Orphan Care: You and Me

"Mom, Ally fell off her bike and is hurt!!!"

Anna Grace had just run through the door on a save-my-sister mission.

Since Daddy had come home from work minutes earlier and I was in the throes of dinner ala leftover, he played hero. Minutes later a limping, skinned knee Ally sat sniffling at my table.

And it hit me...

How many children are crying tonight with no sister to call for help and no mommy or daddy to kiss their boo-boos and bandage them up? How many? I could quote statistics, but all they would say is "too many."

Ally was tended to and loved on because she had someone to tend to her and love on her.

She had a family to hear her cries for help.

For the orphan, there is often no one to hear or answer their cries. When they are hurt, sad, sick, broken, in need...the ones who could offer the help, protection, and love they so desperately desire are gone.

Who hears their cries? Who helps their hurts? Who loves on the orphan?

For many, the answer is no one.

Some have had their cry heard by orphan relief ministries or agencies. They are brought into orphanages or foster care where their basic needs are met, but their hearts still cry out. And many of these agencies only exist and carry on because the orphan's cry was heard by someone else...someone farther away...who sent support.

I have written and rewritten this post I've entitled "Orphan Care: You and Me" so many times and in so many ways that I've been at the point of frustration with it. The way to approach the topic has evaded me or, alternately, overwhelmed me.

How do I convey that the resource for the orphan is you? It is me.

How do I explain that for the orphaned child the hope of their cries being heard is at its root, at its foundation...individuals like you and me choosing to hear because the ones who should hear are dead or gone?

How do I articulate that if I do nothing, that's precisely what will get done. Nothing?

Tonight as I watched our family come around a simple skinned knee, my heart broke. Again. For the ones who don't have an advocate or a protector or a Mom with a band-aid.

Tonight this was the way to say...the way to get involved in Orphan Care...is to tune our ears to the cries and then act.

I could write it again, but what I really want to say is that Orphan Care is you and me doing something for an orphan. Plain and simple.

In Him,