I work with Mission Europe and believe totally in all God is doing in the continent. However, for the last 10 years I held the desire to go to Africa and visit the child my family sponsor in Rwanda and just this last month, I made it. 

Not only did I make it, whilst there, I ran a ‘half marathon’ to raise funds for the Rwandan child survival project.

I still remember the devastating newspaper reports 20 years ago when I was only 14 years of age that included genocide within the nation of Rwanda. I was heart-broken with the destruction of innocence, the turmoil of these kids. All I could was pray.

I had the privilege of seeing the transformation and the nation rebuilt – sure it still has challenges, but to see the work of Compassion and the girl we sponsored doing so well in the village was beyond belief.

It comes back to a verse in the bible: ‘Let us run the race marked out for us…’ (Hebrews 12:1)

My race in life has taken me through many twists and turns these past 10 years: through postnatal depression, various physical health issues and many hours of crying, ‘God, if you can use me, I’m available’. The baby steps taken in 2015 when I went on a short-term mission trip for five days in Romania, is now using a very ordinary mother of two boys in extra-ordinary ways.

I’ve come to the conclusion we can all do something:

I’m not an athlete and no runner; however, I have ‘legs & lungs’ and I have my own race. So, I gave it a go and raised some money for a charity! I can manage a school project to collect winter clothes for the poorest nation in Europe – Moldova. I gave it a go and managed to give 100 school children a new winter outfit! As a family, we gave it a go to sponsor a child in Rwanda and now a little girl has dreams of being a nurse. That’s my race.

So, what’s your race???

What race are you running? Is it the one marked out for you? Can you be involved in rewriting someone’s future? Could you join a short-term mission team and run your race with perseverance? Could you help ‘The Storehouse’ project reach out to the under-privileged with the practical love of God?

Please get in touch with us by going to the contact page and fill your details. If you’d like to go on a mission trip sign-up. If you’d like to donate to The Storehouse project please click on the donate button.

Thanks for reading my recent journey,

Karen Gratton