UNIVERSAL CHILDREN'S DAY-Why are Children Valuable?

Today is Universal Children’s Day.  The world over, people are recognizing the value of our children.  In some places, however, children are not valued.  On last night’s news we learned of children being used as human shields.  This very day children are trafficked, sold into slavery, sold for sex, and used a delivery devices for bombs.

The value of children is tied up in the value we place on human beings.  Of course, all of us like to think we are important, but are we really objectively so, or is our value something we simply assign to ourselves, sort of like patting ourselves on the back?

For Christians like me, children are valuable because people are valuable.  People are valuable because God made us in His image and for His own pleasure.  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them…” (Genesis 1:26-28a) .  “All things were created by him, and for him” (Colossians 1:16c).

Some religions see children as valuable, but only insofar as they fulfill the purpose of the group.  They may see them as valuable as instruments of jihad or war by which their religion is expanded, or as propagators of more of their particular brand of faith, thus changing the logistics of nations, influencing votes to bring them into power through democratic means. 

In the Christian faith, children are valuable simply because God made them special in His image,  and He finds pleasure in His creation.  I find this immensely liberating.  It frees me from trying to force my children or those whom I serve in ministry to become what I think they should be.  It frees them to become what God wants them to be.  It helps us all enjoy their unique value whether they are smart or mentally challenged, average kids or autistic, beautiful , strong and healthy or physically challenged.  It helps me appreciate those who are different from me as much as those to whom I relate more easily.

Sure, Christians too think about what their children might become and the great things they might do for the Kingdom of God.  Yet that is not what gives our children their essential value.  We understand that they are precious because God made them, and He made them human.

In the Christian faith, children are a blessing from God.  From the moment of conception until God takes that new life back into His hands in death, children bring blessing into our lives.

We at Every Child Ministries gladly join in celebrating our children today!

Human Potential the Easiest Resource to Waste

Those who know me realize I am very conservative in use of resources. I am always going through my house and asking over every item, "What is the highest use to which I could put this?" I'm concerned about stewardship, and I want to use what God entrusts to me well.

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the waste of human potential amongst my beloved African children. It started when we printed out a batch of report cards scanned from our Uganda office of Every Child Ministries. They were the long anticipated FIRST report cards representing the first academic efforts of former Karimojong beggar children. Was it really possible to take kids who had never been to school off the street, kids who were just learning their first words of English other than "Give me," have them begin in third grade, and really expect that they could do well? We were not at all sure. Sometimes in similar cases we have seen children struggle for years. Some never can catch up. Yet the first report cards from the beggar kids shows that they must be very brilliant children. Brilliant, yet on the very bottom social level. Brilliant, yet despised and ridiculed by the majority. Brilliant, but just now getting their very first break in life, their very first opportunity.

I know they are loved and valued by God whether they are brilliant or not. We all are. Yet I am also utterly amazed that these kids have within them such immense human potential, potential that no one might have ever discovered. It seems like human potential is the easiest resource of all to waste. How I pray that we will find more people interested in child sponsorship, more people willing to invest in unmined human potential.

What will help the child trafficking problem at the bottom line?

One of the things I committed to do was to place on slavery map (http://www.slaverymap.org/) all the examples of human trafficking and modern-day slavery I could find fom Africa or about Africans. It seemed like a big commitment, but it's been very helpful because right away I began to see patterns--both geographically and in ways traffickers do things.

Recently I've been posting a group of cases in which kids from Togo were trafficked to Nigeria. Again I began noticing patterns. Most were recruited by a "waga", a member of the local community who recruits poor kids for trafficking, promising them good jobs far away for whatever purpose she knows rings most loudly in their hearts. Most got to Nigeria by a long, circuitous route, picking up other recruits all along the way. And most escaped at least once--some several times--only to be quickly re-enslaved. Many of them assumed that if they could meet someone who spoke their language they'd be safe. Not always true. Often not true.

I dreamed about it last night and woke up thinking about it this morning. Escaping only to be re-enslaved. The heartlessness of the traffickers and enslavers was wrenching. What will help hearts like that? I have been thinking about why I am so involved in fighting child trafficking. It's not just out of emotional sentiment or pity. It's because I truly believe every human being is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). From that basis, I see human life as worthy of respect and care. We go from that basis to Jesus' commands to love our neighbors as ourselves. That expression of our faith rests on the foundation of being created in God's image. Such a faith makes human trafficking, slavery and abuse of every kind unthinkable.

Can we fight trafficking and slavery adequately without that base? We can fight it to some degree, to be sure. I've met and read many modern-day abolitionists like myself who are fighting slavery. I can't say they don't care or they aren't trying to make a contribution. They surely are. But I think that the Christian base provides a stronger, more compelling reason for any humanitarian action. If someone truly believes God created human beings special and worthy of respect, he can hardly become a trafficker or a slaver or an abuser. I think about the Togolese children whose stories I am posting now on slaverymap. How different would their stories have been if on escaping, they had found Christians who truly believed they were worthy of respect? Lord, while I fight child trafficking and modern-day slavery, help me to maintain my balance. Help me to remember what really helps the most. Help me to give adequate attention to that.

Child Sacrifice in Uganda

The other day I was in a police office in Uganda seeing an official. While I was there, someone called, apparently asking about the current state of various problems in Uganda. The officer replied that violent crime was on the decrease, several other problems were on the decrease, but then he said something that really caught my ear. "There now remains only the problem of ritual sacrifice." Then today I picked up several Ugandan newspapers. On the second page of the first newspaper, the same topic again. An article on child sacrifice. Several hundred Ugandan children had written a letter and signed their names begging the president to do something about the problem of child sacrifice. The children said the current state of affairs made them afraid to go to school.

Lord, we have such a very long way to go. Please show us the way. Show us how Every Child Ministries should be involved. Teach us to value our children--not just our own children, but all of our children, the next generation. In Jesus' name I offer this prayer for the children of Africa.

THE VALUE OF A CHILD, EVEN A GIRL CHILD

I just found out yesterday that I am going to be a Grandma for the dozenth time. Our oldest daughter Carrie is expecting her seventh. As we drove home from Carrie's I envisioned myself cuddling and loving that new baby we are soon to welcome in our family.



I couldn't help also remembering things I'd read recently about what is done to babies in some parts of the world, especially if they happen to be girls. (I couldn't help but think about that since so far, Carrie has five girls and only one boy.) I read that some mothers feed their newborns rice with the hulls still on, so that the rice will slit the newborn's throat. For economic reasons, mind you. Families can't afford the huge dowries that are required by their custom.



I thought about parents in some parts of Africa where our mission, Every Child Ministries, works, who sell their children into prostitution to gain a few dollars, give them as slaves to idol shrines, sometimes just to obtain a good crop or success on some business venture, sell them to traders to serve as bonded labor, diving into the river to gain a few oysters to sell.



What is the value of a child? As a Christian, I see every person at every age from the moment of conception to the grave, at every shade of ability and non-ability, of every color and language and culture to be made in the image of God, carefully crafted by His hand. That's what it says in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. "So God made man in His own image. In the image of God created He him, male and female created He them" (Genesis 1:27). If people don't believe this, if they believe human babies are just animals or biochemical machines, then I can understand how it is that they treat life as cheap. For them, they can treat children as economic pawns to be bargained for their own comfort and convenience. For me as a Christian it is not so. As a Christian I value human life because God made us all special and gave to us a unique dignity in His creation.



That's the underlying base that has caused me to become a mother to millions. That's the reason I "adopted" my BIG African family. And it's the reason we will welcome Carrie's baby. And it's the reason we will vote Pro-Life in the upcoming election. The value of a child can never be overestimated.