Millions of orphans in Africa. Millions. That number is striking and elicits compassion. However, so many times it can be so overwhelming that it’s easy for people to remain apathetic, and therefore remain inactive. Then the logic becomes: since we do not have the capability to help all of them, then why bother with any of them? But when you meet one, just one, I can guarantee your heart for orphans will change forever.
Last week we were doing house to house evangelism. Around the corner, only a couple hundred yards away from our house, we came across a little community. There were a few huts close together, a clothes line filled with tons of laundry and a dozen little kids hanging around. There were a few women who were busy washing clothes, feeding the children and holding them. But in the midst of this, my eyes and attention went immediately to Miriam. This little girl was laying on half of a beaten up foam pad underneath a tree that only blocked the sun on the top part of her body. She was wearing a worn out red velvet dress and she had a blanket covering her even though it was scorching hot outside. Her nose was runny and the skin on her face was all dried out, but when I looked into her eyes my heart shattered. At the time I didn’t know what was wrong with her but just looking into her eyes I saw complete brokenness.
Miriam has been very sick since June. She has had this upper respiratory infection and cold for over six months without any medical care. Now, she has developed a disorder in which she doesn’t have enough blood, so her immune system can’t fight off the sickness. But that’s not the worst of it. This precious child was abandoned by her mother. Upon hearing this, Chelsea, Hope and I all got done on the ground with her and started praying. I grabbed her hand and she latched around my fingers. Tears were streaming down her face as we were crying out to the Lord to rescue her.
After being with her for a while, we did not want to leave. We decided that we had to do something more and so we went back the next day, but she wasn’t there. The women there told us that she had been admitted to the hospital and really was not doing well. We went to the local hospital that night, but she wasn’t there either. We later found out that she was at an intensive care hospital two hours away.
Thank you Lord that you are so sovereign. Thank you that you look at Miriam like she is your favorite child. Thank you that you hear our prayers and answer them. Thank you that we don’t have to take on these burdens and that you take care of all your children. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1). Thank you that Miriam is not an orphan because you are her Everlasting Father.
