Your (My) Story Matters

Don't you just sometimes wonder, "is there more to this life than what I am living?" I have so many dreams right now. Dreams that could be summarized by saying, "I wanna change the world." But how do you do that? How does one person accomplish that? And maybe it isn't the fact that one person accomplishes it but rather, if each person knew the importance of their story than we all could change the world just one person living their story amongst millions of others living their stories.

I've seen places where hope seems lost and I've met faces where there is still joy. I've seen laughter in places where there are cries for peace. I've found comfort within broken concrete walls and I've taken hands that are full of scars that are full of hope longing to know truth. How can I show these people hope? With skin dark as night and eyes white as snow, I've held orphans longing for a simple touch of freedom and family. I've dressed the seeping wounds of orphans who live in captivity and slavery. These stories full of heartbreak and joy need to be shown some hope. We can be that hope by sharing the story of Christ to them.

In about 9 months, a friend and I am going to move to Ghana, Africa and live with orphans and be their family. I am going to live with them for 15 months and I am going to run a sponsorship program called Rafiki Friends to connect them with families in America so that we can raise support for them. I am going to help teach them about the ultimate story and how their stories matter. I'm going to build real lasting relationships with these children. There are 17 children: Abella, Adjoa, Kekelli, Justina, Deborah, Dorkas, Mebel, Etchu, Atchu, Junior, Ammisa, Laticia, Denisa, Efua, MaryAnna, Hakeim, and Emmanuel. And then there is me: Katie Heckel. A 23 year old "poor" college graduate, guitar playing, music writing, singing Mississippi girl who wants to change the world by loving on one child at a time. Every child deserves the chance to dream and have a story, right?

I would love to learn more about living in my story by going to the Donald Miller Conference in Portland. I've always admired the way Donald Miller writes and think it would be an amazing opportunity to learn from him...especially for this upcoming adventure that I am about to go on.

"Now that I have seen, I am RESPONSIBLE. Faith without deeds is dead. Now that I have held you in my own arms, I can not let go till you are."--Brooke Fraser

Living a Better Story Blog Contest from Donald Miller on Vimeo.

Malaria, Malaria

I tell you what, I've never been so sick before in my life. Thankfully, i've been getting better, but for a while, I was pretty miserable and the Lord has opened my eyes to others in places where malaria exists and I wonder what we can do about it. Can you imagine being in an environment where you sleep in the dust on the floor of a compound or mud hut where scorpions and spiders crawl across your legs in the middle of the night and know of nothing more? What about living in this environment, but not having a family. This environment where there is always a constant heat and for only 2 months of the year there is rain and a breath of fresh air. What about being in this environment and catching malaria. At one moment, your body temperature drops down to 95 degrees and there is uncontrollable shaking and shivering. Your body becomes cold and numb. And then the next moment, your temperature sky rockets and becomes 103.4 creating a terrible headache and causing you to vomit. Then your body starts sweating profusely and your temperature goes back down and then you are left exhausted. Imagine going through that cycle over and over and over again. Well, I did, but I had these cycles in the comfort of my home in Oxford where I could adjust the air to what I needed, I could take showers/baths whatever time I wanted, I had access to health care and medicine, I had the loving arms of my mother around me, the willingness of my father to bring me gaterade and slushies, and I had the comfort of friends encouraging me.

But imagine going through that in another place. I imagine the children who have no one to comfort them during these cycles. My brother, Clint had malaria in Africa two years ago and that fact really haunted him. Out of all of our teams that have gone to africa, 4 people have had malaria.

Malaria is a disease caused by the blood parasite Plasmodium, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Malaria, from the Medieval Italian words mala aria or “bad air,” causes 350 million to 500 million illnesses per year and kills more than one million people – mostly children under the age of five.

Malaria is particularly devastating in Africa, where it is a leading killer of children. In fact, there are 10 new cases of malaria every second. Every 30 seconds, a child in Africa dies from a malaria infection.

Malaria is also the number one killer of refugees in Africa.

Malaria is Both Preventable and Treatable...

Is there something we can do about this? I pray that the Lord gives us opportunities to do something about this now that we know. Now that we've heard and been through, we've got no excuse. I've got no excuse.