Someone I’ve recently made contact with has sent me an email. I’ve thought about it for the past two days. His name is John and he’s been getting involved with a community in Togo, West Africa. Here’s an extract from his letter.
“The people here are very poor (a lady with no relations died of hunger in a village the weekend before I visited!) and so the children suffer most. In every village there are many orphans who are being cared for by relations who themselves are struggling to survive. But there are many more orphans who are surviving on their own (I am told there are at least 50 in every village!). Yes, many have HIV and other infections. The worst aspect of all is there are gangs who move round at night and capture these orphans, selling the boys into slavery (into the North of Togo or its desert neighbours) and the girls into prostitution and sexual slavery through West Africa.”
I wish I had the resources to deal with this now. The thought of children being bought and sold is outrageous and beyond comprehension. I think of my nephews and nieces… not for the whole world. These little souls are no different. Surely they are in God’s heart.
So, today my question to you is the same as my question to myself. What’s the response? I don’t want it to be another sad letter, but a call to action. An invitation to adventure, bringing these little ones up into life and love.
This is the kind of place, and the people I’d love to serve (and lots of you to serve too). Letters like that cannot help but move, but if the response it merely tears, then it’s a wasted one. Pray, yes.
Take the next step?
Go?
Equip local people to create a cohesive community?
Do what ever it takes?
The choice is yours (and mine!).
