Contrasts

I never thought that a 1-hour trip to Cambridge for a home schoolers' talent show would get me messed up to the point of crying almost through the entire morning (good thing lights were off!).

Already on the drive there I told Rich how I already see ourselves driving the roads of Uganda - looking at it's very different landscape, feeling the heat, the different feel etc.

Lately, I constantly have the beautiful black faces before me - young and older - it's as real as my present reality in NZ... my heart is already there and it is bursting with LOVE!!!
It actually feels a lot like it felt just before giving birth to my babies. You can't see them yet, but you are constantly thinking of them, imagining how they'll look like etc and longing to hold them in your arms and tangibly show them your love.

So back to this morning's talent show:
As I was watching the progression of AMAZING performances of one child/young person after the other - some solo, some in groups - I was overcome with the contrast of what I was seeing to what is happening in Africa to most children of the same ages - right now!

CHILDREN ARE any country's TREASURE!!!

The children we saw this morning were being loved WELL - it showed in the performances. Dedicated mothers (and fathers) raising their children, pouring out day after day in care, feeding them, clothing them, training them, giving them an education at home, driving them to endless music, singing, sports, ballet, hip-hop classes, giving them the opportunity to learn instruments and become skillful in many areas, spending their free time researching next year's curriculum and ever working on improving the school (and parenting) experience, guiding them to know THE ONE who loves them even more than the parents ever can...

There was such a RICHNESS and BEAUTY demonstrated!

And all the while my thoughts couldn't help but drift to Africa - and from what I've read, seen and heard from a distance, Africa's children are just as much her TREASURE!

YET - and that's why I got messed up - they are not being well loved, the way they deserve it. Most mothers don't have the luxury to feed their children 3 meals a day - plus morning and afternoon tea (snacks), nor clothe them, let alone spend their days nurturing them, training them, teaching them, giving them an education, fostering the talents that God's laid inside of them by having them take this or that lessons, sport, whatever.

From what I understand, for the majority of people in Africa, daily life is purely about SURVIVAL.

Will I be able to find SOME food for my children today?

Will they survive this sickness?

What will happen to them when I die cuz I've got AIDS?

And then there are the millions of children who don't have parents at all, roaming the streets in search for something to eat, a shelter for the night, vulnerable, lonely, with NO ONE at all to wrap their arms around them, tell them that they're precious, beautiful, loved.

SOMEHOW - SOME.HOW. there's GOT to be a way of sharing some of the richness we've got in NZ (and other Western nations) - like the one with the 2 coats giving away 1 to the one with no coat... dunno how... (and yes, I do realize that even in our nations there are children who aren't well loved)

My heart is just breaking. I have no idea what will happen when I will actually be there.
Will there be enough tears??? It's not that I want to cry - believe me.
But I've asked God to break my heart with what breaks HIS ~ ~ ~ and I think he's answering...