No One Beyond My Reach

The teary good-byes were said, final hugs were given, and last minute letters were being frantically pushed through the open car windows as we drove off the mission property for the last time this year. This good-bye stuff never gets easier . . . BUT, our time there was good. The memories are sweet. God was at work in and through our team and we saw the Lord at work in the kids as well. However, the kids are up against a lot in a ‘do as I say and not as I do,’ rough, post-war culture.  The sweet solace continues to be that God, our good, loving Father, is still in control. The kids were His long before they were ‘ours’ and he continues to have their best interest at heart.

The end of this trip did not bring me back to Minneapolis, however. Mark and I continued on to Rwanda to meet up with a team from Pennsylvania that have been part of starting Umuryango Boys’ Home. This is a children’s village that takes in street kids, primarily boys, and places them in a family-like setting, serving the kids holistically--making sure they know Jesus, providing them with a quality education, introducing them to various trades, feeding them nutritious meals, and ensuring that each child knows that they are loved. It is a beautiful model, and I am looking forward to being able to observe and ask questions and soak it in, and then seeing how God uses this experience. We will be going to the village for the first time tomorrow, and I’m excited to meet the kids and see what life is like outside of the bustling hub of Kigali.

Today was an emotional day, though--I woke up with the ache of missing my kiddos in Liberia, and then, we were off to the Genocide Museum, an emotional experience to say the least.

As I cried and prayed my way through the museum exhibits, I was struck by the human capacity for brutality toward other human beings--staggering, absolutely staggering. Ten thousand people brutally murdered for one hundred days straight. With each turn in the museum, I could feel my heart grow heavier and, to be honest, I was getting angry. Really angry. It doesn’t make sense. How do groups of people determine that they are superior to others, deeming them unworthy to live, and then hunt them like animals? And it’s not like this is the first time in the history of the world that this has happened. People who were your neighbors and friends, so brainwashed, that they turn on you and hunt you down like an animal. Living in fear every day. One thing that hit me hard was that machetes and clubs tended to be the primary weapons in this atrocity. This means that you had to be close enough to look someone in the eye, see the terror and silent pleas to be spared as you were taking their life. Then, we entered children’s room only to read about young kids--4, 5 . . . 8 years old--being hacked to death by machetes. Heavy just got heavier.

I wasn’t even directly affected by this atrocity, but don’t feel that I could forgive those involved in the wiping out of so many innocent people. I can’t even imagine being there. Seeing it. Living through it. Then there’s the strange reality that as you walk the streets of Kigali, you are moving past the very people who most certainly took the lives of people you loved. 

In all of this, I heard God whispering into my heart, “No one is beyond my reach. Not one.”

Seeing Rwanda now, nearly ten years after the genocide, and how far they have come is astounding. Forgiveness has happened. Healing is happening. Hearing stories of lives transformed is such a beautiful reminder of the power of our loving God. If he can transform and redeem Rwanda, surely He can bring Liberia to her knees and muster change there, as well. His arm is not too short. No one is beyond His reach. Not the kids at the mission. Not their caretakers. Not the people in the surrounding village. Not the ex-combatants. No one.

Please join me in praying that God’s redeeming love would be known in Liberia. That our kids stories would bear witness to God’s transforming power. That caretakers would learn to love like Jesus. That God would reach down and touch the lives of our Liberian friends, draw them close, and that they would be culture changers in their generation. 

Team 2 update

Team 2 has arrived (Mark on Monday, Julie, Chris and Tony on Tuesday) and we have spent the first week making connections with the kids at the mission.  Mark and Chris got to meet their prayer buddies, Mark and Prince Sumo (specific kids they have been praying for for over a year) and Tony and Julie are on return visits to Children's Rescue Center.  

Highlights of the first week have included:

- Sis D's cooking

- Learning how to make peanut candy with Sis Patience.

- A working well (water) pump AND generator

- Spending a lot of time with the kids down at the mission - singing with them, reading with them, talking about the Bible with them, and just loving and affirming them.

- Friday's trip to the beach - an incentive for those who met their reading program goals.

- An early morning 3+ mile (round-trip) excursion to cut and fetch wood with some of the boys from the mission.

- Praying for a group of students before taking their entrance exams for the 10th grade (King's Arms Academy ends at grade 9).

- Laughing lots with Brother John, Mitchell, Daniel, and Isaac.

- Seeing the Lord answer prayers and reveal Himself in so many big and small ways.

Next week includes, among other things: church tomorrow (Sunday), planning our (student-led) outreach at Peter Sayklon's (another orphanage further out in the bush) - the outreach itself will be Wednesday, a annual soccer game between the two "clubs" at the mission, a field day with the kids, movie night, and more time using our actions and words to express to these kids how much God loves and cares for them.

We appreciate your prayers for us and for the next week as we are already almost half-way done.  Hopefully another update can be made.  Either way your prayers mean so much!  

Love,

Team 2

Far apart, but close to the heart

Little can I express in words about my 12 days in Liberia. Photos are great but don’t do justice. Even the eyes can’t catch everything, and the mind forgets easily. Chaos and being overwhelmed sets in almost instantly. However, through the chaos there is peace.

Peace in the faces of the smiling kids. Peace in the brand new life that Percy/Macy, the house cat, gave to her four kittens. Peace that comes in the form of the love that kids share with hugs, and peace that we as a team share through the love of Christ.

Meet Yebah. A second grade boy who constantly wanted to hang out with me. He would like to be a minister someday -- Amen to that! It was very rare to hear that from most of the kids that I spoke to. Some of the older kids wanted to go into “Military Science” or the Army/UN. I am unsure about why they want to enlist other than making “good money”. I pray that they dream beyond making money but to be reminded of God’s love and to help the people in need.

A song that kept resonating in my mind during the trip was “Spirit Speaks" by “All Sons and Daughters”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qoWjtnVBPI

Here is part of the lyrics that spoke to me.

You spoke life into my lungs

You are the air I breathe

You are the air I breathe

Still you move inside of me

You are the song I sing

You are the song I sing, Jesus

With every breath I breathe

With every song I sing

I want to shout it out

Lord I am listening

To every word you speak

I'll go where you will lead

To love the least of these

Is my greatest offering

I learned about their handshake, their passion to sing to the Lord, their welcoming love, their willingness to learn and their ability to memorize, particularly Bible verses.

Dia Aka Uncle Spoon.