Meeting Day

Today we stayed in Kisii at the new hotel Maureen found called Dados.  It’s much nicer than the Mash Park where we used to stay.  John Cherry and Cherie Creech can attest to the charms of the Mash Park.  We had our meeting today to discuss the various issues of the orphanage work.

What I was struck by today is how similar we are to the Kenyans in some key ways.  They also see that this work is vital, and that it is part of God’s plan for the redemption of the world.  Of course it’s more real for them than us; they live with the reality of death and despair every day.  But they struggle with the same dilemmas that we do with regards to this work.  It is far easier, and cheaper, to just provide food for those orphans who have none.  Housing them, educating them, and providing medical care triples the cost.  We struggle with how much care to provide the orphanage kids, knowing that it costs the outsiders dearly.  They struggle with it too.

We talked of ways to help the Kenyans raise money on their own.  Some of them are very entrepreneurial, and some aren’t.  Just like in America.  It’s kind of fun for me to be able to throw in a quick lesson on economics; I was surprised how much I remembered from those macro and micro classes when I was a business major.  Our workers are eager students.

The biggest blessing I discovered today however is the one that I have had for 21 years, Susie.  Today, she sat in our meeting, contributing some explanations when mine were lacking, and took pages of notes of the meeting on her laptop.  I can’t tell you how valuable that is when my memory is so bad.  She has also been keeping up with the money and receipts; no easy task here.  I know that John and the GCR bookkeeping staff will appreciate her work.  Imagine balancing an expense account with three currencies!  Susie’s role on this trip will really be shown in the next few days as we begin our orphanage visits.  She has the ability to bond quickly with the widows at these locations.  She loves them deeply, and they seem to return her affection.

Tomorrow we head to Ndhiwa to see their orphanage and worship with them.  I’ll be preaching one of Charlton’s excellent sermons about Ruth.  It struck me when I heard that sermon how much Ruth’s story fit with the widows at our orphanages.  God uses the weakest, most marginalized, broken people to do his most amazing work.  He even includes them in the redemption of the world.  Without Ruth, there is no Jesus!