By Jessica Wright
News editor
This summer I was given the remarkable blessing of being able to go on a mission trip
to Kenya, a place I knew I had been called to since seventh grade. I went through an
organization called International Sports Federation (ISF) where we got to preach the
Gospel using the medium of soccer, and I stayed at an orphanage called The Hope Center
where I was able to make lifelong friends with the beautiful children there.
To say that this trip changed my life would be an understatement. To say that those kids
are now in the very foundations of my heart and soul would not be adequate to describe
how I feel. To say how the people’s joy despite such extreme adversities completely
transformed my outlook on life would not be enough. In a simple phrase, God flipped my
world upside down.
When I first decided to go on this trip, many people asked me what the point of it was.
How could I make a difference in such a corrupt and lost world? And God showed me
during my time in Kenya, we CAN make a difference. And through his power and mercy,
we DID. We touched those children’s lives. We fell in love with them and they fell in
love with us.
I asked Sharon, a girl from The Hope Center, to write her testimony so that she could
be published in our newspaper and so that the Shorter body could see, in words directly
from the source, that a difference can be made in people’s lives if wesimply get out of
our comfort zones and allow the Lord to lead. This is an account of one changed life out
of countless others because of people’s willingness to dedicate their time, money, prayer
and entire lives to helping these precious children of God.
