It's Been Surreal

In the summer of 1987, I spent three months student teaching at a MK school in what was then known as Zaire. I wish I had digital pics of my experience there. I'll have to do some scanning and describe one of my favorite memories of that trip in a future post. This is an aerial photo of the campus, Rethy Academy.


Ten years later, during a Civil War, Rethy Academy was taken over by Guerrillas and destroyed. Most of the buildings were torched. But since they were mostly brick, their shells remained. I found this pic of the destruction on facebook. It was taken in 1997 shortly after the takeover. I'm not sure if anything remains now.


In May of 2009, I had the privilege of traveling to North Africa on a vision trip to learn about an incredible work which I'll refer to as VoH. I won't even begin to describe our experience there. It would take volumes. In a word..."indescribable." SomeONE knows the details. Here is our team...


On March 8, 2010, ten months after our visit, VoH was raided by government officials. Twenty non-pat families were expelled from the country and were forced to leave 33 children behind...children these families had raised since birth.


The baby in the picture above is Simo. He has CP. We had a physical therapist on our team, George, who spent time showing Simo's mother, Julie, how to give him therapy. Watching George with Simo was one of the most spiritual things I have ever witnessed. I'm in tears right now just remembering it. George was a kid-magnet. He is seen below with some of his fans. You may recognize the tallest boy from the heart-breaking pic on the VoH website where a father is attempting to explain his departure to two of his sons.


The baby-magnet on our team was Ann. If she could have packed up all those babies in her suitcase, she would. And I don't think her husband would have minded. Even though they already have seven kids of their own!


Bill was the leader of our team and our official photographer. He had his own "magnet" named Hannah. A little Dutch girl who stole his heart and "just happened" to serve him communion during our last hour on site. That's another amazing story for another post. Bill's pics have now increased in value. Of such value to me that, once again, I find myself without words.

This has been a very heart-wrenching week. I think I speak for all four of us. We're stunned, shocked, angry, sorrowful, heart-broken for these families and children. I can't even begin to imagine how these families are dealing. There are no words.