I Will Come To You: A Broken Heart

August 25, 2011

A Broken Heart

My dog Duke died Monday afternoon. I can't tell you how sad I was and still am. I got so upset that I cried all evening after he was run over. As I was lying in bed upset and broken-hearted, I realized something. I cared more about my dog (judging by the tears) than I did about people. Not all people. Some people. People I don't know. People I do know and don't care for very much. This is not how it should be.

I have prayed for God to break my heart over the things that break his. In one area, he has. I am more broken-hearted for children who don't have homes. I'm not just sorry for them, but broken-hearted. God especially brought to my heart the children who are going to age out of orphanages to a very sad life. Most of all, children who will live out those lives never knowing the One who gives hope and redeems lives.

There is a girl whose listed name is LAVkt. She is 15 years old. When she has her birthday this coming February, she will no longer be adoptable. She will stay in her orphanage in Eastern Europe until she ages out and is on the streets. In her country 10% of the girls commit suicide before age 21, 60% end up in sex-trafficking and prostitution, over 50% end up on drugs. Almost none find jobs since the economy is so bad that even well educated adults struggle to find jobs. And these are GOOD statistics compared to some other countries in Eastern Europe. What will happen to LAVkt if a family doesn't come for her? I don't want to find out.

I started praying for LAVkt every time I missed my dog. It doesn't happen often that I pray so hard that I cry. I've cried for this girl that I don't even know. I'm desperate for her situation to change. God has broken my heart for her. Now all the time I'm praying for a family to come for her. I'm praying for not just any family, but a family that will show her who Christ is and how much he loves her and how he will redeem her.

What if after all of my prayers there is still no one willing to go through all the paperwork and spend thousands of dollars to travel and make this girl a part of their family? Wesley and I will beg her agency to make an exception in our not being old enough so that she can be part of our family. We aren't 18 years older than this child, and we surely don't feel ready to parent a teenager. This was not our plan. But we can't leave her for the streets. If you know anyone who might be interested in giving this precious girl a home and making her a part of their family, please let me know. In the meantime, please pray with me. This girl will most likely have a tragic story if she doesn't find a home, but the most tragic part of all is that she will probably die without being redeemed by Christ. Eastern Europe is a spiritually dark place. Chances are that this girl will never meet anyone who can tell her that Christ has died for her so that she can have a new and eternally blessed life in Him. Pray hard.

No comments:

Post a Comment

John 14:1-21

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”