Encourage

girls in Issac Village, Malawi, encouraging us

To encourage is to inspire, to bring hope and to comfort.  The most important thing people living in extreme poverty need is encouragement - someone to stand with them, to strengthen them and to let them know they are not alone.  Encourage is what we call the front tire of our tricycle.  We are committed to standing with those living in extreme poverty, to letting those who are malnourished, chronically hungry and literally starving know that they are not forgotten.  

Encouragement can come in many forms and from many places.  While in Issac Village the children followed us around smiling, laughing, holding our hands and infusing us with encouragement.  They encouraged us to remember why we do what we do.

While in Kasupe, Zambia, we were stopped by a woman who wanted to encourage women living in America.  She told us that she walks several miles to gather water in a container, put it on her head and walk several miles back to her home.  And she does this four or five times a day. Every day.  That is 365 days, rain or shine, sick or feeling well - everyday.  She does this to provide for and take care of her family.  She wanted to tell women to look at what women in Zambia do to take care of their family so that American women will have strength and courage to handle the issues that each faces - knowing that those in America have different hardships than she does.  Be encouraged.