Anybody’s Hero (If only)

Sometimes you meet people that help you understand the meaning of the word ‘love’.

We went to visit a family that Mozart had heard about as the HCLS HOPE School is taking three of their children for the new school year that is about to start.

This lady, having raised her own family and seen her children married, now, with her husband, cares for many orphans. They have six children living with them; one boy has been there seven years, the youngest, a baby, several months. This is not someone who has money. This is not someone who is different from her friends or neighbours or even you. This is not someone who will be well known for the good things she does. She is just someone who saw a need and filled it. She is just someone who found she had something to give. She is just someone who couldn’t walk past and leave a baby lying in a rubbish heap.

We visited so that we could meet and spend some time with the children and hear for ourselves some of their stories. Blessing was left on the side of the road. Moses was picked up out of a pile of garbage. Joy was taken from between the dead bodies of her parents. These children are alive because of one lady’s kindness.

Maybe you think she is a hero. I posted a status on Facebook about her (which apart from this blog is how many of my friends and family see what I am doing over here). Someone commented that she hoped that she would be recognised as a hero. But here, she is just another person living in poverty in a mud house who sees her life not in those terms but as someone who has something to give. She works cleaning a hospital and her husband does casual work for the UN. Neither is paid much. Two of the children are quite sick. But she does not see this as a reason not to do more. She sees this as a reason to trust God for provision. And He does provide.

She is also not alone. There are hundreds, thousands, millions, who take in children here in Africa. Not because they have much to give monetarily but because they have other things of greater value. Family. Love. Belonging. These things are so much part of the culture here. To be without family is unthinkable. Here not only is your father, your father, but also your uncle is your father. Your cousins are brothers and sisters. Your identity is in family.

So because this link to family is so powerful, this lady is giving these kids something that money can’t buy. These children that she has taken in have no one else. The government sees them as her children. No family has been found for any of them but they have been welcomed into hers.

Also this week we visited an orphanage. There, around 30 children, from newborns to preschool age, were being looked after by a group of Catholic nuns. While these women are doing an amazing work, caring for children who have lost parents, it struck me that what these children desire and maybe require most, is family. Some of the children will go back to relatives when they are older, those for whom no family can be found will stay at the orphanage. But despite the care given to these kids, food, clothing, shelter, medical care; it seemed from my brief visit that all they wanted was to be held and played with. However, whatever my personal opinions, these children also have been rescued.

When I see these people and what they are doing I am reminded that the words “if only” have travelled through my head many times. “If only I had more money, or time, or was better at that kind of thing, then I would help”. And when I see them I feel that my excuses are rather small.

“No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.” Isaiah 58:6-7

Blessings

Bron