Sunday, June 21, 2009

I'm sitting in Heathrow's Terminal 5 waiting for my flight home, and trying to process the burdens of my heart as I think back to the few hours we spent on Saturday at the UNHCR World Refugee Day celebration/awareness at the Kenya International Convention Center.

I've worked with International Teams Refugee Ministry in Nairobi for the past few years, spending time in fellowship each of the past two years with their Somali fellowship. This year, having the fellowship time land on World Refugee Day, we decided to take the children to the KACC where there were inflatables, clowns, face painting, etc., time for them to play and be kids. It was a lot of fun - especially having to take care of the young boy who was so frightened by the clown that I had to take him for a walk, which was interesting because he spoke absolutely no English, I can only imagine the thoughts passing through his mind.

Anyway, what really struck me was a picture gallery UNHCR had set up in one tent about the plight of refugees (and migrant workers trying to better the lives of their families) in East Africa and northward. What struck me was the decisions the parents make for the lives of their children, only in many situations to find the parents killed or separated from the children, leaving the little ones to fend for themselves. I can think of Lisa and I making this decision, something going wrong, and having Maiya and Kendyl to fend for themselves, the Lord only knows what could happen to them, and the children put in this situation.

I know there is nothing I can do about this other than pray, but like last year with the situations of sexual abuse in the Mathare slums, I pray the Lord leads me in a direction, shows me a way to help, or gives me a boat load of money so that I can help these people, providing counseling and intervention so these stories of horror and terror do not continue.

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