Ok - for those who know me well, don't get too excited. I'm still single, and have no big plans for Valentine's Day, except to follow the stay at home order and perhaps have a tiny bit of chocolate, so this isn't a mass announcement of a new-found love in my life. I did, however, make up a nice Valentine care package for my 88 year old mom, does that count?

But love is in the air... and I thought on Valentine's Day, you could use a short love story to brighten your day amidst the cold of winter and the continued uncertainty of COVID.

It happened in Burundi. 

Burundi isn't an easy place to live. It's a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of East Africa. (Did you know Africa had a Great Lakes region?!) I went to Burundi for the first time in 2010 with World Vision to conduct workshops on child monitoring. I remember going to a new village where we were just starting to work, and was overwhelmed by the poverty. Their main source of income was making and selling clay cooking pots. For $1, a national co-worker bought me one which I carefully carted back home to Canada. Today, it is still prominently displayed in the room where I have devotions each morning. It reminds me to pray for the people of Burundi.  

Burundi is also the place of one of the deepest memories I have etched in my mind forever. As I got back in the van ready to leave, a lady approached the window, tears in her eyes and veins in her neck popping out. She was desperately trying to tell me something, but I didn't know the local dialect. When I asked the interpreter what she was saying, he said she was begging for food. We had stopped on the way to the village at a roadside stall and bought some bananas. We had 3 left. I gave them to her. Below is the picture I snapped as she cried out to me. I wish I had taken the "after" shot. She burst into a huge smile, so happy for just 3 bananas. (The same amount that I usually toss out each week). Though I don't have the pic, the memory of the joy in her face over something so simple is etched in my mind forever too. 

I digress. This is supposed to be about a love story. After all, it's Valentine's Day. But I tell you these stories to give you a sense of the need that existed in Burundi 10 years ago and still is there today. .. now, here's the connection....

Samson was a child in need, much like some of the children I had met many years ago. Little did I know, but the very same year, that I was visiting Burundi, Samson was joining one of the first youth joining the new VOH center in Bwiza, Burundi when it opened in 2010.

Here's where Valentine's Day comes in. Samson recently got married! After he finished school at the VOH center, he went to graduate from technical school and now as a full-time job in his field. He and his new bride, Annick, are ready to start their new lives full of love and hope. 

This is what VOH is all about. Young men and women, like Samson, who grew up in poverty, but, through VOH, had the chance to go to school, get a skill, find a job, and become contributing members of society, including finding love and starting a new life together.

How's that for a love story?!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Jeanette







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