Lessons Learned...

Isn’t it amazing how much we take for granted?! It shouldn’t take going to another country to realize how blessed we are in America, but it often does. You can talk to anyone who has visited another country, and most of them will tell you of how it changed their perspective on life…at least for awhile. I wish we could all experience that and remain in the state of acknowledging our abundance and gratefulness to God for placing us where He has. I know how quickly I forget, and it is my prayer that the Lord will continually work in my heart and focus my mind on the abundant blessings He bestows upon me and the ones I love every single day!!

These kids here know how to pray! To hear from the mouths of babes that they are thankful that “God woke me today” is truly humbling! How often do I thank Him for waking me? I take waking up and having another day as something expected. To these kids, it is a hard reality. They know that not everyone wakes up every day. In the Nairobi area, roughly 700 children do not wake up each day, due to illness and simple starvation. Isn’t that astounding? These kids are truly grateful to be alive.

I’ve also been touched by how these kids are so “others oriented.” As they pray, they remember “kids who don’t have food,” “friends who don’t have clothes,” and “people who don’t know Jesus.” They are living in what we would consider truly desperate living conditions, but they remember others before themselves. I have seen them look around for their friends and siblings when food is being passed out, and give it to others before eating their own food. Such sweet hearts.

I do pray that the Lord blesses these little guys and honors their hearts of compassion. I pray the lessons I learn, and the lessons the others here are learning, are not short-lived. I believe God is a God of redemption and transformation, and He desires to redeem us and transform our hearts and minds to be in-line with His heart, beating with the same gratefulness and compassion as His. I have seen it in the lives of little ones, and I pray He transforms my heart in the same way.

May we all see the world around us, the chance to be alive and worship our Creator, as a gift today. He DID choose to wake you this morning! He chose to wake me this morning. And for these gifts, I am grateful. Be blessed in His Spirit today!