Thoughts on Watoto Choir | Letter

Published 12:05 pm Thursday, April 17, 2014

Myriad questions have flooded our minds ever since we watched the Watoto choir as well. It has led us to do some digging too. On the other hand, I am still playing their music every day and dancing around the house to it, feeling emotionally linked to those children. The sharing of their lives changed me. Hosting four of them for one brief night after the performance changed our two boys too. Meeting those beautiful, sweet, joyful children who survived unfathomable evils made it all real for me. Putting faces and names to the horrific tragedies I’ve only heard about gave me a zeal I never had before. I want to go. Somewhere. I want to help. Perhaps even leave everything behind so our family can care for orphans.

I wasn’t expecting all that from a “performance.” In one 12-hour period they may have completely rerouted the trajectory of our family’s life – for generations. They are changing hearts in every town they visit. And if hundreds of other families are affected to live out a new purpose, they are changing the future. That is something the world desperately needs and for that I am grateful to Watoto.

The Skinners are doing a massive amount of good for others, but if harm is part of their agenda, they will not have our support. Nevertheless, they have taught those children to hope in God and not in anyone or anything else. That’s the only thing that will free them from the captivity of their haunting past. And that is what I’ve been praying ever since for those kids to hold firmly to.

Edee Kulper

Orcas Island