An American group member here with B2B recently asked me what I missed most from the states and without hesitation, I told him that I missed my little brother more than anything.  Owen... This one is for you.  I wish that I could have been there when you sent off your application to UF, or when you started your first day of your senior year, or that I could have taken a bunch of photos of you before homecoming and showed you my dance moves again (i'm sure you didn't miss them- I'm useless in this department as you know), or when the gators beat LSU and goodness gracious I wish I could go to even one of your cross country meets.  I'd be the annoying one with the cowbell- not only annoying you and the other runners but every other person for a mile around.  Why do people bring those bells to cross country meets?!?!?!  I still don't understand that one.   Actually, I'd probably be trash talking any runners in front of you and then I'd probably try to make you laugh as you ran by me b/c I hated my own cross country meets and any comedic relief would have been awesome aside from the time the girl with one leg beat me.  

Thinking about how much I miss Owen.... I started to think about all the kids in the orphanages where we serve who probably wish the same things about their own families.  Each child has a different story- they may or may not have parents.

• About one third of the children we serve have no parents- they are either dead or in jail and there are no distant relatives to take care of them.
• For another third of the kids, poverty forces parents to take their children to an orphanage b/c they simply can not feed their children or provide for them.  In this category I also place the kids whose parents work in rich people's weekend vacation homes.  Often, the owner employs the husband and wife and allow them to live on the property where they work.  The wife might cook and clean and the husband may be the night security, lawn guy and maintenance man.  But the owner might not allow children to live on the property so the children are forced to live elsewhere- often casa hogars (orphanages).  Thus I pretty much hate quintas (vacation home in spanish)-- not all are like this i know but i still dont like them.
• The other third often result from this scenario:  the man of the house leaves the woman and kids.  Mom is forced to find a new boyfriend or husband to provide for her and her children.  The new man doesn't want any "baggage" from her previous relationship which often includes the kids.  Either he beats the kids and out of protection the mom brings them to a casa hogar or he simply refuses to allow them to live in their home so they go to the casa hogar.  She then has more kids with the new guy and visits her older children periodically in the casa hogar because she of course, still loves her children very much.  She brings her new kids with her when she visits but her children who live in the casa hogar want to know why they can't go home with their mother.  Constant heartache.

And so I think about what it must feel like to be one of these kids and to miss their mom or dad or brother and not be able to see them.  I wish that I could just put the families back together and solve this problem.  If I could, I'd just give the kids back to their parents or maybe I could prevent parents from dying in the first place so they could be together.  But this just isn't possible- it doesnt work like that.  I think about what it must feel like everyday to love your kid but not be able to watch them take their first steps or watch them graduate kindergarten or score their first goal in a soccer game.  I think about what it must be like to live in a cardboard shack and not be able to make enough money to feed your own children.  What would it be like to spend your entire childhood wondering if something is wrong with you and maybe that's why you don't get to go home with mom.  That must be so difficult.  And there are 143.5 million orphans in our world today going through some of these very same emotions.  I don't hesitate for one second to tell you that I know that God knows what is going on here and that it absolutely breaks His heart.  In the Old Testament, there is a passage in Daniel 7 that describes Jesus as an enforcer of justice- the final judgement when Satan will be defeated once and for all and the Earth and God's people will be restored to their pure and perfect state.  One day, the Ancient of Days will repay everyone for all the evil they have done.  One day, God will right every single wrong that has ever happened since the beginning of time.  Justice will be had... FINALLY.  Knowing this is how I can sleep at night.  One day, all of these problems will be gone forever.  And in the mean time, I'm going to be loud about what isn't right and I'm going to love some kids.  God is bigger than you think and He will move.  He's moving right now- His purposes are greater than my own- and nothing gives me more joy than doing something that I know is important to the King of Kings.  Let us be moved into action to love with Him. 


"As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work.  We pray that you'll have the strength to stick it out over the long haul-  not the grim strength of gritting your teeth but the glory strength that God gives.  It is a strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to tkae part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us."  -  Colossians 1:9-12