I had the honor of attending the Orphan Summit V this year. I missed this conference last year, but was able to attend the year before. This conference has a way of inspiring me, refocusing me, and convicting me.
On the first day of the conference, Rob Mitchell was our plenary speaker. Rob, the author of "Castaway Kid," was an orphan. His story hits close to home in the way that he lived in an orphanage less than an hour from my home before I was even born. He tells the story of what it was like not only to be an orphan, but as a child enduring the hardships of institutional life and the heartbreak of abandonment.
The most powerful statement I heard Rob speak was when he explained the day "Hope Died." He talked of how most orphans have that day. It's a day when they are beaten down and realize they will never be in a family. They will never be loved and from that point on vow to build a wall around their hearts. Hope, something most hang on to until the very end, dies in these children.
As he explained that feeling, I realized that I have seen this in the eyes of so many children. It's an empty look. It's the look of the abandoned, the heartbroken, the lost, the lonely, and the unwanted. To hear a man tell first hand of how worthless he felt as a child, broke my heart. To realize there are MILLIONS of children like him out there is so very convicting.
Hope. We are told in Jeremiah that the Lord has a future for us all. It is one with a hope and a future. As we were so bluntly reminded in one session, "Satan hates babies and hates children" and so he wages his war on these precious children. He robs them of their innocence, their childhood, and their hope. Hope dies within them.
We have the opportunity to resurrect that hope. We have an opportunity to reach down into the pit these children are in, and give them our hand to lift them up. We have the opportunity to do some of the most important work we will be offered in the battles of this world. It all starts with one simple prayer. "Lord, use me."
On the first day of the conference, Rob Mitchell was our plenary speaker. Rob, the author of "Castaway Kid," was an orphan. His story hits close to home in the way that he lived in an orphanage less than an hour from my home before I was even born. He tells the story of what it was like not only to be an orphan, but as a child enduring the hardships of institutional life and the heartbreak of abandonment.
The most powerful statement I heard Rob speak was when he explained the day "Hope Died." He talked of how most orphans have that day. It's a day when they are beaten down and realize they will never be in a family. They will never be loved and from that point on vow to build a wall around their hearts. Hope, something most hang on to until the very end, dies in these children.
As he explained that feeling, I realized that I have seen this in the eyes of so many children. It's an empty look. It's the look of the abandoned, the heartbroken, the lost, the lonely, and the unwanted. To hear a man tell first hand of how worthless he felt as a child, broke my heart. To realize there are MILLIONS of children like him out there is so very convicting.
Hope. We are told in Jeremiah that the Lord has a future for us all. It is one with a hope and a future. As we were so bluntly reminded in one session, "Satan hates babies and hates children" and so he wages his war on these precious children. He robs them of their innocence, their childhood, and their hope. Hope dies within them.
We have the opportunity to resurrect that hope. We have an opportunity to reach down into the pit these children are in, and give them our hand to lift them up. We have the opportunity to do some of the most important work we will be offered in the battles of this world. It all starts with one simple prayer. "Lord, use me."
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