Moses on the Mountain and other Lessons in Humility

The van drivers can’t have been happy with us. The roads on the way to Moses’ house looked impassable. At the first steep hill, the drivers asked us to get out and walk because the vans could not make it with all of our weight. The second hill wasn’t steep, but the road shouldn’t actually be called a road and the vans were not built for this sort of adventure. While the drivers can’t have been happy, we were thrilled at the top. On one side of the mountain was a vista of palm-tree covered mountains with tea farms all the way down to the valley. On the other side of the mountain, the flat plains of Meru national park extended to the horizon.

The glory of God was revealed on that mountaintop. It just so happened that the orphan who lived there was named Moses – Moses with the green thumb. A year ago, a group from Tennessee came to Maua and took a few Giving Hope orphans to a biointensive farm. They did the same this year with 18 orphans (see previous post) and I am so excited to see their progress next year because Moses had taken the lessons and run with them.

Moses stood on the top of his mountain, thrilled to have 18 Mzungus (see previous post) staring at his Kale in three stages – three weeks, six weeks, and those ready to harvest. He even had a nursery for the baby kale before he would transplant it into the rest of the field. In addition to the Kale, Moses had just planted 2000 tomato plants and 1800 so far had survived the drought. He also had a field of corn with kale planted in-between the rows. Moses and his green thumb had even planted a flower garden around his house merely because the flowers were beautiful and he took pride in his house. The glory of God was revealed through Moses.

The way down the mountain was not nearly as treacherous as the way up – mostly because a lot of us closed our eyes on the way down. We decided that we also ought to look at an orphan who just came into the program so that we can judge the amazing improvement in the lives of the orphans. So we went to meet Alex.

Alex is 18 years old without a house. He has some land, but not even a shack to call his own. For now, he stays with his 17-year-old best friend who is also an orphan in the Giving Hope program. He does not yet have an income generating activity and has not yet harvested his land although they are working it every other day. The two boys alternate working on each other’s land so that they have support every day they work. Alex survives by staying with his best friend who is also in his working group and eating the maize and beans that are on his friend’s property. His friend has been in the program for one year.

Alex would be in a desperate place if it were not for the support of his orphan friend. When I asked why he was taken in, his friend answered simply that “Alex is my friend.” Such a simple answer in a complicated world. As I gazed at God’s bounty on top of a mountain and saw a poor orphan give what little he has so that his friend may have a place to stay, I marveled at the glory of God through the simple acts of the faithful and was humbled.