Wow, this trip has been so awesome so far, but also really hard. It’s been so awesome to see how God has taken 21 complete strangers and molded us into the ministry team that He wants us to be. Never has God spoken so much to me or His love been so evident in my life. Being so far from my comfort zone has proved to be a challenge that with the help of my teammates, I have openly embraced. I love how God is showing me things not only about myself and this world around me, but also about Himself.
For the most part, it’s been great hanging out with kids at various checkpoints and in a variety of situations. I’ve met and become close to several despite the language barrier. One little guy that I’ve grow to love is Milusi, who is a little four year old ball of energy that follows me around wherever I go.
The kids here are so trusting and so much more mature than the kids in the States. All the older kids in each family take amazing care of the younger ones, especially when they have no parents left to do the job themselves. One family that we came across has no parents and 7 kids all under the age of 12. That particular family has a 4 year old girl named Tanzili that we were looking for to take her to the doctor. Though she is four, she was malnourished as a baby and is significantly delayed. After a four hour search, we found her in the dirt trying to crack open and eat some nuts. We brought her back to the car and I held her close as we drove off. She had on only a shirt and she smelled awful. She was covered in dirt and her belly was swollen from malnutrition. She had scars all over her body from various things and one of her eyes was swollen almost shut by infection. Despite all this, she was the most beautiful thing I’d seen all day. We took her to see an American doctor where they cleaned her up and gave her some new clean clothes. After seeing her, they determined that she had an eye infection, scabies all over her little body, and worms in her belly. They gave her meds for all these things and we brought her back to our house to feed her. After spending just a few hours with Tanzili and without her even saying a word to us the entire time, I saw God’s love in her. Behind all the dirt and sin God has washed away from us, we are all beautiful in His sight. God sees us for who our hearts have told us to be, not for all the crap we show to the world on a daily basis. I don’t know if Tanzili will get better or what will happen to her family, but I know that she is one of God’s children and that day a four year old girl showed me a lesson about God’s love.
