The Last Word
On Seeing the
Larger Picture
By Esther McDaniel
On May 11 I received a letter that in-
formed me that twenty-plus children had
been taken in at Glory Center. I was horri-
fied! The only thing I could think of was,
“I have to stop them! They don’t know
what they are doing!!” (Please read the
whole story elsewhere in this issue.)
Since Kenya is eight hours ahead of
my eastern time zone, I knew I had to
work quickly, so I picked up the phone
and called Pastor Moses. The connection
was not good but I was able to get one
message across: “Don’t take in any more
children!” Three days later, on the 14th, I
received word that the total of new chil-
dren taken in was fifty-six. Somehow be-
tween the time the letter was sent telling
me twenty-plus had been taken in and my
frantic phone message, many more—
even more than had been begging daily at
the gates—had found their way into our
Center. I was numb for two weeks!
How could this have happened? For
days I went around in a fog trying to fig-
ure it all out. Where would the money
come from to care for all these extra
children? Why weren’t we contacted
before the doors were opened to children
we had been purposely caring for out-
side the gate for months?
According to our plan, Brian and Lo-
gan should not have even gone to Glory
Center until after they had visited Hope
Center. Pastor Maurice had a better idea of
our expectations and limitations, plus they
would get to see the ideal—the Center that
was already built and running well—be-
fore visiting Glory Center—the project
that still has so much work needing to be
accomplished to bring it up to standard.
Surely if they had been at Hope Cen-
ter as planned, and seen the hundreds of
children coming to the gate rather than the
thirty-some that we knew were beating on
the doors at Glory Center, they would have
realized that we simply cannot help them
all. We are feeding them, yes, but actually
taking them in and giving them a bed
opens us up to so many government regu-
lations that are difficult to comply with and
cost more money than we have coming in.
As I contemplated the seriousness
of this situation, I heard the spirit of God
speaking to my heart saying, “You’ve
just gotten a glimpse of what it’s like for
Me when you so often dig in where you
are, doing what seems best in your eyes,
without consulting Me about My larger
plan. So many times, if you could see
the whole picture as I do, you would
know that things need to be handled dif-
ferently. You mean well, but you sure
can mess things up sometimes.” Wow!
I thank God for this lesson He has
taught me. I thank Him for Brian and Lo-
gan and their tender hearts toward all of
these hurting, dying children. I wish we
could all be there to see what they are
seeing. I know that God will make a way
for these precious children just as He has
for all those we have taken in before
them. As Moses has said, “It is very diffi-
cult to take these children back to the
streets.” How could anyone even try?
Obviously, God sees a larger picture.
?
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