We walked into the orphanage yesterday afternoon like many times before. Except this time my eyes were instantly drawn to a new little body laying across the room. I stood over him to see his little 3-month-old frail body, his labored breathing, and his tiny hands clenching to the kanga he was wrapped in. I was horrified at what I saw. I spent the next few minutes trying to keep myself together. I began folding clothes and talking with the workers and watched him try to drink his bottle. He couldn’t keep it down. It became very clear to me that this baby did not have long to live. I fought back both tears and anger as I was told that he had been released from the hospital only because no one could pay for his medicine.
Meet John Jacob. He is 3 months old and weighs 4.5 pounds. We are asking all of you to join us in prayer for his life. God loves this orphaned child and we know that HE is able, if it is His will, to bring healing to John. For we know that HE shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, they are ALL the work of HIS hands.
This morning we took him to the hospital and began his treatment for mal-nourishment. He is also being tested for HIV and TB. The children’s ward in hospital here where we live is quite honestly the saddest and most horrifying place that I have ever seen. I cannot bring myself to go into the details of what we saw and experienced there today.
Please join us in prayer for John Jacob and for God to renew our spiritual strength and grant us a radical reliance upon HIM.
Ephesians 3:14-21 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Steph, Aaron, and Shan
