More than an orphan

I haven’t blogged in a while because I just got married a month ago to my best friend! I suppose a small part of me thought the passion for orphans would go away after getting married. I guess I thought it would be like the baby bug. You know, when everyone else around you has a baby and seems to be happy and you think… I want a baby, when in reality you only want on because they have one. However, my passion ended up not being a “bug”. In fact the exact opposite happened. About 2 weeks after we got married my new husband went to a Christian convention and heard about the needs for orphans. On his way home he texted me saying “I hope you’re ready to adopt orphans or move overseas” to which I jokingly replied “fine by me!” However, I do have to say it was comforting to know that this person I had decided to spend the rest of my life with agreed with my passion. A few days after that I came across an organization that shattered my current perception of orphans. I was looking on a church website at some organizations they partner with and came across an organization called Life Impact International. Up until this point I think I thought most orphans had it hard but I didn’t realize how hard. Life Impact International works with orphans in Thailand and Burma. Their three main areas of focus are to rescue, restore and heal orphans due to the cyclone Nargis, human trafficking, child slavery and child soldiers. They have an amazing video I posted below (see rescued post or click on the utube link at the end of this post) that gives an overview of their passion and tells a little more about why they felt the need to start this organization. What I didn’t realize is how uninformed I was. I didn’t realize that there were 8.4 million children caught in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography, or other illicit activities (Facts on Child Labor, International Labor Organization, 2003). I also didn’t even comprehend that every 2 minutes a child is trafficked for sexual exploitation (Rescued, SobaiFilm, www.lifeimpactintl.org, 2009). The children that life impact international rescues would either end up child soldiers, in slavery, or sex slaves. Not only would they not have parents but they would also live a life of hell on earth. In Thailand and Burma poverty is extreme and many women are beggars. When you are a beggar it is helpful to have a baby. Even in America I am more likely to give a woman with a baby money than probably anyone else just because I feel bad for her. However, once that child reaches a certain age they are older, eat more and are no longer any help to mom with begging. So many mothers sell their children to either the government or a slave trader. One of the stories on the website tells of a child who was in this very situation. She had gotten too old and her mother decided to sell her into human trafficking for $18 American dollars! However, Life Impact International happened to come into contact with that mother that day and worked out a deal with the mom and the trader to pay $24 American dollars for this little girl in order to save her. They then took the little girl back to the “safe home” they have for these children and she has lived there since. A while later her mother sent the little girls younger sister there to live in the safe home also so that she might have life that is different than the predicted outcome for most of these. This completely shocked me. I will often go to somewhere and easily spend $24 on an outfit while I could be rescuing a child for $24!!!! After this I began to be heartbroken over the situation and started praying more and more. Yesterday I went online and looked up the adoption statistics for the country of Thailand. In a country where 800,000 prostitutes are under 16 only 56 children were adopted from Thailand last year. That is when I knew I had to write a new blog. Whether anyone reads it, feels a challenge from God, prays for this organization, helps them financial, or even adopts; I’ll never know. But what I do know is that hopefully, through my desire to raise awareness of such issues, someday you will have the opportunity to share with someone else something that breaks the heart of God. If you would like to visit Life Impact International’s website to find out more please visit http://www.lifeimpactintl.org/

May we offer up a pray for these children to prove Psalm 10:17-18

You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AryiBKkWq18