I want you to imagine holding a new born baby. Less than four pounds big, no older than 24 hours old. Then picture yourself caring a two year old smaller than a 9 month old with legs so weak when you set him down to stand he cries in pain and sits on the ground. Imagine looking at the new born baby and seeing it covered in charcoal, nose already blackened from breathing in bad quality air. This is your family. You can’t find enough food for your family. But you praise The Lord. Why? What do you have?
This is a real family in a place locals and missionaries call “Happy Land”. The people in “Happy Land” have nothing. I stared at almost fifty kids covered in grime holding bowls asking every few seconds for you not to forget them as you give them a meal. I watched them laugh and smile when talking about Jesus. When called up to the front to talk with a translator about God to the kids, I began to understand why The Lord said the first will be last and the last will be first. God promises that he will not give us more than we can handle. I’m pretty weak in comparison to these people, they have nothing and still praise God. In the end times these are the people who will walk like warriors through the streets, because they have overcome the worst and loved the best. They are much stronger than anyone I know.
“Happy Land” ruined me. I wake up from dreams about some of the kids I held, malnourished and fragile. It’s not like the pictures you see and feel compassionate towards. It’s real life and it is state altering. “Happy Land” made me remember the days where my mom bathed my little sister in the tub after a long day of being a kid. It brought me back to the gifts we had in America, almost like a Christmas memory or something of great significance. Something as “simple” as bathing a child… These children will never experience.
Every day kids come to our house gate asking for water. I can’t help but remember the ALS ice bucket challenge and all the gallons of water dumped on American heads. Now all that water seems almost symbolic, like a crown of greatness. Yet, we haven’t see the world outside our American Dreams and fads. I thought about large quantities of food people buy, just to throw away the half that gets spoiled in the fridge, as I held kids in “Happy Land”.
We aren’t in the wrong if we don’t know. If we don’t know these kids exist how can we be convicted to share our blessed lives? How much I wish everyone would go out and see the world for what it really is behind all the tourism. Maybe things would start changing physically for these people. Because the kingdom on earth is what these kids deserve.
Photo Credits: Kate Kelly, Katelyn DeVoe
