Will Your Heart See Them?

In Swaziland, there are silent, hollow-eyed children living in mud-walled homes the size of most American bathrooms. In America we are not accustomed to seeing impoverished housing in our developing world, and to do so, is like nothing you have ever seen. Dirt floors, no running water or lights, not a single stick of furniture, only a few pots and pans in a corner. Child-run households—with no parents left—which is the tragic norm in village after village in Swaziland. In one small home, a 10-year-old girl had nothing to eat, no one to hold her at night, no mother to whisper in her ear that she is a beautiful, precious child of God. In a land barren and dry of all forms of life its a miracle that any survive at all.

In a world where countless tears flow from the eyes of children left orphaned everyday. Innocent lives who are hurting, and alone, including those in America, where there are currently 500,000 children in foster care. For all is needed is a heart to see these invisible children who have become the forgotten children in a society that is blind to their pain.

For it only takes is one heart to set a path of hope in motion, who chooses to see the orphan in their state of hopelessness to give hope. I believe that regardless of who you are or where you live, that God is looking at me and you to help an orphan within our reach. For the biggest contribution a person can make to a life of a child, is to not only help provide for their basic needs. But to encourage them in helping them know what real love is, in a love that acts to help them, that forges through the obsticles to reach them. Something that God expects those who say they love Him to do according to his word.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” James 1:27:

Today we are to take that commandment seriously. And it's not about charity that I fight for the orphans in Africa. But for justice, and equality, in a chance at a life they deserve to have. A life their own government does not care to give them. For when evil men in leadership positions oppress a society, God then looks at us to do something to help those who are weak, and innocent.  For love thy neighbor as thyself is not a piece of advice, but a command. And does not apply only within America, but the world. I am sick and tired of hearing the good intentions of many who call themselves Christians, while many innocent children suffer and die needlessly within our world, and many even within our reach! Why?

However, the primary motivator for wanting to help an orphan should not be one of guilt, but of love, to help them sincerely. According to God’s Word - with a compassion born out of divine love that is mirrored in Ephesians 1. Where it says that God ordained for us to be adopted into his family before the foundation of the world. God made the world so he could adopt all of us. He gave of His life so that we today can live and know Him. In a move of compassion that helps an orphaned child who sits and waits for a family to take him/her home. Think how different our lives would be if God ignored our need?

Today there are many ways to help, including providing school supplies to vulnerable children, mentoring a child or welcoming a child into your home through foster care or to spend some time. Through sponsorship of a care-point in Africa that fights for the lives of orphans abandoned by their parents due to AIDS, which is an area I 'm called to help.

For as the little children ran into the arms of Jesus to be embraced by Him, he now looks to us to continue his example. Because children are suffering all over the world, whether it be Swaziland or here in America. Innocent lives waiting for God's intervention in someone to see them to tell them they are loved, and valued.

So I encourage you to reach out to a child today to support them in whatever manor your heart moves. And even though for some it may not seem like a lot that you can give - just give anyway. For I assure you, God will meet your measure of love to then give to a hurting child, and then what happens will be a child with eyes that shines – HOPE!

To give to the orphan project I support in Nsoko, Swaziland use this link:
https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=swazi&multi=