Over the course of the last few days, we have completed four new home studies. As we sit down and get to know each family, you are never fully prepared for what you are about to hear. As you can imagine, the stories they tell are incredibly difficult. Stories of mothers abandoning their children. Young girls dropping out of school and getting “married” at 13 to escape from an abusive parent. Now, young mothers themselves, repeating the only lifestyle they know and making their way into the garbage dump each day to earn a meager living.
It is a hard, frustrating, downright complicated life for these mothers with hardly no education and no reliable support system. Yet still, in the middle of it all, there are smiles. These are some of the strongest, most determined women you have ever met, and the stories they tell when they sit with us are not of someone giving up, but rather of determination, resolve and commitment to giving their children a different life.
But these are not just stories. These are real lives, real people, with very real children. And not one of those children did a thing to deserve the poverty and brokenness they were born into. Not one.
And so our hearts break – and stretch a little bit further – with each new family we interview.
Now we cannot know for sure the long-term impact Roots & Wings will have on the families in our program – we know what we hope it will be – but what we do know is that to date, none of the families in our program have had to abandon a child to an orphanage because they couldn’t afford to care for them. The children in our program are in school and not working in the garbage dump. Their mothers, while far from perfect, are taking small steps each week toward becoming better providers and more invested, loving parents. Most beautiful of all, they have ALL been introduced to Jesus.
It is what gets us up each morning and keeps us moving forward.
Pray for the poor with us. Help whenever you can. And let us never forget that we were put on this earth to make a difference.
