So I’m FINALLY here in India!
This month my team and I are working at one of Sarah’s Covenant Homes. Sarah has recently opened a new home in Hyderabad where she takes in orphans from over populated orphanages. These abandoned children are very sick and malnourished, and some of them have special needs. Most likely these children would not survive outside of the walls of this home because they are looked down upon in society and they are given very little to no hope. However, at Sarah’s Covenant Homes these babies are watched over and loved. They have full tummies, a bed to sleep in, someone to bathe them and change their diapers, and some toys to entertain them. They are given the hope that they need and are given a chance to live a happy life.
So for the month, each of us has chosen a baby that is “our” baby to love on and pray for specifically everyday. It’s pretty cool how God works….there are 6 of us and when we arrived here there were 6 tiny babies, and believe it or not we all fell in love with a different baby (God’s plan.).There are also two toddlers here, so we rotate playing with them and praying for them when “our” babies are sleeping (which is often).
So let me tell you a little about “my” baby. Her name is Zarah and she is ten months old. She arrived at Sarah’s Covenant Home when she was just five months old, and she was very malnourished. She also has a cleft palate and a cleft lip (which is enough of a disability for her to be looked down upon in society), and she is also the only surviving baby out of three.
The first thing everyone notices about Zarah is her big beautiful eyes. Even though she can not talk, she speaks a lot through her eyes. She’s a curious baby always watching what goes on around her. However, she will not be watching for long. Soon she will become mobile and will be discovering the world around her by crawling. She has already perfected the roll from her back to her belly and lifts her self up with her arms. Once she gets her legs into position she’ll be ready to go! Zarah also loves playing with her toys. Her favorite toy is the jungle mat where she can grab the toys that hang above her and listen to the music as she kicks the piano that lies at her feet. She also is very ticklish and gives a big smile and laugh when you kiss her on her neck, belly, or her feet. And then sometimes all Zarah wants to do is cuddle. She just loves laying her head on someone’s chest and listening to their voice as they talk to her. She’ll even tell her own story with her baby coos. Zarah is such a big bundle of joy and a very easy going baby. The only time she cries is 1.) if she’s hungry and 2.) if she needs her diaper changed…but who can blame the girl. I see Zarah grow stronger everyday, and just yesterday she had her first surgery to fix her cleft lip. I’m beginning to understand the kind of attachment all you parents out there have for your children. I’m beginning to understand the kind of love that parents have…. how they strive to work so hard and put their own wants and desires on hold so that their baby can have a better life than they had, so that their baby can have the opportunities that they never had, and so that their baby will grow up to be happy. That’s the kind of love I feel for this little girl and she’s not even mine! So I know that a parent’s love for their kid is HUGE. But now think of how big God’s love is…
His love is so BIG that it’s not even comprehendible. We don’t even have the ability to imagine how big and how deep His love is for us. Like what?!?!?! God sent His only Son, Jesus…the one and only one who was perfect, so that he would hang on a cross and die a brutal death so that a bunch of imperfect people like you and me would be saved by grace and would be free from our sin, so that we could have ETERNAL life in heaven with Him! And the best part is….there’s no religion we have to follow. There’s no checklist of things we have to do in order to be saved by God. Jesus was God’s free gift to the world, and the Bible says all we have to do is believe in our hearts that Jesus is the Savior of the world and that someday He is going to return. And if truly we believe that and have faith….then our lives should reflect what we believe and we should desire to live and be more like Jesus.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” –John 3:16
God loves these children so much, and I know that He is going to do something big through their lives. This month is so much more than just being a mom or a baby sitter, but it’s about loving, teaching, and caring for the weak so that they can become strong….strong in and with God, so that they can be a living testimony to all of the people around them, so that they can become world changers and Kingdom builders.
