Why Are You Doing This?
Anna and I often hear these statements: “Thank you for doing all you do to take care of the children!” or "Why do you do what you do?". We always respond that we can’t really see ourselves doing anything else. Seeing a child come to us who has been raped, abused, abandoned and sometimes even tortured (usually by their own family members), breaks our heart, but the joy that comes from seeing that child change for the better in a extraordinarily quick time, keeps us energized and going forward. That change is the evidence that Jesus is at work doing what only He can do in the lives of broken and nearly-destroyed children and teenagers. We are so blessed because we get to see miracles happen on a regular basis. It’s almost comical sometimes to see the puzzled looks and hear the stunned remarks of the Child Protective Service (PRONNIF) agents as they witness first-hand, God’s miraculous love and power in the transformed emotional and physical lives of the children they place in our care. All we can do is smile and say that’s our Jesus! A few years ago, an agent had brought an extremely abused and troubled child to us. The boy was not even allowed in the classroom at school any longer because his behavior had become so bizarre and aggressive that the teachers were actually afraid of him….and he was only 9 years old! Within just a few weeks of living with us, his aggression and his wild behaviors had begun to subside. About a month later, the agent returned to see how we were doing with this little boy. As she was speaking to us, the boy was standing alongside us, and without really paying much attention to him, she asked how he was doing. Anna said, “well, ask him yourself.” So she asked to go and see him. We started laughing because he was standing right in front of her and she didn’t even recognize him! She said, “that can’t be him! It doesn’t even look like him!”. She was aghast. She wanted to know what had we done to him. All we got from her was a blank stare as we talked about what Jesus was doing IN hm…not what we are doing TO him. About a year later, that same agent came to say “goodbye” to us and the children as she was leaving her position in the agency. She took Anna and I aside and said: “OK..I’m no longer an agent…I’m just a citizen now, so you can tell me the truth…what do you actually do to the kids to make them change so fast?” She continued, “I know you’re going to say it’s your Jesus, but no…really…what are you doing? You must be drugging them or something to have this kind of results so quickly.” We explained once again about the Lord but she just never could grasp it. She not only heard the Gospel...she actually "saw" the Gospel at work.
We pray that the Gospel seed we planted in her takes root and blossomed into another soul for the Kingdom. The precious little girl is the photos, came to us literally burned from the top of her head to the soles of her feet.The burns were a result of the mother’s negligence. The healing power of the Lord was undeniable. The first photo is what she looked like the day she arrived at our Home. The second photo is just 10 days after she was so horribly burned!
Her healing was a tremendous miracle. She became such a joy to our home, but sadly after the mother received some “counseling”, the little one was returned home. We just pray and trust God that He continues to protect her. We are saddened and troubled often times, when PRONNIF returns some of the children back into the homes where we know that abuse and neglect continues, but we also know that Jesus loves those children so much more than we ever could so we take peace in the knowledge that Jesus shall “give his angels charge over thee (them), to keep thee (them) in all thy (their) ways”. Psalms 91:11
See that beautiful little face?...
This is why we do what we do!
