Things are really busy here lately. next week is our last full week of ministry and then we have a half week, a christmas party at the leper colony, then we leave for debrief. after that w come back and have the Christmas parties at the two orphanages and then pack up and head home to the US. We have to teach the kids a Christmas skit and a dance this week, i cannot wait to teach them a dance, they told me they like to dance today so it should rock. we'll probably get on TV for our collective dance skills. i wish this could be longer. please pray for our health. the team has been sick a lot lately. and please pray for the funds for the Christmas party.

Act justly

Yesterday our team went to church at an orphanage we haven't been to yet. I don't really know what to think about it. Last year my team wasn't allowed to go, but I've heard so many stories about the orphanage and the children. There used to be over 300 children here, but now there are only about 100. Parents who can't afford to provide their children an education or sufficient food have taken them back home and others have opted to go back to lives of intense poverty rather than stay. A few of children were able to come to the two orphanages we work with regularly by God's grace. One of our friends told us that in the summer, when the temperature gets up to the mid 100's, the children are crammed into small rooms to sleep with the doors and windows closed for fear of being robbed. Some of the boys would sleep on the hot tin roof to escape the intense heat of the rooms. In the winter they would huddle together for warmth. The orphanage has a lot of land for the kids to run around, but it felt a little like a ghost town with so few children. Last summer one of the children died of dehydration which is hard to grasp because there is no shortage of water. The kids were hungry for attention yesterday. One little girl attatched herself to me after she realized that I knew her name. Another girl who is about 10 and has been there for 5 or 6 years was telling me she knew one of our friends, she was excitedly saying, "she knows my name, yes, she knows my name." When we left in the afternon they followed our car out of the gate still grasping our hands. One of the little girls wrote one of the students from our team a birthday card. She asked the Lord to bless the birthday girl, and then asked her to please remember her name, and not to forget about her.
Jesus indentifies himself with the poor and orphaned and abused and abandoned over and over again in the gospels. He tells us that He'll separate us out by how we treated all the black sheep of the world. Matt 25:40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' I'm thinking that if the body of Christ, every single one of us who is called by His good name would devote our lives to justice and to looking after those who no one esle will stand up for these stories of abuse would be less frequent. The Lord says He has good plans for His children, but what does that look like to a child who has been locked in a room for a week with no food or water. I think we as their brothers and sisters have a responsibility to do what we can for them. It will probably look different for everyone, but I'm sure it involves action.
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (micah 6:8)