In Need Of Hope

Childhood: Kites, lollipops, laughter, good health, hopeful dreams, running free, starring in adventures, beating off dreaded pirates, enjoying life, and no worries about where the next meal will come from. Childhood is a place of the discovery of life! This is not the description, however, of a particular group of 20 precious Kenyan children. They are orphans. Their current home is a concrete slab that is smaller than my bedroom (which is also transformed into the school room during the day).

All 16 children live together, half on the floor and half cramped in two twin beds. There are no mattresses and not enough blankets for the children who have to sleep on the floor. Some sleep with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

 

     This center is the setting of a cry for help. This is the cry for help we walked into on Saturday morning. The center is run by a Pastor and a few other volunteer workers who try their hardest to make this orphanage a home. The volunteers also help teach a school for these 20 children along with 64 other children. The orphanage is rampant with disease. The center does not have enough money to feed all the children and their well water is contaminated. 8 of the children are HIV positive and many of the children have scabies, worms, and dysentery.
      I felt overwhelmed as I heard all the needs of this center. If I were a magician I would snap my fingers and give these precious children a new home. If I were a Doctor I would heal all of their sicknesses, and find a way for them to never be sick again. If I were a well digger, I would dig them a well. Even if I had to dig it with my bare hands to give them clean fresh water. If I were a memory eraser, I would erase all of their bad memories, so they never had to be sad again. There is so much I would do if I could. Then I remembered I can! I may not be a magician, but I work for the greatest magician ever known to man. I may not be a Doctor, but The One who sent me is the Great Physician who has more love for these precious children than my feeble heart could ever contain!