Africa Post 1: Abadou

This is my first blog about my 2 week trip to Burkina Faso, Africa Aug. 2-16, where I joined an HCJB Global work team who worked at a center for orphans and widows there.

Abadou

By day two or three, the little orphan named Abadou would come running to greet the cars and vans that we arrived at the orphan center in each day. He would stand in front of the nearest warm body with his arms stretched upward in the universal kid pose requesting you pick him up.

Our team of 17 included a Canadian, a Texan who was living in Germany, three Coloradoans (including me), and 12 from Southern California. By the end of our two weeks there, I think every one of us spent some time holding Abadou. He was so willing and ready to be loved and held and cuddled. Of course there were many others who got some lap time and lots of hugs; the orphanage, run by ACTS ministry in Burkina Faso (http://www.acts-burkina.org/) feeds around 190 kids and houses as many as they can every night. One of our purposes in being there was to help build a new cement block dormitory so that more kids can have a roof over their heads at the orphan center. I was also there to help train the older kids in carpentry as part of their job skills training.

My first chance to hold Abadou came when I was right in the middle of something. I was trying to work with the local carpenter who is hired part-time as instructor for the job skills training. He and I were working with some of the orphans to make a shelf unit. I had just stepped out of the workshop for a moment or two to grab a drink of water when someone handed Abadou to me. My American mindset wanted to get back to work, be productive and hurry up about it. My mind was on the next steps in the shelf project. But Abadou settled in and nestled his head against my chest, content to stay as long as I’d have him. My heart melted right there as I took a deep breath and realized there was no hurry in God’s Kingdom. Why was I there anyway?

“Religion that God our Father accepts and pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27