The boy and the lollipop.

The Mission I am working for (www.icfem-mission.org) does such amazing work, and it seems like things are really happening at the moment. I do wonder what would happen to so many people in Western Kenya, if this mission were not here.

Last week "Wheels For The World" another great charity from the UK, teamed up with us to provide and distribute wheelchairs. I was lucky enough to witness the distribution one day, at the IcFEM headquarters, where hundreds of people showed up in their hope to get a chair. Some turned up in broken and torn chairs, some crawled and others were carried.

It’s fair to say that I felt pretty insignificant that day…what need!  And yet how on earth can I help? Having no medical or technical ability I felt bad that I couldn’t even talk to these people, since I could barely speak their local "Bukusu" language.

After a long day of massive blessings, the 83 chairs were all distributed. And 83 people encouraged and given a new hope… but 83 wasn’t enough.

Some of us, who were observing what was going on from the sidelines, cowered as we watched the team go round, one by one breaking the bad news to people that were going home empty handed.

I stood and watched the sad news being delivered to the mother of a little boy - she too would be carrying her son home in her arms and not in a chair because all the children’s chairs had run out. The little boy's face changed when she explained to him, he seemed to understand that it was bad news. The next to receive the sad news was a M’zee (an old tall bearded man) he also graciously nodded with acceptance when he was told… it went on and on. I went back to watching the small boy, who just sat on his mother's lap as she sweetly smiled at the boy and kissed his head as a tear rolled quietly rolled down her cheeks. Like all of us, I wanted to do something but had absolutely nothing - nothing, except a lollipop! I walked over to the boy rather sheepishly aware that this consolation prize may be construed as an insensitive and pathetic effort to console someone…. but I had to do something.

I didn’t expect the little chap's face to light up quite so much -  what a beautiful big smile this little boy had! He had come out of the discouragement he had just experienced, with all the implications it meant for his life without a chair, and seen joy in a 5 bob lollipop. Equally moving was the way his mother smiled and said "Thank-you" to me. What was amazing was that the smile stayed on his face until I went home, and he waved at me every time I passed... 

How humbled I was! 

Of course the two don’t compare.. but I learned two things that day…
1) like the little boy, we should focus on what we have and not what we need or want; and
2) we should never allow ourselves to feel insignificant. We always have a part to play, no matter how small we feel, we can always do something.

The "Wheels Team" distributed 218 chairs in 3 days.

Please, if you know any children with wheelchairs encourage them to look after those chairs and when they grow out of them, they can be used to bless others, very far away, who need them.  "Wheels For The World" need more chairs, especially children’s wheelchairs.

Above Michael (Children's Pastor) takes the chance to do a puppet show for all the children waiting for chairs...

Right: Some of the happy customers going home with their new chairs.