Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

After a sad goodbye to Thailand, my team along with the rest of the squad is now currently in Vietnam! We are mostly working with orphanages and street kids which is a fun change of pace for us. Please continue to pray for our whole squad as we still have two weeks left here in Vietnam. It is not an easy month, but I’m trying to trust God in the midst of it all…
 
I sat on the cold hard floor with her in my lap, stroking her leg and rocking her back and forth. Her body was limp but I knew she was not yet asleep. I could feel the fever in her own body as she lay against mine; I wiped away the hair and sweat that clung to her forehead.

She is only a child, no more than 3 years old. Yet she has a hard road ahead of her already. She just lost her mother yesterday. She is now one among many orphans. She is also HIV positive.
 

For two hours I just sat there with this innocent baby in my arms. I watched my teammates play with the other HIV orphans, but for some reason I could not move. I wanted to sit and hold this child forever. Safe in my arms I could show her that even if the world kept moving there was still someone who would love and comfort her. But I knew that as soon as I stood up and put her down, as soon as I walked away and out the door of the orphanage, she would be alone again. How do we stop this cycle? How do we comfort the sick and the orphaned and the dying, when everyday death and disease bring more tragedy?

I still had these questions running through my mind when our translator told us it was time to go. I wasn’t ready to leave, but that did not change anything. As I walked away from the orphanage today, I turned back and caught one last glimpse of my girl through the window. Tears were streaming down her face as she stood in a pool of her own throw up. She let out a loud wail that I could clearly hear through the glass pane. She stood there alone. Completely abandoned.