Sunday, August 15, 2010

about the stars

I'm not ready to talk about the kids yet.

I'm not sure how or why, but the sky in Africa seems closer to the earth and the stars are even more brilliant. I must tell you that nights in Zim are dark. Really really dark. Can't see your hand in front of your face, dark. And this is even truer when the electricity is not working, which is like, every night.

The nights' sky took my breath away on more than one occasion. I witnessed 3 sunsets with a red sun, an orange sun and a pink sun....all of which made me somehow shiver. Majestic.

I don't know how many stars there are in the sky, but I know the latest statistic of the number of orphans in the world. 167,000,000 (one-hundred and sixty-seven MILLION). Motherless. Fatherless.

If you could reach your hand into the nights' sky and touch a star, would you? If you could reach out and touch an orphans' life, would you? One of these needs the other.

You could be a star.

4 comments:

Pete, Yvonne, Yvette, Bill said...

Hi Melissa, it's so good to know you're back safe and sound. We were praying for you. It sounds as if you accomplished a lot of what you wanted. We'll be watching for you to post more of the details. That one about 167,000,000 orphans was most impressive. I'd like to put that one in the book (do you know its source?)

Prayers and blessings,

Pete, Yvonne, Yvette and Bill A.

Melissa Irwin said...

well it was a typo, 163,000,000 according to Unicef. i typed 167 million by mistake. either way.....far too many children in the world without parents, biological or otherwise. :-(

The Clicks said...

What a beautiful and powerful post, Melissa. You are such a gifted writer. Have you ever considered writing a book? You should. Thanks for letting us live vicariously through your experience. It means a lot.

Shebecomes said...

Melissa- I have been sitting here reading over all your Zim posts for a while now, and I have to say, my heart is about to explode!

Your experiences, although different, are in essence much the same as mine. I feel like every minute is going to feel like a lifetime until I get to hug my little ones again. Its so good to have a Zim sister here in the States!