Guest Contributor – Nathan Edwards
I have spent about half of my life in Kenya (about 15 years) and I have countless memories of unforgettable experiences that can only come from this continent. However, one experience that has stuck out in my mind as a favorite is one that I experienced just a few months ago when I traveled with some staff members and students from the international school where I work to a local children’s orphanage.
We gathered sleepy eyed in the morning to pack into our bus and headed down the hill to Mai Maihiu. When we arrived at the orphanage we saw kids waiting expectantly to see their visitors for the day.
Our group filed out of the bus and the kids had a few songs that they had prepared for us, which they carried out with plenty of enthusiasm. After this “opening ceremony” we got to work with getting to know the kids by means of a variety of different activities and games. A lot of the kids latched onto various students and tagged along with them for the whole time.
I was lucky enough to have one of cutest boys tag along with me and he became my virtual shadow for the day.
He’s the one on the right
The activities consisted of rather simplistic things such as jump rope, duck duck goose, parachute, volleyball and of course, soccer which was a huge draw.
At one point I picked up a book and began reading it to my little shadow and after just a few minutes I realized I was in the middle of a rather large crowd, that was growing and getting larger!
I was reading this very menial children’s picture book, but everyone wanted in on the “action” even though most of them couldn’t understand the words. Whether it was being read to out of a picture book or chasing bubbles across the grass, these kids had true joy in simplicity.
In the midst of these activities I was struck by the awesome picture this painted of God’s kingdom, kids of all ages from all nations serving these fatherless and motherless children, the poor, the unfortunate, the forgotten. I also saw how much it meant to these orphaned kids to be treated special for the day.
I was also privileged to witness a certain young high school girl who has grown up in Kenya, explaining in Swahili the rules of the next game. The kids looked at each other in amazement with wide eyes as if to say, “who is this Wazungu (white) girl who speaks fluently in our language?” This high school girl had suddenly bridged the gap between white and black, and had become one of them. 
As our time at the orphanage came to an end, I found my heart going out to these orphan kids and how un-fair our world can be. As we began to climb on our bus at the end of the day to return to our school, I could see the realization settle in of the inevitable goodbye. How many times have these kids had to say goodbye? How often have they experienced this ache in their hearts of love and loss? This made this trip to the orphanage ultimately bittersweet. Sweet that we were able to treat the kids to a time of feeling special, of laughter and fun, but bitter in that it had to come to an end for them. As we drove away I realized that even though my heart ached for these kids after only a day of knowing them, how much more must our Heavenly Father’s ache for them? As I gazed out the window on our way home I found myself hoping that these orphans were able to translate this experience, while temporary, into one that is everlasting… that our heavenly Father will always treat them as they are special, and better yet, they will never have to say goodbye to Him.
Nathan Edwards is a counselor for students at Rift Valley Academy, a boarding school for international students whose parents live and work abroad. He was born in Kenya and raised in both Kenya and Germany. He has developed a passion and a calling for working with international students and their families because of his own struggles in navigating the transitions from culture to culture. Upon his re-entry to the United States, Nathan had a counselor who understood the life of an international kid, and this relationship helped him work through the difficult transition periods of his own life. This formative relationship deeply affected Nathan, who now helps students with their own transitions. Follow Nathan on his blog and support his work here.
