A greater opportunity

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of peace in Liberia. Civil war ravaged the country for decades and destabilized the entire infrastructure. Basic necessities such as jobs, health care, and education had become all but nonexistent. Many of the educated population fled for safety, leaving a huge hole in the education system. By the time schools started running again, almost every single child was behind. Displaced by these circumstances, many children also ended up living in orphanages during this time. The Liberian government says that youths over the age of 18 can no longer live in orphanages; however, most have not graduated by that time. This results in a huge gap in care, education, and life skills for young adults all over the country.

Possibly thousands of youths fall into this place in-between, and there is no one doing anything about it.

Orphan Relief and Rescue, the organization that I work for here in Liberia, is trying to start assisting some of the orphans that we know who find themselves in this situation-- young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 who have been kicked out of an orphanage due to their age, but have not yet finished high school and have very little life skills or experience living outside the walls of an orphanage. We have started a Greater Opportunity Assistance program that will help them to stay in school and learn skills that will help them survive life in the real world.

We are currently only able to assist three young adults through this program. Jestina (18), Eugene (20) and Sackie (21) are all seniors in high school who are no longer allowed to live in the orphanage where they grew up. Their school fees and basic living expenses are covered so they can focus on doing well in school and don’t have to worry about where they will lay their heads at night or how they will fill their stomachs each morning. We have seen that helping them with these basic needs and mentoring them through basic responsibilities of life has released the pressure they were under.

Recently, we were able to move Jestina into her own apartment. Pride shines in her eyes as she shows off her new place-- her meager belongings kept tidy and clean, everything in its own place. The boys are working part-time; hopefully, they will also be moving into their own place soon. All three of these young adults are happy and confident. They are not just surviving--they are thriving. They are really living, and we are so proud.

Eugene and Jestina

www.orphanreliefandrescue.org

such love

My mom has a gift. She loves people through the unfortunately-going-out-of-style art of sending cards. The paper kind, not text on a computer screen. There is just something about the act of putting pen to paper, choosing just the right words, the time spent thinking about someone-- the love shines though. I received a card from my mom this week. Not for Christmas or my birthday, just because. On the back it told a story that I feel I need to share...

"In the Makapa Valley outside Nairobi, Kenya, thousands of homeless families live in a vast shantytown that begins to assault the eyes, ears, and noses from high atop the surrounding ridge. The ankle deep med, open sewers, and hungry, hollow-eyed children overwhelmed me within minutes. Sensing my discomfort, my guide, an Ethiopian friend, said to me, "You see only the despair. "Come and see the hope."

Down an alleyway and around a corner we came to an open courtyard about ten yards square, surrounded on all four sides by lean-tos. Two of them were for sleeping, one was for cooking, and one was a classroom. Small children filled the courtyard. A dozen old women sat on benches along the outer edges.

"What do you see now?" my friend asked.

What struck me most were the smiles and the energy.

"What makes the difference?" I asked.

"Love," he replied. "These children are outcasts-- orphans with no one to care for them. And these old women thought they had nothing to live for until they began to look after the children. The orphans had no hope until they were touched by such love. Look around you. The shacks here are no better than those elsewhere, the ground is no cleaner, the food no more plentiful. The only difference is God's love reaching out through human hands." 
(Written by Eric Fellman)

I was blessed to have had such love from my mother (and father) when I was growing up. Now I am blessed to be able to love orphans in Liberia who live in similar conditions as the Kenyan children in the story above.

If you read my last post, you know I've been thinking about moments lately. Each moment is a chance to change a life. My mom does that through her card-sending. The old women in Kenya through their care of the children. Sometimes I get to hold a child in my arms and love them deeply.

What is your moment? Look for it, embrace it, linger with it. It is worth it. And when you take that moment you don't only change yourself, you get to change someone else's life as well.

This is the moment...

Paul, Damawah and their baby brother Lawrence lost their mother just a few weeks before Christmas. After their father was put in prison, their mother moved them to a small village up country where she had found work. Sadly, she became sick and, since they had no family in that village, no one was there to help her in time. She died in a wheelbarrow, while a stranger was attempting to transport her to a doctor.

Scared, confused and alone, the children found themselves in an orphanage that I work with closely. When they arrived, they had swollen bellies, sunken eyes and wouldn’t make eye contact. After only a few days of consistent food, care and attention they started looking better. After a week I was able to play a game of catch with Paul and even caught a shy smile from him. By the time Christmas arrived and Christmas bundles were delivered, the kids were actively involved-- although they weren’t really sure what to do with a gift of their very own, it was possibly the first one they ever received.

Today when I was at their orphanage, I saw Paul sitting by himself looking at a book. I called his name and he looked confused, but eventually understood I wanted to spend time with him. He brought me the book, crawled into my lap, and I proceeded to read it to him, and then another, and another... After the first few books, I realized he wasn’t really listening to the stories, he was just enjoying the special time. Eventually I stopped reading, he nuzzled in deeper, we just sat that way for a quite a while-- watching the other kids playing a card game, a lively football match, listening to laughter nearby.

Sitting there, soaking in this cuddle-time with Paul, was the second time this week I had a revelation-- yesterday it hit me while I was watching a football game at a different orphanage—THIS IS IT. If this was the only moment, the only good, the only experience I’d had in Liberia, ever, it was worth it. Everything in the last (almost) five years could be completely about this moment and that is ok, like Esther’s ‘such a time as this.’ This is where I am supposed to be at this time, all the other questions that may surround that don’t matter. And I have to say, that feels pretty good.