The Story of Limah & Brigid

In June of 2010 - my Kenya co-leader Nikki asked if I would be willing to "help" her at The Walk (which is a summer retreat for the high school ministry at all of North Point's campuses).   She told me it would be soooo easy....  She had it all under control...  No problem...  Well until she had to cancel the night before due to a family situation...

Seriously - I am now headed to the beach with 12 freshman girls...  That I only met ONCE before.   Did I mention there were thousands of kids at this retreat?!  It was VERY challenging!   I'm not to proud to admit - I laid on the couch the first night in tears - wondering why the HECK God would want me to hang out at the beach with a bunch of girls.  I figured it was payback for the craziness I put my parents through in middle school & high school.  Unfortunately for them - I was mischievous when I was younger so they didn't get away with much...   :)

One of the days the Daraja Choir was there.   It's a choir made up of students from Kenya.   They were amazing.  It immediately got me even more excited about going to Kenya the following month. Afterwards I went to the table to sponsor a child.   I had decided awhile ago I would like to sponsor another child & loved the idea of getting to meet them when I was in Ngaamba.   I really wanted to sponsor a girl...  Since most of them have shaved heads due to hygiene issues - I picked the only one that I was pretty sure was a girl based on her picture.  I didn't want to sort through & select one (other than gender) because they all are in similar situations. Done - her name was Limah Joel.  :)

Seriously - look at this face!!!!  Loved her from the moment I picked up this photo...

Fast forward to my first day in South Ngaamba.   The first woman I met as I got off the bus was a woman named Brigid.   My sister Jen had been to Kenya a month before & encouraged me to really seek out the women.  Kids bombard you but the adults are looking for the friendships as well.   So I immediately made a mental note to remember Brigid. I got to spend quite a bit of time with her we didn't chat much just ate together, helped clean up, get the church ready for Sunday & we sat together during the students welcoming ceremony.

The next morning I went to a different church with part of our team. (21 people are a lot to go to one church so we break up into smaller groups & go to multiple churches).   On the way back to Marwa - I asked our host Lucy if she would introduce me to Limah.   She found her pretty quickly but of course she was super shy & we didn't really interact much just about 10 minutes or before she ran off to find some friends.

Don't you just love the kid in the corner's expression...  :)

 I looked for Brigid but couldn't find her as we were mainly there to hang out with kids since they didn't have school.  As we were called to gather everyone up to head back to the bus to head out I heard someone call my name.  It was Brigid.  I was so excited to see her catch up. She immediately grabbed my right hand a we started chatting on the way to the bus.  She had been looking for me all day.   As we were approaching the end of the field I felt a much smaller hand grab my left hand. I looked down & it was my shy little friend Limah.   Brigid looked down and said "Oh Maureen, meet my daughter Limah."  WOW... even as I'm typing this the feeling of joy is overwhelming.  We immediately made the connection between us all...   And there was a lot of hugging, joyful crying & laughing of course.

This photos is moments later...  It all happened right behind that gate near the pole in the upper left corner.   

I was so excited & surprised!!!   I love how God totally orchestrated this moment.  It was so incredibly special & I will treasure it ALWAYS.  

And to think....   this story was in the works while I was in tears on the couch at "The Walk"wondering why the heck God had me there....

There's always a reason - sometimes we never know the outcome - other times God lets us in on a surprise!   He was working on this surprise just for the three of us!!