I have made the long walk below dozens of times… the long walk from the gate of a village to the graves pictured below. It isn’t so long physically (about 100 yards). It is a long walk emotionally. The picture below is of me and my buddy Peterson, one of the 2 children that started our ministry. The long walk I reference takes me past the tree I sat under, helping hold the hand of Peterson’s mother the day before she died in January 2005 before Forgotten Voices was even an idea. The long walk takes me past a stump, where Peterson sat as his local pastors described to him how they would care for him following his mother’s death, leaving Peterson and his sister alone for a year. They still do. The long walk takes me over a little ditch we had just crossed when this picture was taken. The ditch was just long and deep enough that a 7 year old Peterson would grab my hand to jump over it, afraid to fall. We would repeat the jump for 3 years before a cool 10 year old was too mature to play that game anymore. Now that he lives 2 hours away, I still jump over the ditch when I go by myself to this place below. The long walk takes me to the pain of death. His mother buried to the left. His sister buried to the right. The long walk takes me to the foot of rocks, where the obstacles before the people we serve seem so daunting and unmovable.

But the long walk also takes me to the deepest stirring my heart has ever experienced. It takes me to the places where I saw the local church be what the Bible yearns for all churches to be. The long walk shows me hope in the midst of hopelessness. It shows me the dreams of a little boy that now live on in the body of a 15 year old young man, who is still alive in part because of you. It shows me that prayer works, with Peterson having HIV since birth. Prayer does work. This walk proves it.

The long walk reminds me that we must keep going. We must keep believing. We must keep sacrificing. The long walk reminds me that Christ came in a manger, lived, suffered, died and rose again because he loves Peterson, you, and me. The long walk always reminds me that the end of the sad story that bubbles up along the long walk is this — God wins. Someday all of this will be redeemed when Christ returns. For now, you and I GET TO SERVE and to LOVE and to share HOPE. We get to experience LIFE fully by helping others, like Peterson, LIVE.

Christmas and the birth of Jesus began a long walk to the grave. But the birth of Jesus followed by his death was not the end.

The long walk started with me feeling like I was the one getting to share love with Peterson. As this walk repeats year after year, the more I see that by investing in the hopes of children and churches in Africa, they share their hope in God with me. Their hope and faith and love and mercy and compassion and justice helps my world become painted with the same. I began this walk to save Africa. Africa, though, has saved me by showing me and all of us that we must love because Christ loved us. Living to earn, win, convert, or show people how church should be done fails. We must love because Christ loved us.

Think about what unexpected hope has come from your own long walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Perhaps hope stirs deep within in the most unexpected places for you, as it has for me. Help us keep hope alive for children.  We need to raise $75,000 before year end to keep 1,000 kids like Peterson in school, create income generating projects for their churches to one day stand on their own, and counseling for children and caregivers to process the grief they experience on their long walks to the graves of parents no longer with us. Join me in spreading hope and receiving it in return because Christ loves. We get to love too. Thanks. Walk with me. Let us share life and love.

-Ryan Keith, President

Tags: advent, aids, Christmas, forgotten voices, hope, orphans, peterson, Ryan Keith, zimbabwe
Filed under: General Blog, Ryan's Blog, Ten Together Blog