

"But when you actually go there and mingle with the people, it becomes real."

Mission

In March, the Browns traveled on behalf of the Lighthouse Church to Zambia, Africa in order to work in various orphanages and find a site for a possible orphanage the church had aspirations to open.

"Africa is one of the most impoverished nations in the world, and has the highest number of orphans per capita that I'm aware of," Gordon said.

"The need is there."

"What happens is that the people will take their families to the cities to look for work," Linda added.

"After maybe a couple of months there, with AIDS being such an epidemic, the parents will die.

"The children will be sent back to the villages, because there isn't anybody there in the cities to take care of them.

"They have to fend for themselves."

Passion

On their three-week journey, not only did the couple find two possible sites for the perspective orphanage, they fell in love with Africa and its people.

"The people are so accepting," Linda said.

"They just accept you and welcome you into their village and their lives."

Based on the locations they found and the research they compiled on their trip, the church decided to make an abandoned dairy farm in Zimba the location for the orphanage.

The tentative plan is to transform the site into a facility where children live in a family-type environment, growing their own food and raising their own animals.

The hope is to one day have the facility running under guidance and resources of the administration and church, while still teaching the children to be self-sufficient.

In spring 2007, after raising $20,000 to bring water and electricity to the site, the church plans to send a team of carpenters, plumbers and electricians, along with a couple to facilitate and prepare the location for its first occupants.

The couple selected for the mission will virtually act as parents of the orphaned children, and while the Browns have not yet decided to fill the position, they have long-term plans to continue their service in one form or another.

"That's where our hearts are," Gordon said.

"We're only about four years away from retirement, and we will be, if not there, at least some place like it working with children."

Decision

Parents of two adult children of their own, the Browns know that they cannot enter into the decision lightly. "It's not like going to help out somewhere that you can just up and leave," Gordon said.

"When you're helping out an orphanage, it's like being mom and dad to these kids.

"We become their parents basically, so it is a big decision to do that."

While the couple knows that their work during the three weeks they spent in Zambia was an act of selfless giving, their decision to take it to the next level has become more appealing due to their desire to do more.

"I know coming out of Zambia, the thing that really struck me was: here we are, we've gone, done our thing, and now we get to come back to our nice homes and all of our stuff, and what did we do?" Linda questioned.

"There's such a feeling of not really accomplishing anything, but I know we did.

"It still seems like such a small thing, because they have nothing."

"All of my thoughts are of Africa," Gordon said.

"I just want to go back."

At present, the need to raise money for the mission is great.

Donations of time, money and resources can be made to the Lighthouse Church, and information on the mission can be viewed on the Browns' website www.christiansatlarge.com.

Realization

"I think we live in a very materialistic society," Linda said.

"(We have) the 'trying to get ahead of the next person' sort of idea.

"When you've been in another country like that, you see the poverty and see how they live.

"You realize you don't need all those things to make you happy."

 
At 7/10/2006 9:57 AM , Blogger SilQ said...

thanks for ur sharing yl. who's yl yo?

 

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