Stop and Think—Save the Children

Children are one of God’s most precious gifts next to salvation, prayer, His Word, the Body of Christ, and I suppose a few other things. I am burdened by the grave mistreatment of millions of these precious gifts worldwide. I am burdened by the grievous poverty that millions of children face every day. I am burdened that while I type ever so comfortably in my American home on my American computer, a small child is rummaging in a heap of garbage for his and his family’s next meal. I am burdened by the suffering of so many.

Stop and think. In Uganda children flee their homes and lives fearing that government agents will kidnap them and train them to become killing machines. They are displaced across an impoverished land, many concentrated in refugee camps where there is little food, little sanitation, and rampantly spreading HIV. In Romania over 100,000 children live in orphanages, due to a communist law that demanded women have at least five children by the age of 45 before they could receive contraceptives and abortions. Communism was overthrown in Romania, but the government remains quite socialist. The government-run orphanages are in terrible condition and are poorly staffed by unqualified workers. The children are given some basic means of survival, but little to no medical treatment, terrible facilities, and awful education. Children have been found tied to beds, some older children are never potty-trained, and younger children are given bottles of gruel instead of formula. “Children who are cross-eyed or show any form of disability are assumed retarded and are left to find their own food, beds, and clothes.” (check below for website quote) Hundreds of children are released each year from these orphanages to live on the street and fend for themselves. They have nowhere to go, no money, little employment opportunity, and many girls end up being forced into a career of “dancing” by foreigners who travel to Romania to exploit this situation (website at bottom of article).

Stop and think. Over one million children, mostly girls but some boys as well, are involved in some form of commercial prostitution in Southeast Asia. The children are lured into prostitution by their destitute conditions, fearing that they might starve otherwise. Even though prostitution is illegal in most of these countries the law is not enforced and western perverts travel to countries like Thailand to prey on the children. The western influence is what keeps Asian pimps in the business of sexually exploiting children. These children face a life-time struggle with venereal diseases, fertility, and pregnancy problems; as well as depression. There is the ever present danger of contracting the HIV virus, which leads to AIDS. Malnutrition, which these child-prostitutes will often face, negatively affects the survival chances of a person with AIDS. Yet more millions of children face propaganda and fear in Middle-Eastern countries. In Islamic Fundamentalist countries like Saudi-Arabia, children our taught from a very young age to hate anyone that does not adhere to their religion, and that martyrdom is the only sure way to Heaven. Child television shows that resemble America’s “The Wiggles” teach sing-a-long songs about martyrdom and hatred for Jews. A documentary on the Fox News Channel captured a little girl no older than six singing “I will become a suicide martyr, in battledress, in battledress!” Another little boy no older than three; was asked what he was going to do with the AK-47 he was holding upon which he responded “shoot the Jews.” Saturday afternoon cartoons consist of suicide bombers diving on American convoys while shouting “Allah Akbar!”

Stop and think. In countries like India children are forced to take dangerous jobs in vain attempts to raise money for food. Some children are employed in ship waste yards. Old abandoned freighters are towed to the ship deconstruction yards by multi-millionaires to be broken down piece by piece so that the steel can be sold on the market. These boys and young men cut the steel with welding units, but are given no protective goggles or gloves. They sit on the very steel bars that they and their co-workers are slicing, hoping to vacate the bars before they fall hundreds of feet below. The children are in constant danger of the massive ship walls falling on them as they work. Children are also in danger of the previously mentioned steel bars crashing onto their heads from above. It is not unusual for a brother to report back to her mother that her son died at work. Meanwhile these people live in shanty towns with little to no running water or food. Human waste fills the streets, and deadly but completely curable diseases like dysentery run rampant. Sometimes the people can find medical attention if the Red Cross sets up a small clinic, usually open only a couple days a week, otherwise these deadly but preventable diseases go uncured. Billions of children face similar situations worldwide. Billions of children are forced to find a week’s meal for their families in dumpster. Children bring home chicken bones so that the mothers can boil the bones in water, so as to provide their families with the nutrients found in the bones’ marrow. These children would dream of an opportunity to dig through an American dumpster if they only knew the amount of precious food we toss aside (Americans produce 200 million tons of edible food waste yearly). The fat of the steak that slides off of our plates into the dog bowl would feed a third-world family of five for a week. These children would kill, maybe literally, for the chance to dumpster dive at McDonalds, or any other fast food restaurant where burgers and fries that sat underneath the heat lamp too long are tossed out.

Stop and think. Why were you born in America? For what reason did God choose for you to be born in a land so bountifully blessed? Why did God bless you with so many material things? Why were you born in a land where the Gospel is so freely and readily available? Why did God allow you that opportunity? What did you do to deserve such blessing, such hope?

Jesus said “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’” Why were you born American? God chose for you to be born American. God chose for you to be free to share the gospel. God chose for you to be born with resources that you do not deserve, that you might feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for the sick. It is not charity for us to give to Children’s Hunger Fund, it is our duty. Those who receive our gifts are the very embodiment of Jesus Christ. The child rummaging through the dumpster to find his meal is Jesus Christ. Christ is the one who hungers, who is naked, who is sick, who is poor; therefore, it is our duty to give to those who are Christ. Yet it is also our duty to give because we are able to do so. We must give more than money however, we must give all of our resources to those who are in need. We are the blessed with so many “things” that we do not need; therefore, it is our duty out of the overabundance with which we have been blessed, to give of ourselves to the needy. Yet if we merely give out of duty, then shame on us. If we give out of anything besides the overflow of love in our hearts, then shame on our selfishness and pride; we failed. If we give so that we can “feel good,” then may we incur all kinds of wrath upon our heads. Love for Jesus should overflow into an intense love for people, especially the least of these. If we love Christ in the way we ought, then we will love the “least of these,” with an intense passionate love that will drive us to our knees and faces daily begging God to help us help them. We will cry “Jesus, you are the least of these, how can we help you?”

Stop and think. In America, the land of freedom and liberty, children are raped and molested every day. 60% of convicted sexual offenders are on probation or completely free to roam. In 1994 almost 40% of all released sexual offenders committed another sexual offense within one year of their release. Jessica Lunsford, the girl for whom Jessica’s Law is named, was kidnapped, raped violently multiple times, and buried alive inside two trash-bags. Police found her body with two skeleton fingers poking holes out of the garbage bags as evidence of her struggle before her death. The man, John Couey was a previous sexual offender who failed to register upon moving to Florida, and was able to commit this awful crime. On the Apache Indian reservation in Arizona a missionary family drives a bus into neighborhoods rescuing children and taking them away from their terrible lives if but for a few hours. One girl rescued by these missionaries, and a group of Campus Christian Fellowship students from East Carolina University, smelled of alcohol and marijuana when she boarded the bus. No older than fourteen, this girl was given alcohol and drugs by her Uncle, who was attempting to get her drunk and high enough that she would not remember him raping her. Praise God her grandmother (who she lived with because her father murdered her mother and is in prison) discovered what was going on and found safety for her granddaughter. Sadly, situations such as this one are not terribly uncommon on the Apache Indian Reservation.

From Rwanda to Arizona children suffer from starvation, sexual abuse, disease, and death. So often we forget that this injustice occurs. The condition of others escapes our minds in our own busy, comfortable lives. So while we rest in our suburban homes, and drive our SUVs, I pray that we will take time to stop, think, and pray about the children. The worst suffering of these billions of little ones is that the vast majority of them do not know Jesus. What are we going to do? We cannot wait any longer, it is time for action. Go.