Edmund Burke
Late one night, I stood on the street taking in sights I didn’t want to see: a 14 year old girl standing with her pimp; several 10-year old boys huffing glue to curb the physical pains of their hunger.
It was a couple weeks into month 8 on the World Race, and I was participating in a night outreach with Children’s Garden, a street children’s ministry based in Manila, Philippines. What I saw that night, I had never seen before and didn’t ever want to see again. It broke my heart to see innocent children suffering in that way.
14-year old girls being prostituted?? 10-year old boys choosing to get high because the realities of life were too much to face?? All of these children having no idea what true love was?? These things shouldn’t be!!
So what did I do about it? Nothing. I left that night sickened and overwhelmed by what I had seen, and it was easier to ignore it than deal with it. I had other opportunities to return that month, but I chose not to go, not wanting to face reality.
How often do we act this way in life? You have probably seen one of those commercials on TV asking for your support for children living in poverty. A dirty, malnourished, half-naked child appears on your screen, and a voice-over tells you that for just a dollar day, you can help this child have food, clothing, all the necessities. How do we often respond to it? We turn off the TV and go drive to Starbucks and pay 4 bucks on a cup of
coffee.
HIV/AIDS threatening to wipe a country in Africa off the map by 2050
210 million orphaned children in the world
3.5 million child deaths yearly from malnutrition
15,000 human trafficking victims on one street alone in the Philippines
20 children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School
3 deaths in the Boston Marathon bombings
Nearly 3 billion people in the world who have never heard of Christ.
These problems are real, and it’s time to wake up and stop ignoring them. Are we going to choose to be like the Priest or the Levite who did not want to be inconvenienced? Or will we choose to be like the Samaritan who went out of his way to help a victim?
Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Isaiah 1:17
I know some of you may be thinking, “Ok, I’d love to help! But how?” On that note, here’s a list of organizations I’d encourage you to check out.
And if you want to be more aware of the problems in the world, check out the blog Wrecked.
