Going Home?

Going back to Kenya seems like returning home; people I dearly love, places I've longed for, and a land so beautiful it makes my heart ache. I even recall the dust fondly! Yes, I felt at home there...yet I wonder what I will find when I get there. Much has changed since 2007. The December 2007 election & the eruption of post-election violence drove me to weep everyday for the people & land I had fallen in love with. People who were in such desperate need before the riots, now had lost all hope; it seemed as though the world had turned upside down. I was at such a loss to even grasp the fullness of how this changed life for hundreds I had just met. Fear for the Meekers gripped my heart & drove me to my knees.

2009 finds Kenya in the midst of a severe drought, placing those who already have so little in an even more tenuous position; crops have failed, animals dying, water becoming increasingly scarce. What will the 2009 team be faced with? Only God knows. By His Grace & Mercy we will serve in any way necessary. Will there be challenges? Certainly. Will our hearts break anew? Most assuredly. Will God be there in the midst of all the suffering? Count on it! Will we see hope & joy even in great suffering? We sure will...He gives hope to the hopeless.

16 days...1/2 way around the world...7 people..only by the Grace of our Father!