Sunday
Dec272009
What I Learned from an Orphan
Sunday, December 27, 2009 at 06:03PM | Share Article by: Justin Mack
Missions Pastor at River Valley Church
I first met beautiful little Diease 15 months ago. This precious 6 year old orphan girl lives in Swaziland, Africa, which is home to the highest percentage of HIV/AIDS infected children in the world.
Everyday, Diease makes her way to Murray Camp Care Point to get a bowl of rice and vegetables (which is often her only meal of the day), some basic education, and occasional medicine and clothing. Diease is one of a couple hundred orphan children that call Murray Camp “home”.
Although I’m sure I had seen her face dozens of times as I scanned the active crowd of joyful children hugging and climbing all over our small team of volunteer short-term missionaries, it wasn’t until one day I felt a tender little tap on the back of my leg. At that moment, Diease got my attention and I’ll never forget her captivating smile and beautiful brown eyes as I turned around, knelt-down and picked her up.
Now, over a year later, I would return to Swaziland and journey back to the village community where Murray Camp Care Point is located. Excited by the thought of going back, I was not prepared for the nervousness that I felt as we got closer and closer and finally arrived. I quickly began to look over the mass of kids one by one, as dozens of unsettling questions flooded through my mind in a matter of seconds. Is Diease here? Is she ok? Is she healthy? If she isn’t here, where is she? Does anyone know where she is? If she is here, would I even recognize her? Will she recognize me? Will she still be smiling? Will she let me hold her?
Then hidden behind several layers of kids, I finally saw that same captivating smile and beautiful brown eyes I remembered from 15 months earlier. Diease looked at me for a moment but quickly looked away. Didn’t she remember me? I don’t know but I could tell she was having fun playing with her friends, so I didn’t interrupt her fun. So, from a distance, I kept my eye on her and what I saw was nothing new really but actually very profound when I stop and think about it.
I saw her laugh, play and dance freely. I saw Diease patiently allow other kids to go in front of her as she waited for her only meal of the day. I saw her look out for and share with those younger than her. I saw her hold tightly to those that would offer her love. I saw a child that God loves as much as every other child on this earth.
For over 2 hours I watched Diease, as our volunteer team tried to give her and all the other amazing little orphan children the best Christmas Party of their lives. Then rather quickly and unexpectedly it began to rain and thunder quite violently. All two hundred of us rushed under a small and leaky covered patio.
All of us tried to hold as many of the scared little children that we possibly could but when I saw Diease standing alone, I immediately made my way over to her and picked her up. With rain loudly beating down on the plastic patio cover and with every crack of thunder seemingly louder than the previous one, Diease hugged me tighter and snuggled more closely than ever before.
As I held her close for over an hour, I thought about what I had seen earlier. I am holding a child who gets only one meal a day and is selfless enough to allow others to go ahead of her. I am holding an orphan that lives in mud plastered one room home with at least 8 other kids with only an adopted grandma to take care of her, yet she is compassionate enough to take care of others. I am holding a child that literally has nothing but has as much joy as anyone I have ever met. I am holding a child who has experienced pain and loss like I have never known but knows how to forgive, forget and love whole-heartedly.
Even though death and pain were as close as I’ve ever experienced firsthand, many verses I’ve read before came alive like never before. Two examples are Psalms 10:18, “…you care for the fatherless…” and then in Matthew 25:40, “Whenever you care for the least of these, you’ve done it to me”.
To put it bluntly, I do not believe that we can ever truly understand Christ’s love for us until we actually care for the “least of these” who are so often forgotten and abandoned, for it is in loving the least of these that we begin to learn just how great God’s love is!!
(Diease is just one of 10,000 beautiful orphans that Children’s Cup serves and loves every single day and Murray Camp is one of 19 Children’s Cup Care Points within Swaziland. For more information about how you can help, go to childrenscup.org.)
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