American lives are busy, and perhaps you think yours is particularly chaotic. While I am certain you are probably like me and inadvertently overcommitted, I am also fairly certain you will find this man and his wife may have a longer “to do” list than you and I ever dreamt.
The Iris Base we served at in Dondo, Mozambique has a Bible School for Pastors (of which I was humbled and honored to teach at on a few occasions). Pastor Pasqual is the head of this institution. He teaches courses to all three years and manages the staff, students, cirriculum, and other logistics I do not claim to begin to grasp. Doing this, pouring into his students and staff daily and simply being a married man with children of his own would be enough to give a young man gray hair.
Pastor Pasqual, however, has been called by our Heavenly Father to be a father to the orphans and 
vulnerable children in his village. Let me remind you, his Bible School takes place at an orphanage. He sees orphan boys cared for daily. He could do what, I am ashamed to say, most of us do and ignore the need seen because either, “Someone else will do it” or “Someone else is doing it.” I will readily admit I fail in this area all too often. Even in extremely small, insignificant things like cleaning up the kitchen after meals.
“Someone else will do it,” I say to myself. Or even better, “Someone else is doing it” even though my help could speed up the process and perhaps create a moment for fellowship. Pastor Pasqual sees ever day someone else who is caring for orphan children and yet he responds with, “So will I.”
The Pasquals care for over twenty children in their village who are either orphaned or volunerable (likely a “single orphan” with the remaining parent suffering from a crippling illness). They care for them as their own, providing food, support, Biblical teaching and training and a safe place to play. The incredible thing we found, though, as we met this couple is that they end up caring for over one-hundred children in the village, on top of their own.
The moment that humbled me to my core, though, was when the pastor kneeled before us in his home as desperately asked us for our prayers. He told us it was not easy what they do, but he knows God has called him to be a father to the fatherless. Just like our God has been to the world.
I would ask you to, of course, pray for this man, his wife, family and children he cares for. Also consider the needs you see around you, whether big or small, and ask yourself is God is calling you to be a part of the solution; even if someone else will do it or someone else is doing it. Respond like Pastor Pasqual and when you see a need, simply choose to join in the solution.
