Chelsea Bentley: Heartbroken and Hopeful

This week, I discovered what it really feels like when God breaks my heart for something or someone. I thought it had been broken for Africa and for the lost a long time ago, but this was a whole new experience. I met a family of four neighborhood children face-to-face for the first time on Friday, but Adele had told us all about them a week or so before that. If you want their full story, you can look at her blog. It brought me to tears just hearing about the conditions these little ones were living in, but they completely captured my heart after seeing them and interacting with them for just a few hours on Friday.
When Olesya and I went to take them their medicine on Saturday evening, we found only the two young boys in the house. The boys are only four years and eighteen months old, and they had been left alone in a dark house with the embers of an open cooking fire still glowing on the floor in the corner. As I was giving the boys their medicine, their father returned. He had been out looking for the two girls, whom he hadn't seen since he arrived home from work. We waited a few minutes at the house, hoping they would return, and when they didn't, we went back out onto the road and tried to look for them. Their dad went with us, and we asked neighbors and people we met on the road if they'd seen the girls. By the time we made it back to the ELI compound, there were still no signs of them.

I went to find Adele to tell her that the girls were missing and found her with the team and some of the staff as they were finishing supper and debriefing time with prayer. I tried to be respectful and join them in prayer, but I just broke down crying as my thoughts continued to dwell with the kids. Adele took me outside, and I told her that we couldn't find the girls. She said they were probably sleeping in a field somewhere, and it completely broke my heart. We prayed for them, and there was nothing more we could do. I felt completely helpless. I went and said goodnight to my kids, and when I returned to my room I continued praying for little Nancy and Joanna out there alone in the dark.

On Sunday morning, I was given the opportunity to dance in church. It was a dance that I had done many times before, but I have never felt so completely connected to it as I did on Sunday. I was nearly brought to tears as Ray Boltz' "Watch the Lamb" played and I danced and acted my way through the story. Thoughts of the kids were still laying heavy on my heart. Adele left in the middle of church to go get them. The girls were not home yet, but she brought the boys to church for the first time. Toward the end of the service, the girls showed up, and my heart was completely rejoicing.

Our kids from the children's home really reached out to all four of the children. One of the most incredible sights I have ever seen was that of a small group of our girls taking Joanna, the oldest girl, and washing her hands and feet for her. WOW! How much more like Jesus could they have possibly been in that moment? The children ate lunch with the team, then Alisa, Adele, and I took them home.

Yesterday, I took the kids their medicine in the morning. I was still quite a distance away from them on the road when I saw Nancy and Joanna sprinting toward me with wide open arms and huge smiles on their faces. I thank God for the joy and healing that he has brought into their lives in just a short time. I have learned so much from them, and God has really put them in a very special place in my heart. I hope and pray that someday I will come back to Ilula to find them completely healthy, educated, and, above all, loving Jesus. In the short time that I have left here, I intend to do all I can to be God's hands and feet in the lives of these little ones. God has brought me here "for such a time as this," and I intend to make the most of it for Him.

(For photos of these children, click here.)

I only have about a week left in Ilula. My kids and my house parents are already begging me to stay longer, and there is a big part of me that wishes I had the resources to do it. However, I know that God placed me here for this short time so that he could use me and teach me and mold me into the person he wants me to be. I have learned so much from the people here, and I pray that I have been able to bless them at least half as much as they have blessed me. I pray that God will continue to use me as the time speeds by and my departure from Kenya approaches. I pray that he will make me a blessing to the children here, to the staff, and to the community and that I will have an impact for Him that will last far beyond the brief time that I have been here.