A Lesson in Carols

In the last year since joining Blood:Water Mission, I have met some inspiring people and have heard some amazing stories. I have seen individuals sacrifice their needs and desires all for a person they will never meet. I've seen groups organize concerts, lemonade stands and fashion shows to benefit a community they may never get to visit. When I have had the chance to ask them why they have chosen to join us in our mission, their answer is simple: because a little can go a long way. I'd also like to think of it as a little can go both ways.

During this time of year we try to remember that it's more blessed to give than to receive; we make a concerted effort to think of others. Yet, I have seen that those who have genuinely given of themselves also receive something they hadn't expected. Those who creatively come together to walk along side our friends in Africa have seen that the efforts makes their own community stronger - banding them together under one purpose, one mission. In Africa, you have no choice but to live in community - they need each other to survive. One woman who belongs to an HIV/AIDS support group told me of what it was like to be homeless and disowned from her family when she found out her HIV positive status. I saw the pain in her eyes as she retold the story - her mind reaching back to painful days of her past. She thought all hope and future was gone. Yet, thanks to the community of others who also were HIV positive pursuing her and supporting her, she learned that you can have a joyful future even if you're HIV positive. She now has a job, a home, friends, laughter - a future, thanks to those who took the time to reach out to her. In the US, we have comfortably sectioned off our lives to invite people in only as far as we are comfortable, and our goal is independence. However, through depending on one another, taking a risk and being vulnerable in our asking or in our offering, we learn the value of rich community. Not a transaction, but a transformation of hearts and lives.

I've seen it first hand during my recent trip to Northern Kenya and Rwanda. Walking hours for water or walking days for medicine is necessary - and if you want to live, you must walk. If you want to take care of your family, you must walk. Because of that, they sacrifice a lot of things we take for granted - freedom to go to school, freedom to work or tend to their crops.

I've also seen what its like to have the chains come off - to have the burden lifted. To have access to safe water or access to health care affords those who couldn't make plans beyond today plan for tomorrow. I listened to a community water group say, after they had saved money from the crops that they could now tend to, they were now able to buy each other cows and goats for additional income. They were then beginning to develop bio-fuel solutions for their community so those who carry wood (another chain) for firewood could be given more gratifying, higher paying jobs.

This Christmas, the world is much smaller to me. The songs I sing this time of year make me think of my new friends far away in a desert in Northern Kenya or in the volcanic mountains of Northern Rwanda - those who define peace differently than I do, those who have found freedom in a way I could never understand. I've received a great gift this year - now its time for me to ask myself, 'what will I do with what I know?'

~ Mike Lenda, U.S. Programs Director