"Love People" - guest blog by Sherry Gordon

Following is a guest blog by recent CFA Vision-trip participant Sherry Gordon - who also happens to be my wonderful mother! Enjoy...

“Vision Trip” is the perfect name for our visit with Care for Aids in Kenya. I was able to catch the vision of the ministry and see it blossom in the lives of hurting people. For our team’s first day in Limuru, we attended a graduation ceremony for 70+ clients as they completed their nine month CFA experience. The day started with many games, crafts and Bible lessons for the children, continued with a huge picnic for everyone, and concluded with a praise and worship service in the church. The celebration was exhilarating and the joy of the Lord overflowed. Client after client gave testimony about how their lives were radically changed by the diet and medical counseling, the financial teaching, and the spiritual enlightenment they received from the center. All instruction had been bathed in joyful love and friendship. These clients, despite their HIV+ status, had more joy than one can imagine.

Forty-eight hours later our team spent the morning at a center where clients were beginning only their third week. Each was sick, downcast, ashamed, frightened and hopeless. Meeting these "freshmen" clients sealed in our minds the true transformation real individuals are experiencing in their lives through CFA. Resurrection is truly taking place in Kenya where lonely, hopeless people are being miraculously nurtured back to life. Praise God for every worker, donor and administrator who together are making the vision a reality! God bless them richly for the sacrifices being made to redeem the lives of the forgotten.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to experience in person the ministry of CFA. What a tremendous blessing to leave the comforts of America and till the soil of my heart for others. Even so, after days of seeing hurting, hungry, desperate people everywhere we turned in Africa, I was overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. I wanted to wipe the runny noses of hundreds of toddlers wandering by the roadside. I wanted to take the young children to school to increase their chances of survival. Everything in me wanted to clean them up, get them out, and provide a way of escape from their dirty and discouraging world. On my last night in Africa, unable to sleep, I asked: “God, what do you want me to do about this….what do you expect of me?” The answer came clearly, as if the Lord himself were sitting with me, “LOVE PEOPLE.”

In the US, in Kenya, in the grocery store, in our neighborhood or one across town, wherever we are –“Love People”. The Lord does not expect us to rescue from their circumstances everyone He places in our paths, but we can be Jesus in their lives. We must make sure our investments are paying dividends in eternity.

Give Hope……Spread Joy……Write a Check……Spend Time……Say a Prayer……Take a vision trip……Share Jesus…..Love People.