You can help Orphans (some no longer cry because no-one comes)

I took my youth group to winter jam 2007 last Thursday in Roanoke Va. While there, I was moved with compassion greater than I have ever been.

First, a little background, I have been overseas several times to countries like Haiti, and Jamaica. Countries where the unemployment rate is high, malnutrition/starvation is greater and there is little hope. So I am not a virgin when it comes to human suffering.

However, I heard a story and saw a video there that moved me to step out in an act of compassionate faith that I have never done before. There was no manipulation or coercion, just some facts and a call for help.

Holt International is the organization they were asking us to help. Made possible by an act of congress in the 1950′s Bertha and Harry Holt started the ministry out of their home. The beauty of the whole story is that they were moved to act over 50 years ago after seeing a video, much like I was last week. In short their vision made international adoption possible, and their organization continues to facilitate thousands of adoptions. The way we can help is by sponosoring the care of children until they are adopted.

I have contacted everyone I can for a copy of the videos to put up in my podcast as a call for action. I am anxiously awaiting a response.

Now, on to what I saw in the video. Newsong had travelled to China [I believe that was the location], to visit the orphanages there. They explained that they were amazed that in a nursery of 80 infants, none of them were crying.

They later learned that the babies no longer cry because the nurseries are so short-staffed that there are not enough people to attend every baby when it cries.

Additionally, I have a 4 year old with cerebral palsy and we learned early on that some infants can develop flat spots on the rear of their head if they are not made mobile. Many of the children have developed these flat spots due to the impossibility of a single caretaker holding each infant for hours a day, as would occur in a home situation.

Here’s where we all come into play. We can sponsor children to take care of them while they are awaiting adoption. The cost is only $30/month. I only share this next detail to inspire others to act. Those who know me, know my wife and I are just common people with common income, but I was so moved with compassion that I decided we would sponsor 10 children. In my opinion the lives of ten children are worth more than a car payment so I picked the number of children I would sponsor by a total cost per month that would be more than my car payment.

It doesn’t matter how you decide how many children to sponsor, I just ask that you sponsor some.

Isaiah 58:6-12 (Amplified Bible)
6[Rather] is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every [enslaving] yoke?(B)

7Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house–when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from [the needs of] your own flesh and blood?

8Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing (your restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness (your rightness, your justice, and your right relationship with God) shall go before you [conducting you to peace and prosperity], and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.(C)

9Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression [wherever you find them], the finger pointed in scorn [toward the oppressed or the godly], and every form of false, harsh, unjust, and wicked speaking,(D)

10And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday.

11And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

12And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of [buildings that have laid waste for] many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

Please, sponsor a child today! Right Now! This second