Found & Seen

When you go back to Kenya for a repeat time, especially to the schools we worked with, the kids challenge you.  A lot of them can look similar and sometimes it can be difficult to differentiate between girls and boys.  You meet so many kids and it can be overwhelming!  But when you return, they (ALL of them) want to know, "Do you remember me?"  Well, that's not the challenging part...the challenge comes into play when they follow up that question with, "What's my name?!"   

ummmm....eek!  

One of my goals this year in Kenya was to see things and people differently.  To see individuals.  To know more intimately names and stories that belong with faces.  To be completely individualistic.
It's certainly hard to do, especially in the midst of chaos and other goals of the trip.  Yet this year, The Lord showed me how important and relevant that was.  

Year-round all those kids are a part of a class, that is a part of a large school with limited resources and few teachers, that is a part of an even larger slum area, that is part of an impoverished country.  The teachers are amazing at nurturing the kids, on different levels.  Yet it's inevitable for many kids to still be left out, dismissed, and unseen -- just by the nature of the school atmosphere and by the culture and by our own humanity.  These orphans are truly some of the "least of these" that Jesus speaks about.  

Something that we have the potential to do when visiting Kenya is to FIND and to SEE the least of the "least of these".  

I could tell you more about Ivan -- a precious young outcast because of her vision and motor disabilities.  I could tell you all about Rodgers in Class 8 whose smile never leaves his face. I could tell you about Silas, who had Malaria last time I was with him yet clung onto me this time around, feeling obviously healthy and loved!  I could tell you about Phyllis who made the funniest face ever when I gave her a Listerine mint!  I could tell you about dear Diana, whose age is unknown...Diana, who didn't understand any English but could hear the love in my voice as I talked to her downcast face, which slowly rested on my shoulder.  

I could tell you about so many more...  

These kids are not just "orphans in Kenya".  They have been found and seen.  They are individuals with personalities and spirits and souls that are uniquely beautiful.  

And I praise God that He does that for ALL of His children!  

He finds us just where we are. 

He sees us individually through eyes of love and redemption. 

He knows us intimately.  

We were dear to Him long before He became dear to any one of us.  

Amen!  

Yet because of the loveliness of these true and steadfast thoughts, we cannot stay stagnant.  We are called to action.  We are FOUND to go and find.  We are SEEN to go out and SEE.  Let that cycle never end while we are on this earth with such a pure and beautiful purpose.  

Some of Dad's photos and some my own photos are displayed from September 3, 2014 - November 3, 2014 as an exhibit in the LCU Library.  Thank you so much, Karen Randolph, for putting that together.  What an honor.  

And, here is a video I created of our team's trip this year.  Many memories are held within these 13 minutes.