This month, we are in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. We’ve been working with the organization Our Neighbours and have been blessed with living with a family that generously houses missionaries for free. Our Neighbours runs various programs around the city, many of which we’ve been involved in this month. We’ve been helping in a soup kitchen, participating in a women’s Bible study and beading project, painting a church, reading with children at the school, and, most of all, working at an orphanage, Isaiah’s House of Love.
I’m at the orphanage Monday through Thursday, usually for two full days and two half days. It is nice having some variety in our days, but the orphanage is where I have most enjoyed being and where I have most felt like I belonged.
There are 19 children, most from newborn to 5 years old with one 10 year-old.
All abandoned by their parents as babies–left at the hospital, in a field, or with friends who soon ditched them upon realizing the parents weren’t coming back for them.
Many with histories of abuse, malnutrition, and illness.
All craving love- Love from a family, but more so, from their Heavenly Father.
All desperate for attention, desiring to feel important and special.
Days at the orphanage include innumerable “Auntie, Auntie look at me!”s, “Auntie, and me! And me!”s, “Auntie come, come”s, and “Auntie, pick me up”s. Days include making beds, folding laundry, feeding lunch, washing dishes, reading to children, having my hair pulled in every direction, and of course, being a human chair, jungle gym and swing for 19 children.
Multiple times a day, a child cries because someone took their spot on my lap or because it is now someone else’s turn to be spun around. Thamu will show me his attempt at a cartwheel 15 times in a row with no change, each time calling for my full attention. Noma will repeatedly show me how she can jump down to the ground, skipping a step.
Like all kids, they want to be recognized and praised.
And we are the same.
We work hard to earn the love and respect of the people around us, thinking if we’re a little better, they’ll love us more. With our goal of impressing the people around us, we forget that we are already loved by the Creator of the universe, the best Father and Friend around, and that there is absolutely nothing we can do to make Him love us any more or love us any less.
These children are craving the love of the Father, whether or not they know it. And my purpose this month was to love them in the best way I could, to give them a tangible display of God’s love for them. To help them feel loved, accepted, and valued, giving a glimpse of the Father’s love for them. If we don’t know what it means to be loved on earth, we won’t even begin to understand the Father’s greater love for us. Loving on children this month looked like cuddling, chasing, tickling, picking up, and spinning children. It looked like 4 kids in my lap at one time and 2 different hair styles being done at the same time. Loving children looked like laying in the grass with three kids piling on top of me and it looked like watching the same kid attempt a cartwheel 15 times.
But also, these kids showed me again and again how good it feels to be loved. Nothing beats kids running toward you to give you a big hug as you walk in the gate or kids racing for a spot in your lap.
They taught me how to better love, even when I’m exhausted, hot, annoyed, ready to be done carrying children, and not really wanting my clothes covered in food, drool, and dirt. They taught me how to love when it’s not easy and not comfortable, something I also need to get better at doing with the people my age around me.
Not only have I enjoyed playing with these little rascals, but I’ve been able to play a special role for one child at the orphanage, as his need and my passion collided.
Kuda is a spunky, energetic, big-hearted 10-year-old with cerebral palsy. He crawls or uses a walker to walk, his movements are spastic, and he has a hard time getting his arms and legs to do what he wants them to do.
And I have a passion for rehabilitation and for enabling people with disabilities to do the most they can. I’m interested in pursuing occupational therapy when I return home, and though I have not gone to graduate school and am nowhere near a certified therapist, my limited skills and passions were put to use.
My teammate and I were able to come up with various exercises for him to work on strength, stability, and hand-eye coordination. I worked with Kuda a couple times a week and, beyond that, was even able to teach the moms there how to do therapy with him. Obviously a few hours of therapy won’t change much, but enabling him to continue could.
While I was trying to show the kids that they are valued, God reminded me that I have value too. He reminded me that I’m not just another team member, but that He has given me unique gifts, passions, interests, and abilities. And He doesn’t just give us those things, but he gives them with purpose and He puts us in places where they are needed.
While I was telling Kuda that I knew he could balance for 30 seconds, God was telling me that He knew I could be used in Kuda’s life, just as I am.
While I came to love them, these kids taught me even more about love.
After a sad goodbye to these kids and the other people we’ve spent time with in Zimbabwe, we leave Bulawayo tomorrow morning and on Monday we fly out of Africa! April begins a new continent and our last four months of the Race, this time in Southeast Asia. We’re off to Malaysia for month 8!
Thank you again to everyone back home who has supported me. I love and appreciate you all.
Sending a big “thank you” from Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
