Major Jetliner

"Whenever a major jetliner crashes anywhere in the world, it inevitably sets off a worldwide media frenzy covering every aspect of the tragedy . . . Imagine for a moment that you woke up this morning to the following headline: 'One Hundred Jetliners Crash, Killing 26,500.' Think of the pandemonium this would create across the world as heads of state, parliaments, and congresses convened to grapple with the nature and causes of this tragedy. Think about the avalanche of media coverage that it would ignite around the globe as reporters shared the shocking news and tried to communicate its implications to the world . . . Now imagine that the very next day, one hundred more planes crashed - and one hundred more the next, and the next, and the next. It is unimaginable that something this terrible could ever happen. But it did -- and it does. It happened today, and it happened yesterday. It will happen again tomorrow. But there was no media coverage. No heads of state, parliaments, or congresses stopped what they were doing to address the crisis, and no investigations were launched. Yet more than 26,500 children died yesterday of preventable causes related to their poverty, and it will happen again today and tomorrow and the day after that. Almost 10 million children will be dead in the course of a year . . . And even though we now have the awareness, the access, and the ability to stop it, why have we chosen not to? Perhaps one reason is that these kids who are dying are not our kids; they're someone else's." - Richard Stearns

Kids from the Katanga slums waiting in line to be seen at one of our medical outreaches

Ben, one of the boys from the kid's house and school



Bonita, one of the preschoolers, eating lunch



Karim, one of the boys living in our new boarding apartment


This quote gets me every time I read it. But the truth is, those 26,500 children that die each day all have a name; most of them have family and people who love them. Ben is really ticklish and LOVES playing with balloons; Bonita loves getting her hair braided and has some major sassy attitude; Karim is shy and a ball hog when he plays soccer. No matter what, each of those 26,500 kids has their own story. Being here makes this statistic very real and horribly devastating.


We've been keeping super busy the last few days leading a new group of 15 people around - they are here for 4 weeks. It will be great to have a ton of extra workers this month! I'll write again soon to update on what I've been busy with the past couple of weeks. Love to everyone!