I Heart Ngariam...

well, that's what my shirt says anyway. Can it be true? Can I really love a place I've never been? Can I love a place that I know next to nothing about? The simple answer is YES. The more complicated answer is YES. I love Ngariam because that is the home of my boy.

I wear this shirt often because I know that people will ask about it. I jump at the opportunity to explain to people what it means. I was once asked by a stranger at the movie theater what my shirt said. Poor people, they just don't know what they have coming when they ask that question!

In December I accepted, rather was blessed with, an awesome opportunity to sponsor an orphan from this village. Even though I've never met this boy, my boy, I feel so connected to him. I look at his picture everyday, it's in my cubicle at work, on my fridge at home and on my computer...and everyday seeing his dirty confused face makes me smile. I thought I would be changing his life, sponsoring him for a measly $34 a month, and instead he has completely and indescribably taken over my heart. I don't have children, but I can only assume that I feel for him the way a mom feels for her kids. Knowing that he does without breaks my heart. I worry about him working too hard and I worry about him not having enough time to be a "kid" I wonder what he's learning in school and hoping that he is eating enough. I love this little boy that I've only ever seen a picture of. I love knowing that the love I have for him is only a fraction of the love that God has for him.

As a sponsoring church we will have opportunities to visit Ngariam. I am blessed to be a part of the first team to go. In May I will have the chance to go to this place called Ngariam, this place that my shirt says I love and I will have a chance to fall in love with it on another level. Not just as the home of my boy, the place where he eats, sleeps, goes to school, works harder than I can imagine, where he is thankfully learning about Jesus; but on a personal level. I will be able to fall in love with the landscape, the culture, the everything that Ngariam is and the everything that Ngariam isn't. I will have a better appreciation of what my boy does and indures on a daily basis. I hope to fall into a place deeper then love, whatever that may be.