Imagine this face looking at you at 2 years old.......imagine sending teams with Heal Ministries year after year and investing in his life in an orphanage so that he will know the love of God. Imagine him at 25 years of age with a college degree and a business. Imagine him with a family and children and knowing that his Father never abandoned him even though his biological family did. Imagine him returning to the orphanage and passing on the Inheritance of the kingdom through tutoring children as this young boy is doing above.

IMAGINE..........REALLY living out the Word and helping the orphans and widows in their distress.....James 1:27

One of my favorite entrances to the Casa Hogar Orphanage that I visited was at the center where I fell in love with the director, Martha. She is so dedicated and loves the Lord. The entrance shows a mural of children with the names of those chidren that she has served over the past 15 years.

Most of the children in the homes are not adoptable. The homes often serve as what we know in the states as foster care. The sad part is that many of these children will never return to their families permanantly. They come from very poor socioeconomic levels where families earn only about $250 a month. My visit to many of the orphanages gave me the opportunity to ask hundreds of questions and research the reasons the majority of these children are brought to these homes.

They come from extreme poverty. Most of them have a dad in the states working while the mother is forced to take full time work in a home where many times her children are not allowed. Many poverty situations create problems of alcohol, drug abuse and other addictions that make it unsafe for the children to remain with their biological parents. Whatever the reason, it is sad. It is sad that the majority of these children will be forced to leave the homes when they finish middle school and not given the opportunity to attend high school. In the orphanage home where Martha is the director, the children are allowed to stay and complete high school as long as they obey the rules of the house. This is not the norm. They need resources. They need teams, service and help.

We must step in and make a difference in the lives of these innocent children that are being abandoned in Latin America. I cannot go about the daily routines of life and not step in and do what God is calling us all to do: to get involved. Jesus had compassion on the weak, the poor, the fatherless and the widows. I'm amazed when people say we should not help them and I fully believe that people can often do too much but this is not biblical.....to ignore those that cannot help themselves. The type of compassion that Jesus felt for those suffering is not accepted in our world and it is different from what we hear today. I want to be different. The concepts that Jesus taught was about love, compassion and an outstretched hand to those that had fallen. God delights in lifting up the fallen, restoring the brokenhearted and He delights when we feel the love and compassion that Jesus felt.

This final day of Mexico makes me sad to leave but thrilled with what all the Lord has brought to my attention. Just as the chapel on the hill at one orphanage is the center of the property, so should we focus on helping others as the center focus of our lives. Just as each of the hundreds of items of clothing at the orphanage are neatly cleaned, folded and placed on the shelves one at a time, so should we pray, and give hope to these abandoned children, one at a time.......changing the world one heart at a time.

Heal Ministries will be taking a team to serve these orphanages every summer and will be working with MTW to serve the women in the new church plants.

I want to be different. Lord keep me on your path that the world views is crazy. My prayer is that hundreds will jump on board and see the glory of God in full view.......by visiting the orphans and widows in their distress.