The Seed and The Soil

Way back in the day, I was forced to read a book called The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.  My classmates all hated it.  I ADORED it.  A completely dysfunctional missionary family from a little town in Georgia moved to the Democratic Republic of Congo.  They had no idea what they were doing.  Some of them went crazy, literally, and others grew to love the country so much that they stayed there forever.  Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, I was completely heartbroken for this country and its people.  I've never been to the Congo.  I've never even met anyone from the Congo.  Yet somehow, years later, my desire to see this nation healed and all of its orphans loved has shaped a ton of my life without me even realizing it.  My heart for orphans is rooted in the Congo just as Ryan's is rooted in Nicaragua.  Layla is rooted in the Congo.  That obscure book was a tiny seed, and God has been working the soil in my heart for years, knowing that one day that seed would grow.

The seed is growing.

In March, I'm heading to the Congo.  And I'm going to help set the groundwork for rebuilding an orphanage that will house 70 of the some 15,000 street kids.

This is the orphanage now: structurally unsound and uninhabitable.

This is the new orphanage: Larger and properly built. 

For more info: Head on over to http://www.voices4thevoiceless.org/