Dragging my feet...

I do not approach writing this post kicking and screaming. It is one that I have "drug my feet" to write/post. Mostly, because it is with tears still that I process this particular experience. I am behind on my blog posts partly because of this and it has been very busy start of 2017 in Tanzania! I can not believe soon it will be the month of March and another year older I will be! So, back to the post where my feet drag in the dust a bit. I do not think that my words will do it justice! And if my words do it justice will they be appropriate?

There is a burden and a responsibility I feel as well that if I do not try to tell it who will?

This post is about my trip to the protectorate in Kabanga, Tanzania. I was there with a team of people from various organizations in December. I lead the Early Childhood portion of the team. A protectorate is a place behind a brick wall with shards of glass that rim the top to keep people with Albinism inside. This is done in the name to "protect" but it is more like a prison. I have seen many troubling sights within my time in Tanzania. But, I have never seen anything as disturbing as I did that week in Kabanga. We were there to do a camp that was requested and funded by an organization within the States. They are trying to bring aid, materials, and hope to the children with Albinism in Tanzania. There are only two left in the country that are closed protectorates which mean that under no circumstances can they leave the walls. People with Albinism in certain districts are forced to live there as soon as they are born. Mothers have to decide if they will send their newborn to this place to live with or without them. If they go with their baby they leave family and possible other children behind. They can live with their child for a year until he/she are weaned. If they choose to send their without them their baby struggles to survive in bondage with no mother to care for them. Infant twins were separated at birth because the girl twin was born with Albinism. The mother came to the protectorate with the twins but after a short time left the daughter in the hands of an elderly woman with Albinism. The mother took the dark skinned boy and went home. She could not handle living there. Families are torn a part, babies are abandoned, women wonder if they will ever have a family, elderly hope no more for fear of the outside world chokes them. So much bondage, darkness, and the grip of the enemy in this place. We worked hard to overcome the opposition to bring light and love within these walls. Armed guards watched our every move and we had to be escorted everywhere we went. We had people from months old to an elderly woman who didn't know how old she was to minister to throughout the week. Me and my team had our work cut out for us. We had the largest toddler and preschool group with absolutely zero social norms. I organized the infants and toddlers together. It is impossible for me to paint what this picture was like. I stood in the middle of the room pleading with the Lord for wisdom, grace, and ways to love in what seemed an impossible situation. Half of these precious babies laid there with diseases, hunger, and what's the point in crying cause no one will hear me mode! The other half were barbaric a symptom of never having their basic needs met. It was a "Lord of the Flies" scene like I have never seen in my life. It took us the majority of the time just for them to open up to us to be loved. A portion of my heart still has not recovered from what it was like that final day when we had to let go because it was time to leave. The sights are horrid. We took with us supplies for the people to have their very first plate and cup. 6/10 sleeping on beds with no foam just wooden slats. Rats that were the biggest things I have EVER seen run the place and are not afraid of humans. Instead they feast on them while they are sleeping. Stories of trauma of being hated and hunted by their own people. Children who made their only swing out of trash over the trash. All in the name of protection this group of precious people survive on nothing with each passing day. We were there to love because God said, "to love the least of these!" And I found them tucked in the hills of Northern Tanzania in a village called Kabanga. The sights are never far of these precious babies and we continue to seek what can be done to set them free. God loves them and so do I!

Please, pray for breakthrough!