Tuesday, March 29, 2011

We Cannot Ignore their cries

A few nights ago, my husband showed me a video that I cannot get out of my mind. Two missionaries went out into a very remote village in Uganda and what they found is beyond words. They found two children, literally left in the dirt, face down, starving to death. They could not walk, but would scoot around in circles in the dirt, grasping for hope. Their older sister, who we found out was 8 years old, returned from who knows where with a tub of water. She dragged the kids to the tub of water and cleaned them up. There were no adults around. The children were left to starve to death, except for an eight year old who cared enough to try to clean them up. The good news of the story is that the missionaries were able to raise money to get hospital care and food for the two younger children and find a private home with a guardian for the 8 year old. The children will live. They have been given hope and shown the love of Christ through someone who cared enough to be moved with compassion for their plight.

The church cannot ignore the cries of children any longer. There are so many children starving, beaten, abused, sold into prostitution and they are crying out for hope. God did not intend for children to be treated this way and His heart is breaking. He is compelling many of us to do something NOW. Did you know that if you want to adopt a healthy infant, there is often a waiting list, sometimes of several years? However, there are countless numbers of older children and special needs children that have been waiting and waiting for a family to adopt them. There are 14 and 15 year olds who are aging out of orphanages and being turned back onto the streets to fend for themselves. Many of those end up as prostittues because they are forced to find a way to live.

Don't ignore the cries of children around the world today. God's heart is moved with compassion and our hearts should be too. God is compelling us to do something...give up your Starbucks for a week, give up your lunch for a day, sponsor a child through latin american child care. You say, how can that little bit help? If you start with a little and you allow God to use you in a "little" way, He will begin to move on your heart with compassion and soon you will be allowing God to use you in a "mighty" way! Darren and I, along with some of our friends from our church have started a ministry called Mission 1:27. Right now, we don't have much by way of funding, but we are beleiving that God is going to move on people's hearts to give. Our passion is for children around the world to be reached with the Gospel through love. If you want to start by donating and helping us with our passion, go to http://www.mission127.com/ and find out some of the projects we have waiting to be funded. We cannot ignore the cries of the hurting children any longer.

Pray for us also as we are in the process of adopting. We really feel God has a "waiting" child for us. Please pray that God gives the wisdom and compassion to know how to care for our new son or daughter because we can only imagine the things which have happened in that little child's life. Our God is a God of restoration and I believe that He will restore our child and begin a healing process in his or her heart even now!

1 comment:

  1. Right on, Jenna! What was the name of that video? Someday I hope that I will be able to adopt internationally...I'm not in the season where I would be able to provide for a child...but I agree, so many older children need families too!

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