My Orphan Years: What Made it a Success?



The joy in this orphan's life smiled deep into my heart.

Orphan years can be crisis years. The vulnerability and uncertainty can take a wrong turn and bring untold misery to the orphaned child.
I was orphaned at the age of fourteen and I can't master the words to describe the loss. I was at a crisis age struggling with my identity, my sexuality, my role as a man and many other issues boys grapple with at this critical stage of life. I was lost with the loss of my mother: the only parent my life ever knew.

But there's one interesting thing about my orphan years; it was a joy unlike the case with many other orphans in the world. I had an opportunity to attend school, live and interract in a christian atmosphere and had something to warm my stomach and back like other children with both parents. These opportunities allowed me to dream with my head, heart and hands. This means; my head was filled with wisdom and knowledge, my heart saturated with passion and purpose and my hands equiped with servant leadership.

But what is it that ensured a successful orphan years? It is because of caring, loving and compasssionate people who understood the heart of God for orphans.

"When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow." Deut. 24:19-22.

God never fails on his promises: its only humans who fail to obey and follow his decrees.

You can put a smile on an orphan by helping them experience joy instead of pain and agony during these crisis years.  My prayer is that as you budget you'll leave something for the aliens, the fatherless and the widow.

Don't harvest everything, leave something behind  and put a smile on an orphan's life today.

A Dream Stuck Up in the Dump

S, I and another child at a dumpsite in secunderabad, India. He caught my attention since I did the same thing as a child


He gave me a casual look and only introduced himself as “S”, and then kept busy on the heap of dump.

He only spoke Telugu and hence we could barely understand each other. But people in poverty have another language they are fluent in - hope!

I smiled at him, he smiled back. I jumped in to help and he moved to accommodate me. Soon we were conversing fluently in smiles.

S is the boy I met in Secunderabad, India, scavenging for anything to survive the day. At his age, I had survived from this career – digging out of dumpsters.

 
We ‘exchanged many suspicious faces but in a short while, I won his trust. I offered to teach him how to take photographs. I took out my camera, showed him a few functions on the camera and in no time, he was by the road taking pictures of moving cars, people and buildings.

Many thoughts clouded my heart on what I could do for S. In no way is this story suggesting that I am a holier-than-thou Good Samaritan, only that “Once bitten, twice shy”. I have been in similar situation and advocating for children like S is speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves. It was my last day in India. 

S standing by the dumpsite I spotted him.
In the background is the slum he lives in Secunderabad, India

I had been in India for two weeks on a mission trip to make Jesus known among the natives.

Looking straight into my eyes, S asked for ten rupees as he handed back my camera. I reached into my pocket and handed him a hundred rupee note. He casually pocketed it, saluted me goodbye and went back to the dumpsite.

I walked away frustrated that I did not provide S a lasting solution. His dream was wasting in the dump.

Later, I asked a local pastor about what could be done to help the people at the slum where S lives. The response I got was acerbic. Men of God even grow cold to the plight of the poor. He responded in such a way to suggest that S community was not a group of poor people who needed help but a cartel of nuisance and insensitive land grabbers masquerading as slum-dwellers.

I am glad that someone had compassion and believed that I truly needed help. Watch my story of hope on : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbUK8D-xIdQ

It reminded me of the story of the Good Samaritan who was on a journey and found a man who had fallen in the hands of merciless robbers. As the story goes, the Priest and the Levite passed him by, ignoring the bruised man’s urgent need of help. My imagination tells me that the Priest and the Levite came from around and were better placed to help the bruised man. But perhaps they had grown insensitive to the needs around them.


S taking photos of his environment.
I wonder a skill like this could change his fortunes forever!

From the pastor’s response, I felt a sense that we have grown insensitive to the needs around us, almost indignant that people with need live around us.

Have you disengaged your head, your heart and withdrawn your hands from the plough?

God desires three things from you: to act justly –be fair in your dealings with others; love mercy – carry through your commitments to meet the needs of other people who need it; and walk humbly with God, meaning, to fellowship with God without arrogance.

In other words, be responsive to God, submitting to His will. This sums up the heart of our walk with the Lord.

When you look around your neighborhood and see need, are you insensitive to it? Have you passed a need today like the Priest and the Levite?

Be sensitive to the need around you. God planted you in that environment for a noble purpose.

CHILD SPONSORSHIP IS A GOD DIRECTED BEHAVIOR

In Haiti with my sponsored Child (in pink) and her brother.

 In this world, we are either serving God or our goals and sometimes goals ‘in the name of God.’ In the presence of options, either God or the goals take the trophy home.

David was a man after God’s heart. That means, he had God Directed Behavior (GDB) and not goal directed behavior.

A god is a behavior that commands your bodily functions to the gratification of a temporary desire.

Temporary desires have killer instincts. King David arose from the bed and took an innocent stroll on the roof of his palace where he was faced with temporary desire with killer instincts. The situation demanded a decision: either a God Directed Behavior or a goal directed behavior. He sadly fell for the latter and developed these killer instincts. In his checked out state of mind, David served a temporary desire and gave out his functions to a god of illicit passions.

If we are to contrast David with another character in the Bible who chose to embrace God Directed Behavior faced with a similar situation, it is Joseph. The stakes were high. He chose God for temporary desires. What an inspiration in decision making!

So, next time you are about to make a decision, ask yourself, is this a God Directed Behavior or a goal directed behavior?

Take a look at your monthly budget; are there items in your list that can be knocked off and embrace a God Directed Behavior? You can as well add one item that is God Directed Behavior - sponsor a child. It is only 38 dollars a month. Compassion International releases children from Poverty through this God Directed Behavior.

I am a product of a God Directed Behavior. Someone knocked off an item from his budget and sponsored me 20 years ago. Today, I am released from poverty and I have knocked a temporary desire off my budget to sponsor a child.

Choose to know better and do that right thing that glorifies God. Sponsor a child today. Visit http://www.compassion.com/ and embrace a God Directed Behavior.