This dude’s been on my mind lately.
His name is Juma. He likes chicken and he takes his sleep very seriously.
My wife, Laura, and I decided to sponsor a child several months ago, and we looked no further than The Dream Project in Mozambique, Africa, an organization that helps kids who are orphaned or whose families are struggling, which our friend Amanda serves faithfully with.
We asked Amanda to pick a child for us, and we were happy to find out that Juma and Laura are kindred spirits in their views on sleep.
It’s been several months now since we started sponsoring him, and for most of that time it’s been, at least for me, what I expected sponsoring a child to be. You give money monthly, put his picture on your refrigerator, pray for him sometimes, and maintain a relatively disconnected relationship mainly based on a monthly financial transaction and some occasional letters.
But God’s been doing something in me personally lately. Over the last couple weeks I’ve really begun to remember Juma more often in prayer. And more and more I’ve felt this strange affection for him, as if he was somebody in my own family whom I loved dearly and wanted the best for. It’s caught me off guard, honestly, because for someone who compassion doesn’t come naturally for, it’s been an odd experience to be filled with a genuine concern and love for a boy on the other side of the globe whom I’ve never really been in any kind of real relationship with.
I listened to this sermon this morning on my day off from work, and fully expected to be challenged and conflicted, as I often am when I listen to Francis Chan speak.
If you have 20 minutes, I really suggest you listen to it as well. As I was laying on my bed afterwards processing these challenges I’ve processed many times before, I prayed that God would show me what he wants me to do for him, and moreover to fill me with a passion that would allow me not to do it out of guilt, but out of shear love and joy. I fully expected not to hear anything, but as I got up from that prayer and went to make myself breakfast, Juma popped into my head, and I was again just overwhelmed with love for him, and others like him.
In response I sat down to finally write the quarterly letter to Juma that Laura and I have been forgetting to write. It felt good to make him a priority, and to, in a small and somewhat distant way, include him in our family.
One thing that has kept me from blogging lately is that I have felt that I have to have a point to every post – some sort of challenge, or something insightful. I don’t really have that today. Just processing how God has been responding to me.
So Laura and I have been talking about some stuff in regards to all this. I’m sure as things start to solidify I’ll post about it. But all in all, God is moving in our midst and we’re already seeing some interesting things starting to happen. Excited to share when the time is right.
October 26, 2011 at 4:18 pm |
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