Quiet storms!

World changers! Mallory & Sydney

Yesterday Mallory and I had the chance to head over to Eastern Tennessee to spend the day with Sydney, an amazing world changer.

Sydney is the 12 years old founder of Feeding the Orphans ministry that works in Ghana.

I had stumbled upon her website one day and immediately LOVED her message “Why should we eat like kings and queens when they have nothing” and I ordered a shirt to support her ministry. When the shirt arrived I read the tag that came on it, and I learned about Sydney and her story. I showed Mallory right away, then we looked at the return address on the box and found out that she lived in Tennessee too.

What are the chances of 2 pre-teen girls, with such amazing hearts for Africa and willingness to follow God’s will for them to live in the same state? We contacted Feeding the Orphans and told them about Mallory and Project Yesu, and before long Mallory and Sydney started emailing each other, both feeling like they had found their missing piece, someone who was their age and “got it” and understood why they do what they do. There was an immediate connection.

After a few weeks of emailing, Sydney’s mom Kristi and I set up a time to meet. So we loaded up into the car very early in the morning and headed East.

When you meet Mallory and Sydney, there is a shyness in them, a quietness. I call it a “quiet storm” quiet and unassuming with the power and passion to change the world.

Kristi and I kept the conversations going, while the girls sat quietly taking it all in. The more stories we shared about our girls, the more the similarities blew our minds. We joked that they must have been separated at birth.

Their passion and drive to help the children of Ghana and Uganda is amazing. There is a light in their eyes when they talk about their ministries that truly just shines God’s love.

For the first time since Mallory started Project Yesu, she felt like she has found her missing piece, someone her age who shares her love of Africa, her desire to help the sweet children there, someone who didn’t look at her like she was crazy.

We are incredibly blessed to have Sydney and her family in our lives, and I look forward to watching both FTO and PY continue and to watch Sydney and Mallory grow into the amazing, powerful, bold and passionate daughters of God.

If more people in this world had the love, drive and boldness of these two girls, what a wonderful world it would be.

-Rory