moses

"Drawn Out"
Pharaoh's daughter named her son Moses because she drew him out of the water.

I visited the House of Moses yesterday.
This is a house solely for babies, Zambian babies that are drawn out of hopelessness.

Upon leaving this place, after holding a few babiesand doing very little to help anyone, I was feeling a bit hopeless myself. Not for the babies I had nestled in my arms or clapped with or rolled around on the floor with in play, but hopeless because I knew that these were not all of the babies.

Then I read the story of Moses.

Amram, Moses' mother, found herself in a situation that seemed humanly impossible, without hope.
She was one Hebrew surrounded by a sea of slavery, living under a law she could not change.
She couldn't change the world.
She couldn't even change her world.
She couldn't change the law.
She couldn't save all the babies.

Evil showed its ugliness on her every side and in the face of it, she did not destroy her son.
She saved him.

I am surrounded by evil and it frustrates every finger I lift to work against it.
Like Amram, I'm directing my war against the evil one towards the smallest of efforts.
A small act of courage set into motion the rescue of God's people from Egypt.

All he needs are small things, such as these few hours loving babies, to begin his redeeming work.
In the words of Mother Teresa, "small things with great love".

freedom

I run in the path of your commands,
For you have set my heart free.

There is much freedom here in Zambia.
The Zambians teach me about this freedom that they have.
Rather than a sacrifice or a loss, I have seen a gain.

Freedom.

Freedom from image.
Free to get dirty.
Free to turn in early.
Free to wake up at 6 am just to be, not to be somewhere.
Free to nap.
Free to have a face kissed by the sun, no other color.
Free to be fat :)
Free time.
Free to be barefoot.
Free to let my laundry dry in the sunshine.
Free to write.
Free to love.
Free to teach.
Free to be taught.
Free to know the truth.
Free to seek the truth.
Free to be changed.
Free to be refreshed.
Free to walk through open doors.

In Christ's freedom there is also quality of life, enriched by his word. That increase in quality of life is the freedom he has shown me today.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

kauya

The only man who has held my heart in his hands is just under four feet tall.
With his smile, he has taken my love and run away with it in his bare feet.
My heart is satisfied when he snuggles into my arms.
His sunshine sweeps me off my feet.

I saw him today. I saw this sweet boy for the first time in almost six months.

Out in the village where there is no dust, just bright green grass, sunshine, and water puddles.
It's a different world than the one I left a few short months ago.
Kauya is different too, physically different. He is so thin, his frame so tiny.
He is so different that I could barely recognize his little figure from a distance.

We walked down to the new house being built in Chongwe, assessing the damage to its roof from the violent storm the night before.
Just before I entered the shell of a house, I saw him walking a good distance away and looking down towards me. I was not sure if it was him. I yelled "Kauya!". He raised his tiny little hand straight up in the air. It was him.

I let my joy and excitement just take me over. I started running through all kinds of mud, sediment, green mossy puddles. I didn't even look down. He was running too, in his pink crocs.

His tiny body took a leap up into my arms.

He was shy today, a new dynamic of his larger-than-life personality. His arms wrapped tightly around and his head pressed into my neck. He breathed the same relieved words over and over....Mama Mary, Mama Mary, Mama Mary.

I never knew my prince would be an orphan.