I saw them walking in the ditches, past fields of maize and sugar cane. Little kids, some as young as two or three. The odd time in groups but mostly alone. I can only hope they know where they are going…surely they are not just wandering about.
Barely clothed, their tattered clothes are ripped and discoloured under the blazing sun. Their tiny feet have never felt the comfort of a shoe, not even a flip-flop. Jiggers under toenails and raw hunger in the belly are the norm. How can this be? Does anybody care about these precious kids?
Some are taken in, their lives now have a chance. Orphaned kids like the ones Gilbert and Sally Kiptoo have adopted are happy. They are loved and that makes all the difference. I enjoyed walks in the field, felt them tug at my hands, sometimes as many as five or six hanging on to my fingers. How can I ever forget these moments of pure joy.
Say a prayer…follow up with love in action…
Prayer for Orphan Kids of Kakamega
Create in me a heart that
embraces each one as precious,
Give me eyes that see beyond
tattered shirts and battered feet
Let my tears fall to mix with the
red soil of human indignity
So I too feel the pain of being
abandoned, alone.
Make me sensitive to the sound
vibrations of the orphaned
Give me ears to listen to their
faint cries and silent whispers
Where there are broken chords and
notes not always in sinc
Let me sing a song of
freedom and hope.
May I always be moved to
compassion, never complacent
Transformed by the presence of
these timid ones
Let me dance with them as they
reach for my fingers
For in that instant my brokenness
is healed.
Under the Acacia Tree Music
02/01/14
