"Everything happens for a reason" is a saying I've heard but never really felt, or even thought much about. Until now. We've spent the past two weeks in Karati with the Kikuyu tribe. The first week was rough and I was questioning what we were doing and if we were really making a difference. I kept letting little things get to me and was stuck in the repetitiveness of the door to door ministry we were doing. Everything started looking worse when I learned that our teammate Ryan was going home. Thats when I started thinking about everything happening for a reason, though. I realized that going home would be better for him and therefore better for the team. The next day I was still stuck in my negativity, not thinking that anything we were doing would have an impact and the day would have been the same with or without us. That quickly changed after the first house. It was a woman we'd already met on the opposite side of the tribe. Thats when it hit me that everything was happening for a reason. There was a reason we were meeting this woman again and there was a reason for what we we're doing. It seems like such a small thing, but it was a huge realization for me and it absolutely changed my outlook on everything we've been doing and are going to do. The next two houses we went to confirmed everything I'd been feeling. The first was a woman with newborn twins. We talked to her and learned that she had three other children and was married but her husband had not been home since the twins had been born and that he was an alcoholic. The house after that was a woman and three children. We learned that one was hers and the other two were her recently decesed friends orphaned children. Her husband had also left her and was also an alcoholic. She had just moved to Karati to try and find work but had little success and had not been able to provide for herself or the children. We gave them our lunch and what little money we had. If we hadn't been there, the pastor wouldn't have been going door to door and would have never discovered these families with such great needs. He assured us that he would be back to help the families and the church would help them as well. Visiting those families impacted them and gave them hope, but what they probably didn't realize is that it did the same for us.
