Turning 150 million into 1

"The orphan care statistics are tremendously large and often times overwhelming - and if we're honest, hard to grasp and therefore far too easy to dismiss. Perhaps that's why only 2% of the population has adopted. We must learn to scale it down into proportions people can understand and wrap their minds, their hearts and ultimately their hands around. The call to care for orphans doesn't mean you have to save them ALL; it does, however, mean you can change the life of at least ONE. Start with coming alongside one, loving one, caring for one and making sure that at least one knows they are valued and treasured and that everything is going to be ok. Start with one. Turn 700 into 1. Turn 150 million into 1. Turn 31,000 into 1. When you know the story of one, it becomes much more difficult to discard the truth of the whole.*"-Jason Johnson

one. Amie.

I have had the immense privilege since moving to Burkina of learning the stories of many "ones". It's amazing how quickly statistics can become personal when you put a face to them. It's amazing how quickly the statistics break your heart because you now know children that make up those numbers.

Before moving to the other side of the world, I thought I cared about orphans. But I had no idea. I'd sit in church and hear about the need for orphan care around the world and nod my head in agreement, I'd watch Compassion commercials and see the need for sponsors because children were dying in the streets and feel sadness and pity, I'd listen to stories of friends who brought children home from other countries and think that I cared. 

But I had no idea what it meant to truly care about orphans. Not in the way that breaks you.

God cleared that up real quick, let me tell ya.

I care now. And I'm not talking about the kind of care that compelled me to do something special a couple times a year on behalf of someone else so that I could ultimately feel good about myself and say, "hey, look what I did! Way to go me!"and then go back to my regular life and not give a second thought to those living outside of my circle until next time a cool project came up. 

I am talking about the kind of caring that makes you physically shake with grief and pain when you see another person hurting. The level of caring that makes you weep in the middle of the night over the conditions that orphans and millions of others less fortunate have to endure. I'm talking about the kind of caring that keeps you up at night, that crowds your thoughts during the day, that follows you everywhere you go.

I'd seen people, known people, read about people who cared for others on this level. And I was jealous for what they felt....because I knew I didn't have it. 

But I wanted to. I wanted to be broken. I wanted to care in a way that transformed my heart. I wanted to care in a way that transformed the way I saw. I wanted to care in a way that transformed the way I acted, the way I thought....the way I loved.

And I have been. It was messy and painfully hard but I have been broken and transformed and continue to be, by the relentless pursuit of One God, and the lives of every one I meet. 

One. Rosalee.

It's because I know the story of this one that I care about her life as if she were my own. It's because I know the story of this one that I can shout and jump and celebrate praising God because Rosalees finally learned how to walk!! After almost a year....she has discovered the will to move!

Hallelujah for a God who doesn't keep us where we're at. Hallelujah to a God who plants in our hearts the will to move...to move closer to Him, to move away from a life of comfort, to move away from a life of selfish pursuits, to move away from a life indifference. May my family and I forever continue taking steps in the direction of the One, who gives us a love to care for other ones. 

"When you know the story of one, it becomes much more difficult to discard the truth of the whole." -Jason Johnson

Move. Learn the story of one.