A Time for Everything

Two years ago, I partnered with Reverend Dennis and Deaconess Lorna Meeker to form Compassionate Social Care Ministries (CSCM) as a nonprofit corporation with a mission of providing comprehensive care to orphaned and vulnerable children in Kenya. In 2010, over $110,000 was raised. Through CSCM, hundreds of children are given the opportunity to attend quality schools, others are fed through feeding programs,  and the CSCM Rescue Center continues to provide care and shelter to children who have no where else to live. God has truly blessed this ministry and the children that CSCM serves. 

On June 29, 2011, I informed the Meekers and the Board of Directors of my resignation from CSCM. I have thoughtfully and prayerfully considered this decision for quite some time. Though it deeply saddens me to leave the organization, I know in my heart I have made the right decision. I have been working with the Meekers for the past month, planning a transition to another team of individuals in the United States to coordinate the affairs of the organization. With careful planning, this transition will not adversely affect the children under CSCM’s care.

For the past two years, I have dedicated my life to building a nonprofit organization to care for orphans in Kenya. When I brought Jonathan and Shelly to Reverend Dennis and Deaconess Lorna in December 2008, they did not hesitate for even a second to care for them. Despite their limited resources, Dennis and Lorna will always find a way to help a child in need, even if it means sacrificing their own savings. Even though there were many times we disagreed, I have always admired their love for their children. I am thankful for the opportunity to have partnered with them both.

The past two years have not been easy. I have made many mistakes, but because of them, I have learned so much and realize that I have much to learn. At nineteen years old, I do not think many people expected me to succeed at running a nonprofit organization. Perhaps they were right; I had no idea the workload that was heading my way, the situations I would encounter, and the adversity I would have to overcome. I was certainly not perfect, but I worked my tail off and did my best. I would not exchange my experience with CSCM for anything. 

I have learned about hope and hopelessness, love and hate, comfort and pain, smiles and tears. Our children unknowingly radically changed my life while I intentionally tried to influence theirs. They are my inspiration. I went to Kenya after high school searching for an experience before starting college; I left Kenya with a purpose. I did not meet Pastor Meeker in Beecher, Illinois four months before going to Kenya on accident. I did not walk into a mud hut orphanage in the middle of the Kibera slum on December 1, 2008 and find two desperate children on accident. I am confident that every part of my journey, from the picture-perfect campus of Furman University, to the slums of Nairobi, from the foreclosed house in Illinois, to the Rescue Center in Kisumu, have been part of a larger plan for my life, even if it has not been fully revealed to me.

I am eternally grateful for my friends and family that have not only lent their ears for my frustration and their time for a cause I care so deeply about, but also sacrificed their hard earned money to provide for the children that I love. I appreciate your willingness to listen to my never ending supply of plans, no matter how insane. Your generosity has not gone unnoticed.

As I left Kenya in December 2010, all of the children living at the CSCM Rescue Center gathered together in the living room to say goodbye. They had been trying to convince me for the past several days to stay. I told them that if it was up to me, I would stay and be their “uncle” forever. But I had to go to school. They asked when I was coming back; I told them I didn’t know, but it would probably be a long time. I was supposed to lead the devotion, but I was so emotional I knew it would not go very well.

I asked one of the older girls to pray. When she finished, I opened up to Ecclesiastes 3 and began reading... "There is an appointed time for everything.  And there is a time for every event under heaven ~ A time to give birth, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to tear down, and a time to build up.” I could no longer read. I did my best to get out the rest of the chapter, but I was so choked up I do not think anyone understood what I was saying.

At the end, I added “A time to come, and I time to go... It is now my time to go.” 

For two years, I told the world where to shove it. I danced to the beat of my own drum; I dropped out of college for a while; I gave everything I had away; I suffered with the children I cared so deeply about. I dedicated all of my thoughts and every second of my day to my kids. Despite my best efforts to ignore Him, God has made it increasingly clear that it is time to go.