Dad We Need You

My children have an obsession with Angry Birds. So, yesterday while waiting for early dismissal for our parent teacher conferences I gave my students angry birds valentines for them to color and give to whoever they wished. I was playing a Proverbs for the Family CD which has different verses from Proverbs and then a song about that proverb. One caught my attention.

“Dad we need you, we need your care, we need you there to always help us through. To show us the way so we’ll all meet in heaven one great day. Dad we just need you. A precious thing a kid can have is a dad who is wise and true. A dad who is kind and fair and always there for you. He listens when you talk, he hears the words you didn’t say, he patches the cuts and lifts you up he is there in every way. We need your strength to keep us safe, we need your hugs and touches too, we always need your wise advice to show us what to do.”

This song struck me because I looked at my five precious 4^th grade students and I realized four of them don’t live with their dad. Then I counted out of my nine 3^rd graders four of them don’t live with their birth fathers and one’s dad isn’t always home. So out of fourteen kids nine of them don’t have solid father figures daily invested in their lives. Some of those kids do have loving dads, they just had to be sent away to go to school and therefore can’t really speak into their children’s lives since they don’t see them often. My heart breaks for these children who have to grow up without a godly father to teach them how to be strong, hard-working, and honest. They are steeped in a culture that says that men drink, smoke, use women, and are lazy. They are immersed in a culture that says being an effeminate man or even becoming a woman is more valuable than being a man.

I looked at my girls and thought about how important it is for them to have a loving dad who protects them, tells them they are beautiful, and that they have great worth. Instead it is more normal for them to have dads who force them to work, who put them in danger, who neglect them.

Later in the afternoon, during the parent teacher conferences I was talking with the dad of one of our students. This is a father who I don't know well, but who I respect for the little I do know about him. I know that he teaches his son right from wrong, he teaches him honesty and respect, and I know that his son respects him. After several minutes of talking we got into some interesting topics. He told me how he was so not happy that his son's only option was to go to a government school and that at that school his son was forced to worship Buddha. (Every government school, as far as I know, has a time of meditation in the morning). He prayed that the Lord would bring a Christian school that his son could learn about God and that he wouldn't be required to serve another god. He views our school as a direct answer to his prayers, several other parents I talked to said that as well.

Then he told me how he came to know the Lord. He said that his life consisted of drinking and smoking everyday along with other not so wholesome activities. His friend invited him to church and the pastor told them that if they wanted to change their lives they needed to pray and ask the Lord to help. So this father prayed asking the Lord to change him, that was on a Sunday. On Monday he didn't want to drink or smoke or live the way he had. His friends all asked him, "What happened? What did you do?" And he told them, "I didn't do anything, I couldn't do it on my own. The Lord changed me." Since that day he has been walking with the Lord and he desires to bring his children up in the truth. His son's Thai name means Peace. Because he has come to know the peace of God.

In watching my children I've seen the obvious gap an absent father leaves and the pain that causes. I've seen good qualities instilled in my children from a godly father. I would never wish for the former for anyone. I'm thankful that the Lord is a Heavenly Father, and I'm thankful that He redeems lives in spite of circumstances. Because of this I know there is hope for each and every student no matter their backgrounds.

This is one of my biggest prayer points for my boys, that they will grow up to be godly men, faithful husbands, and loving dads. I think that is one of the biggest keys to breaking the cycles of poverty and oppression.

Forever Changed

I'll always remember, actually I probably won't vividly remember for too long in my mind. Yet my heart will remember. My heart will remember the way it falls in love with beautiful broken children who speak a heart language so different from my own. It will always remember why I agree with the statement that "Asia gets in your blood." That walking these dirt roads has forever changed my heart. That seeing two of my students walk by the gates of our school barefoot, with shaved heads, and draped in orange cloth breaks my heart a little more. As the procession of somber monks walk by clutching their neighbor's offerings and one of the little ones exuberantly calls out to me. As I watch three of my students pick a multitude of leaves from a nearby bush so that they can show me the way they can cut the leaf in two by cutting it with their hand. The way the one who really can't do it at all squeals "Teacher" when he finally makes a small cut in the leaf. The way the little boys look at me before and after every time they shoot the basketball just to make sure I'm watching. The way they don't really seem to care that I'm not the same color as them or that I don't always understand what they are saying.

I've seen their faces, I've listened to their stories, I've dried their tears, I've prayed for them, and I will never be the same. Because of the orphans and at-risk children who I've been blessed to teach or work with "I've exchanged the carefree for the pain of God. His heart is heavy with the pain of suffering for the people He created. The people for whom He died. Then sometimes, He gives us a glimpse into His pain. He peels back the corner of His heart to reveal to us His pain. For His people." (I'm sorry I don't know whose quote this is.)

I know that His heart hurts for the boys who become monks to "earn" merit. I know that He hates it when little girls are used. I know that He suffers when children are hurt by those who should be protecting them. I think that what my heart feels is just a twinge of what our Father God feels for these children, He just lets me have a glimpse of how He feels for them. That glimpse is enough to know my life can never, should never, be the same.

Orphan Sunday

Orphan Sunday... what does that mean?

The point of orphan Sunday is to bring awareness to the plight of the orphans around the world. I have no eloquent words to share the hearts of the orphans I have come to love and I have no great wisdom or solutions on how to rescue them all, yet in this tiny way that I can I would like to remind you that they are here. I would like to tell you how beautiful they are, how their hearts are dying to be loved, I would like to remind you that they have walked through greater pain than anyone should ever have to know. I want you to hear their cries. Some, some have been rescued yet many, too many are still out there. Still trying to make it on their own, still working to pay for their parent's debts, still washing their own laundry by hand in the dark of the morning. They are still going to school to become monks because where else would they be fed and clothed. They are still kept out of school because they have lice and there is no one to treat them. Babies still lie on hot concrete bridges with a plastic bottle for a pillow while their "guardian" begs money. Still they don't have a momma to cuddle them and a daddy to protect them or someone to teach them about the Lord. Still.

I just want you to know. The knowledge of suffering children is heavy and it's heartbreaking. But I think that the Lord sometimes us allows us a glimpse of His pain and suffering on behalf of these little ones whom He desperately loves so that we can act on their behalf. Something should be done...someone should stand up...will it be you?

Please know that I don't claim to have this figured out, its a question I struggle with just about every day. I think the problem comes when we cease that struggle, when the least of these slip out of our minds and out of our hearts and we just do nothing.

I thought I would post some links to blogs from women who daily love orphans and teach them about the Lord. I hope you enjoy hearing from these women who are an encouragement to me.

http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2010/11/orphan-cr/ - A momma of seven...four of whom are adopted... and her views on orphan Sunday.

http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2010/10/one-girl/ - Info on the sponsorship program for the beautiful girls from Breanna's house who have captured my heart.

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/ - Stories from a woman in Africa (a couple years younger than me) who is momma to thirteen precious girls.

http://www.incourage.me/2010/11/a-christmas-card-drive-of-epic-proportions.html - A practical way to love some wonderful Compassion children in Ecuador.