Homewords – Spring 2006

Anyone who says that a two-year old can give you a run for your money ought to try dealing with an 18 year old who is convinced that God is telling her to do something. That is the situation we found ourselves in when Shiloh announced that she and her friend Melissa were going to spend their semester break volunteering at an orphanage in Kenya. Being the practical one, I said that the time was too short to get all the shots, passports and money raised to go. Shiloh had already started the wheels turning on the first two objections and completely negated the last one by saying that she had been saving her money for years and this is what she wanted to do with it. So with our blessing and prayers, Shiloh and Melissa took off for Africa – two 18 year old girls weighing just a few hundred pounds together with their backpacks thrown in. God went with them and used them to encourage and care for the kids and staff at ‘Into Abba’s Arms Orphanage’. But as much as God used them and changed them through their time at the orphanage, He had another purpose for this trip. Ten days before they were scheduled to return, Shiloh’s close friend Katy, who had been recovering from surgery for a brain tumor, suddenly died. It was one of the hardest things we have ever had to tell Shiloh as she made a rare phone call with the expectation of a glowing report on Katy’s recovery. In disbelief, Shiloh cried and cried and felt so helpless and alone – never having a chance to say goodbye and having to miss the grieving and memorial service. Far away in Africa, it was her and God. This is when parents get to see what kind of a God they have portrayed to their children and how much of that God their children have embraced. Thankfully, Shiloh has a big God and she learned, in the midst of loss and sadness, that if God is all you have then God is all you need. He was there with His comfort and faithfulness and had planned on showing her His sufficiency even before we knew she was headed to Kenya. Thankfully, she showed up in God’s appointed classroom. Here’s to watching God work and growing through pain, Love, Darcy