Reading the book "kisses from Katie" while out on the field in Africa is dangerous, especially for me. For those who don't know what the book is about, it is an autobiography of a young woman named Katie. Around the end of her high school years she took a short mission trip to Uganda. There she totally fell in love, and ended up coming back after graduating to teach English for a year. Working with orphans she immediately felt called to do something about it. So that is when she started an organization called amazima ministries that sponsors kids so they can pay their school fees, medical bills, and daily living expenses. She also adopted 14 daughters, no big deal for a 20 year old single girl, right?
On one of our last days here in Moshi,Tanzania we were blessed with the chance to go to an orphanage. I had been hoping for this opportunity for a while because God has really put a special place in my heart for orphans. Entering the gate to this children's home called Treasures of Africa you could feel the joy and love that is there. The woman who runs the orphanage, Lydia, greeted us warmly and gave us a tour of their amazing facilities. God has truly blessed them and provided incredible things for the children like a chance to get good schooling, and a place to really find a family among each other, a place to be loved and nurtured like every child should be and a place to grow up strong in the Lord. When we got a chance to spend time with the children I was so overjoyed. Getting a chance to play and laugh and smile with them was probably the highlight of this time in Tanzania for me. But it was also a challenge. After reading the book I talked about, I felt like I need to do something about the amount of orphans there are in this world. Seeing the beautiful faces of these parentless children makes me want to bring them all home with me. I can't help but walk away from a place like that and feel like I need to do something but that I have no power to.
While right now in my life I really don't feel God calling me to adopt some amount of children and move permanently to a whole different side of the world, I do know he is calling me to help in someway. I don't know exactly what this looks like but I know that he will guide me and lead me to what he wants me to do with this desire and passion to help those who are orphaned. Katie says in her book, " I believe anyone can be a missionary right where they are. Every day we have a choice. We can take a risk, do something to help someone else, make a person smile, change someone's world. Life to the fullest exists. It's available. All we have to do is decide to get up and embrace it." So for now I don't know if I'll be back to Tanzania, I don't know if I will be back to Africa but I do know that wherever God leads and whoever he wants me to care for I will choose to follow him. I can't change the world alone, I can't adopt all of the orphans worldwide, but with God I can start small and he will take care of the rest.
Me and Lucy at Treasures of Africa Children's Home.
