Mamas

Mama Aloni and Mama Fibi

love, compassion, sacrifice and amazingness

Their job descriptions include cooking for feeding scheme and maintaining Kuyasa's building...no small task when you have hundreds of kids running around everyday. Mama Fibi is also the house mother in the safe house for several teenage girls who have no other safe living option.

That's their "job" but they perform so many unquantifiable tasks. Mama Fibi is soft spoken but her tender hands are strong when she pulls me into her every morning for a hug or grabs my hand as our paths cross during the day. Mama Aloni can be clearly heard proclaiming, "SisNora! Yiza, Love, yiza!" from the other side of the building in the middle of feeding scheme. Obviously when she calls I come running with anticipation and she strongly pulls me in and says, "Sissy, today the children are very active. Here is my inspiration to you," and gives me a hug and a kiss. She is at a perfect height that I can bend over slightly, rest my head on her shoulder and let her support me for just a second. But in that second, I am rejuvenated, encouraged and loved beyond measure fro the rest of the day.

They give the best hugs and have the best smiles I have ever experienced. Hands down. No competition. They are fully devoted to Kuyasa, the kids and the staff. I think they actually make the place function. There's days when I run around like a crazy person organizing, planning and teaching but if I step foot in their kitchen or come into a room they are mopping I must stop for a second, take a breath, receive a sincere hug and soak up their love. They show me on a daily basis what it means to love. When I want to kill some kids, Mama Aloni's firm love and Mama Fibi's soft love come to the front of my mind and I, as well as the kids, survive another hectic day. And it's not just surviving another day, but thriving in another day. It's knowing what joy means and experiencing that completely in life.

They give and give and give and never ask for anything in return except the occasional broom to clean up after feeding scheme or a marker to keep track of the kids in the line. That's it. They are remarkable. They are the manifestations of love. These words do not do them justice. These two women have changed my life in ways I can't explain. Purely by their actions, I am changed. They love unconditionally. They give wholeheartedly. They serve fully.

1 John 4: 7 -12
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

I hope someday to be able to love like Mama Aloni and Mama Fibi. They are remarkable.

love to you today