I have spent the past 5 days on the southern coast of Kenya near the large port city of Mombasa with 4 members of our Nairobi team and 5 from the southern coastal area. I have seen and heard things that are difficult to explain without you actually being here…but I share through my blogs as each of you have had an instrumental role in making our work successful.
How do I explain the overpowering shouts of joy and exclamation from 800 gathered school children when they saw clean running water pouring out of a spout on the water backpack for the very first time? Or the loving and carefully orchestrated training given by our Kenyan team as they patiently taught and trained the teachers and children on the proper way to gather water, use and clean the backpack for life-changing, long term sustainability ?
How do I explain the hopeful look of anticipation from an 8 year old, double amputee, little boy named Adam who saw us coming with a 3 wheeled cart/mobile carrier (P.E.T.) as he sat propped up in an over sized, rusty adult wheelchair whose seat had rotted and been replaced by torn rattan straps? Or the huge smile on his face as we transferred him over to his new P.E.T. Cart we had assembled for him and 3 other crippled children as he used the hand crank to speed away to show his friends?
How do I explain the gratitude expressed in a 10 year old little girl’s heart after we treated her feet for jiggers at her primary school and she ran all the way back to her home village only to return with her little brother so that he could receive the free jigger treatment as well?
How do I explain the tears that flowed down the faces of our Mombasa PFC team as the men from the Nairobi team knelt and washed their feet as a symbolic gesture of what Jesus modeled for all of us to humbly serve one another?
We go to serve the needs that are presented right in front of us. We go to support our teams who do the day to day work on the ground. Many of you have asked me WHY I go back every year? I go back so that I may never forget what I have seen. I go back so that I will remember the many men, women and children that have yet to receive one of our water packs providing access to clean, safe water. I go back so that I can remember the beautiful smile on Adam’s face when he rode away in his new cart…but cannot rest until all of the other 129 handicapped children we left behind have a P.E.T. Cart of their own. I go back so that I have the privilege of supporting many who have lost loved ones to preventable diseases like malaria, water born illnesses or upper respiratory infections. I go back so I can celebrate the amazing transformations I have seen firsthand from so many whose lives have been changed forever because of the work PFC is doing all over Kenya. Most of all, I go back and see so that I may tell their stories in the hopes that they will touch your heart as much as it has mine so that we may work together to buy and distribute thousands more water packs, more P.E.T. Mobile carts, more bed nets, more computers, more medicines, more soccer balls, and so much more. Bridgette.
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