That's right. After just one day with this boy, he has captured my heart. His name is Samuel and he is three years old. I met him last Tuesday when some of my team and I went to an orphanage called Valley Light Children Home here in Maai Mahiu. When we first walked in, there were seven adorable little children under the age of five sitting in swings and quietly playing. I walked over to Samuel and tried pushing him in the swing and tickling him – anything to get a smile. But not only did I not get a smile, I got no reaction from him whatsoever. He had these big sad brown eyes that just looked back at me with an emptiness that literally broke my heart in two. What could have caused a three year old to have the haunting ache and hurt that I could never have imagined in my twenty-two years combined??
But as with many others here in Africa, this boy has gone through so much hardship, as is commonly the way of life here. I found out that his parents had both died, leaving him and his twin sister Alice alone. They had been brought to the orphanage just a few days before, so everything about their lives were completely flipped upside down. After talking with one of the women in charge, she told me about how she had found them by word of mouth. They were from a town far away from here, and they had older siblings but none of them wanted them or could care for them. They had been brought here to this orphanage and had cried everyday since they had arrived. I almost broke into tears just hearing their story. But instead I did the only thing I knew how to do. I loved him.
I held his hand all day long and walked around the property, letting him pet some of the cows they have that gave him some comfort because they reminded him of his home. I held him, tickled him, and played with him. Although the whole time my heart was breaking and I didn't know how I could ever help him, I did what I was created to do. Love.
By that afternoon, he was smiling and laughing and playing – radiating pure joy.
These last few weeks here have been hard. I have seen such poverty, hardship, and pain, but in the midst of it all, I have seen so much love. God has been abundantly pouring His love over our team so that we can pour out love to the Kenyans around us. And God's love is always enough. It always fills me up and satisfies my heart. His love is healing the broken, taking away the pain, filling the emptiness. And He has blessed me to be able to be apart of it.
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” – Ephesians 5:1-2
