What Are We Doing Here?

This little boy makes me smile every time I see him. Even when he's being bad, though I try to hide it then.

The other night, we all sat around watching TV, and he sat in my lap. He was obviously tired, and after a little while he fell asleep. One of the older girls took him to bed, but shortly after, he came out of the room crying. He had fallen asleep with someone holding him but had awakened alone. So, I picked him up, took him to the rocking chair, and just held him until it was time for the children to say prayers and all go to bed.

I kept thinking that, with so many children at the orphanage, there just isn't a lot of time for each child to have someone hold him. But, then I had to think that, though there is little time for the individual attention that each child needs, the children at the orphanage are the fortunate ones. They are the ones who have people who love them, who have the guidance of kind parents, who wake up and always have someone there for them.

Most of the children at the orphanage are not truly orphans. Like so many children in the orphanages in and around this area (and in every other part of the world), most of them have been abandoned. Parents leave them with other relatives; those relatives are unable or unwilling to care for the children; then the children are either comepletely abandoned and left to live in the streets or find shelter in an orphanage. Earlier this evening, I learned from a good friend of our organization that, in this area alone, there are over 2,800 children living in state-sanctioned orphanages.

But, those are just the children who are actually in orphanages. There are other children who cannot be accounted for because they live on the streets or go from shelter to shelter or find a relative to take them in for a while. These children grow up without the stability and love of a family. My mom sometimes says, "Imagine how many children go to bed each night without someone to tuck them in." Or, imagine how many children awaken from bad dreams and have nobody to turn to for comfort.

So, that is what we are doing here. We are here because we hope to provide shelter for even more children, and we're here so that no child will have to wake up alone and scared. Please pray for us. This is a big job, and we need all of your prayers.