Does My Life Really Count?
I was born...
I have had my birth certificate since that day...
I have a passport...
A driver's license...
Even a Kenyan ID card...
If I were hit by a car and died today, someone would look in my purse, see who I was, and my family and friends would be informed, know, and care...
and I sort of take all this for granted!!!
Recently, we've run into a situation with a young boy in Ngando.
He was accepted into a school with full scholarship - based on an exam he took.
Yes, he's really smart!
... on the way to take the exam, on a small stop for tea, he self-consciously shared that he had never used a serviette (napkin) before and wasn't sure how to.
Yes, this dirty, barefoot boy has struggled and been thankful for each meal he's eaten - and gone hungry much of the time too!
After passing the exam, we were given the "next steps" to get him enrolled. Top on the list was to submit a copy of his birth certificate.
But when your mama is a prostitute... and your grandpa is the known drunkard, odds are against getting that ID!
As a matter of fact, as we dug in deeper, his mama doesn't have a birth certificate or an ID either!
And so they have lived...
Uneducated...
Uncared for...
Unidentified...
I try to imagine this life - this struggle for identity....
this feeling that "I don't really matter"...
"Does my life really count?"
It is the root of so much hurt and pain
that has gone into the downward spiral for generations in this family!
Our prayer is that they will find their identity... first in the GOD of the Universe - who cared for them so much that he sent his own SON to rescue them!
And then, that we can help them to get their national ID's as well!
And then, that we can help them to get their national ID's as well!
Isaiah 49:15
“Can a mother forget the infant at her breast
walk away from the baby she bore?
But even if mothers forget,
I’d never forget you—never.
Look, I’ve written your names on the backs of my hands.
And as this boy and his mama realize
how loved they are - that they will also realize that
their lives in Ngando matter too!
