SPONSORSHIP KEEPS CHANGING OUR LIVES
"In my culture, the mom sits here at the head of the table, in the seat of honor."
My breath caught, humbled and honored as King gave up his seat and asked me to move to the head of the table. I'm not entirely sure what I expected when we set out in the hope of meeting our sponsor kids of 10 years, but it definitely wasn't this.
In the first week in Kenya, we spent days with King in the ordinary moments of meals, sessions at the Lahash conference, games, worship, laughter and play. He continued treating me like a mother figure, making sure I was warm enough on cool evenings or had something to drink on hot days. He was looking after me, expressing his care in small daily ways.
He told us towards the end of that first week, "This week, I felt like I was with my parents again." And again my breath was cut short, in total humility, to hear what this time together had meant to him, and I realized it did to us too.
Meeting King in person for the first time at the Lahash God's Global Family Conference.
Our lives had overlapped at an incredibly challenging and painful time for King and his family. Their parents had tragically died within a year of each other; all six children had been dropped from another program; they were facing starvation while they lived with their grandmother, who had no income and who would walk daily to try and find any opportunity to keep her grandkids alive. One day, as she searched for miles and miles around her village, she happened upon the Lahash ERM Rwanda program. She enrolled the 4 younger of her 6 grandchildren (the 2 older having received support elsewhere). And that is where our stories intersected, as we were blessed to be matched up with King and his sister Queen.
For 10 years, our partnership with Lahash has shaped us: the rhythms of Rice and Beans Month, Christmas gifts for sponsor kids, and monthly giving. It has formed our gratitude around food and seeing our abundance; it prioritizes our finances every Christmas, and it is an essential line item in our budget each month; forsaking other things to make sure King and Queen each have their $57/mo needed for educational, nutritional, spiritual, and relational support.
At the start of our sponsorship journey, we had a secret hope: to one day meet them face-to-face. And this summer, that hope was realized.
In the second week of our trip, we did a home visit in Rwanda. We didn't know what to expect, since we hadn't seen a picture of their home since the video was made about them at the start of our sponsorship journey. And we were delighted to see their beautiful home, with electricity, furniture, and so much family! We were greeted not only by King and Queen, but also by 3 other siblings (only one sibling was unable to come) and their grandmother, a woman of great faith and strength, now in her 90s.
When we arrived, Queen and I hugged for the first time. I told her I love her, and she stole my next breath as she said, "I love you too, Mama." We exchanged gifts and stories, and at one point, Queen became tearful and asked King to translate something to me. She asked, "Someday when I get married, we have a tradition to give the mother a gift, a family stick (staff). Who will receive this from me? Will you?" I realized in that moment how much we meant to King and Queen; they didn't just view us as people who lived far away and sent money for them to go to school, but closer than that, as close as parents. All I could do was stammer out, "If God wants me to do this, He will make a way," as I internally prayed to God and continued to pray to answer this young woman's hope.
My family with King and Queen
When our time together on this trip came to a close, we hugged tightly and prayed together, sharing our gratitude for the gift of this time. And we said, "See you later," Because that is our shared hope, that God will bring us together again.
We went to Africa to bless, and came away blessed with the realization of the incredible potential that sponsorship invites everyone into. It is an invitation into caring for the whole person, an invitation into possibility, an invitation into the family of God. This young woman and young man aren't just sponsored kids; they are our family. They pray for us, and we pray for them. We are forever changed for the better in supporting them, in meeting them, and in loving and being loved by them.
Sponsorship changes lives. Yours can be one of them! Connect with a child waiting for a sponsor, HERE.
My breath caught, humbled and honored as King gave up his seat and asked me to move to the head of the table. I'm not entirely sure what I expected when we set out in the hope of meeting our sponsor kids of 10 years, but it definitely wasn't this.
In the first week in Kenya, we spent days with King in the ordinary moments of meals, sessions at the Lahash conference, games, worship, laughter and play. He continued treating me like a mother figure, making sure I was warm enough on cool evenings or had something to drink on hot days. He was looking after me, expressing his care in small daily ways.
He told us towards the end of that first week, "This week, I felt like I was with my parents again." And again my breath was cut short, in total humility, to hear what this time together had meant to him, and I realized it did to us too.
Meeting King in person for the first time at the Lahash God's Global Family Conference.
Our lives had overlapped at an incredibly challenging and painful time for King and his family. Their parents had tragically died within a year of each other; all six children had been dropped from another program; they were facing starvation while they lived with their grandmother, who had no income and who would walk daily to try and find any opportunity to keep her grandkids alive. One day, as she searched for miles and miles around her village, she happened upon the Lahash ERM Rwanda program. She enrolled the 4 younger of her 6 grandchildren (the 2 older having received support elsewhere). And that is where our stories intersected, as we were blessed to be matched up with King and his sister Queen.
For 10 years, our partnership with Lahash has shaped us: the rhythms of Rice and Beans Month, Christmas gifts for sponsor kids, and monthly giving. It has formed our gratitude around food and seeing our abundance; it prioritizes our finances every Christmas, and it is an essential line item in our budget each month; forsaking other things to make sure King and Queen each have their $57/mo needed for educational, nutritional, spiritual, and relational support.
At the start of our sponsorship journey, we had a secret hope: to one day meet them face-to-face. And this summer, that hope was realized.
In the second week of our trip, we did a home visit in Rwanda. We didn't know what to expect, since we hadn't seen a picture of their home since the video was made about them at the start of our sponsorship journey. And we were delighted to see their beautiful home, with electricity, furniture, and so much family! We were greeted not only by King and Queen, but also by 3 other siblings (only one sibling was unable to come) and their grandmother, a woman of great faith and strength, now in her 90s.
When we arrived, Queen and I hugged for the first time. I told her I love her, and she stole my next breath as she said, "I love you too, Mama." We exchanged gifts and stories, and at one point, Queen became tearful and asked King to translate something to me. She asked, "Someday when I get married, we have a tradition to give the mother a gift, a family stick (staff). Who will receive this from me? Will you?" I realized in that moment how much we meant to King and Queen; they didn't just view us as people who lived far away and sent money for them to go to school, but closer than that, as close as parents. All I could do was stammer out, "If God wants me to do this, He will make a way," as I internally prayed to God and continued to pray to answer this young woman's hope.
My family with King and Queen
When our time together on this trip came to a close, we hugged tightly and prayed together, sharing our gratitude for the gift of this time. And we said, "See you later," Because that is our shared hope, that God will bring us together again.
We went to Africa to bless, and came away blessed with the realization of the incredible potential that sponsorship invites everyone into. It is an invitation into caring for the whole person, an invitation into possibility, an invitation into the family of God. This young woman and young man aren't just sponsored kids; they are our family. They pray for us, and we pray for them. We are forever changed for the better in supporting them, in meeting them, and in loving and being loved by them.
Sponsorship changes lives. Yours can be one of them! Connect with a child waiting for a sponsor, HERE.