Monday, March 29, 2010

They are not Throwaways



It is hard to believe I am home a month. As I sat last night, my computer in my lap, the soft sound of a fountain in the dining room, food in my belly, I mused at my life. I do not know exactly how I came to this moment, but I know that I was called. I also know that whatever I am asked by Him who loves me I shall do. Many of you have asked about my quick trip to get some girls out of the Congo. Suffice it to say 5 are now living in France and I pray that they can heal. For me, describing it is too difficult, so I give you this link. It seems that Ann Currie has been in Goma and has done an excellent job of taping some of the horrors of the devastation in the Congo.

Many years ago when I first started out working in the slums with children who got bounced from one home to another, I used to call them God's throwaways, because I would watch with sadness and frustration the lives of these young,hardened children, who moved with trash bags from one home to another, often being molested by foster parents. After all they were in care usually because of this kind of abuse, so frequently foster parents didn't really figure they were doing any harm.

One woman, though, has shown me that there is redemption and there is hope for the most ravaged of children. The human spirit cannot be thrown away, and even the smallest flicker of light burning in a child can burst upon the world in ways that no psychologist or social worker could ever have predicted. This woman came to me when she was 10, abused by several, tossed from foster home to foster home, no parents, no family really. All predictions were that she would end up dead or on welfare. Neither is true. She is 40 now, her children are miracles of love and kindness and the woman has been redeemed through her children.

So the girls of the Congo are not throwaways. God doesn't do that, even though it might seem that way. Perhaps they are there to make us move to higher ground, or to remind us to care. I am sorry for the misery they must endure, but my cry is to you to care. This is your opportunity to do something for children the world doesn't see.
Please watch the tv clip and then donate.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23170518#23170518