Heart-Breaking Inspiration

Today Lauren, Tawnee, Amanda, and I headed into Accra to help out with the street ministry, which Auntie Felicia (ECM's street ministry director) heads up. Many of the kids at Haven of Hope have been "rescued" from living here. Many of these kids lay down to sleep every night on the platform of the train station or on the concrete porches of the buildings in the station. They are not well attended to at all and many are left to fend for themselves from a very young age.

Going there was very heart-breaking, yet inspirational in a way. Let me explain: As soon as I stepped out of the van, I was greeted by a child whom I had never met before, just eager for a hug....for love and affection.

There were probably about 100 kids altogether, and we started out by reading some educational books. The kids gathered around-- eager to listen and learn. Then, they gather all the kids together and sing some songs and have a short lesson (today about the alphabet)-- since some of them don't go to school.

After that we had a little first aid station where the kids could come if they had any cuts, scrapes, boils, etc. that needed some doctoring. This poor little boy I worked on had 18 band-aids by the time I was finished with him. :( What a sweetheart...I can't even imagine. It's difficult for them to keep these clean, as they need to pay 50 pesawas to use the public showers...and yet more to use the soap and sponges. My heart breaks for these kids.

Afterwards they had a Bible story and then fed the kids a meal. We helped serve the food and it's also hard when you run out of food, but still have a line of kids waiting... it seems that as much as you help, it will never be enough.

However, as I said, it was inspiring--Auntie Felicia takes the time to really get to know these kids, love on them, understand their stories, and she just truly loves them and wants the best for them. It's good for me to see this and be reminded that one person really can make a difference...one child at a time. There is too much need to look at the big picture... I will aim to love one child at a time and it's my hope and prayer that that will make all the difference for that one child.