A boy without a name

I will confess as I see gas prices soaring and my dollar not buying as much at the grocery store that I start having little pity parties for myself.   I compare my family to my neighbor's or my fellow homeschoolers and this mental list of "Don't Haves" starts accumulating.  I don't have a pool, a new car, season tickets to Silver Dollar City...it could go on and on.  Last night I heard the testimony of a man named Peter and I will never allow myself to start a "Don't Have" list again.  He had me beat--as a child, he didn't even have a name.

Our church is taking part in a pilot program of Compassion International to pair up churches with means in North America with churches without means in improverished areas of the world.  Our sister church is in Peru.  No one really knows how this program will work yet.  We've just agreed to a two year commitment and during that time our church must sponsor 50 kids in the area of our sister church through Compassion International.  We doing so now as part of our annual Easter project.  Our family picked an 8 year old boy named Jose--perhaps he'll grow to be a penpal with my Schnickelfritz.

What does this have to do with the boy with no name?  He came to our church last night as a representative of Compassion International.  He had a sponsored child himself in his home country of Rwanda.  The death rate for babies and young children there is so high that his mother refused to name him for fear she would grow attached and then lose him to starvation and malnutrition.  He ate one meal every other day.   After running away from an abusive father, he became a boy of the streets--doing odd jobs for scraps of food.  It wasn't until he became a sponsored child receiving food, education, and medical care that he dared to hope for reaching another birthday.

I DO have  a warm bed, air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter, food in the fridge and pantry, a loving family and a loving God.  From now on I will be writing out a Do Have list and remembering to thank the Heavenly Father who has bless me with so much.