Just a single step....

Every journey starts with a single step.  Such a true statement and sometimes so difficult to take the first step, yet when we do we realize it was not bad, we take another and another and suddenly look back and see how far we have come.  I have been counting my steps while I am here with a pedometer…today I took more than 17 thousands steps…had I thought about that before I took the first one, I may have sat back down.

The same thought applies to Yekepa, if you look around and try to imagine how many steps need to be taken, its unimaginable….yet if you just start taking steps using the knowledge God has given you…suddenly you look around and see what has been accomplished and its amazing.

We had Summerville Bryant over for dinner tonight.  Summerville is a graduate of ABC prior to the devastating civil war.  He is now back here to teach bible courses here and share the fruits of his education with those who are aiming to follow a similar path.  As we sat around the table, He shared is story growing up on the streets of Monrovia, the hardship he endured during the war (father and two siblings were killed by soldiers and himself running to hide and preserve the little he had) and the steps of an old missionary woman who changed his life forever.    He thanked us over and over for our contributions of education to his country he loves so much.  It was humbling…what I am doing is just a single step.

I never knew a few sheets of paper could bring such joy until today when I had the opportunity to take the kids at the Betty Jonah orphanage some letter my children had written them.  They are going to write some letters back to the children for me to take home.  A single step toward helping these kids get some relationships outside the confines of their small community.  While I was there, they were working to pour a new concrete floor in a classroom.  The school is bursting at the seams and they need more space to hold class, so they are repairing some unused areas.  The picture is of the men getting ready mix the concrete, on a pile in the middle of the floor, no mixer, no truck to pull up and dump it, just some sand, concrete, water and a shovel.  I wonder if they had stopped to think how many steps it would take to get done or if they just decided to start.

Peter came by with his mother today.  Peter is a boy Sheri Wang met when we were here last summer.  Peter was running wild on the streets, his mother is mute, the father had deserted the family.  Peter was roaming around the campus in his underwear because that is all he had and sat at the steps of the library asking for work so he could help feed his family.

A few steps taken here and there and Peter is in school and doing well.  He has clothes to wear and attends church with the Mulbah family.  His mother could not hold back the emotion today as she relayed her thankfulness of all that people had done to help Peter.  I wonder if she will ever know the steps her son took that led up to it.

How many steps will you take today?