In Mozambique there are orphans; there are children whose fathers beat and abuse them, fathers who no longer care about their children; there are children whose fathers have left the family; there are children who have been abandoned. No matter how these children got to this place the one thing that they have in common is that they are either figuratively or literally fatherless. This is a fatherless generation, not just for Mozambique but also for the world. More and more everyday children are left without the protection, love and attention of their earthly fathers. When men don’t stand in the gap and lead their families financially, emotionally, and spiritually families and our world struggles as a result. The point becomes not so much how to alleviate the problems within each country, but to meet people right where they are and to show them the love of Christ.
The one thing I have learned from witnessing the orphaned and abandoned of this world is that where men of a generation are silent, when fathers cease to guide and lead their families with love, when sickness and disease takes away parents committed to their families due to death, the children are left to fend for themselves. These children, instead of being taught, loved, protected, and nurtured, are left in a dismal state. They are left wandering the streets, thrown away like a piece of trash, not knowing what it is to feel loved and accepted. As a result they become lawless, apathetic, desperate, and rough around the edges, not out of some inherent evil within them (although our sinful nature does exist from the beginning of life), but out of sheer necessity. They become tough, violent, and detached as a means of survival.
In February when my team worked with KaLEB Cambodia, we worked with street boys at the Bethlehem Night Shelter and I got to experience first hand what the life of a street boy really looks like. I was honestly overwhelmed a first with how rough and tumble these boys really were, and it took a while before it dawned on me that they are a product of their environment. They are violent and tough because that is what the streets had taught them; that survival is of the upmost importance and if that means beating your friend to a pulp to survive then you’ll do it. On the streets even though it seems paradoxical, for children of this generation, it is either beat or get beaten. You find a way to survive and take it, even if that means robbing those who show you care, or stealing food to survive.
Orphanages in the Third World can be either a blessing or a curse. I am much more partial to smaller children’s homes where Christ is the center than a large facility where the child is treated more or less as a number, instead of being recognized as an outstanding individual with amazing potential. That being said some larger institutions are doing good although they are harder find. Being around the world and visiting children’s
homes everywhere from Thailand and Cambodia, to Malaysia, India, and Mozambique has opened my eyes to the harvest of the fatherless. There is a harvest ready for reaping of fatherless children. Adoption is desperately needed and I am definitely going to adopt children in the future. However, in the end until Christians step up to heed the call and obeys Jesus commandment to love others as ourselves, we will still see many fatherless generations in the future. Once we begin meeting these needs head on we can also focus on alleviating the sources (disease, alcoholism, drug addiction, abandonment, domestic abuse, neglect etc.) of fatherless children, thus stopping the vicious cycle of the fatherless generations.
We, the church are the answer to this problem. In Matthew 9:37-38 Jesus tells us, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” The fields of the fatherless are ripe, the harvest is plentiful and while there are many who are passionate advocates for the fatherless generations, we need many more to labor alongside us for God’s glory. If the church today actually took Jesus at His word by becoming His hands and His feet, then the church would function as it should. The church after all is first and foremost God adopting us into His family through Christ while teaching us how to love others and secondly, it is God blessing ordinary men by allowing them to participate in His great salvation story. There is so much opportunity to invest in the future generations in this world, to shed the light of Christ into the darkest places of the world proclaiming the freedom, mercy, love, joy and peace found in the Gospel. All that is left is to pray to the Lord, and ask God to give us His heart for the nations, so when we go we are truly loving as Jesus loves us. Then we must send out laborers into the harvest.
Would you pray with me that Jesus would send out laborers into the harvest so that we can spread the kingdom and God’s love to the ends of the earth?
