Last day

Last day here. We went to the Amazima feeding program. We sat and had worship. The guy leading worship was hilarious. Didn't have a clue half of what he was saying. But the kids
, they love him.

As we are worshipping a little one is laying on my lap and sleeping. She is burning up! After worship we get in line to help give out food. Each of the 400 kids gets rice, beans, and chicken. I am able to serve chicken. When my turn is over I get up and someone jumps in for me.

I see the little girl sitting with her friends. They are all eating but she is just sitting. I pick her up and she is burning with fever. I try to ask what I can do for her and they decide she needs to go to the clinic.

James walks with me and we carry her down the road and into the clinic. We can't find anyone but a group of people watching TV. We look through rooms and can't see anyone to help so we go to find Becca and Kelsey, interns at Caanan.

We get the little one some ibuprofen, a juice box, and rub her body with cold water bottles. After several minutes she is still not cooling down. We walk back to the clinic and find the staff (the group of people watching TV that didn't help us before!). The doctor stands up, touches her head, and asks me if she is eating. I say no (I guess I am qualified to answer that since I saw her not eat one meal she was given today.). He motions for the nurse to admit her. And all this without stopping the TV show he is engrossed in. Seriously?

Becca offers to stay with her and James and I go back up to Amazima. I play with the kids for a few minutes and then we leave. I stop back in the clinic to check on her and someone has gone to get her mother and she is there with her. Becca says her fever was 103 (20-30 minutes after the ibuprofen and cooling we were trying). She is on IVs.

I have mixed feelings knowing I have helped her all that I can and yet wanting to know that she will be ok, that she will feel better, that she will have someone cuddle her and make her feel better. That she will be loved. That her mother (who has 18 children and is positive) will notice when she is sick again.

But all of that has to be laid at Jesus feet. I don't even know her name, but He knows her name and desires for her to be a child of God.

Leaving this afternoon is hard. Little Joseph who has been at my side all week is napping as we are loading the bus. I go in and kneel down and he is napping on the concrete floor, hugging an Upward football that I brought, his sweet head laying on pictures of my family that I gave him earlier today. Really? Could this be any harder?

But I quickly remember that it isn't about me. It is about the coming and the loving. And leaving is part of teaching them to trust. Someone new will come who will love as wholly and completely as me. God will not forget. He knows what they need.

The fact that I could fill that role for these short days is truly an honor. One that I hope to have again very soon. One that each of us has to have.

8 friends, 13 days, 2 countries, 11 ministries, 2132 children loved

So if you ask me how Africa was, you may be surprised at the answer.

I can't really tell you. It is a place you must go. They need you to visit. Jesus needs you to go and be love.

- Posted from my iPhone