That is where he was found. Just months old, laying on the trail grounds in the woods. Maggots crawled from the festered wound, a swollen mass from the side his little head.
He was abused in the dark hours. He was watched for by his grandma, one that most would like to call a caretaker. In her drunkenness of the night threw this infant on off of a roof. With not an ounce of medical attention he was left to die.
Failure to thrive. The term that is thrown around when infants end up with unnecessary medical conditions because they simply have not been loved. This little girl, doctors could not explain what was wrong with her. Scabies and lice were one her external frame. Failure in the kidneys, liver, along with a bladder infection, she was fighting for her life. A head that seemed to large for her body was fighting infection in both ears. Her name in the orphanage was “child with no bottom”. Doctors tried to give her malnutrition a cause such as cystic fibrosis, or TB, but the cause of it all was a staff member at the orphanage refusing to feed her.
A family sells their daughter to a brothel for a paycheck. Abused and raped, at just 14 years of age she finds herself soon to be a mother. A child having a child. She is rescued and finds her home in a safe house. She is not ready to be a mom, but knows she loves her child enough to want a better life for her. At 9 nines old the baby starts the adoption process with a new family.
Four more children with no history record. Maybe they arrived by storks. They too needed to be loved, they needed a home better than the streets or an orphanage. They needed Jesus.
I have encountered each of these stories face to face recently. God is really showing me redemption and His process of sanctification through these little hands and feet. God is in the life change business.
Rhonda Benz was a stay at home mother of five from Missouri found herself struggling with empty nest syndrome while her nest was still full. God had other children set before her that she had yet to know existed. A simple email started it all. Her husband Mark had a former co-worker from Kentucky who sent out an adoption announcement with his new child from Vietnam. This was the spark that set these two hearts on fire.
The Kentucky couple fell in love with their adoption agency and started to volunteer with them. They also decided to be case managers for Mark and Rhonda’s new passion for adoption. A 20 month old girl and a 2 year old boy. As the case was almost final, Human Trafficking suspended the US adoption rights. However, when there is a will there is a way. Lobbying with the government led from one thing to another and soon the adoption was approved.
Rhonda boarded her first international flight to Cambodia for an expected 4 days to pick up the new members of her family. The Cambodian government postponed it when the Asian Economics Summit decided to make their way into town. Rhonda was stuck in a hotel room with two scared kids for a month before she was able to return home. Rhonda told her new children that their new daddy would be the man holding balloons at the airport. His children embraced his arms at the sight of him. Maybe now the family was complete.
With a new love for Cambodia because of the joy it had brought them, Mark traveled the following summer with his 9 year biological daughter to the country for a 2 week mission trip. There God spoke to Mark with a new direction. 10 months later the family left their simple American life behind to work with New Life Christian Fellowship in Cambodia.
It is not right to see a need, and not take part in the rescue. How were they to just live in their comfortable life when their hearts were breaking for the children in Cambodia. Isaiah 6:8 brought new purpose to the family. “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me” And he said, “Go….”.
Nine years has passed- they now are the parents at a home for children, a ministry all of their own. Bykota House. 5 legally adopted children, 2 still in process. Also a house of 22 young ones, some with special needs. They teach the kids downstairs with homeschool. They are teaching these youngsters to know that they are adopted, but not just by themselves but by God. They are the parents of the baby found in the woods, the children with no back grounds, the malnourished, and the one born from a brothel. They are being part of the rescue, helping these children to live lives which God intended them too, lives that do nothing by glorify the king, and help build the Kingdom.
My team has been truly blessed to be able to work alongside this couple and truly celebrate Christmas in Cambodia. We are blessed by the little miracles we get to take part in everyday. Whether it is taking children to the dentist because of a donation from in state supporters, or singing Christmas carols with the sweetest voices, and truly seeing kids who have come out of the darkness into His marvelous light. Our God is God who truly does pursue and want to bless his children.
I would like to ask for you prayer this month for the Bykota House, where these kids are really experiencing love for the first time. Pray for Rhonda and Mike. Pray that team RestedNRoots can continue the commission here. Possibly even pray to support these little ones (only six have sponsors), and most of all pray for yourselves. I am praying that when I see problems of this world I would be the Isaiah 6:8- the person who pleads to God to be apart of His rescue instead of just talking about it. It is a lot to think about- but know this last thing THE KINGDOM IS EXPANDING!
