As I mentioned before in one of my posts, a lot of orphans risk the chance of dealing with some form of brain damage as they grow up. A few of the kids here suffer from some degree of brain damage. This trip has been the longest that I have hung out with kids with difficulties like this and I have learned quite a bit from them. One of my favorite songs entitled “The Last Ones” by Matthew West talks about a child with the same challenges. I’ll post the lyrics because they explain so perfectly what I am learning from these children. Please take the time to go and listen to the song.

My friend Taylor she's an angel
Ten years old and beautiful She's a living, breathing miracle
And she proves it everyday
'Cause the odds were stacked against her from the day that she arrived here
And the doctors told her mom and dad she'd always be that way
And I confess when I first met her I was thinking life's not fair
But then she wrapped her arms around my neck
And it all became so clear

God bless the last ones
One day Taylor sent me a picture from her Special Olympics race
And I could tell just by the looks of it she was coming in last place
But she crossed that finish line with a smile upon her face as if to say

God bless the last ones

Maybe the last ones are the lucky ones
The ones who got this whole thing figured out
'Cause when they go looking for something beautiful
They start looking from the inside out
God bless the last ones

I wish we could all be the lucky ones
The ones who've got this whole thing figured out
Maybe the next time we go looking for beautiful
we'll try looking from the inside out

God bless the last ones

I had heard this song a lot before this trip, but a few days ago when I played this song one night I couldn’t get the line “when they go looking for something beautiful they start looking from the inside out” out of my head.

One of the things that has been the most powerful to me on this trip is how often I find the beauty that God has placed all around me. But I have to admit that even sometimes I have to go climb a huge rock to overlook the Serengeti sunset to see God’s beauty. How amazing would it be if we could be so happy with God that we begin to find beauty in absolutely everything we encounter because we start looking from the inside out first?

I had listened to that song a lot over the past few years but after playing with these kids for a few weeks I now understand what the song is talking about. There is something so special about these children. One of my favorite kids here at the orphanage is a boy named Johnny. Johnny is mute and suffers brain damage. He also has a physical deformity and therefore walks with a limp and his arms curled up slightly. His poor yellow sandals have been worn out completely in the front because he places all his weight on his toes when he walks.

Because of these challenges, Johnny attends a special school during the week and then comes back to the orphanage from Thursday to Sunday. Whenever Johnny comes back, he runs at us faster than any of the other kids, even despite his limp. His hug nearly knocks us over and we usually get a mouthful of slobber sprayed across our shirt. But every bit of it is worth it to see that smile across his face.

I have learned a lot from Johnny over the past few weeks. First is that no number of challenges facing Johnny could ever take away his big smile. I have never met a kid with so many things up against him; at times it is even easy to forget that he is also an orphan. You would never guess that someone could be so happy after so much they’ve had to deal with, yet after you receive a Johnny hug, you realize that this is how life is meant to be lived.

Second thing that I have learned from Johnny is that God is to be experienced in the everyday things. Yesterday we were weeding a garden and Johnny was helping us out. We were all on our hands and knees busy with the task at hand, but over in the corner, Johnny was holding the weeds up in the air and admiring them as if they were a work of art. The three of us were too busy trying to make the garden look perfect but Johnny on the other hand was going through everything we were tossing to the side, amazed at the beauty that God had planted in his backyard.

The third thing that I have learned from Johnny is that life is meant to be lived with love. Love as if no one else is watching. Love that doesn’t matter if people are staring at your limp as you run across the yard. Love that wants to be picked up over and over again and swung above your head. Love that comes running at you every day with arms spread as wide as his cripple arms will allow. Love that says that I am a child of God and His beloved masterpiece.

Maybe that’s what it means to start looking for beauty from the inside out?