The Light Overcomes Darkness!

Have you ever been haunted by memories of past experiences? Most of us are. We may not like to acknowledge them or bring them up, but they are there. Some that regularly plague me are from experiences that I’ve had in my travels around the world.

Standing at the door of a Hindu temple in Trinidad and feeling a palpable sense darkness surround me, causing me to retreat rather then walk in. Walking the narrow “streets” of Marthari slums in Nairobi, Kenya and seeing the extreme poverty. Huddling in a slum house, kneeling to pray at the side of a bed with a young lady on her death bed as AIDS rapidly was claiming her life, feeling her whole body surge at the slightest human touch as if she had never experienced the gentlest expression of human dignity. The brokenness in the voice of the orphans I’ve encountered in Kenya, Brazil and Haiti.

Perhaps no place I’ve experienced felt as dark and close to Hell as it was last year in Haiti when our team arrived at Jonatas “orphanage.” I wrote about it last year and how it devastated our group to learn that these poor children were taken from their families to be a scam for three wicked men.

Despite the horrible conditions, the lack of food, and the filth, the children were beautiful and resilient. They loved us as we loved them. We picked them up, hugged them, played with them, colored with them and had the privilege of sharing the Gospel with them. Only after departing did we hear about the true nature of that horrible place. To read more about it click here.

When you encounter such depravity and poverty as this, it is overwhelming how helpless you feel. The desire is to take all the children with you, but there is no way. This was only one of thousands of “orphanages” like this around the world. It is easy to be discouraged by the depths of the problem and the feelings of inadequacy. We feel helpless and sometimes hopeless.

But we should not feel hopeless or helpless. We have the God of the Universe to fight for us. He calls us to pray. To pray for the orphans and the less fortunate. Prayer is not to be looked at as the last thing we can do. No! It is the most powerful weapon we have against the forces of the enemy.

Today I had the privilege of reading my friend’s blog post. She shared with the world that the Haitian Children’s Service went in and shut down Jonatas’ “orphanage” and returned the children to their families! God has answered our prayers! God has proven Himself victorious and has rescued these children from this dark place!

We can rejoice in answered prayers! We can rejoice that these children can sleep in their own homes with their own parents. We can celebrate that they are not being taken advantage of any more.

The memory of that place will still haunt my spirit, but the knowledge of God’s redemption provides the foundation of hope that overcomes! Let’s continue to pray for the children around the world who are being trafficked and taken advantage of by evil people. God is on the move and He hears our prayers!