How can a six year old understand rejection?

How can a six-year old understand rejection? Today I wrote the story of Emmanuel in Congo. I'm hoping that someone reading his story will be moved to sponsor him for $30 a month.

Emmanuel's mother was a prostitute who had little time for him. Especially when she began to get sick. Emmanuel watched her waste away and die before he was four years old.

Still sick with grief, he was taken in by an uncle. But the family did not understand AIDS. They looked for a different cause for the mother's death. When they visited a traditional diviner, he was happy to provide an acceptable reason. It must be that little Emmanuel had "eaten" his mother's soul through witchcraft. He had only been with the uncle a short time when the whole family began to hate him. Blaming him for his mother's death and fearing he may do the same to them, no one could treat him decently, let alone show him love. Soon he was chased away from the home and ended up alone on the streets to fend for himself.

Emmanuel is now eight years old. He's finally had a break in life. He was found by one of the caring associates of Every Child Ministries, who arranged for care with a loving family. They need help, however. They are struggling to support their own family, and if Emmanuel proves to be the burden that breaks the fragile support system for their own, he may again find himself despised and cast out. Lord, please lay Emmanuel on the heart of someone who is able to sponsor him for $30 a month. Give strength to his foster family so that they may love and accept him as their very own. Provide for their needs and those of their whole family.

Your heart breaks for Emmanuel specifically and for all the Emmanuels of this world. Send them help in Jesus' name.

Warrior Princess

I just finished reading "Warrior Princess," the true story of AIDS activist Princess Kasune Zulu, who is HIV positive herself. It was wonderful to read about another chosen by God to bring help and healing to some of His suffering African children. I strongly identified with Princess because she feels that this is her destiny, what her life is all about. Hey, I know that feeling! That's precisely the way I feel about my work with My BIG African Family, the forgotten children of Africa. Thank you, Princess, for the encouragement and for reminding me that although I may be "intense", as my husband sometimes says, I am not totally crazy. In fact, I love knowing what my life is all about. Sharing Jesus with my precious African Jewels is definitely worth the investment of my life.

A Little Child Shall Lead Them--in the ABC's, too

I was incredibly encouraged by my visit to ECM's team of Americans and Ugandan nationals working in the Gulu District. I visited our sponsorship program in the Tegot village (formerly called an IDP camp, but the government now wants to call it a village in keeping with its policy of encouraging people to return to their home areas).



My job, besides seeing how the team was working together, was to visit with the guardians of the children in our sponsorship program. Only a very few have living parents. Most of the parents were killed in the war with the LRA or died of AIDS spread in the war. Many of the kids live with a very old grandmother.



I was supposed to encourage the parent figures in the kids' lives, but they did so much to encourage me! One of them was thrilled that her little grandchildren are coming home and showing her what they learned in school. She herself was never able to attend school at all because the war brought education to a standstill for two generations. Now her grandchildren come with their papers and say "Look, grandma. Today we learned the letter b. See, this is what it looks like. This is what it sounds like: bbbbb. This is how you write it. Look, Grandma."

Harriet Finds Hope

Today our new 3-minute video about child sponsorship comes out. On it, we tell about Harriet, a 14-year old girl I met two years ago. She came to our morning Bible class for children of the Kamwokya slum community who were not in school. Harriet distinguished herself by helping with the younger children and was selected for sponsorship. I soon learned that for some years Harriet had been acting as the head of her family. After losing both parents and a sister to AIDS, she had to drop out of school and take in washing constantly in order to keep her and her two younger sisters and a brother alive. It was a rough road for Harriet. She gave up her dreams of ever finishing school.

Receiving sponsorship has changed all that. With all the children sponsored, they are all back in school and receiving the basic necessities of life.

I am tired today and discouraged about some issues we are facing. But when I think of Harriet, when I look at her picture and remember how she was just overcome with emotion when she learned she had received a sponsor, well, I find new courage to go on. My BIG African family encourages me because I can see that my work is worth all the struggles. Harriet, if you kept on after losing your parents, if you kept on when handed adult responsibility while still a child, if you kept on through long, tiring days of doing load after load of other people's laundry by hand, surely I can keep on, too. Thank you, Harriet, for encouraging me today.

I'm hoping lots of people will watch our new video and that many more people will sponsor a child so they can receive the kind of encouragement that I have from you. You're a star in the film, Harriet! May it bring sponsorship and hope to many kids like you.