Tell me a story . . . . please!

This is a story that my dear friend, Kerry Wuthrich, wrote for the June issue of the Global Hope newsletter:

“Tell me a story … pleeeeease!” … if you have children in your life, you have likely heard these words, and you’ve probably obliged the child begging for the tale you have to offer. You may be reaching inside for an experience to share with them for the first time, or a special favorite they like to hear again and again. In either case, it’s hard to say how these precious reflections continue to influence the ears they fall upon for a lifetime to come—but be assured, they do.

When Joyce Genord was a little girl, her grandfather shared with her his adventures that took him to Africa and India. She was in awe of her world traveling, adventurous grandfather and dreamed of being one herself someday. Her mother, Janet Genord, was also an inspiring example. Joyce grew up in a loving Christian home where she saw her mom caring for others and supporting mission work in various ways. Her mother would gather needed supplies for medical kits, collect coats, donate money to help with financial needs, and partner with an intercessory working directly with women’s ministries. It is easy to see how Joyce developed such a sincere heart for following God’s will for her life.

Some time ago, Joyce taught a Sunday School class of kindergartners. They were collecting shoes, towels, and medicine for a team of missionaries to handdeliver to HOREC (Hope for Orphans Rehabilitation Center in Kenya, Africa). Months later, she was able to share with her class the photos of the proud children wearing the new shoes they had helped collect! This was starting to get personal. She carried in her heart and mind her grandfather’s stories and her mother’s example, and now Joyce was open the opportunity she now had before her to go on a mission trip to Africa and serve orphans in a hands-on capacity.

Her world travels had already begun years before when she worked in China. When she went to Cambodia, Joyce saw poverty—devastating poverty—but it didn’t affect her heart the way the poverty she saw in Kenya did.

In 2009, Joyce went on the second Global Hope mission trip to HOREC. She had photos, brief descriptions, and most importantly, names to go with the precious faces and stories. Joyce studied them and became personally invested in these specific, individual children. When they met for the first time the excitement was overwhelming for her—and the children were amazed she knew their names!

These children had been discarded, and had endured much suffering. They had cared for their parents dying of AIDS, they had been abused, they had faced not knowing where their next meal come from, and they had not had the chance to attend school with their peers.

But when they first met, this is not what Joyce saw in these young lives; in these smiles that greeted her team with exuberant, joyful song and dance! She saw that they were overcoming their struggles, knowing they have not been forgotten, they were experiencing God’s love for them through the outreach of caring people—from a few kilometers away, to oceans away—and the children now embodied hope, and an infectious sense of peace.

They say a picture says a thousand words and this picture speaks with no less volume, but there is one word in particular to notice. It is the Kiswahili word, or name, that the teenage girls at HOREC gave to Joyce during her third visit with them in Kenya this past fall. The word is, “bahati,” which means “lucky.” Does Joyce agree with them? That would be a resounding YES!

Our mission team read The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns. The quote that struck a chord with Joyce is a comment Stearns made about his first trip to Africa. He says: “I wasn’t supposed to be there, so far out of my comfort zone—not in that place where orphaned children live by themselves in their agony. There, poverty, disease, and squalor had eyes and faces that stared back, and I had to see and smell and touch the pain of the poor.” Even though these words are stark, Joyce found comfort in a verse from the first Bible study she had ever done. It was rooted in Philippians, and now as her favorite verse, it is the one she relied upon for her journey into the lives of the children in Kenya: Philippians 4:6-7, which summed up means, “don’t worry, pray for everything, give thanks, and through Christ everything will be okay.”

I am blessed to call Joyce my friend, to have served with her in Kenya, and to have shared our hearts and love for these children with one another. (By the way, this is one of the countless blessing of missions—the opportunity to build relationships rooted in serving as the Body of Christ.) I asked her frankly how she would like to see others respond to the needs of orphans through Global Hope in Kenya, Romania, and India? The truth—there are abundant ways you can reach out and affect the lives of these children, but her desire is emphatically to have more people actually meet the children and see with their own eyes the good that is being done, by actually going on mission trips. Serving in this capacity is a time and resource commitment and Joyce recognizes that it is a special blessing, and that for most, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I mentioned that Joyce’s grandfather’s stories to her as a young girl were of his travels in Africa and India. What I didn’t mention is something Joyce herself just learned a few months ago. His stories of India took place in the city of Palakol … the very same city in which Global Hope has recently partnered. Praise be to God for the way he shows us how connected we all are. Let us love one another as He does.