Imagine if water were so valuable, you wouldn’t waste if washing your face. As I stepped off the plane into Sudan, I saw the dusty faces of those who have suffered under the terrible genocide happening in Darfur. It is one thing to talk about the 400 thousand people who have died and 2.5 million people displaced, but it is a far different thing to see the reality of lost lives and hardship on the faces of those in Darfur.
I visited an orphanage run by Kimberly Smith. At the time there were 800 children living without any shelter…the number one cause of death being wild dogs. I found my self in a state of numbness. Having recently visited Northern Uganda, I was shell shocked that such devastation was happening on our planet.
During this “numb” state, I started feeling guilty. I expressed my numbness to a Sudanese pastor named Tito Abaha. “You should pray”, he said…and I did. I said a simple prayer asking God to give me compassion for the children.
A few minutes’ later I was approached by three young children. I picked up a guitar and started playing “Father Abraham”. We started marching around in a circle as I sang.
I asked the oldest girl how she had come to the orphanage. “The soldiers came in an shot my mother an father, and so I came here”, she said. The other children looked up when she had finished speaking, both of them with the same reply…”me too.” The little girl then asked me a question. “Do you have a mommy?”. “Yes”, I said. “Do you have a Daddy?”. Yes. “Ohh”, was her response. I held back tears.
A friend of mine had given me a children’s book about how God is the creator. I took the book, sat the children on my lap and told the children about a father in heaven who loves them and created them to be with him forever.
“Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the orphan and the widow in their distress, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” -James 1:27
It is easy to quote this verse without visiting the orphan. It is also easy to get “spotted” by the world and become so busy that we neglect those who are closest to God’s heart.
God answered my prayers when I asked him to give me compassion for these young orphans. You can get involved in serving orphans in Sudan by contacting me.