An invitation...

I saw this video on a friend’s Facebook feed yesterday.

 

Katie is 21. She has 14 kids.  Yes, 14! 14 orphaned children in Uganda. Some might call her amazing. Others call her inspiring. Others might call her crazy. Whatever you call her, her big heart as a young mama is apparent: she is committed to these 14 kids as her own.

I don’t live in Uganda (anymore), nor do I have any kids there (well, not exactly anyways.. just one named Sylvia but that’s a different story for another day! :)).

But I do have orphaned children in my care -  about 400 of them, in Ethiopia. I have for the last 2 years or so - not physically, but responsibility for the financial gifts that enable their care. I haven’t spent every waking hour caring for these AIDS-orphaned children... but in some sense, I do. Most of my waking hours are filled with thinking, reading, talking, stewing, dreaming, planning, and asking how we can help more kids in great need.

I’m sure no one else is counting :) ....  but it is 7 days away from my {un.orphan’d} film night for these AIDS orphans in Ethiopia. It's been a count-down since last year. :) My waking hours are definitely full – and many, as I sort out last details. Late nights into the wee hours of the morning and slightly compromised sanity... it’s not work; it’s life. :)

“People say to me all the time, wow, you are so lucky that you’ve found what God wants you to do with your life!”

What I really, really love is how Katie responds.

.... Well, I didn’t find it ?!.... It was just in the Bible!! Jesus does not ask that we care for the less fortunate..... He demands it. When calling ourselves Christ-followers, caring for orphans, and the desolate, and the widow are not an option... it's a requirement.

We don’t have to move our lives to Africa. But what if we all took up the radical - [and radically ordinary!] - call to care for the orphaned? To want nothing more in the world (and nothing less) than to see these children... born into poverty and vulnerability that takes their parents from them... have the chance to live, to flourish? And to so know Jesus' heart and extravagant compassion more than we could ever imagine? His demand is not harsh or even demanding.... when it becomes our own heart's cry & joy to see it into reality. We smile. And love. And smile.

:)

It’s nothing novel or profound. But it is an invitation. :)

I would like to invite you into this journey that is so far from over.


And I'd like to invite you to this...

I've already invited many of you personally. If I haven't... I have meant to! I haven't probably because I've been running around to get some very awesome live entertainment, like a dance performance by Ugandan refugee children!! :D And....making silly mustaches for a photobooth. :P But you are invited.

Each of these kids has a name, and a story. My mind has blanked momentarily on the two boys in the top row but L-R: Addishiwot, Bethelhem, Sinteyehu, Beza, Daniel, Helen, Zemzem, Ermiyas, Zerihun, and Yeabsira. They want to be nurses (Addishiwot and Beza), doctors (Bethelhem, and Yeabsira), scientists (Sinteyehu and Daniel), lawyers (Helen), engineers (Ermiyas and Zerihun), and pilots (Zemzem). 

Each of them has a story. :) These little kids live a tremendously difficult life. But they also have dreams of a different future. They just need a little help writing it into reality.

Each of these little lives has a story. The invitation is, would you be a part of it? 

If yes, then come!! ... it might be amazing, inspiring, or crazy. Hopefully all at the same time. :)

Come... it'll be grand. :)

[just let me know if you're coming:)  Facebook or rainbowc@hope-international.com]