Not just in Africa

A ten year-old boy raised his hand in Sunday school a couple of years ago and asked me, "Miss Rebecca, what do the older boys do when they are hungry in the orphanages or on the streets?” I responded by saying, “Well, they usually go into the market areas and steal, they are so hungry that they will do anything just to get food.”
“Are they bad for doing that?” asked the boy. “No, they are not bad for doing that. They are just so hungry they don't know what else to do. It is not right to steal but, in these circumstances, desperate and hungry children sometimes do desperate things just to survive.”
Many more questions were shot at me, and then the younger brother of the ten year-old raised his hand eagerly. "Do you have another question?” I asked. "No," he said, "I just want to tell you that my brother and I would have died on the streets of Houston if my mom and dad did not adopt us when they did." I soon found out their whole story and the miraculous circumstances that brought a young couple to adopt those precious boys off the streets.
From that point on, each time I spoke these boys were never at a loss for questions. I knew God was doing a healing work in their little hearts through getting their many questions answered not just for the orphans but for their own as these stories would bring up things that would trigger different conversations of God’s love and power to redeem even the worst of situations.

Last sunday I shared again at the boys' Sunday school class after about a six month absence. The older brother came up to me and handed me an envelope with $1.50 inside.
"Miss Rebecca," he said, "This is all I have to give. I am sorry I cannot give more, but use this for the orphans.” I looked into his sweet eyes and said, “Thank you so much. I love your heart to help these kids.” He looked at me very intently and said, “Miss Rebecca I want to go to Africa with you so that I can help those kids.”
"Okay, that is a deal. You keep that in your heart and when the timing is right you can come with me, okay?" We hugged, and God spoke to my heart of the symbolism of these precious boys lives representing the needs right at our doorstep, not just in Africa. May we always be as relevant domestically as we are internationally. May we open our eyes to those in front of us, wherever we may be.

An emotional parting

Sweet Esther and I hugged and cried together as we sat on the bottom bunk while I explained again why I could not take her home to America with me.

Do you remember when I first met you and how sick you were? Do you remember how your stomach hurt so bad because you were so hungry?” I asked. She shook her head yes, eyes dripping with tears. Think of how you are doing now, and how wonderful your life is since we have helped you.

I looked her in the eyes and said “Esther you know I love you right?” She looked at me in the eyes and shook her head yes. “if I take you home with me then my whole focus would become you and I would not be able to help the many children back here who are suffering like you were. Keeping you here, pushes me to always come back to make sure you are okay. If I leave you here, I am able to focus on fighting for you and for all the other needy kids who are so desperate for someone to help them. I need to continue to do this. Will you allow me do that? You will always be my special girl, but I need you to really understand this.“ She looked me square in the eyes with tears covering her face and shook her head yes, then she flung her head down and nuzzled into the bunk bed mattress sobbing. We were both a mess crying. All I could do was stroke her back for a bit and tell her I loved her. I then kissed her wet cheek and left in my vehicle headed to the airport deeply grieving with that good - bye.

This was so difficult and not what I bargained for. I never expected to be torn so incredibly by what God was asking me to do. Through the tears I felt God say to my heart once again that Esther represents the many other children who are suffering and who have no one fighting for them. If we do not continue to fight, then who will? It was time to stay focused!!

We have moved our family and organization to Washington State. It has been a difficult move, yet at the same time amazing. We so know this is exactly where we are to be.

Yesterday I was pretty discouraged with the different hardships in our life right now, and I had to do everything I could to just hang on emotionally. I went to the beach and spent my time with God, and my hope was again rekindled. I was still a bit discouraged, but at the same time more hopeful knowing God was right there beside me.

My thoughts and emotions are all over the place and the need to just stay focus on what God has asked of us is extremely important right now. I made this commitment to myself and God again today and It is going to help me stay focused.

I am choosing to take 100% responsibility for my life. I only have control over 3 things in my life. The thoughts I think, the images I visualize, and the actions I take (my behavior).

If I don't like what I am experiencing then I need to change my responses. I need to change my negative thoughts into positive ones, I need to change what I daydream about. I need to change my habits. I may need to change what I read, who I hang out with, and change how I respond to other's actions.

(I got this from the book the success principles). Very helpful reminders on how to make positive changes in our life through our thought life. God of course is the ultimate source, but it is personal choices that will determine our success in overcoming different battles in our mind.

Liberia trip June 2010

I was back in Liberia this last week checking on current projects as well as meeting with staff members and directors. In hanging out with kids, I saw amazing things, and saw some very hard things. Amazing in the sense that kids who were once living in terrible circumstances are now healthy and thriving due to our intervention. There is nothing more rewarding than that. On the other hand, my heart was completely ripped out unexpectedly by a little girl who has been taken out of a negligent home along with 27 others and plopped in an overcrowded home. She had been there a week and still felt lost. With only the clothes on her back, she had lost her whole identity. No one seemed to be concerned for her welfare. She followed me everywhere, and I knew God was wanting to get my attention to this particular injustice. Many in the home did not even know her name.

We have to say that we are happy that the government is serious about taking action to get the 17 terrible homes closed down once and for all, but we are deeply concerned about the implementation of how they are going about these endeavors.

We have been encouraging them to act upon these horrible situations for a long time now, and have known that this was going to be complicated as to where they could put these kids once the homes were closed. We have worked hard to help the government come up with some alternative homes for some of the children, as well as as we know the Government is working to try to reunify kids that do have at least one parent alive.

Unfortunately in this process we are already starting to see that there are going to be many more displaced and scared kids lost in this system.

The greatest need I see if for a transition center of some sort that would be equipped to help these kids with counseling and emotional and physical help till a new home can be determined for them..

As it stands right now there is no place for these displaced kids once removed from bad and abusive homes. When plopped in an already overcrowded orphanage home, they are lost and unwanted. They just have the clothes on their backs. While sitting with the kids at lunch I noticed the displaced kids did not even have their own bowl or cup in which to eat and drink at meal times. They had to share with one of the permanent kids in the home.

Yes, they are better off than in an abusive home, but this form of injustice is not okay either.

I was caught off guard by the emotions that I felt for this little girl who really represents all the displaced and soon to be displaced kids within these negligent and abusive homes soon to be closed.

I am asking God what to do with that burden. Is it for us to carry? Or just be a voice within the government to try to bring about change?

Please pray with us on this, for the sake of these precious ones.

Benin trip update

At 5 am each morning I awoke to African children singing songs to God right outside my window. This was the daily routine before they would head off to school. In my guest quarters at the newly constructed orphanage home in Benin, I could not believe what I was hearing in the voodoo capital of the world! Passionate songs and prayers were coming from these children who not long ago were rescued from terrible circumstances. I was completely in awe of these fifty-three lives who have experienced incredible transformations in only a little over a year of being in this home.

Recently I went to Benin to check on the orphanage we partnered with a Swiss gentlemen to build. The social welfare department had been asking us for three years to build a safe home for the many orphans in terrible situations. Through a series of miracles this project was completed October 2008. The Mayor donated the land which allowed us to expedite this process.

The home is exclusively for those who have no living parents and who are in very difficult situations. Many of the children brought to the home were used as domestic servants by relatives as well as were being physically and sexually abused.

A good friend who was raised in the West, accepted full ownership and leadership of this new home. Each child is being raised knowing that God loves them, and wants a relationship with them.

The magnitude of what God has already done in each of their lives is unbelievable. The stories some of these children can tell about where they have come from is like out of an Indiana Jones movie. It is hard to believe all that these kids have gone through in the voodoo rituals alone. Voodoo temples are on ever block of this town, and a deep heaviness is felt very strong there.

These kids are now free and so full of life! They have a different countenance than other children in this area. They have life in their eyes.

We have great relationships with the government and social welfare office, and on this trip we were given an amazing letter of recommendation to anyone who may need a reference of credibility. They also gave us (Orphan Relief and Rescue) their complete favor to do anything we would like to do in the future with regards to the welfare of children in their town.

The social welfare department continues to ask for more help for the many more children in need, so we daily are asking God for wisdom with these requests.

I just got an email from the pastor who was my translator during my time there. He said this last month a man was just caught and put in jail for kidnapping and killing ten, eleven year old girls using them for his rituals close to the orphanage home. Using human sacrifices has been outlawed for 14 years now, but it is still being done, and children are not of value in this area. We are working to bring change to all that!!


My heart is so full as I begin to fathom the magnitude of what we get to do with God in partnership with all of you. Thank you for saying ‘Yes’ with us.

Where is Jesus

In walking through life I have found Jesus is some very unusual places.

I have found Jesus in war destroyed orphanage homes in Africa where hungry and sick children are getting up at 5 am every morning crying out to God for relief.
I have found Jesus looking to and fro for someone to say “yes” to be His hands and feet to relieve their suffering.

I have found Jesus with the little girl being raped nightly by an abusive orphanage director. I have seen Jesus uncover evidence to those passing by wanting someone to get involved to protect this innocent child.

I have found Jesus with the widow on the streets of Africa who is prostituting her body to feed her children. I have found Jesus asking us to help her start a business and mentor her into a new way of life.

I have found Jesus laying beside the dying street woman, coaxing those walking by to extend mercy in her final days of life to be a human extension of Himself.

I have found Jesus with the man dying of Aids asking His people to be the friend this man never knew he could have in this lifetime.

I have found Jesus in the nursing home with the lonely man who has been abandoned by his own children w/ no hope to go on living. I have seen Jesus coax his people to visit and bestow value and love upon him.

I have found Jesus rejoicing with every life rescued and every life given hope.

I love this written by Mother Theresa:

When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed. We have refused to be instruments of love in the hands of God to give the poor a piece of bread, to offer them a dress with which to ward off the cold. It has happened because we did not recognize Christ when, once more he appeared under the guise of pain, identified with a man numb from the cold, dying of hunger, when he came in a lonely human being, in a lost child in search of a home.

Jesus says these words in Matthew 25: 25-46
For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you invited me in; Naked, and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison, and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer Him, saying Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger, and invite you in, or naked and clothed you? and when did we see you sick, or in prison, and came to you?

And the King will answer and say to them, Truly I say to you to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me.

This is where I find Jesus!!!!

In each of your own lives, where are you finding Jesus?

Beauty

What Beauty Is:

Seeing a little orphan girl light up when given a new little dress to replace her only tattered and torn one.

Seeing a child who was once thin, sickly and suffering, now healthy and full of life with robust cheeks.

Seeing a hopeless father not able to feed his many children, due to the injustice of war, regain his dignity with a regained excitement for life.

Seeing a grown man well up with tears of gratitude, once given a means to help his family.

Seeing a 3 year of little boy severely beat, almost to death by his mother, learning to trust a female adult again, and nuzzling into another woman’s arms.

Listening to teenage girls share their dreams with me, knowing just recently they had no hope for a future due to their circumstances.

Seeing a dying child given hope through adoption.

Seeing justice prevail when abusive men who use children for their own gain, get incriminated.

Seeing a little baby discarded on the streets, rescued and given love and a new life.

Seeing a mother of many children no longer having to hear her children cry themselves to sleep at night, due to their bellies being empty, because someone cared enough to help her.

Seeing two lovers lose each other during a 14 year civil war in their country, only to find one another 17 years later still single and waiting for each other. 2 precious people that have weathered this harsh life are now united in marriage as a long awaited dream came true.

Seeing a mother reunited with her 11 year old daughter after 3 years of being missing during a civil war in her country.

Seeing a young preteen girl who seemed to be deaf due to severe abuse during a civil war, begin to talk and regain her cheerful self after a year of love and proper care.

Seeing a western doctor break down and cry due to seeing the severity of health issues of so many children, and being forever affected to help on a long term basis.

Seeing an orphan child fall asleep on the chest of a caring and loving volunteer.

Seeing people half way across the world care so deeply for the suffering children they have never met.

Seeing a big white man who had no affection for children, emotionally breakdown when having to say goodbye to his new acquired African orphan friends.

Seeing my African friend share about her lost loved one through the war, showing me an old wrinkled and withered picture as her only physical memory left of her loved one.

Seeing my African friends get the whole idea of helping all those around them as we help them.

Seeing God redeem a 29 year old street man’s life as he surrenders his life and dreams to God.

Seeing a widow on the street who prostituted her body to feed her children, no longer doing this due to helping her start a business and mentoring her into a new way of life.

Seeing water dumping in on children each night it rained because of no finances to fix a roof, to them now sleeping on dry beds.

Watching local friends now inspired to help others in their community.

Seeing friends of the suffering cry in relief when they see their loved ones helped.

I see Jesus in all of this!!