Open House

Jack and Lawrence have started a new story group at a home in the Awindiri community. They were very excited about how the first fewweeks had gone, and asked me to come along, just to see how things were going.

When I got to the home, I was a little surprised that we were meeting on the narrow little porch in front of the house. Usually, people meet in places where they can spread out, preferably in a circle. But this porch is barely three feet wide, so everyone just sat in one long row and looked toward Jack and Lawrence, in the middle.

The other thing that stood out to me was how many kids were around the place. Now, children are one of the few things there's an abundance of in Africa, but there seemed to be more than usual here. I asked the father of the home how many children he had. As it turns out, he and his wife only had five children.   But there were many children in their extended family who had been orphaned or abandoned, and he and his wife saw they needed homes, so they took them in – ten of them!  In all, there were fifteen children in this home. The man and his  wife didn't expect any pats on the back or handouts from the government. They just knew that God said to take care of children, so that's what they did.

There are lots of problems with Africa, and many of them will never be fixed. But, at least in this area, they've got it right. They take care of each other. Their doors are open. We are "all most welcome." I hope I can carry just a bit of that back with me when I leave this place.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:

to look after orphans and widows in their distress

and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27