Dying girl’s wish funds wells for Africa
Canadian girl rises above her own pain to help others in need
KAMPALA, UGANDA - Job. What a superhero. What a fashionable life to aspire to. You know Job, that ancient Middle-East sheikh who had it all - beautiful children, plenty of riches and great health - then lost it all overnight. There he sits, in ashes, scraping his open sores with shards of broken pottery.
Yeah, this is what we all dream of: losing everything we cherish, then putting up with a nagging wife and kooky friends who tell us to curse God and die, or at least fess-up that everything is our fault, our punishment for our secret sins. You tell them to shut up. You present your case personally to the Almighty. Then He tells you to shut up.
No, Job was never Time magazine's Man of the Year. Not with rotten luck like his. Warning! Stay clear of this guy! His ills may be contagious! No wonder this biblical name is rarely mentioned in certain churches these days. Not without that precious health and wealth.
Ah, that Gospel of Health and Wealth: a doctrine well-settled in rich and poor countries alike. You'd be surprised how common it is in some African churches, even if the kids run barefoot over dirt floors.
But a 17-year-old Canadian says that Job, that suffering fool who lived as long as 4,000 years ago, is very much her hero. And thousands of Ugandans will be better for it.
"Job was my favourite book even before I got sick. It gives perspective to life," Kaitlin Boyda recently told a Canadian television reporter. This, from someone who's about to die.
Kaitlin, a teen from Lethbridge, Alberta, has a fatal brain tumour. So Canada's Children's Wish Foundation asked its familiar question, 'Kaitlin, what is your wish?'
Kaitlin could have had a trip to some fun-filled place like Disneyland. She could have had something for herself. (My seven-year-old daughter says she should have asked for everything a princess needs.) Instead, Kaitlin thought about it, then donated her wish money, about $7,500, for clean water in Uganda. That was last November.
That would dig almost one well. Kaitlin's family donated the remaining $2,000 for that single well. Then her family asked others to also give to Compassion Canada, the project's organizers. Compassion, after all, wanted 21 new wells in districts across central and southwestern Uganda.
You see, in Ugandan villages you don't turn on a tap for water. You send your kids, usually a daughter. There she goes, no, not to school, but to fetch water from the local stream, yellow jerry-can on her head, walking some kilometers, leaving sometimes before sunrise. Now use that water for cooking and cleaning and put your family at risk for terrible diseases.
That's why Kaitlin sponsored a well.
Then something happened. Something big. One friend told another who told another who told another. Canadian businesses heard. Facebook went wild. And in seven weeks more than $200,000 was raised to pay for all 21 wells. More than 30,000 Ugandans will now have clean water so they can live without killers like typhoid and E. coli and you-name-it.
Of course some Africans believe a place like Canada has money falling off trees. They don't know of, say, debt facing many Canadians. But others see this for what it is: a remarkable unfolding. No surprise that the New Vision, Uganda's national daily newspaper, picked up all this.
It's a reminder that the world's best marketing plan is nothing compared to one compelling story. It also speaks of the power of one life. Just one life. And something else.
No, this is not about money. Or health. Or even family and friends. Job was vindicated and his blessings were restored. Kaitlin is about to die. In either case, both would tell you the same thing: this really is about a loving God.
Kaitlin has never looked skyward and shaken an angry fist. She's never asked "Why me?" Instead she's asked "Why not me?" She doesn't enjoy her suffering. But she realizes deeply that somehow it can help others.
"It's not about me," is how she simply puts it. And then she adds, "My actions affect how others act."
Imagine that. A full life. With purpose. And joy.
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