163 Million Tiles (guest blogger)
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 11:38AM Recently I had the privilege of visiting Lifesong's schools in Zambia and Ethiopia with an amazing group of people... all of us different, from different areas, with different histories, coming together for the sake of orphans in Africa. We had some amazing talks, laughed a LOT, bonded over interesting foods and a nerve-racking boat ride to see hippos (below), and met some beautiful children!
Today, one of my fellow travelers, Aaron Klein (in the white shirt on the right), has agreed to share his perspective of our trip. But before we go to that I want to share a little about him. Aaron is a loving husband, adoptive daddy of two, (it never took much for Aaron to pull out pics of his kiddos... this is one proud papa), business leader, tech expert, education reformer, and orphan advocate. (aka. busy guy!) With his quick humor and contagious laugh, he was a great addition to our trip!
So, without further ado...
In Monreale, Italy sits a cathedral, decorated with a 100-million-glass-and-stone tesserae mosaic encompassing over 80,000 square feet of wall space. The beauty and intricate detail of a work of art on that large a scale is almost impossible to comprehend. How did they do it?
I had the great privilege of joining Lifesong for Orphans on a vision trip through Zambia and Ethiopia a couple of weeks ago. To say that this trip lit my heart on fire again for the children I met there would be the understatement of the year. It has been said that “I need Africa more than Africa needs me,” and that is true. But I think that it also can be said “Africa has changed me far more than I have changed Africa.”
I know I speak for the rest when I say that it was the individual moments of this trip that took our breaths away. From my teammate Kendall Hewitt describing Lifesong Zambia headmaster John Mumba as “half Cuba Gooding, Jr. and half Nelson Mandela”…to sitting on the grass at Adami Tulu School in Ethiopia, engulfed by 75 kids and chanting the ABCs with them…our journey through these incredible countries was exhilarating, heartbreaking, compelling, challenging and life-changing.
It was moments like those that made me step back and think for a minute about the statistics around adoption and orphan care. 163 million orphans around the world. About 16 million of them have lost both parents. And I began to wonder: how can we really make a difference?
Then it occurred to me that the 80,000 square feet of intricate art forming the Monreale mosaic murals came about because of two things: a multitude of workers, and each one being focused on just one tile at a time.
I’m sure some of those workers were a little overwhelmed at the prospect of designing 100 million tiles when they started the work. Perhaps the size of the task seemed to grow as they worked, and they felt like it would never be completed. Yet they did it, and it’s a masterpiece for the world to see.
In the much the same way, I believe we will solve the global orphan crisis in my lifetime.
It was clear to me as I watched these children be fed, taught, encouraged and loved by Lifesong’s incredible staff: these children are going to grow up changed people, ready to break the cycle of poverty, build strong families of their own, and serve as the future leaders of their countries.
Now we just need to focus on expanding these efforts to touch more lives. And more. And more. And more. Until all 163 million stories are even more beautiful than a mosaic in a church in Italy.
I’m immensely grateful to Lifesong for Orphans, because they’re creating opportunities for us to fulfill this calling, one child at a time. Will you join us?
Thanks, Aaron, it was awesome getting to hang with you in Africa! Check out Aaron's blog here.
