The Needs of Africa and Memories of Tim Tug at My Heart

I find that diving into the heart of Africa has brought up two strong emotions that are moving through me like waves that actually connect with one another. Our last trip here ended with news that our son had passed away.  It makes sense that returning here would bring up some of those memories as well as the loss we continue to walk through. Then, as our feet touched the ground in Kitale, we were not only surrounded by familiar team members but also greeted by a couple from a neighboring town that we had never met before.  Sitting down to lunch with this husband and wife, they began to show us pictures of mentally ill adults that they were caring for.  As difficult as it is to find good treatment at home for the mentally ill, there is NO treatment available to the African with no finances and, what is worse, the family very often abandons them to the streets where most others shun them.  Often, they are left in gutters to fend for themselves. Now, if you haven’t made the connection yet, I was particularly stirred by this couple’s ministry and the needs they were meeting because Tim was so plagued by his own mental illness during the last couple years of his life.  The needs they were meeting of cast-off, mentally ill people stirred me deeply as my own heart was reminded of what Tim went through.  A coincidence or a God-thing?  Probably the latter. But, oh  the insatiable needs of Africa that so easily get under one’s skin and causes both Brooks and I to want to rip the clothes off our back and hand them to someone like these people in need!  Alas, this is not the answer.  But, we will carefully build relationship with a couple like this over time, learn more about their work, and pray carefully about what steps can be taken to empower them in their work  and not just set up a handout that never ends. Our new friend caring for an abandoned mentally ill man: