Hope for the Hopeless

Today was a rough day of realizations. We went to a government run hospital with an intense amount of malnurished, sick children. We passed out baby dolls to the children and bread, cheese and water to the mothers. We also donated Baby Tylenol to the hospital as well. And then experienced the other extreme as we ate a yummy lunch and shopped at the market and enjoyed bargaining with the Sierra Leonians for souvenirs to bring home! Then we went back to The Covering and had prayer and praise time with the children and spent time decorating the center with them before bed time! We were able to help tuck all 80 of them in to their beds and kiss their heads goodnight. It was a wonderfully hopeful way to end what began as a seemingly hopeless day. Bethany and I wanted to share some thoughts we had through out the day and hope you are able to share in our experiences.

Bethany's Thoughts:

Today God tested me and stretched me in so many ways…. Our team went and visited the children’s hospital here in Sierra Leone. It’s a place for mothers to bring their young children…. One baby a month makes it out of that place. What I witnessed today will stick with me forever and I will never be the same again. We handed out baby dolls to all the children laying in the beds and waiting in line with their mothers to get into the hospital. The mothers were so grateful for the baby that they could give to their child in their last days here on Gods earth. We also gave out bread and cheese to the mothers that have been sitting there for weeks with their child. The mothers were so brave and truly showed me Gods love. We were given very clear instructions that we were not to cry or break down while in front of the mothers and children. The mothers don’t always know that their children probably won’t make it out of there so for us to show sadness and emotion was not a good idea. While walking around and holding these deathly thin babies trying to give them my biggest smile my heart was in my stomach and my body felt numb. While we left my heart was beating out of my chest and tears were welling up in my eyes…. I was doing everything I could to keep my tears inside. When we got out to the car my teammates and myself began to break down…. God showed us a side of life that is not fair and not right…. But it is something that cannot be ignored. We all cried while gathering together to say a prayer outside the hospital. We prayed for God to uplift these children and show them his love in what may be their last days…… we prayed for God to strengthen us as we just witnessed his beautiful children suffering….. we prayed for the nurses to bring them back to health….. we prayed for the thousands of other children in Sierra Leone who need to feel the healing power of our lord…… and lastly we prayed for our people back home, and that their eyes may be opened to the suffering and injustice in countries like Sierra Leone…..

Our day ended with a night with the kids at the center. I have grown so close to a few of them and have formed bonds that I will cherish forever. I asked God on the drive back to our hotel tonight how I was going to leave these children….. how am I going to be okay when I have to say goodbye to the kids that have touched my life and shown me the real meaning of why we live? I believe TRS has given these children a place where they can be kids again. They don’t have to live on the streets anymore and suffer…… they don’t have to hall rock up and down bumpy roads to earn money for the mother that is very ill. The children at the Covering are now learning the love of Jesus Christ and attending school. They are given three meals a day and a roof over their heads. They have people that love them and friendships that are truly very special. This gives me hope that when I leave these children behind they are in good hands. I can have peace in my heart knowing that their hearts are being prepared for a bright future and are given so much joy. There are 350,000 orphans in Sierra Leone and TRS has rescued 83 of them….. our eyes have been opened to the thousands of others and we can not stop fighting……..

The lights went out at the center tonight when we were getting the kids ready for bed. I had two kids in my arms and kids holding onto me when the lights went off….. its pitch black and its hard to see anything. It was a difficult task trying to put 80 some children to bed in the dark! As we filed them all into their rooms I gave each kid a hug and said I lick you (it means I love you in sierra Leone) and helped them find their bed…. This is one of the many obstacles these people face and its nothing compared to not eating for days and losing loved ones because of something completely preventable by peaople like US.... I can’t tell you enough how much we need you all to help us. PLEASE put yourself in their world and find it in your heart to help save the orphan….. we don’t do enough and for this we should.

Regina's Thoughts

Today I witnessed things that should never happen on this earth. Today I saw, with my own eyes, one of the most horrible injustices imaginable. Today I walked in to a room to donate bread, cheese, water and baby dolls to sick children and found myself in a world you only see on commercials. But it’s real. A million times I will say it’s real. As you read this…know that children are starving in a hospital thousands of miles from you and they may not live because their government does not provide food for them and their parents are too malnourished to feed them themselves. If it makes you feel bad, I apologize…but these children starve because we let them. Because we simply put $10 in the offering plate each month at church and think we’ve done what we need to. Or we volunteer at our churches and think it’s enough. It’s not enough. I realized today in such an incredible way…it’s just not enough.

As we walked in to the first hospital room and saw the state of the children our team leader, Tina, called us over and reminded us, “Just breath…and don’t break down in front of these mothers.” We walked around and greeted each of the mothers and babies. Many of the mothers offered to let me hold their babies but I declined many times for fear of breaking their tiny, brittle bodies. After leaving the first room we went up two flights of stairs to their ICU. As I was walking from bed to bed a nurse came and grabbed my arm and said, “there is an abandoned baby over here, come, come.” My eyes were not prepared for what I would see. The tiniest baby I have ever laid eyes on lay on this bed looking up at me with the largest, brightest brown eyes. I slowly sat down and placed my hands on this child and the nurse pulled back her clothes to reveal this child’s lungs and loose skin from lack of food. Her name is Allie. The nurses said she had been abandoned the day before and since it’s a government hospital they don’t feed the babies while they are there so the nurses had been pooling money together to buy her food. At 2 months old Allie is 6lbs. I placed my finger in Allie’s hand and her grip was so strong and her cry so weak I felt helpless to do a single thing to save this child. I sat there for what seemed like hours just touching her and loving her with every ounce of myself, knowing that what she really needed I was helpless to provide. When Carrie, one of TRS’ volunteers came up to me and told me if was time to go…I cannot even explain the wave of emotion and sense of protection I felt at the thought of leaving Allie there by herself. I booked it out of the hospital as tears began pooling up inside my eyes because I just didn’t want to break down in front of the mothers. One mom followed me out and put her hand on my shoulder and said, “it’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” And it will be okay…if people begin to open their eyes to the fact that there is intense suffering in this world way beyond the comfort of our incredibly privileged lives. Babies like Allie can not continue to go hungry. There are 147 million orphans in this world and I met 148. The Raining Season is going to be providing money for food and supplies to help Allie while a social worker works on getting her to the orphanage once she gains more weight. This child needs intense prayer. And even more than prayer…she needs people who will be willing to do their part to make sure more like her don’t go hungry. As I sit and type this I don’t even really know all that I can do. I feel helpless as I sit in my hotel room while she is at the hospital alone. Her big brown eyes staring up in to the sky…I can’t get her out of my head.

I’m still processing everything I saw today. I don’t really have a compartment in my brain for what to do when you see severely malnourished children and are helpless to help them immediately. So what I will do is just ask you to pray. Pray for Allie. Pray for what God wants you to do to respond to the injustices in our world. It takes all of us. We ARE ALL responsible for responding to this.

In one hour I was changed. In one hour I became enraged at the treatment these children receive in government hospitals. My heart has been broken for children in need for a long time. But in one hour’s time my heart was completely shattered. Allie shattered my heart. I pray God continues to help me see what I can do to address this. Because once you see it…you don’t have a choice but to do more than just see.

Thank you again for all your support and prayers. We love and miss everyone back home!

Broken but Inspired,

Bethany and Regina