Too often, we see a need and the vast scope of the need causes us to not do anything. The task is too large, the need too massive, the problem too universal.
Seven years ago, the leadership at The Journey felt a conviction about the AIDS and orphan epidemic in Africa. But what do you do for an issue that is continent-wide and systemic? Often we become paralyzed by those issues. You can't do everything and you don't know where to start so you don't do anything.
We decided we needed to do something. We partnered with a small orphanage in Naivasha, Kenya - the House of Hope Home. We had a previous relationship with a family who was helping to bring some leadership to the orphanage and the surrounding community. We knew we couldn't do everything, but we knew we could do SOMETHING and it turns out that something means everything to that orphanage.
It matters to the two kids we helped rescue while on a trip there, and then paid for them to be part of the orphanage. It matters to the children we've helped build classrooms for. It matters for the kids who have milk and eggs to eat and drink from the cows and chickens we've purchased and the cow sheds we've built. It mattered to the 300 children who received shoes at the local school. It matters to Julius who was left as a baby in a sack by the side of the road. It matters to Alice and her 9 children who were living in a tin & cardboard shack, but now are living in a home we had built. It matters to the workers at the orphanage who have water accessible now and rain tanks for storage and a methane gas distributer that helps them cook food without having to do it over a wood fire all the time. It matters to the orphanage owners to have a van to take kids on field trips or to the store. And it matters to those who have went from The Journey on teams to Kenya, and it matters to those who have given generously, and it matters to those who have had their faith grow.
We can't do everything, but we can do something. And that something matters.
What CAN you do? When you can't do everything, you still can do SOMETHING. And something still matters!