From Arkansas to Kenya -Part 1

Maybe you’ve known me from when all I could do was smile or cry to communicate what I was feeling. Maybe we’ve meet in more recent years when I could adequately express my feelings. Or I guess perhaps I may have not yet had the privilege of meeting you. Whatever the case, maybe you've wondered how I went from peeking over the grill ledge (those of you who saw me doing this know what I'm talking about.), to cooking steaks and selling lawn mower parts, to going to Kenya. 

Well, I will try my best to answer that question, but it’s hard to answer a question I sometimes ask myself.

“And just how did I get here again?!?” 

Although I will relate a bit of the chain of events from the past year and a half, I can boil it all down to one simple yet significant word…

GOD!

My journey to Kenya all started one autumn evening in 2014 when my mom showed me an article about a children’s home in Maai Mahui, Kenya. She knew that I wanted to sponsor a child, so she suggested I check out this organization. With a heart that loves Africa, it didn’t take me and google long to find Naomi’s Village Children’s Home located right outside the town of Maai Mahui, Kenya. At the time it was home to 57 desperate orphans. My heart broke as I look at the innocent faces that had endured unimaginable horror in their brief lifetime. The sweet, bright face of a little girl especially caught my attention, but since I was already planning to sponsor through another organization, I finished looking at the photos and reading their stories, then I closed my computer. God didn’t close His computer, though.

Several weeks passed, and we had celebrated the New Year. 2015 held adventures that were soon to unfold at a crazy pace. The months to come would begin to teach me that

God is weaving everything in life so that when we relate the happenings we can't leave Him out.

However, I just couldn't seem to lose the thought that the adorable face and winsome smile that had caught my heart was to be "my" little girl. Because I hadn't started sponsoring another child yet, I decided to make T "mine." To spare you the interchanging details of everything, T was no longer in need of a sponsor. I was a bit saddened but decided to pray and see what God would do. After checking back several different time and having no success, I chose to sponsor a little fellow that promptly stole my heart. Little did I know that six months later I would be giving these babies hugs and oh so much love -not to mention parts of my heart. (And I'll add that about a month after beginning to sponsor R, T became available, and so I just did the natural thing -sponsored her too.)

After much prayer and God being the God he is, July 11th, 2015 I boarded a flight that would take a team of 17 passionate, kind hearts to serve at a place few of us had been to before -Naomi's Village Children Home in Maai Mahui, Kenya. I honestly couldn't imagine all that this trip would do for me, but I knew it was what God wanted, so I stepped out. Naomi's Village will always hold a special place in my heart because it's the place that helped me lose my heart to Kenya.

During our ten day, eye-opening, often heartbreaking journey, we were able to visit a few different ministries in the Maai Mahui/Nairobi area. Although each outreach we were privileged to visit changed my world view a bit more, one flipped my world upside-down -or should I say right side up!? The day our team visited Wells of Joy Ministries in the Lunga Lunga slums in Nairobi is a day I still have a hard time finding words to describe. One thing I knew for sure that day, and I feel stronger ever day, is that doing nothing about what I had/have seen, touched, walked among, is NOT an option.

I don't think I will even try to detail out all the emotions that one is subject to go through after walking among immense poverty and suffering, and then being immersed in a culture of excess and comfort. Sufficient to say, prayer, process, and patience categorized the weeks following my return home. But even in the hard, I knew God was working beyond what I could see. And as the weeks turned into months, God steadfastly made it clear that going back to Kenya is what the beginning of 2016 would hold. Before I knew it, I was planning to serve on an internship at Naomi's Village. But even as I prepared for this next adventure, Wells of Joy was not far from mind and heart.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord."