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Hope Uplifted, child sponsorship, letters, response, trafficking Tweet
Hope Uplifted, child sponsorship, letters, response, trafficking Tweet A Child's Request
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 11:33AM
Children are often victims of their own circumstances – rarely would they choose to be put in the type of situations poverty presents. If a parent makes the terrible choice, it is the children who pay – and the price is their confidence, their security, their sense of self-worth, their innocence, and sometimes their lives.
If you sponsor a child, you get to be an alternative voice, one that speaks love and pride and hope into their lives. We’ve said all that before, so let’s hear from the children themselves. The names have been changed to protect their identities, but these situations are real:
Dara, a little girl in Ethiopia, has been sponsored by James for five years:
Dear James, How are you doing? I am very well. Dear James, there is a problem in my family. The source of the problem is my father. He gets drunk every Saturday and insult us. When I see the conflict of my father and mother, my mind gets confused. I couldn’t follow my education attentively. Please pray for my family.
Dara trusts James, and she knows he will pray, so she confides in him. How many children have someone they can go to with their concerns?
Or consider Yacob’s situation: I’m happy to have the opportunity to write you but I’m sad because my mother abandoned us. It 2 months. She left to Boca Chica and she left us with my father. My sister Marianna is 12 years old and she cook for us and clean and wash clothes when she come from school, and my little brother Leandro is 7 years old and he is suffering from anemy [anemia]. He also belong to the project. My father always is drinking alcohol and he arrive drunk at house. I ask you pray to God for my family. I sometimes attend at church. I’m 10 years old and I’m 4th grade. I know that you have 3 children and I like to have a mother like you that friend to God and love your children. I love you so much and I wish you and your family the best. With love, Yacob.
Rafiq saw a difference, too. Rafiq attends one of our projects in New Delhi, India. Just over a year ago, he was kidnapped and taken to Mumbai, almost 1,000 miles from his home. His family searched frantically around New Delhi, but was not able to trace him. Several months later, however, Rafiq managed to escape his captors and sought refuge in a Christian orphanage. After telling the workers his story, they were able to contact his family and reunite them. It was a miraculous ending to what could have been a terrible tragedy, but what encouraged us is this: Rafiq is a young Muslim boy. Because of his time at the project, he knew Christians could be trusted and would help him. He knew it was a safe place. As a sponsor, you are a safe place. You are a constant in a world that is threatening and hurtful and cruel. And your support provides constants: access to a center or school with loving and attentive staff who notice when a child is troubled, or ill-fed, or frightened. You provide access to food and medical care, and that care can extend to siblings in need. With your help, we are able to go into communities and partner with churches who speak truth and share the hope of Christ. Because you give, others can become involved in a child’s life and pay attention to their concerns and challenges. And you can stay involved as well. You can write and encourage your sponsored child. You can ask your child how you can pray – and then you lift that precious child before the Lord. You can intercede and pray for God to continue to provide, to strengthen and protect them, to guide and comfort them. You can write out these prayers and send them to your child so they can see how you care. You can proclaim victory over the darkness in Jesus’ name over whatever situation they face. You can – and you should – but more importantly, you get to. You get to make a difference. You get to be a better example. You get to make other resources available. You get to be love and show love and pray love over this child. You get to. We hope you take it seriously.
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