Does one life matter?

How many times have you seen commercials of starving kids and decided in your mind that the $32 a month they are asking for wouldn’t truly “do anything”, half would be wasted on advertisement and administration and so you mine as well just forget it. Besides, what would truly change if all you could give only affected one life when the media is overwhelming our minds with the MILLIONS that are dying and in need of our help? Truly, you might find many ways to justify that whatever you “could” contribute would never do any “real” good anyway. You’d become desensitized to the fact that these images are real human beings, real dying children, real suffering widows, real lives created by the hand of God with the same dreams & hope He created our very lives with. Maybe you’d quickly turn the channel or close the magazine or simply relate on a detached level just like the latest horror flick that seemed to make you cringe. At least that’s the way my brain *USED* to compute those gut wrenching advertisements, news articles, 60 minute specials and Sally Struthers infomercials. Until God shook me out of the safety of my lil bubble wrapped life in Buckman, MN and chose to impart the burden of his heavy heart physically onto my heart too. This is where I come to you with joy to tell the story of ONE boy and shatter all those misconceptions you might have been led to believe as I once did.

I don’t know how to do justice to a story I only *wish* I knew, but the assumed details that I do have are worthy in sharing to do some justice to my love and my family in Africa.

I finally found the words to formulate this final post on my beloved Best Family during the course of my past weekend. I was at another conference, spending some much needed time with my neglected girlfriends and how excited was I that our girly time together would be shared with Jesus too! So while I was at the Women of Faith conference I was consuming myself with looking for opportunities to “reach out” and pray for people instead of just truly soaking in the pleasurable company I had been gifted to share, you know me…I’m always multitasking and STARVING for a touch from God. To my surprise my full attention would be grasped beyond any possible distraction at this conference as I was blind-sided by something I didn’t expect to see. Something that found a way to strike a slightly buried chord in my heart to twang with joyful pain like an out of tune dusty, old guitar to an African beat. As the leaders of this conference announced their partner ministry and shared a video about the organization at work around the world named World Vision, I found myself sitting in my seat with my heart in my throat as images of beautiful African children danced across the jumbo screen! World Vision is a ministry that provides an opportunity for people to sponsor orphans and change their lives in a dramatic way (along with many other things). So they chose to present this opportunity by sharing a story of a sponsored child they reconnected with years into his adulthood. A young man from Rwanda, who against all odds is leading an amazing life and serving the Lord while changing the future for many and has been predicted to become Rwanda’s future president some day. I sat there as visions, memories, feelings and tears ravaged me inside, I wasn’t mentally or EMOTIONALLY prepared for this impromptu journey down memory lane! So I fought back the flood as my jaw dropped at the startling revelation of something very familiar;
As they spoke, I thought to myself... know this story, I too KNOW this story….but it belongs to another face, another name and another saved life. Although I don’t know a single detail to truly do justice to the story, I know this VERY STORY ~ just enough to bait my heart like a fishing line ~ just enough for my small mind & life to handle. This very life I had the pleasure of meeting while my feet were standing on the powdered red clay of Rwandan soil. A life that the Lord has intertwined with mine so intricately you’d have to be ignorant not to recognize there’s a bigger plan at work here. This is the life of Jean Claude, the “president” of the Best Family, who is truly a young man after God’s own heart! So this World Vision campaign sent me to a place far away as my physical body sat in the crowded Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN I found my spiritual self deep in the heart of Africa! In this moment, God finally provided the words and inspiration for me to share my 2nd half of the Best Family story. You see, I had been struggling on whether this post was "appropriate" and how I'd truly approach this dire and probably sensitive topic. I have been wondering how this very HUGE God of ours could entrust me....ME....with such a precious task.

I shared in my first post the specifics of my encounter in Rwanda and the logistics I knew about the Best Family sharing how the 4 lives of Jean Claude, Emmanuel, Salomon and David are miraculously changing and saving the lives of nearly 50 Rwandan orphans. I must tell you now, this story truly began years prior to this scene where I stumbled onto the stage to behold in awe the fruits of their tireless loving labor = the heavenly smiles of their Best Family children.

This is the story of one American man and a Rwandan boy that I imagine began somewhere in the mid to late 90's. A boy who lost nearly all his family to the genocide and by some glimpse of hope, managed to beat the odds of losing his own life and beat even more odds of succumbing to a life as a broken, impoverished, poor, war-ravaged statistic and found himself in a situation that would prove to be his “second chance” at life. Jean Claude was a child who became available for sponsorship through Compassion International, a ministry you probably have all heard of with the same values and goals as World Vision whom I mentioned above = to save and help the orphan.

Compassion International would be the face of a future for one boy, named Jean Claude. He was chosen for sponsorship by a man from America, so this man would send his monthly, quarterly, what-have-you donation and it would provide all the needs Jean Claude’s broken, impoverished family could not provide for him. Through the years Jean Claude was gifted the opportunity to attend school, heal from the loss of his family members, the loss of his innocent childhood that was stolen and most importantly given the capacity by a stranger’s kindness to allow the hope of Jesus Christ to grow inside this one boy’s heart so he may become all God had planned for his life SIMPLY from being a sponsored child. So now you can see WHY Jean Claude is becoming the man he’s becoming, you can see WHY he’s devoted his life to saving the orphans and street children, you can see how amazing this Best Family is, you can see WHY he clings to God with all his might, you can see WHY his life is changing the course of our world, you, yourself can see the handiwork of GOD with this one young man's life. Jean Claude was just a boy, whose story and picture stammering across the TV screen would’ve been too uncomfortable for me to embrace and let inside the safe guards around my heart, but because one man believed in causes such as Compassion International, one man has changed one boy’s entire life and the ripple effect from there is proving to be limitless! How perfect is God’s design! Jean Claude is an amazing human being and I aspire to live my life with such greatness and humility!

God chose to use Jean Claude’s life as a living example for a lesson I needed to learn in a physical way to break me free from my ignorance (that had quite a strong hold over me!). One life makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE so give or share whatever it is you feel compelled to give, it makes all the difference in the world, forget about the red tape that you grasp onto for justification that you “simply can not make a difference”, just share your portion no matter how big or small and God will do the rest. I truly feel God is teaching me this lesson about the importance of "one life" for many reasons to prepare me for a future that's possibly bigger than my 'reality' can encompass.

Our loving God knowing what a stubborn and (previously) judgmental fool I was to all these “sponsorship” type entities chose to teach me in a very visual and necessary way to shatter any possibility of my ignorance rekindling! But with this hands on lesson, came a greater burden on my heart and a greater call to ministry. God has chosen me to advocate and participate in “sponsoring” nearly 50 lives now that I’ve had the privilege of being welcomed into their Best Family! Talk about moving to the front of the bus! God just loves doing things in my life in “BIG” ways so that He can keep my OCD attention directly on NEEDING HIM to drive this bus!

I want to share with you the ways our gracious Lord continues to connect me to the Best Family so we can all enjoy a laugh at my introverted expense. Since returning home from Africa my heart was truly burning inside for the Best Family, seriously God was standing under me lighting match after match so that there was no way the flame could fizzle! Soon enough a relationship began to bloom between our family and Jean Claude via email as I came home fired up to share their story, I realized I was missing quite a bit of necessary information to truly encompass what a miracle the Best Family is so I sought out how to communicate with Jean Claude and before I knew what had happened the Lord was at work again above and beyond my comprehension. See, I thought I might share this story of my one experience, scrounge up a little money, send it off and carry on with my self indulged life….but God had different plans and they are proving to be much greater than mine ~ as ALWAYS! So this introvert found herself landing in front of a microphone time and again as the Lord was providing one open door after another for public speaking opportunities. All divinely perfect situations to share the amazing story of the Best Family, of course. Since I’ve fumbled my way through a few of these opportunities this past August I had been gifted random donations that totaled $100 and thus I Western Unioned that on over to the Best Family whereas they immediately moved me to a place of humbled tears over the depths of their gratitude. Jean Claude expressed beyond measure how this $100 would change so much for these underprivileged children, giving them an opportunity to have a Christmas. So in September another speaking opportunity arose and this time it was to American children, specifically my church Sunday school ~ toughest crowd EVER ~ so you can imagine my rookie speaking skills bombed miserably but I walked away from this valuable lesson challenging the kids from our Sunday School to be extraordinary in their faith for 2 weeks alongside Donny and I. Part of our challenge included raising $5 each during this 2 weeks and at the end we would match the money and send the donation over to the Best Family. Last week, I sent $320 ~ the second donation to the Best Family and I’m going to take the liberty to brag that I’m becoming very well acquainted with this Western Union diva that can not for the life of my sanity spell Jean Claude’s last name correctly until the 5th or 6th try!

So I’m extending this challenge and invitation to all of you as this past weekend's conference has stirred a cold heart to light another fire and just go for the glory. It’s no mystery that I’m on the sliding scale of “broke” by American standards, but with revamped values and reduced excess I’ve found a way to share what I have with those who have NOTHING and I’m learning my little is MORE THAN A LOT!! So to those other previous skeptics out there of donating to big-business organizations, let me tell you now I have the perfect solution for you ~ as grass roots as it can get my friends….the money literally leaves my hand at the Coborn’s Western Union desk and days later I receive a confirmation email from Jean Claude that makes me bawl for hours about how every penny has made it safe and sound directly to him and he shares specifically how each dime will impact every single Best Family child’s life! I LOVE IT! No red tape for this pessimist to worry about, just 50 beautiful children that haunt my dreams day & night, calling us Mum & Dud inspiring me to save every single PENNY I have so I can share my wealth for their survival. Until we get the logistics worked out on a donated laptop computer for the Best Family and the birth of a website to become more official in the status of donor relationships and visual accountability, I'm just throwing this out there for you all to grasp in raw format. If God burdens your heart like He has mine ~ be in touch with me and we can share our pennies together to make an even greater impact knowing beyond doubt EVERY SINGLE PENNY counts. I'm working out the logistics on how to provide tax-deductible receipts for donors who prefer that route, but for those of you who could care less because you can only give the equivalent of pocket change like myself ~ just shoot me an email and we'll go from there: mariatraut@gmail.com. When I say "share your portion" it doesn't limit you to financial donation, if you have connections, ideas and any other helpful tips or useful tactics to help the Best Family grow & flourish ~ truly share your portion with me and I'll see it through to delivery in Rwanda!

Before I close with some beautiful words from Jean Claude, I want to point out one other little tiny story as to how God has woven our two families together...the Minnesotan Traut gang and the Rwandan Best Family. There's not a doubt in my mind, God's larger plan was for us to become one in hearts and spirit as a family before inching this train along on an organized ministry level. Last night my 6 year old son Zach lost his tooth, and this morning when he awoke to a crisp dollar bill underneath his pillow from that wonderful tooth fairy, he came out of his room with a look of excitement and his eyes lit up with child like faith when he handed me the dollar and said "Here mom, I want to give this to the Best Family"...can you see how God is at work here? I almost wasn't strong enough to keep my composure, my heart nearly exploded. I wish we all could "give" like a child can "give".

I want to leave you with the recent email I have received from Jean Claude so you can know for yourselves just how God uses this amazing man to completely RUIN me and reduce me to a pile of tears time and again.

Hello my very very very very great friend!

Our Mum & DUD. On behalf of all children, I thank you so much, you always surprise us. I do't know what I may say or do for you about your very best heart, your goodness, your BIG love especially to us. But I'm praying my GOD to show me what to say and to do. But I'm increasing my Love to the Poor and to the Children because of you. You are my EXAMPLARY( in french : Exemplaire) Who is my example. Please the Children are loving you so much, after receiving the Photos from you and to hear how and what you are doing in your USA to help the Best Family. And they are so happy because their Life and their X-MAS Party will very fine because of the MONEY you sent before. Thanks so Much to those my loved Children in your church, They became the Best Family Members in AMERICA, please Tell them.

Maria, I don't know how to thank you but may GOD bless you and Donny and my brohers(Boston and Zacher) all your family, then your church too. GOD helps you to see, to find whatever you want, to go wherever you want. may GOD fullfil your Pockets and your Properties. I always pray for you and your family. My dear friend Maria BE BLESSED so much and stay with GOD. Know I always tell you every thing, situation and what occurs about Best Family every time I share with you. BYE!

Can you believe God chose us, He chose my small life to mean this much to His precious chosen gems half-way across our globe. The hope I found in the love of Christ that compelled me to go to Africa to share with the abandoned is truly being shared through God's huge outstretched arms back and forth across continents ~ many lives are being shaped and changed by this reciprocal embrace of hope. Most days I still can't believe this is real, and when I imagine how much these children believe in ME I can become overwhelmed with terror at the size of these big shoes, but that's the beauty ~ I don't have the power or ability to change these lives, nor fit in these shoes so I must depend solely on God to use my life and work through lil ole me, one clumsy step at a time. This is His plan unfolding before all of us. When God opens doors I find myself running through with a swollen heart to shout from the mountaintops about my beautiful Best Family. I'm going to end this post with a slide show of all our beautiful Best Family faces captured on "film" that remarkable day in July so check back soon as I'm having technical difficulties at the moment.