"Evone" by CMPC Team Co-leader Bethany Batusic

After mission trips many people will describe their experience as “challenging,” “eye-opening,” or maybe you have heard the classic: “life changing.”  After spending two-and-a-half weeks in Kenya and being blessed enough to be invited to The Hope Center, I would describe my experience in one small word, “Evone.”

Evone is the name of one of the orphans who challenged me, opened my eyes, and changed my life.  Only about four feet tall, eight years old, and a shy disposition, Evone made this trip to Kenya something I can never forget.

You see, Evone’s entire English vocabulary consists of yes, we are fine, hairbrush, school, and football.  My Swahili vocabulary consists of football and rafiki, meaning friend, which I know thanks to Disney’s The Lion King.

Although we could not use our mouths to communicate, we could use pictures, hand motions, facial expressions, and laughter.  Most evenings you would find Evone sitting next to me on my bed either brushing my hair or drawing pictures.  In what I would consider a terrible interpretation of my family through hand-drawn pictures, she could understand.  We would sit next to each other swapping pictures and that is how we communicated.  As all of the other girls were around singing, dancing, doing homework, or mopping—as they often do, Evone and I were busy ourselves.

I have loved watching her little quirks and inexplicable need to straighten her bed every time she walks by.  This little Kenyan girl who has seen so much loss and has already experienced heartache in her short life will have forever impacted mine.  Evone taught me that a simple smile or a few stick figures on a piece of paper can say more than words will ever have to.

Reflections by Intern and CMPC Team Member John Freeman

In 2010, I went to Kenya with a small mission team from my church. I got to learn a lot, and I became really attached to some of the kids there, specifically one of the kids named Gilbert. He and I would sit up late after finishing his school and talk about anything under the sun, whether it was school, family, country, or Jesus. We became good friends; he was my best friend from Africa, and I his best friend from America. One of the things that  astonished me was the willingness to serve that he and all of the kids at the Hope Center have. One morning on that trip, I found him scrubbing my shoes back to their original white color. I learned two things from that moment: 1) Never bring white shoes to Africa.  2) These kids have the humility that parallels Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. My time in Africa during 2010 ended, and it was hard to say goodbye to a friend such as Gilbert, but he and I became pen pals soon after, a relationship we continued for the next three years.

Through this connection, I sought an opportunity to return to Kenya once more. Therefore, this summer, I had that privilege to return to the Hope Center again as an intern. I got to see Gilbert and many of the other kids. Gilbert was now taller than me, but still the same friend I had known. Throughout my five-week stay at the orphanage, he would always refer to me as “My Brother in Christ.” This trip was even more than I could have imagined from my previous visit, but again my time had to end. However, I am holding on to those words, “My Brother in Christ,” as the great hope that I would someday see him and those other kids again in heaven. I believe that Gilbert is a testament to the great work being done in those kids at the Hope Center, and I hope that others get to share in the same privilege that I did by taking the time to personally invest in a trip to Kenya.