We did not attend church today as several of our crew are fighting the upper respiratory infection I brought home from work and we decided not to spread it around.
A few of my friends posted videos of Facebook in commemoration of Orphan Sunday. They were my undoing. My heart filleted and laid bare. Salt rubbed in the wound that is always there, but sometimes below the surface of an apathetic life and my first world concerns. This is the day, one time a year, that the church notices, that we take a closer look and we see them.
The numbers are overwhelming but we need to remember that each of those children has a name, a personality, a uniqueness...a purpose.
It only takes one to make a difference in the life of an orphan.
Then I watched this video and I wept.
Did you see that? Did you see how these boys light up when shown just a little bit of kindness? Did you see them melt into the volunteer when she holds them? Did you see the bruises and the sores? Can you imagine what their lives are like when there are no witnesses?
It seems like so little that these volunteers come once a week to ease their suffering. But these children have nothing and for those with nothing, that little is EVERYTHING!
I weep because I see my Bogdan in them. Their lives were what he faced. Instead, he is learning to speak and the joy of voicing his wants. After careful study of his brother and I, he is learning to relax into my snuggles and to seek them out. He is learning colors, and sorting, and sequencing. His personality is coming out more everyday.
He has a future.
And, like most orphans, they don't. But, unlike most orphans in the same situation, they have Friday. And Friday, those volunteers will come back and bring the light and the love and the music with them. And the next Friday, and the next.
Because those volunteers know the power of one.
It may seem like too little to sponsor an orphan, or contribute to a children's home, or volunteer with Big Brother's or Sister's, or be a Safe Family.
But it's not.
Be the one to make a difference for one.
A few of my friends posted videos of Facebook in commemoration of Orphan Sunday. They were my undoing. My heart filleted and laid bare. Salt rubbed in the wound that is always there, but sometimes below the surface of an apathetic life and my first world concerns. This is the day, one time a year, that the church notices, that we take a closer look and we see them.
The numbers are overwhelming but we need to remember that each of those children has a name, a personality, a uniqueness...a purpose.
It only takes one to make a difference in the life of an orphan.
Then I watched this video and I wept.
Did you see that? Did you see how these boys light up when shown just a little bit of kindness? Did you see them melt into the volunteer when she holds them? Did you see the bruises and the sores? Can you imagine what their lives are like when there are no witnesses?
It seems like so little that these volunteers come once a week to ease their suffering. But these children have nothing and for those with nothing, that little is EVERYTHING!
I weep because I see my Bogdan in them. Their lives were what he faced. Instead, he is learning to speak and the joy of voicing his wants. After careful study of his brother and I, he is learning to relax into my snuggles and to seek them out. He is learning colors, and sorting, and sequencing. His personality is coming out more everyday.
He has a future.
And, like most orphans, they don't. But, unlike most orphans in the same situation, they have Friday. And Friday, those volunteers will come back and bring the light and the love and the music with them. And the next Friday, and the next.
Because those volunteers know the power of one.
It may seem like too little to sponsor an orphan, or contribute to a children's home, or volunteer with Big Brother's or Sister's, or be a Safe Family.
But it's not.
Be the one to make a difference for one.
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