Just my two little boys and me at a hotel in Maryland. We came a day early for a wedding so we could bring Rob's mom up for the rehearsal.
So just my two little boys and me enjoying ourselves at a hotel. Swimming. Eating Chinese delivery. Trying Root Beer that John thought was the best drink in the world and Aaron spit out. Ice cream. A slumber party in the king sized bed. TV.
Little boy time with Mama.
I watched them in the pool yesterday. The water too cold for my tastes. I watched them swim and laugh and wrestle and make friends with the other family in the pool. I watched them and I thought. They were throw away kids. Two of thousands upon thousands of children in a world where disability means abandonment. They were thrown away.
The other family - a father and son and daughter. The daughter laughing and talking and jumping easily and quickly into the water. The father holding the hand of the son. Holding tight. He was 12. Or 13. I watched as he led him into the water. I watched and wondered and smiled quietly to myself as the boy burst into joy and made his noises and clapped his hands. I watched as that father lovingly and tenderly watched over his son and threw the ball with his daughter and loved both his children. He loved both his children. The one who could talk and engage and toss a ball and the one who needed him to watch over him.
I watched as my Aaron easily and without pause interacted with that family. I watched as he told them as matter of factly as possible that he was adopted. He was adopted and his hands didn't work right. I watched as he talked to the daughter and the son and the father and made friends with them. I watched and wondered. My throw away son. My throw away son who loves people with an innocence and agenda-free joy. Making friends with a father and two children. One who in another place would also be thrown away. But here - in this world - in this hotel - a father loves his son. And that gave me the greatest of pleasures.
Some families can't bear to throw them away.
The doctors tell them to give them up. The nurses counsel them that they would be better off institutionalized. Their families plead with them to abandon them. Their neighbors shut the doors in their faces. The school denies them access. The government provides them no services.
Despite all this pressure, there are some families, in a culture and world where abandonment is the norm, who can't bear to part with the ones they love. So they keep them. Holding tight to their hands.
Most of them supportless. Alone. Lonely. Trying desperately to give the ones they love all that they need with little of anything to give to them.
There are few who care in that world but there are a few.
A few who choose to stand against the norm. A few who believe that the value in a person is not measured by their outward appearance or their mental ability. A few who place value as God places value.
They see treasure where others see broken.
These few are reaching out to those families. Providing them hope. Assistance. Support. Acceptance.
Love.
Love.
These few are also reaching out to the ones thrown away. The ones in orphanages and mental institutes.
They visit as much as they can. They teach. They engage.
They love.
They love the unloved.
We have a chance to help one of those few.
We have a chance to come alongside them - provide finances, prayers, encouragement - as they minister to those families who are holding tight to the hands of their loved ones. We have a chance to come alongside as they minister to the many many who have been thrown away.
We have a chance to give these kids - the ones whose families are holding on tight and the ones who have been let go - we have a chance to give each of them a chance to go to camp.
Because that is ONE of the MANY ministries this group does.
Camp Lela.
They give the children - no matter their need - an opportunity to go to camp.
They have already had some camps this year.
One of the camps was at a mental institute for older girls. A whole institute filled with thrown away special needs girls and women got to go to camp for a week. They couldn't take them to the camp so they brought the camp to them.
One of the camps was for autistic children who live with their families.
One of the camps was for special needs children who were able to come to the camp.
They have more planned.
Many many more planned.
It costs 60.00 per child to go to camp.
Hundreds and hundreds of children get the opportunity to go to camp but not enough of them have been sponsored.
Money is tight.
They are stretching it as best as they can.
Please will you
CLICK HERE and read more and consider - please consider - sponsoring a child.... or two.. or ten.
Support the families who are holding tight. Give freely so the throw away children have a chance to escape the confines of their orphanages or institutes for a week.
Please.
Children with Autism. Children with Down Syndrome. Children from troubled homes. Children with severe physical disabilities. Foster children. Adopted children. Children from orphanages. Refugee children.
The list goes on. And on.
I watched a father yesterday love his son. I watched my former throw away kids.
This morning I listened to the Holy Spirit and I wrote this post.
1,200 children.
Only a few have sponsors.
They need sponsors.
