lessons from a crippled man

Yesterday started out rough. My computer crashed, I felt like I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. Honestly, I just kinda wanted to be in a bad mood.

As I was leaving the grocery store, an amputee who often meets me there, greeted me at the car. I knew what was coming-- the constant asking for something small, and I wasn't in the mood. So, when he greeted me with a cheery, 'How the day!?' I decided to be honest and forgo the usual answer of 'fine.' Instead I answered, 'I'm actually not having a very good day." He looked at me confused, so I tried again, 'It's not a good day.' The man gripped his crutches tighter, looked me in the eye and said, 'Yes, but you can still thank God for life. You have breath in your body." Then he proceeded to ask me for his small thing. I politely declined, got in my car and drove off more annoyed than I was before the interlude with the crippled man.

The thing was, he was right. As much as it may have been his rote answer, it was true. Frustrating things happen, computers crash, people fail you, your leg is amputated, but in the end those circumstances don't matter. God has blessed me with air in my lungs and another day to know Him better. He has blessed me with life and His love.

And yesterday he used a crippled man to remind me. Humbling indeed.

Liberia wins

Today Liberia won. That is something we often say when things don't quite go as planned (which is often.) Now, I know that things not going as planned can and does happen everywhere, it is part of life. It just seems like it happens more often here. Or maybe the reasons why things change makes it seem more surreal. This is a place where I daily see motorcycle drivers carrying three passengers, a 5 gallon container of diesel fuel, a 50 lb bag of rice, and a mattress-- all at the same time. Or we could play a game counting how many men we see peeing in a day. Government buildings don't always have electricity. You never know what you are going to get.

So back to today. This morning Cramer, Ashley and I headed for town to run some errands. We had eight stops on our list. Traffic can be terrible driving into Monrovia so we try and consolidate trips. Of the eight stops two were successful. TWO out of eight! The person we were supposed to meet with was not in the office (oh yea, I had a funeral today.) The bike was already sold. The registration papers for our vehicles are still not done (it has been over two weeks now). Someone else, not there. You get the idea. Lunch didn't even work out as I had hoped, the place I wanted to go was closed (on Friday?). At a certain point you wonder why you even left the house? Slightly discouraged, but with full stomachs nonetheless we headed back to our office.

We always go to a certain orphanage on Friday afternoons. It is a favorite of ours where we love to sit under the mango tree and enjoy the breeze and the children. As we are loading up the pick-up to go we have an unscheduled visitor-- a friend with a sick child. Quick assessment and referral to the clinic and then we are off. A little late, but hey, this is Liberia. We stop to buy rice. No rice. Well, not the kind we wanted, we are forced to buy a  more expensive type. As we are trying to pull out, a huge truck (filled with rice I might add) drives up next to us and threatens to topple over on top of us. We get out just in time, headed for the orphanage again. 

As we are driving down the street dodging motorbikes, pedestrians and chickens we see a sign that the road is closed. It is completely blocked off, paving is being done. So we turn around to try another route. Traffic is at a stand-still, not looking good. After an eight-point turn to get back out of the traffic jam and almost overturning a woman's grilled meat stand we are back on the road trying for our third and final option to get there. Things are looking pretty good until we hit construction. Again. The same road construction is blocking the road from two directions and where we need to be is smack-dab in the middle. We come to a stop as six Liberian men are yelling at us to turn around. At this point we were getting pretty frustrated, the kids were expecting us, we'd been trying to get to the orphanage for over an hour (usually takes seven minutes), it had been a long day. So, when I saw other trucks and motorbikes on the road we (the white people) couldn't use, I 'exchanged some words' with the men on the street-- to no avail, we still had to turn around. Argh!

Back at the office we decided we were not going to let Liberia stop us today. Something was going to go right! So, we decided to walk to the orphanage. I could not carry the 100 lb bag of rice, so that will have to be delivered another day, but we repacked our things, changed into shorts and started the 40 minute walk back to the orphanage. Believe it or not we made it! A good thing too because all our kiddos were waiting for us with their drums and other instruments ready to go. 

We were two hours late, but we were there. We danced and sang and limboed and played games and took silly pictures and laughed and sat under the mango tree and enjoyed the breeze and the children. And a few hours later we walked back home with the cool evening sea breeze at our face. And at home Ma Mary's rice was waiting for us so we sat and watched the sun set on the front porch while we ate our dinner. And despite everything, it really was a good day. I guess Liberia did win after all.

Ash Wednesday

Today is the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday. Lent is not something that I grew up observing. I knew what it was, kind of. I heard other people talking about it and I remember in sixth grade deciding to give up fish (I hated fish). Needless to say, I didn't really get the significance. It is in recent years that I have been introduced to the tradition in a more serious way. (If you are interested, I found a blog that I feel describes Lent pretty well.)

For me, Lent is about remembering Christ's sacrifice and preparing my heart for a time of remembrance, reflection and eventually the celebration of Easter. Over the next 46 days I want to spend more time thinking about God, who He is, what He has done, His amazing and abundant love for me. But I don't want to just receive it, I want to share that love too. (Isn't that what He is all about?)

I don't think this time is designed to be about me (even though I feel like a lot of these sentences start with 'I'). It is about Christ. It is about taking a break from the norm, whatever that may be, and focusing on Him. He lived. He died. He loved. He loves (and lives) still.

So, as part of a break from the norm, as part of the remembering and sharing the love, I'd like to ask you to join with me in doing something different this season-- consider prayer. Praying everyday for someone else to know, for someone else to feel, God's love.

My friend and co-worker Ashley has put together a great tool for praying for the children that we work with through Orphan Relief and Rescue. Starting today we will be posting pictures of different children on our organization blog everyday until Easter. All you have to do is pray. After 46 days of praying and focusing on others who long to know and feel love as much as we do, I think we'll all be changed for the better. Follow this link and start praying today. 

He's got a dream...

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with a pretty extraordinary boy. Trokon is fourteen, he is a true orphan, which means that both his parents are dead, and he has lived most of his life in an orphanage. Orphan Relief and Rescue has been working with the orphanage where Trokon lives since 2007. (I personally met him in 2008, while working to help him get some much needed dental care, which is often hard to find in this country.) We’ve had the pleasure of watching him grow up into a leader in his home. Trokon is an active participant in the Child Development Program as well as benefiting from our Child Sponsorship Program.

While most boys his age are more interested in playing soccer than getting an education, this is not true of Trokon. You can definitely find him on the soccer field, but finishing his education is his first priority. In fact, he was studying and working so hard in school that he was moved up a grade this semester—he started the school year in 7^th grade and will graduate from 8^th grade in June. This is a spectacular achievement for a young person in school in Liberia.

As we were talking yesterday, Trokon started telling me about his own hopes and dreams for his future. He says he will graduate from college with three degrees—Medical Doctor, Theologian, and Geologist. He says he hopes to study his degrees in Africa and stay in Liberia to help his people. He says Liberia is the home of freedom and liberty and he has high hopes of making a positive impact on his beloved county. I was proud and humbled as he went on to say that he prays everyday that God will help him to be a good influence to others.

Trokon playing soccer with some of the younger boys at his orphanage.

The truth is, Trokon already is a great influence to others around him, both to the brothers and sisters he lives with in the orphanage and to his Uncles and Aunties at Orphan Relief and Rescue. It is our hope and desire to be able to help Trokon achieve his dreams of finishing college—even changing the world.

There are many more children out there, like Trokon, who have a dream and a destiny. It is because of support from donors that we are able to sustain programs like the ones that are benefiting Trokon. If you would like to help, please sponsor a child or make a donation today. Thank you.

Everything changes

Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes." ~David Platt

I read this quote yesterday and can't stop thinking about it. It speaks a lot of truth. Four years ago I was preparing for the first leg of my Liberian adventure. I'd never been to Liberia, I'd ever held one of It's orphans. I couldn't imagine myself living here, holding these little ones on on a full-time basis. 

Then my plane landed. The hot, sticky, West African air filled my lungs and the small, dusty, brown children filled my heart. Everything changed. 

I never thought I would be spending four years (plus how many more?) of my life serving the poverty stricken orphans of Liberia. But maybe I should have. 

I should have remembered...

When I was 18 I was preparing to go on a short-term mission trip to the Baja peninsula of Mexico. I was working nights as a CNA at a local hospital and sleeping days. One day I woke up, read a few verses from my Bible that was on the bedside table and went back to sleep. No big deal. That evening as I was driving to meet with my short-term team I remembered something that shot goosebumps (sometimes I like to call them God-bumps) down my arms. There is no way I could have read my Bible that afternoon-- I had misplaced it. But it was so real, I remembered it so vividly. As soon as I reached the meeting I ran inside to borrow someone's Bible and there were the words just as I had seen them earlier in the day. 

"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me  to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." Isaiah 61:1-3

I didn't really know what to make of the words in my life at that time, but it felt like something of a calling. I have meditated on those words many times over the last 18 years. Often feeling unworthy, those words were also spoken about Jesus. And even though it could be argued that my life is being spent doing those very things right now-- literally binding up the brokenhearted, comforting those who mourn, proclaiming freedom, spreading joy, I don't think it is about this season alone. I (we all?) have been called to a bigger purpose and I pray that wherever I find myself in the world, Liberian orphanage or American hospital, it will be my mission to be living the same way.

Because everyone, African orphan or 'single in her thirties' American, have a name they want known, have a face they want seen, they want to be held, known, loved. And I think we all, through Christ, have the power to change a lot if we are willing to learn, see, listen and hold. 

By the way, I did find my Bible the next Sunday right where I left it-- not in my bedroom, but at church...