This morning was “Mama’s Day” at Crossroads, a service dedicated to the ministry of our mission partner in Busia, Kenya. The Mama Orphans Children’s Home has provided shelter, food, and education to children orphaned by AIDS for more than 20 years.

Today Rev. Cari preached for Mama’s Day, which is unusual. More often, she privileges the voices of our partners: Mama herself (the Rev. Monicah Oduor) or Betty Oduor, her daughter who is the administrator. But this year, because of COVID-19, Rev. Cari preached on John 15:9-17.

In this text, Jesus calls his disciples “friends” and invites them into intimacy with him and with each other. That love is “the threshold where divine and human presence ebb and flow into each other” (John O’Donohue). That love is the invitation we at Crossroads have received from Mama as well.