Fractals

I went to Kenya because of love. Not my love, mind you-- someone else's. But that love was so strong and beautiful that not even the bitter person I was becoming could ignore it.

I was growing cynical. I'd loved someone who didn't love me back. I'd poured my heart into a career that rejected me. I'd started teaching English as a second language in South Korea because I had nowhere else to go. So when someone asked me to take a trip to Kenya, I said yes. Why wouldn't I? What else was I going to do?

I went to Kenya as the female chaperon for ten Korean students trying to get the locals interested in a brand-new school in Osinoni. On its own, a great story-- kids reaching out to other kids, growing up a little and sharing their privileges. At first, my kids were scared of the little black children running up to them and touching their hair. But then someone found a ball and pretty soon everyone got drawn into a great game of soccer, and, as they say, the rest is history. My students taught our Kenyan friends the wonders of balloon animals, and they taught us how to say "goodnight" in three languages.

But why were we there? When I asked, I got non-answers. "Why Kenya?" they'd repeat. "Why not?"

I found out just before we left. On the last day of our stay, the school sign went up beside the road: "Jeesun Ryu Memorial School."

Suddenly I understood why our leader, Pastor Ryu, seemed so intense. This Jeesun Ryu must've been a relative of his.

She was. Pastor Ryu's only daughter Jeesun had wanted to live in Africa since she was five years old. She went to nursing school so that she could give offer much-needed medical aid to people in the place she loved. After she graduated, she planned to work in Osinoni, but she never got the chance. Just before she was supposed to leave, she went up to a mountain retreat to pray, and on her way back, she got into a car accident that ended her life.

Pastor Ryu had spent two years raising money to save his daughter's dream. Each year, he went back to be with the people her daughter loved, and he was building a school where children could learn to help themselves the way Jeesun Ryu never could. By the time of our mission trip, he had raised about $2 million (USD) and built a working farm.

How did I end up in Kenya? A father loved his daughter who loved a continent, and they shared that love with me when I needed it. "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13.13, NKJV).