heart for him: Any given moment can change your life, you just have to be there!

DISCLAIMER: If this trip down memory lane ends up sounding like a plug for a ministry then I’m willing to take that chance! And if you feel a tug in your heart after reading this particular story then all I ask is that you obey the tug. After all, that’s how I ended up getting the honor and privilege to enter into the life of Dorcas. I simply obeyed the tug…

“Any given moment can change your life; you just have to be there.” (Unknown)

You’ll notice that my trip to Kenya in 2007 was the catalyst for a lot of how I choose to live my life now. I think it is safe to say that is was, and continues to be, a life changing trip. And the amazing thing about that is it hasn’t just changed my life but I think, oh I pray, it has changed the lives of others for good. And by good I mean good as in permanent and good as in GOOD!
It is June 2007 and we are spending the day with a Compassion project in Nairobi where some of our team members will get to meet and spend time with the children they sponsor. One boy, Nicholas, whose sponsors’ are friends of mine, is my buddy for the day at the sponsors’ request. We had a GREAT time. I got to hang out with Nicholas, who eventually warmed to this strange WHITE woman (haha!), and meet his Dad, Nelson. I returned to Colorado knowing two things. 1) I was going back to Kenya someday and 2) I wanted to sponsor a child in Kenya that I could build a relationship with and extend the provision of God to. And since I was returning to Kenya someday I might as well see if I could sponsor a child in the area I travel to! I wasn’t the only team member who returned from that 2007 trip with the same tug. Several of us came back and signed up. And fortunately for us our church is part of a program through Compassion that focuses on one project and tries to get as many members from that church body to sponsor children from the same project. And so my family and I began a relationship with Dorcas Moraa Anyangu who was born November 1, 1997. Actually my oldest daughter picked her because she was around the same age and we wanted an older child because it is harder to find people to sponsor them.
We wrote letters; she asked me to come so we could have chapati together and sing songs to Jesus together. And even when I knew I was returning to Kenya I didn’t breathe a word because I didn’t want disappointment to have a chance. I dreamed that Dorcas and I would get to meet one day but there was always that hesitation to speak it out loud, to actually hope it could come true. And then it did. In February 2009 I contacted Compassion on behalf of our team and those who sponsored children in Kenya and was told it would be no problem for us to spend a day together and to visit their homes! I cried I was so excited. I wasn’t sure if I could wait until June! I even found out that my buddy from 2007, Nicholas, could come and join us that day. I was looking forward to this day with great excitement, with an awe that I would actually get to be face to face with Dorcas and be part of her day and her world for a brief time.
Friday, June 19 (2009) found my team and I riding in the van toward the project and I was mentally trying to pull myself together, it hadn’t been the greatest morning for me. But that’s a different story for a different day! By the time we reached the project I had recovered from the start of the day and was looking forward to what awaited us. As we pulled into the yard my stomach took flight with a million butterflies. I was going to meet Dorcas in mere minutes! As we were entering the meeting room Nicholas walked right up to me and hugged me! He remembered me and greeted me as an old friend. I was beyond happy, this day was great and we had just started! After some group introductions and a briefing on Compassion we were introduced to one another. To my delight I not only got to meet Dorcas and her mother, Jane, but I also got to meet her siblings. Jane apologized to me that Mark, her husband and Dorcas’ father, could not join us but he must work. I agreed. If Mark had taken the day off the family would have had no income at all coming in that day. In their situation that can’t happen. Dorcas was very shy around me but her siblings warmed right up! And her mother liked me very much; we had a lot of conversation. Eventually we loaded up the vans with gifts and people and head toward Kiambiu, the slum where these children live. In Kenya there are 3 large slums and many smaller ones. Kiambiu could be considered the “upper class” slum of the 3. Mathare Valley, where we work and partner with Pastor Karau, is considered the “poverty” slum. It is the poorest of the 3. And there is a “middle class” one called Kibera. This is very evident as we enter the slum. It is so obvious to me, in fact, that I believe my eyes might have popped out of my head and my jaw dropped. The differences were immediately noticeable to me! To understand you would have to walk through both slums as I did. Even now as I recall it I am amazed at how different the two slums are.
We traveled in groups from home to home, visiting each sponsored child’s family and their home and praying for them before departing. Each sponsor gifted the family that day with food, the staples of a Kenyan diet. Beans, Chapati flour, Rice, Tea, Sugar, Ugali Flour, Cooking Lard, Green Grams. They were so grateful. It was extremely humbling and fulfilling to participate in. Entering into the home of Dorcas and her family I felt so grateful to God for this moment, for this experience, for this honor. She and her siblings opened gifts from me and then I handed to Jane her gift of the food staples. And then I was asked to pray for them and it was a sweet moment I will never forget. I cried while praying for them, I was so blessed by what I was witnessing and being allowed to experience. Dorcas lives in a home where both her Father and Mother are present and seem to be in a committed marriage as evidenced by the four children they have had together. Their home is well taken care of and I see that having Dorcas involved with Compassion has had an extremely positive and beneficial effect on the whole family. Jane spoke to me, Mom to Mom, about her concerns regarding the schooling Dorcas was receiving and as Mom’s we were able to share together our hopes for Dorcas and her future. I was able to see the church where they attend weekly services and see the community where they live and work. To be able to put faces and voices with names meant more to me than I can find words to express. After visiting their homes we traveled back to the project for a shared lunch together. It was a perfect day. Saying goodbye was difficult. Will I ever see Dorcas and her family again? There are no promises and no guarantees and so I cannot even say, “maybe” for even that introduces too much hope to both myself and Dorcas. It is a rare occurrence anyway for sponsors to be able to meet the children they are sponsoring. I am blessed that I was able to meet her even once.
Have you ever wondered if organizations like Compassion just take a bunch of children, dress them up in different outfits, take pictures of them and then try to pass them off as lots of different children? To some it seems unbelievable that there could be that many children in that many countries needing assistance. We’ve been desensitized to the faces of poverty. We have equated the poverty here in America with that of the third world poverty. We look at their faces and it doesn’t register that they are real. They are trying to scrape out an existence somewhere in the world and we have the means to help them. Some of us are guilty of sipping a $4 coffee while complaining about the poverty in this world and not acknowledging, or perhaps understanding, the fact that $4 can provide 1-2 weeks’ worth of meals, our American dollar (even in its weakened state) goes a LONG LONG way in other countries! We sip the $4 coffee and rage at God, “Why don’t you provide for them? If you love them why do you allow them to live in that situation? What’s your plan, God, for helping these people?” And all the while God is trying to tell us that WE ARE THE PLAN. Do you get it? WE are God’s plan! I’m willing to bet that God has provided for you in at least one unique way in your life. Were you grateful, humbled, and awed by his choice of provision? It’s the same thing. God wants to provide for these children and their families and their communities and guess what? He wants to use YOU to do it! And you have the means to do it; you’re sipping a $4 cup of coffee! Can’t give up your coffee? Then go to Mickey D’s, buy a cup for a buck and put the $3 you spent toward helping change someone’s world! (Btw, Mickey D’s coffee? It’s actually…GOOD! Who knew?!?) Coffee isn’t your splurge? How many times a month, or week, do you go out to eat – fast food or sit down? Choosing to not go out once or twice less than you do now will help you sponsor a child for a whole month. Maybe food or coffee isn’t your thing BUT you have something, we all do. Ask the Lord if he would have you continue to indulge on that thing or if he would have you begin to sacrifice for those we call “the least of these”.
There’s another trap we fall into when we consider “the least of these” and when the conviction comes but we are scared to acknowledge it. The rationale is that certainly there are services that offer assistance in those countries and those people are just refusing help. We see it here in America all the time don’t we? And we justify in our minds that if that is what happens here then surely that is the case “there”. Well guess what? That’s just your mind lying to you. The FACT is they don’t have any services in those countries. There aren’t soup kitchens and shelters and government aid, there is NOTHING. They are left to fend for themselves. The aid comes in the form of organizations coming in from wealthier countries (America, Australia, and United Kingdom to name a few) and offering relief. And those organizations are supported by us, people who have the means to do something, who have the means to put feet to our faith. People who have decided to forgo the $4 cup of coffee, quit raging and start acting.
I have come face to face with poverty that has no relief in sight and I have come face to face with a girl who has a chance in life because poverty is no longer holding her back from schooling, medical care, clean water, and three meals a day. And all it takes is $38 a month. That’s nothing in God’s economy! God takes that $38 a month and multiplies it and uses it to not just change one life but to change several. I believe that it’s possible that the life that is changed the most is mine. Say what? Yes, mine. Is Dorcas’ life changed? You bet! Poverty isn’t holding her or her family back any longer. But they know something that I’m still trying to learn. They know that God is Jehovah Jireh, their PROVIDER. They know that God will provide for their needs and used Compassion International and the Peninger family to do it. I haven’t quite got the message yet. Isn’t that sad? I still fret and fuss and stress about our finances BUT I’m changing because I never once consider the $38 that Dorcas and her family get each month from me. I’m learning and watching how God provides for me and my family each month, sometimes in really unconventional ways! So perhaps God’s plan doesn’t just involve us but is also meant for us.
If you haven’t had a lot of experience or exposure to Compassion International let me tell you they are fantastic. They have heart and their number one priority is the children and the communities these children live in. I am continually impressed by their integrity, their involvement, and their commitment to the children of God. Each time I interact with them I walk away more impressed and further convinced that this organization is doing exactly what they say they are doing. Releasing children from poverty in Jesus name. And I would add that not only are they releasing children from poverty but they are releasing families and communities! It’s absolutely incredible. People want to know how much of each dollar does the child actually get? Compassion International receives consistent high marks for the most of every dollar reaching the child. Very little goes toward administrative costs when compared against similar organizations. Still not convinced? Then check out this article from July 2010 (click here).
Let me answer the final question right now: No, I am not working for Compassion International! HAHA! But I believe so strongly and so deeply in the work they are doing that I can’t help but be a vocal advocate for them.
Have you felt a tug? If so then please obey the tug. Taking action is quick and easy, simply go to http://www.compassion.com/ and change YOUR life today but investing in the life of another! This post might be your moment, are you here? Are you present? This is the moment that can change your life, you don't have to go halfway across the world for it to happen! I know people who do go halfway across the world and still miss the moment that God wants to use to change their lives because they chose not to be present spiritually or emotionally. Be present in this moment and allow it to change your life!

Check out these pictures of children, families, and by extension communities whose lives have been changed for the better because of someone’s sacrifice of $38 a month and a willingness to write letters of encouragement and God’s love to a child who may still be learning that there is a God and he takes care of his children.

At Dorcas' home with her family: Mom Jane, Sister Diana, Brother Samuel, Sister Mary Tania, Dorcas, me