Crossing the Lake

After a weekend visit to the children’s home CRCA (known as Kenya Matters in the U.S.), our 7 year old, Joel, wrote the following excerpt from his journal entry.  For context, the children live at CRCA, but still have some contact with a guardian who is a member of their extended family.

“In the evning, the first day, we went to the home of two of the children’s guardian’s...  Next, we visited the second home.  When we got ther, we saw the naighbor kids playing with a tire and a stick.  He hit the tire with the stick and made it spin.  When we got in it [the home],,, looked like it was run down but to them it was a norml house.  It had no lighting and no runing water.  It had one room.  It had a couch two chairs and a bed.  It had a packed down dirt floor and huge water jugs that made a little tabl.  Next we met the baby and her mom.  Then my mom prayed for them.  Then we went out and saw the mom cooking on a pan with ashis in it.  Then we left.”

That afternoon, Joel experienced with all his senses someone else’s daily reality.  As we sat squished together in the dark room it encouraged us all to humanize people and situations that we may have previously made assumptions about or didn’t think about at all.

I was reminded of the time in Luke 8:26-38 when Jesus took his disciples across the lake from Galilee to the gentile region of the Gerasenes in order to heal a demon-possessed man.  Yes, he restored the man, but he brought the disciples with him to transform their hearts as well.  In order to show them that His love, compassion, and power reach beyond their own Jewish culture and way of life, He brought them out of their context and the familiar.  They went to a place and people they had no occasion to interact with and to a man who struggled with issues they personally never faced.  Jesus entered the hard places, and He brought his disciples with him to prepare them for a life of ministry.  Just as He gave his disciples on their excursion across the lake, He gave Joel and our family a real face and a true-life story from someone whose reality is very different from our own.

Mama Dorcas - The founder of CRCA

We spent the whole afternoon at CRCA playing games with the kids.  Armed with a few field games and indoor activities, we laughed and played together.  Each game we led needed in-the-moment modifications, but even this was a great lesson for our family in flexibility.  The aim was connection with others, not letting a plan or set of rules be the driving force.  That evening we heard some of their stories that rang clear with the common theme of, “Life was very, very hard, but Mama Dorcas (the founder of the home) found me, saw my need, and rescued me by giving me a place here, where we are family”.  With these core elements of the gospel being applied and lived out in these children’s lives, it is not surprising that their love for God is tangible and a sense of belonging is strong.

    

As a family we planned the evening devotional, each leading a part, on the impact of our words from the book of James.  We tried to bridge our two worlds and mother tongues by using volunteers to take part in our object lessons involving toothpaste and another using salty water.  Laughter goes a long way in building bridges.

It is possible and good to “cross the lake” by going to the other side of town and sometimes even by walking across the street.  However, this quarter, we have asked our children to cross the lake, literally an ocean, in coming to Kenya.  Exposing them to new sights, sounds, smells, and ways of living life, has both challenged assumptions they held and has begun to fill in the blank slate they held in their minds about Kenya.  Even within this foreign context, we have sought ways to board a boat and cross into parts of Kenyan life that are very different from our own and to put a real face to a complex problem.

When we cross the lake, our hearts and our minds are changed.  It not only changes the lens through which we view people, it changes the way we pray.  I’ve noticed over our months here, our boys have increasingly thanked God for having parents and a home and have asked God to comfort those who do not.  Recently, one of the boys prayed, “Dear God, please help everyone in the world to have at least one meal today.”  As the realities they experience broaden, their hearts do as well.

Seth is teaching them how to play a new game

A few times over our days at the CRCA, I caught out of the corner of my eye, two boys, arm in arm with beaming smiles on their faces.  One of them was my son, the other a new friend from the home.  The children there face great obstacles, but for a moment we could stand shoulder to shoulder, knowing there is a God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. (Ephesians 3:20)  Although it was short, we thank God for this lake crossing.  Like it was for the disciples, I pray it is part of our preparation as well for a lifetime of ministry and compassion.