Seeing The Heart Of God

Sometimes we get reports from Kenya that just bring us to our knees in humble praise of our God and Father, who uses people and circumstances to provide for those in desperate need.  You probably think we are going to tell you a story of something great this organization has done, but not this time.  We are going to tell you the story of sacrificial caring and love that just humbles our proud hearts to a degree that we literally feel shame.  The Bible gives us verse after verse about caring for the poor.  Two Burning Candles and Promise Springs Rescue Center take these verses to heart.  But one day, recently, we got to see those verses lived out by Kenyans, who were moved to action and we know they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

We received a call telling us not about one of our girls personally but about her family.  We have a vulnerable girl, who we were asked to take into our care to keep her from coming to harm at the hands of local boys who were quite interested in her.  Her mother is blind.  We were concerned at taking this girl in because she was the oldest child and her being sent to school  would  leave her mother at home with two young children to care for her and themselves.  We were assured by the chief that he would have neighbors and other locals care for this family.  What choice did we really have anyway?  Could we leave this girl in a dangerous situation where all sorts of harmful things could possibly happen to her?  So the girl was brought to our facility and enrolled in boarding school with other girls who live at our center.  

The girl started having some physical problems and was taken to a hospital near her home.  She asked the house mom if she could visit her family while they were there.  The house mom agreed because we encourage good communication and contact between the girls and their families if at all possible.  The situation they found was alarming.  The lady had no water.  There was no food.  Because of no water the clothes were dirty and the young children were dirty.  It was very alarming to this girl and also to the house mom that was with her.  The house mom had 100  shillings (about $1) in her possession.  She gave that to the family and the boda boda (motorcycle) driver left immediately to get water and bring it back.  The girl was obviously distressed and didn't want to leave her family in that condition but this mother, wise beyond words, said to her, "Go.  Don't worry about us.  This situation is only for a time, but you have the opportunity to go to school and get an education that will allow you to get a job. Go, study hard and then come back and help us.  We will be fine."  

The staff at Promise Springs Rescue Center are a compassionate group of people.  They met and talked about this situation.  These people who have families of their own, struggles of their own, called Ken and me and said, "This is what we are going to do!"  They didn't ask what are you going to do, they said,  "This is what we are going to do."  They each decided to give 300 shillings and a Saturday out of their lives to help this family.  They bought food and took it to the house.  They cooked food to be eaten right away.

They left other food to be cooked later.  They washed clothes.  

They cleaned the compound.

They washed the children.  They talked to the mother to see what she could do if the circumstances were favorable and instructed the children in how they could all work together to provide food for each other if they helped their mom in a systematic way.  They arranged the inside of the house so the mother could find things.  

You are sitting in your homes saying, so they gave $3 and some hours out of their week.  The truth is that some of these people only earn $5 per day.  The truth is that they have children and they struggle to pay the school fees for their own children.  The truth is that the price of food in Kenya is so high that there are uprisings in protest because people cannot feed their own families...and yet, they gave what they had.

They lived out Luke 21:4 "of all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."  In their thankfulness that they had jobs and some means of providing for themselves, they lived out the command of Jesus, "to love your neighbor as yourself." I don't mind sharing that as Ken and I worked in our yard to pull weeds and make it look nice and we received this call and this report, we were humbled in a way that was a physical pain and joy at the same time.  

Once again, we had made a mistake that we must now learn from, but God in his compassion had sent us a lesson that we wouldn't soon forget.  We trusted someone and didn't follow up on this girl's family ourselves even though we had concerns. We know that we must take a holistic approach to nurturing these girls.  They can't feel cared for if they are haunted by the knowledge that their families are struggling. It is a lesson well learned. GOD...orchestrated things for His good will and to show us the compassion He has on those who cannot help themselves.  He allowed a girl to have back pain that we couldn't figure out from half a world away.  He allowed a girl to request to see her family because she knew that she was close.  He allowed the compassion and willingness of the house mom and the boda boda driver.  And he used the hearts of the whole staff to do what they could.  If that doesn't bring you to your feet in praise of the almighty and loving God we serve, nothing else will. We stand in awe.  

And we praise God that soon, we will travel back to this land where we have been planted. We will travel with a team some whom have never seen Kenya before.  And we will all serve alongside these people who have shown us the heart of God with their compassion and sacrifice.