Well, if you're reading this right now, you're probably doing so for one of three reasons: 1) you received a support letter from me and came here to follow my attempts at support raising and journey to Senegal, 2) you're a friend or maybe family who for some reason or another would like to see what happens in my life from time to time, or 3) you somehow stumbled upon my blog in cyberspace and at this point, are probably moving the cursor to the "X" at the top right of your browser (or perhaps, top left, for all of my mac users out there). For whatever reason you may have found yourself here, I'm glad that you have, and I hope that maybe God will say something good on this blog through me every once in a while.
My life right now is pretty crazy. I'm 19 and a freshman at Western Kentucky University studying French and Religious Studies. I'm involved in Campus Crusade for Christ and Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) on campus here in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I'm a member of Rich Pond Baptist Church where I've attended since my dad became pastor in November of 1997 when I was only 5. I've had many people tell me that I need to be careful of overextending myself in college. They tell me it's something that is extremely easy to fall into and painfully difficult to get out of. After they tell me this, I usually think about everything I'm involved in and end up accepting the fact that I've done the very thing of which they warned me. I would like to say that being overextended is something that I love, but that's not always the case. Sometimes it's overwhelming. Many times it's overwhelming. Probably, most of the time it's overwhelming. But here's my deal. I have maybe 60 more years left here, right? How can life not be overwhelming? There are so so so many people who have to hear about what Jesus has done, and if I don't do it, who will?
I think that's enough talk about me. I want to tell you about a group of little boys who grow closer and closer to my heart everyday. I've never even met one of them, but a picture of one of them is ingrained in my mind and on my heart. The little boy in the picture at the top left of this blog is a Talibé boy. He was sent by his parents into the city to get a muslim education in a muslim school called a daara. He wakes up every morning before the sun rises to study a book called the Koran. The studying of this book does him absolutely no good for 3 reasons: 1) it's not inspired by a god that exists, 2) he can't even understand the Arabic in which he is memorizing and studying it, and 3) he could, instead, be learning things that would help him survive in life. After studying for a couple of hours he heads out to the streets with his red tomato can to beg for money. He has to beg because the marabout (muslim cleric) under whom he studies cannot provide food, shelter, or clothing for him or the between 50 and 100 other little boys between the ages of 5 and 15. But the begging doesn't stop there. Many of the marabouts enjoy making profits off of these little boys’ misfortunes, so they give them a quota of how much money they have to bring in by the end of the day. I read of one particular case where one marabout was making a profit of over 100,000 USD a year off of 100 Talibé boys. If this boy in particular does not bring in the quota, his marabout may physically or sexually abuse him, and the odds are not in his favor because 80 percent of the Talibé boys are sexually abused. His day might end scrounging for some type of food to eat, and then lying down to sleep on the dirt with about 30 other boys in a small, open-air room.
He is a Talibé boy.
This is his life.
No one cares.
Except One.
And He is the Reason that I care.
He is the Reason I have to go tell them.
He is the Reason I have to go show them—
show them that there is Someone who loves them more than they could possibly imagine.
More than anything I have every wanted before, I want to see the beautiful faces of these little boys laughing and screaming throughout eternity because of the amazing love that He showed them when no one else would.
And I know that He wants it too.
