There's a line in the song at the end of this blog that says, Break my heart for what breaks Yours. I've known this song for a few years, but recently it has been the song of my heart.
When we get close to the heart of God, we hear his heartbeat
for people. We can hear His heart break
as we come into contact with people who need His care most – who need that extended touch of love that they have neglected to receive; who have not
known the grace and mercy that only a Father can give, and who look to only God
as their source of supply and provision.
When I came to Ethiopia in 2009, I wrote a poem as a therapy
for what I had seen and what I was still trying to process. It was called “New Flower” and you can read
it here. I read it out at church when I
got back to New Zealand as my Powerpoint presentation failed to come together
in time. Instead I struggled my way
through this poem and then totally choked up on these lines:
The Street boys in Ambo so dirty and torn
Not just their clothes but the families in which they were
born
No dad or mum to kiss them goodnight
No house to call home, no hope in sight
So broken and hungry but kings of the street
Orphaned and lonely no shoes on their feet
Feeding the street boys in Ambo 2009
This was the heart breaking God did for me when I was here
and then when Asaua came to Ethiopia a
year later. Our heart was for the street
kid and the orphaned. I went back home and struggled with the fact that we had spare room in our home and in our communities, but these boys lacked the basic necessities of life. This is the reason
why we joined in the work at Blessing the children- because they were reaching
out to orphaned children.
This past week, God has once again broken our heart for the
orphans in Ethiopia. Even though we work
with orphaned children, our hearts had become desensitized to their plight in
some ways because we hear their stories every day and we feel like we’re doing
something about it.
We attended a conference about the orphan crises in Ethiopia
these past two days and I told one lady how we have 145 children in our
programme, to which she replied “wow, that is so many!” But the response in my words and on my heart is that
we are hardly scratching the surface.
There are around 5 million orphaned children in Ethiopia – that’s more
than the population of New Zealand!
Orphaned children who either have no parents or just one, and the vast
majority of them are orphaned because of HIV.
Testimonies were shared at this conference and scriptures
were given to endorse the reality of our mandate as Christians to care for the
orphans and widows. Some of these scriptures
were as follows:
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and
faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to
keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Matthew 25:31-40 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and
all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations
will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his
right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you
who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for
you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something
to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and
you invited me in, I needed clothes and
you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you
came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see
you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did
we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When
did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply,
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and
sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you. To act justly and to love mercy and to walk
humbly with your God.
Isaiah 1:17 Learn to
do right; seek justice. Defend the
oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Ephesians 1:3-6 Praise
be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the
heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him
before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love
he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance
with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has
freely given us in the One he loves.
1 John 4:7-11 Dear friends, let us love one another, for
love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever
does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed
his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might
live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and
sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so
loved us, we also ought to love one another.
The theme that ran through these verses is that adoption was
God’s idea- He, out of His love for us, adopted US! The heart of the gospel is adoption. He desires that we take up the cause of the
fatherless, that we are used by Him, because He first loved us, to show His love
to others – the least of these, those who need to be fed, loved, clothed, given
shelter and when we do this, we do it for Him.
There is Jesus in each child we care for. His heart beat is as close to them as it
could ever be. God’s sheep should do it
instinctively because their heartbeat is that close to His.
A few days ago, some children who walk around our streets,
and who often say hello to me were all together as I walked past. These children are often seen climbing up on
the rubbish dump trying to get some food.
They have no shoes and have obviously not been washed in a long
time. I like these kids because they don’t
often ask me for anything, which compels me to give to them. I didn’t know what their story was, but I have
become more curious. I tried talking to
one girl the other day but she couldn’t give me any responses and I found out
that she doesn’t speak Amharic.
As I walked past them the other day, with my daughter Lydia,
one boy said to me “Money” (in English), to which I replied “No” (I hate it
when kids say money to me.) Then he said in amharic “Caramella yellum?” (You
don’t have lollies/candy?) To which I replied “Caramella Yellengium” (I don’t
have any lollies/candy)…so he asked one final question in Amharic – “What do
you have?” and as I thought about what to reply, as I literally had nothing on
me at that time, I said “Fikir, Bizu Fikir” (Love, much Love). He said in amharic “Bonet? Bizu fikir Alish?”
(Really, you have a lot of love?) Which I replied in Amharic “Yes, I have a lot
of Love”. This is all I have to give - the love of Jesus.
And this is what these kids are hungry for, more than anything
else. As me and Lydia walked around to
the guest house last night, we heard the children talking in an empty building
they currently call home. They look
after themselves, but like the street boys in Ambo, they have no one to call
mum or dad, or to tuck them in to bed at night, or to send them off to school
with a packed lunch in the morning. They
are the kings and queens of the street.
We are compelled to help these children, if even temporarily. There is something that needs to be done and
as a representative of Christ, we can’t turn a blind eye.
Our hearts are broken, as we pray and sing, break our hearts
God, we must be ready to action the brokenness He shows us for His
people.. Who will these children
be? What is their potential in Christ
and how can we help them to realize it?
What can YOU do to help? We’ll
let you know.
