Yes, Jesus broke my heart on Valentines Day. He broke it into many small pieces and I am still
trying to figure out how to put them all back together again.
trying to figure out how to put them all back together again.
Here is the story:
I woke up Thursday morning refreshed an excited to begin the day. It had been a long past 3 days of throwing myself an awesome pity party for various reasons: feelings of sadness, hurt, disappointment, and hopelessness filled the first 3 days of my week but there was something different on that morning. My team and I were heading to an orphanage not far from our home here in Kulim, Malaysia. Say what!? KIDS, BABIES, GAMES, AND LICE! (If you have read the blogs of my teammates, you probably know about our team’s issues with lice. I have been one of the lucky ones. If you haven’t, you should check out my teammate Sage’s video ‘Lice Lice Baby.’) When we arrived there were 18 kids running around, sleeping on couches and the floor (oh how I wish the floor was that comfortable for me…), and so excited to see there!
I had been told before we got there that there was a boy with a skin condition. His condition had been diagnosed as eczema and a part of his life since he was only 3 months old. But when I saw him and I am by no means a doctor but his condition is far worse than even an extreme case of eczema. I first saw him sleeping on a chair and my heart sank. Then I saw his eyes and my heart broke; eyes that were filled with an unspoken pain and misery. The pain no five year old should ever have to experience. He itched himself every moment I watched him, my heart broke again. I eventually picked him up, this time itching himself raw with a comb. I had to pry the comb from his little fingers and as he cried and begged for the comb back, my heart broke again. This time I sat down with him on my lap, my shirt no longer white in some places but stained by the blood that seeped from the places he’d scratched his entire epidermis off. I didn’t care about my shirt and all I could think about was how I could take his pain and misery from him. My heart continually broke again and again and again. We sat there for about an hour and he asked me to scratch his arm for him when he got to tired to scratch it himself (I had tried multiple times to stop him from itching but then he looked at me… the pain in his eyes made it almost unbearable to look at him.) So I sat there rubbing his back and arm while he sat there occasionally sticking his tongue out at us as a normal five year old should.
After lunch, I couldn’t watch him in misery any more; my heart had been broken too many times already. I then realized that he loved being in the stroller – the only place that he forgot about his misery and quit itching himself, so we strolled around the small carport and yard for an hour. He was eventually waving and flirting with the girls, as little boys tend to do. He even blew a few kisses! He is precious. His name is Josua.
Please join me in praying for this little boy, that he may experience the childhood that every child deserves and that he would be filled with the joy, peace, and love that our God intends for each of his children.
