The Amazing life of Mother Teresa

Recently, I got a chance to visit the Maasai  MaraNational Reserve with a team of colleagues. The visit left me excited; not just because of the beautiful spectacle of Wildbeasts migrating from The Mara to Serengeti via the Mara River, or the wonderfull array of Flora and Fauna available, but because of an insight that came into my mind . As our game drive progressed on, I saw beautiful animals that were equally amazed at seeing me and a question popped into my mind, what’s the purpose of living for these wild animals, what do they think about most of the time, do they have a mission and a vision in life. I could certainly realize that these animals always think about one thing, or two - what they will eat. Others also go about this business by being cautious not to become food to some others. Imagine how boring life would be just to wake up to eat, drink, sleep, 24 hours, 7 days a week and 365 days for the rest of your life. Yet we as human beings are spared this great tragedy by our maker, because we can think, reason, plan, execute, make mistakes, learn from them and go on with life. But there is a certain group of people who tend to borrow heavily from the Maasai Jungle way of life, these people just go to school, graduate, get a job, get married, have kids, retire and wait to die. This kind of thinking, or living certainly puzzles me, there must be a better way to live, there must be a great purpose for our living.

Nobody exemplified the need to live a purposeful life better than one Mother Teresa Who was Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu  on August 26^th 1910,in Albania. By age 12 she was convinced that she should commit herself to a religious life. She left home at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto as a missionary. On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" while traveling by train to the Loreto convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith."She began her missionary work with the poor in 1948, replacing her traditional Loreto habit with a simple white cotton sari decorated with a blue border. Mother Teresa adopted Indian citizenship, spent a few months in Patna to receive a basic medical training in the Holy Family Hospital and then ventured out into the slums. Initially she started a school in Motijhil (Calcutta); soon she started tending to the needs of the destitute and starving. In 1982, at the height of the Siege of Beirut, Mother Teresa rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital by brokering a temporary cease-fire between the Israeli army and Palestinian guerrillas. Accompanied by Red Cross workers, she traveled through the war zone to the devastated hospital to evacuate the young patients. When Eastern Europe experienced increased openness in the late 1980s, she expanded her efforts to Communist countries that had previously rejected the Missionaries of Charity, embarking on dozens of projects. She was undeterred by criticism about her firm stand against abortion and divorce stating, "No matter who says what, you should accept it with a smile and do your own work." She visited the Soviet republic of Armenia following the 1988 Spitak earthquake, and met with Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.Mother Teresa traveled to assist and minister to the hungry in Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl, and earthquake victims in Armenia.By 1996, she was operating 517 missions in more than 100 countries. Over the years, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity grew from twelve to thousands serving the "poorest of the poor" in 450 centers around the world. The first Missionaries of Charity home in the United States was established in the South Bronx, New York; by 1984 the order operated 19 establishments throughout the country. President Ronald Reagan presented Mother Teresa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony, 1985

In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace." She refused the conventional ceremonial banquet given to laureates, and asked that the $192,000 funds be given to the poor in India stating that earthly rewards were important only if they helped her help the world's needy. When Mother Teresa received the prize, she was asked, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She answered "Go home and love your family." Building on this theme in her Nobel Lecture, she said: "Around the world, not only in the poor countries, but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society—that poverty is so hurtable [sic] and so much, and I find that very difficult." She also singled out abortion as 'the greatest destroyer of peace in the world'.

Mother Teresa died on  5^th September 1997 aged 87. Her death was mourned in both secular and religious communities, in both Christian and other religious circles all over the world. Her life-long devotion to the care of the poor, the sick, and the disadvantaged was one of the highest examples of service to our humanity." Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. She has been memorialized through museums, been named patroness of various churches, and had various structures, Universities, Children  and roads named after her, including Albania's international airport and probably my yet to be born daughter.

Back to where I began, what’s your purpose in life, how would you want to be remembered in this life, how can you leave it  better than you found it?  What lesson can you draw from the selfless life of Mother Teresa? Les Brown says “ Oh God to reach the point of death only to realize that you have never lived, only to realize that you have never scrapped the surface of your potential” Are we going to have this bitter realization when it is too late to turn back ? , Let me leave you with this quote from Martin Luther King Jr and then rest my case ‘Be ashamed to die until you have won a victory for humanity’

No arms, No legs, No Problem; The amazing story of Nick Vujicic

No arms, no legs, no problem .Imagine being born without arms. No arms to wrap around someone, no hands to experience touch, or to hold another hand with. Or what about being born without legs? Having no ability to dance, walk, run, or even stand on two feet. Now put both of those scenarios together: no arms and no legs. What would you do? How would that effect your everyday life?.Thats Nicholas james vujicic speaking to you.would you believe him?  Well, you would rather do coz that is the life that he has had to content with, he doest survive, he doest complain, he lives his life to the fullest. The eldest child of a Serbian family Vujicic  was born in Brisbane, Australia with Tetra-amelia. He was limbless, missing both arms at shoulder level, as well as legless. His feet were toeless except for two toes on one foot. Initially, his parents were devastated, though Vujicic was otherwise healthy.Originally prohibited by Victoria state law from attending a mainstream school because of his physical disability, even though he was not mentally impaired, Vujicic became one of the first disabled students integrated into a mainstream school, once the laws changed.

Bullied at school, Vujicic grew depressed and by the age of 8, contemplated suicide. At age 10, he tried to drown himself in 4 inches of water, but did not go through with it out of love for his parents. After praying to grow arms and legs, Vujicic eventually realized that his accomplishments could inspire others – and became grateful for his life key turning point came when his mother showed him a newspaper article about a man dealing with a severe disability. Vujicic realized he wasn't unique in his struggle  and began to embrace and transcend his disability.

He began to master the daily tasks of life. He learned to write using the two toes on his left foot with a special grip that slid onto his big toe. He learned to use a computer and type using the "heel and toe" method. He learned to throw tennis balls, play drum pedals, get himself a glass of water, comb his hair, brush his teeth, answer the phone and shave.

In grade seven he was elected captain of his school and worked with the student council on fund-raising events for local charities and disability campaigns.

When he was seventeen, he started to give talks at his prayer group and eventually started his non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs. Vujicic graduated from university at the age of 21 with a double major in Accounting and Financial Planning. Subsequently he became a motivational speaker, travelling internationally and focusing on teen issues. Having addressed over three million people in over 24 countries on five continents,he speaks to corporate audiences, congregations and schools and has been here in Kenya. Nick is now Maried to Kanae Miyahara and they have one son named Kuboshi.

Watching his videos in youtube, I kept on asking myself, why do we  place limitations on our own lives, why  cant we live a life without limits.If  Nick can make it, why not me? I will make it, afterall my motto has been and will always be “ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”  what about you?

Turning grief into inspiration:The story of Horatio Gates Spafford

Horatio Spafford

Horatio Gates Spafford  was born in October 20, 1828,in New York.He was a prominent lawyer and a renown business man who had invested heavily in real estate.Spafford was also a committed Christian.

On September 1861, in Chicago, he married Anna Larsen, of Stavanger, Norway

On October 8, 1871,  a great fire , what is commonly refered as the Great Chicago Fire swept through the city and the fire destroyed almost everything he owned.During this period of time, his wife came and asked him what they were to do and he answered her that all was in control of God and that should be at peace.

Two years later, Spafford decided his family should take a holiday somewhere in Europe, and chose England knowing that his friend D. L. Moody would be preaching there in the fall so that he can hook up with him and continue preaching with him. He was delayed because of business, so he sent his family ahead: his wife and their four children, daughters eleven year old Anna “Annie”, nine year old Margaret Lee, five year old Elizabeth “Bessie”, and two year old Tanetta.

On November 22, 1873, while crossing the Atlantic on the steamship Ville du Havre, their ship was struck by an iron sailing vessel and two hundred and twenty-six people lost their lives, including all four of Spafford's daughters. Anna Spafford survived the tragedy and upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to Spafford beginning "Saved alone.” Spafford then had to sail to England.When he got to the exact spot where all his daughters perished, he had the option of choosing to cry or agonizing over his daughters demise.But Spafford chose neither.The spirit of the lord inspired him to come up with a song that is today one of the favorite hymns used in churches for worship. The song goes………….

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

(Refrain:) It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
(Refrain)

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
(Refrain)

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pain shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
(Refrain)

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Following the sinking of the Ville du Havre, Anna gave birth to three more children and   as if the spaffords had not been through enough tragedy, they still lost their only son Horatio Goertner Spafford,  at the age of four. In August 1881, the Spaffords set out for Jerusalem as a party of thirteen adults and three children and set up the American Colony. Colony members, later joined by Swedish Christians, engaged in philanthropic work amongst the people of Jerusalem regardless of their religious affiliation and without proselytizing motives--thereby gaining the trust of the local Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities. During and immediately after World War I, the American Colony played a critical role in supporting these communities through the great suffering and deprivations of the eastern front by running soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages and other charitable ventures.

Spafford died on October 16, 1888, of malaria, and was buried in Mount Zion Cemetery, Jerusalem.