In America, we use the term “topping off” to refer to what happens when we stop and fill our gas tanks one more time before we hit the road. I discovered over the last week or two that people in other parts of the world call this “topping up”.
Of course, people, like cars, need energy to run. Every so often, a person’s creativity tank can run a little low. When this happens, it can be very beneficial to take a break and get away for a while in order to clear his or her mind and allow the tank to get refilled. For this reason, my own recent mini-sabbatical from blogging has been more than beneficial.
Actually, I have been away on a church sponsored Mission Trip to Kenya; and the trip has been very rewarding. Ostensibly, we spent a week working in the Spring Valley Baptist Children’s Centre and School in Nairobi, Kenya. Along the way, the Lord helped to refill my soul.
Begun in 1999, the Spring Valley ministry is now celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year. Kenyans Stanley Nganga (known affectionately as “Pastor Stanley”) and his wife, “Teacher” Alice, began the orphanage and school after they had gone on a church sponsored trip to the slums located in the Spring Valley area on the outskirts of Nairobi.
At the time, he was an accountant and she was a banker. Troubled by the astounding poverty and literal starvation they encountered (400 children died that year in Spring Valley from starvation, their bodies being thrown into the eponymous spring-fed creek running through the local valley), they prayed about it and decided to cash in their retirements and found an orphanage for the numerous homeless and destitute children of parents recently deceased as a result of AIDS.
Today, that ministry has grown to include right at 400 children! And the orphanage is expanding yet again. So, while we were there, we undertook the following:
-We delivered and distributed 12 large suitcases full of supplies (such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, etc… to the orphanage…
-We conducted two medical clinics seeing over one thousand people in all…
-We provided 30 pillows, blankets, and bed covers to thirty boys in the orphanage who did not previously have these most basic items…
-We fixed and repaired dozens of broken lights in five different buildings…
-We fixed and repaired scores of broken lockers in two dorm buildings…
-We built thirty new desks for thirty new students in classrooms…
-We repaired dozens of broken desks and handmade church pews…
-We made twenty plus home visits to deliver goods to families living in abject poverty…
-We helped serve over ten thousand meals (24 meals to each of over 400 children and 30 adults)…
-We taught two hours of hygiene classes…
-And we taught over twenty hours of Bible classes…
As we undertook these various projects, I like to feel like we helped to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of people while in Kenya. But, as long as I live, I will never get over the impact of this one trip on my life as well. The Lord clearly used my time in Africa trip to remind me of several things. Among them were:
-Just how good He has been to me…
-That to whom much is given, much is required…
-And of course, how much more of a blessing it is to give than to receive.
As if to underscore the truths, the Lord gave me an unexpected couple of surprises when we left Kenya and headed home. On the way back, we had a lengthy layover in Holland. Afforded this opportunity, we ventured out into Amsterdam to see what all we could see. In due time, we found ourselves at the house where Anne Frank and her family had been hidden away during the Nazi occupation of Holland in World War Two.
From there we took the train to Haarlem (the namesake of the more widely known community in the northern part of Manhattan Island, New York), and made our way to another significant place –one that had served as both a shop, a home, and a hiding place for numerous Jews in World War Two. That place was owned by the family of Corrie Ten Boom. She and her family were Christians who chose to harbor Jews and protect them from Nazis during the same Nazi occupation.
Of course, for those of you who have read Ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place, or else who may have seen the movie of the same name championed by Billy Graham, the courage of these Christians in the face of absolute evil is amazing!
Along with her entire family, Corrie Ten Boom was made to pay the price for sheltering innocent people from evil. She lost several family members to the Nazis in Concentration Camps; and, along with her sister, was herself interned in Ravensbrück. Sadly, her sister did not survive. But Corrie did; and afterward, the Lord laid it on her heart to write a book titled The Hiding Place.
Through this book, and the movie that followed, the Lord used her testimony in a powerful way. When Billy Graham discovered it, he asked her to participate in several of his crusades. Her testimony helped to make a difference in the lives of millions of people.
Corrie Ten Boom followed the example of our Lord and Savior and emptied herself completely on behalf of others. She gave all she had to give. And as a result, the Lord used her in a powerful way.
While our own time in Kenya did not impact millions of people, we did impact hundreds. In the process, I have been reminded that all God asks of any of us is to be willing to be used of Him. When we are so willing, and make ourselves available, He finds a way to make our service meaningful to others.
In any event, I am back home now; and my tank has definitely been “topped up”! From time to time over the coming days, I hope to sprinkle a story or two into my blog posts about what all the Lord allowed me to experience on this wonderful trip.
Attached is the Spring Valley newsletter summarizing our trip…
Of course, people, like cars, need energy to run. Every so often, a person’s creativity tank can run a little low. When this happens, it can be very beneficial to take a break and get away for a while in order to clear his or her mind and allow the tank to get refilled. For this reason, my own recent mini-sabbatical from blogging has been more than beneficial.
Actually, I have been away on a church sponsored Mission Trip to Kenya; and the trip has been very rewarding. Ostensibly, we spent a week working in the Spring Valley Baptist Children’s Centre and School in Nairobi, Kenya. Along the way, the Lord helped to refill my soul.
Begun in 1999, the Spring Valley ministry is now celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year. Kenyans Stanley Nganga (known affectionately as “Pastor Stanley”) and his wife, “Teacher” Alice, began the orphanage and school after they had gone on a church sponsored trip to the slums located in the Spring Valley area on the outskirts of Nairobi.
At the time, he was an accountant and she was a banker. Troubled by the astounding poverty and literal starvation they encountered (400 children died that year in Spring Valley from starvation, their bodies being thrown into the eponymous spring-fed creek running through the local valley), they prayed about it and decided to cash in their retirements and found an orphanage for the numerous homeless and destitute children of parents recently deceased as a result of AIDS.
Today, that ministry has grown to include right at 400 children! And the orphanage is expanding yet again. So, while we were there, we undertook the following:
-We delivered and distributed 12 large suitcases full of supplies (such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, etc… to the orphanage…
-We conducted two medical clinics seeing over one thousand people in all…
-We provided 30 pillows, blankets, and bed covers to thirty boys in the orphanage who did not previously have these most basic items…
-We fixed and repaired dozens of broken lights in five different buildings…
-We fixed and repaired scores of broken lockers in two dorm buildings…
-We built thirty new desks for thirty new students in classrooms…
-We repaired dozens of broken desks and handmade church pews…
-We made twenty plus home visits to deliver goods to families living in abject poverty…
-We helped serve over ten thousand meals (24 meals to each of over 400 children and 30 adults)…
-We taught two hours of hygiene classes…
-And we taught over twenty hours of Bible classes…
As we undertook these various projects, I like to feel like we helped to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of people while in Kenya. But, as long as I live, I will never get over the impact of this one trip on my life as well. The Lord clearly used my time in Africa trip to remind me of several things. Among them were:
-Just how good He has been to me…
-That to whom much is given, much is required…
-And of course, how much more of a blessing it is to give than to receive.
As if to underscore the truths, the Lord gave me an unexpected couple of surprises when we left Kenya and headed home. On the way back, we had a lengthy layover in Holland. Afforded this opportunity, we ventured out into Amsterdam to see what all we could see. In due time, we found ourselves at the house where Anne Frank and her family had been hidden away during the Nazi occupation of Holland in World War Two.
From there we took the train to Haarlem (the namesake of the more widely known community in the northern part of Manhattan Island, New York), and made our way to another significant place –one that had served as both a shop, a home, and a hiding place for numerous Jews in World War Two. That place was owned by the family of Corrie Ten Boom. She and her family were Christians who chose to harbor Jews and protect them from Nazis during the same Nazi occupation.
Of course, for those of you who have read Ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place, or else who may have seen the movie of the same name championed by Billy Graham, the courage of these Christians in the face of absolute evil is amazing!
Along with her entire family, Corrie Ten Boom was made to pay the price for sheltering innocent people from evil. She lost several family members to the Nazis in Concentration Camps; and, along with her sister, was herself interned in Ravensbrück. Sadly, her sister did not survive. But Corrie did; and afterward, the Lord laid it on her heart to write a book titled The Hiding Place.
Through this book, and the movie that followed, the Lord used her testimony in a powerful way. When Billy Graham discovered it, he asked her to participate in several of his crusades. Her testimony helped to make a difference in the lives of millions of people.
Corrie Ten Boom followed the example of our Lord and Savior and emptied herself completely on behalf of others. She gave all she had to give. And as a result, the Lord used her in a powerful way.
While our own time in Kenya did not impact millions of people, we did impact hundreds. In the process, I have been reminded that all God asks of any of us is to be willing to be used of Him. When we are so willing, and make ourselves available, He finds a way to make our service meaningful to others.
In any event, I am back home now; and my tank has definitely been “topped up”! From time to time over the coming days, I hope to sprinkle a story or two into my blog posts about what all the Lord allowed me to experience on this wonderful trip.
Attached is the Spring Valley newsletter summarizing our trip…