Recently, I’ve been reading Love Has a Face by Michele Perry. She is a missionary serving in war-torn Sudan and caring for orphans. Hearing about this woman’s life and her heart for God and orphans definitely resonates with me. During my time here, God has certainly placed an even greater burden on my heart for orphans. Some of the ways God has spoken to me most is through the people here, especially my students, of whom many are orphans. I am not a great writer, but as I’ve been reading I can’t help but think of love’s face in Burkina and these are my thoughts…

Love is a beautiful 3-year-old girl, Mariam, falling asleep in my arms at church on Sunday mornings.

Love is seeing my students jump up and down, screaming, “O-lee-vee-a, O-lee-vee-a” when I arrive at school in the mornings.

Love is listening to my students pray in their native tongue.

Love is watching a student who is ill, lay on the concrete floor in the back of the classroom because they would rather stay at school than go home.

Love is holding Nadia, my neighbor, in my arms and rocking her back and forth, crying with her as she shares the story of her mother’s death and her life as an orphan.

Love is hearing my students beg me to take them home with me.

Love is Arnaud (one of my students) coming to school and saying, “Last night, I had a dream that Jesus was washing my heart.”

Love is rejoicing with my students when God sends a rainstorm our way.

Love is locking eyes and exchanging smiles with a child on the street selling whatever they can to earn a living.

Love is laughter when the locals and I try and speak in the native language.

Love is listening to the silence that comes from my students when they hear a Bible story.

Love is hearing my students recite Bible stories and scripture, and then be able to watch them live out what they hear at school everyday.

Love is sleeping outside under a vast array of stars and thinking about the One who made them.

Love is sweating buckets on a hot day with the teachers and students while dancing up a storm and singing songs of praise at school.

Love is hearing Bazié share stories of how God is working in and through our students to touch the lives of their parents.

Love is seeing a child in the village, who may have never seen a white person before, let me hold them or shake their hand.

Love is being giving much, by people who have little.

Love is tearful goodbyes, in a culture where crying is a sign of weakness.

But…Ultimate Love is God sending his son to die on a cross because he thought you and I were worth it. He thought my students were worth it. He thought the teachers were worth it. He thought the orphans and widows were worth it. He thought the Burkinabé people were worth it. Without this love that has captured my heart and left me longing for more, I’m lost.

“I am learning the Kingdom is love. It is joy. It is peace. It is life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. It cannot be lived any other way. But love is the foundation, the focus, the how, the why, the reason, the promise, the call, the catalyst, the mandate, the mantle, the answer, our all in all—because love is who He is” (Love Has a Face, Michele Perry).

“This is real love- not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.” ~ 1 John 4:10

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