Poverty takes away a child's worth, their belief and hope that they are special that they are an important to others and to God. Poverty strips them of hope and they wallow in despaired without Gods love to sustain them. Many of my Compassion children are from large families, desperately poor, their parents are working to provide something for their children's needs but often have to be away from their homes for long periods to find work. Many of the children have fathers who have abandoned them and gone from their lives leaving the mother to provide for 1 to 8 children. There is little time for children to be children, to be nurtured and loved. Life is about survival for many of these families.
A sad example of this came from one of my 11 year olds in Ecuado this weekr, she asked me to pray for her friend also 11. Her father had left the family some time ago and married another woman, the mother had taken off to Italy (she didn’t say why) and left the 11 year old and a 3 year old sister in the home alone. The little 11 year old is looking after the little sister and the father wants nothing to do with them, he gives her bus money to get to school and that is it.
Can you imagine how tough it would be for both those little girls, my child says that the little 3 year old won’t eat because she is missing her mother so much. I have no idea how they are getting food or what happens to the 3 year old while the older sister is at school. What worth would these children feel they are, neither parent want them they are left to struggle on their own at age 11 and 3. They need far more than my prayers and they are just 2 of the millions of children facing this life each day.
When I write to my children I always try to encourage them, give them hope and let them know they are precious to God and to me. I came across a site called http://www.imagechef.com which is free and you can do all sorts of tricks with pictures and words. They have a section called word art which allows you to write a short sentence and it repeats it into a shape. I used a heart for the girls and a cross for the boys. On the girls I wrote “To (child’s name) with love” and added a star and a heart to the sentence. For the boys I wrote “ God Bless you (child's name)” and added a cross and a star.
On the back I added their photo and wrote
Children are a gift from the Lord: they are a reward from Him. Psalm 127: 3
(Childs name) you are a gift from God.
I hope these words will enter their hearts and stay with them always no matter what they face in life.
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