A Captured Heart

Upon our arrival in Africa I did not feel like I was in Africa. We landed late in the evening so my first "look" at Africa was in the dark. As we were driving through Nairobi I stared out of the window of our van like a small child soaking up all of the sights. I was finally in Africa. The dream that started six months earlier had finally come true. Never in a million years did I think our dream would ever have come true. As I stared out of the window my mind was completely blown how God had worked in the lives of two girls and had them in Africa for Christmas. Little did I know how much He would continue to blow my mind.

After our day of rest I was ready to hit the ground running and do some ministry. We loaded in the van and headed towards Ruiru so we could go to the FOCUS Orphanage where Liv had been several times before. I was excited to see Africa and get my hands dirty doing His work. After a few orders of business we headed to the orphanage. I instantly fell in love when our van entered the gate. As we pulled in what felt like 1,000 small African children (Ok it was really like 50ish) running towards us screaming "Mzungu, Mzungu!" Which means "white person, white person!." They rushed our van and as we got out they all wanted to shake our hand and say "How are you? What is your name?" Over and over again. It was awesome. For the next few hours we played and we played hard. We played games, blew bubbles, took pictures, threw frisbees, introduced them to bouncy balls :), we did it all. I even played a game of soccer with some of the boys. And by "playing soccer" I mean that I tried to dodge a little boy so I wouldn't run over him and ended up hitting the ground...Hard. Like really hard...Like dust cloud hard. Imagine pigpen from Charlie Brown dust cloud! Anyway, after playing for a few hours we were able to share the Gospel and give each child a salvation bracelet. It was incredible.

As we were wrapping up our day the kids were playing this game and singing for Liv and I. I had Liv's camera out trying to get some good pictures, but this small child was standing on something getting all up in my way. Ahhh! It was probably a good thing he couldn't understand me. Just being honest. I was a little irritated to say the least. I was frustrated, then I looked down to see what he was standing on and saw this.

Instantly my heart was captured.

~~~TIMEOUT~~~

I need to call a timeout here and explain something. I have this "thing" if you will. This thing all started with this child on the left.

This is my small child. I love this kid and her brother more than any other kids in the world. I have seen her grow up since age 2 and one might say we just clicked. I give nicknames to everyone and the name she ended up with was small child. Even though she's not "small" anymore, she will forever be my small child. My American small child. In 2009 I ventured to Uruguay with her parents on a mission trip and was captured by this child on the right. After spending a few days with her and absolutely being captured by her Niki, my American small

child's mom, decided she was my Uruguayan small child. I'm ok with having more than one small child so I decided I'd have a small child to love on in every country I visit!

~~~TIME IN~~~

My heart was captured. I instantly fell in love with this child. My African small child. I decided to put the camera down, along with my frustrations, and simply love on and play with this child...So I did.

Not a day goes by that this small child is not on my mind. This weekend I have had the best time with my "original/american" small child. I've loved every minute of it. The laughs, the goofy faces, the corny jokes, the piggy back rides...Every moment. Still to this day she and her brother both capture my heart. As we laid curled up on the couch yesterday watching TV all I could think about was my African small child. It was a year ago yesterday that I met him. Six months ago I was able to see him again and he remembered me. As I thought about how these kids have captured my heart, I thought about other things that capture my heart. I thought about the things that capture the heart of God.

My prayer is that God captures my heart just as these kids do. I pray that I put more into mine and His relationship than I do with these kids. I pray that I long to spend time with Him as much as I long to spend time with my small children. I pray that I will go out of my way to do things for Him like I do for these kids. I pray that my heart would be captured for captures His heart. That it would also break for what breaks His.

What is it that captures your heart? Is He capturing your heart?