Leaving

We just learned that one of our favorite senior couples (okay, so they are all favorites) is going home early. Medical problems need more attention than can be obtained here and in less than a week, they will be back in the USA. We are sorry to see them go. We understand the Lord sometimes has different plans for us than we had for ourselves. And we will miss them.

In contemplation, it made us realize three things:

1. We need to make every minute here count. We don’t really know how long we will have here to accomplish our mission.

2. If we were to leave here, what would it be like? Have we done enough to help the branch move forward? We sometimes wonder if we are making a difference. But when we looked at the branch through the lens of our absence, we saw how many things would not be accomplished and thus saw what we were doing. We are still needed to “steady the arc.” Fortunately we have the Lord’s permission to do so.

3. We realized how important it is to “teach a man to fish” instead of giving him a fish. If we were to leave—have we made anyone dependent on us? I have heard of some places where members really suffer when the missionaries leave because they’ve become dependent on help or income from the missionaries. I don’t think we’ve done that. But this is a good reminder that what seems like a kindness in the short term can be damaging in the long term. It’s so important to teach instead of giving.

That being said, I ordered a chair sight-unseen for 150 shillings (under $2) so that the member would have enough money to buy materials for two or more chairs. What will I do with the chair? I don’t know. But I would rather buy something I didn’t really need than just give the money.

Early this week we went to a Lion’s High School “prize giving day” at the invitation of the man who is chairman of APDK (we met him at the wheel chair turnover ceremony) and who is also heavily involved in the Lion’s Club. He has contacts through many charitable organization and agreed to help some of our members network for jobs. Two of our members who are teachers also went there. And we did make some contacts. On Friday we went to the Young Generation Center orphanage and school. What a great place! There are many people here in Kenya who are doing a herculean job of saving the lives of people one at a time.

Elder Fox reminded me of the starfish story—about the man walking along the beach throwing back into the water those starfish that had been stranded on shore. Someone said, “Why do you do that? There are thousands of starfish here and you can’t possibly make a difference.” The first man picked up another starfish and threw it into the water. “I made a difference to that starfish.”

Sometimes it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the needs here in Africa. It’s good to remember that we can make a difference to the one... or two… or twenty.