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.

Shooting Street Kids or Killing the Unborn--What's the Difference?

I can't even begin to express my shock, disappointment and utter disgust at our new president's restoration of funding for worldwide abortion. So much of that taxpaper money will end up in Africa, yet the very last thing Africa needs is free funding for abortion!

How many our president possibly think this is positive change? This is not the kind of change we wanted! In many countries the government simply sends out the police or the military to "clean up" the city by shooting street kids on sight. In other places they load them into huge trucks and then haul them out a distance from the city and dump them someplace where it is impossible for them to survive. How does our president's new order differ from that? Very little! Both deal with children who are unwanted--by someone. Get them out of sight, out of mind. Less strain on social services. A more attractive city for tourists. Mr. President, the human cost of your policy is astronomical.

I am not unfamiliar with the needs and problems of the poor. I have lived with the poor, laughed with them, cried with them, shared their concerns. How does it help them to pay for the killing of their children?

More black children will be eliminated than any other kind. Precious, beautiful black children whose only crime was their mother did not want them, or thought she didn't, in a moment of discouragement. No! No! A thousand times, No! Let the children of Africa live. Amongst them may be another Martin Luther King, Jr.

Please, Mr. President, you have begun your administration on an extremely destructive course, but course corrections are always permitted. No, you need a U turn. They are permitted, too.