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You: The Answer to Prayer

By January 12, 2016No Comments

Message from Dr. Jerry Haag, President of Florida Baptist Children’s Homes, One More Child and The Porch Light 

It was in a Ugand thatched roofs that I met Florence.

Talking to her beneath a shade tree I learned that her village called Florence andoned.

When rebel activity ravaged the village, Florence and her children fled to a nearby church until the violence subsided. She said her family’s situation became so destitute that they could not afford salt or tea – staples in their culture.

Florence told me she was afraid God had aband her children cried out to God for help! She couldn’t shake the memory of what one of her youngest girls prayed for: her daughter Faith asked God to “send someone” to them.

It was a big ask because visitors did not frequent the village often. We were the first visitors to arrive in the village after that prayer, we were the first Americans to visit the village since that prayer, and child sponsorship program! Providential timing indeed!

Before we left, my eyes searched for Faith. I was disappointed that I could not locate her – but that disappointment only lasted a second as a beaming young girl arrived with a gift in her arms. It was her chicken!

It would have been an insult to refuse this overly generous present, and the abundance of her gift.
Wow! I was experiencing amazement and guilt at the same time, but I knew Florence’s gift would be returned to her ten times over through our sponsorship!

This story is an astonishing and profound declaration of God’s faithfulness. Sadly, similar tragic family stories are found in our ministries across Florida.

10-year-old Isabella* was brought into our care after experiencing physical and verbal abuse that included being told she was ugly. She slept on the floor most of her life.
We searched for a foster family that could potentially become her “forever family.” At the same time, God led an amazing couple to become licensed foster parents.

A little more than a month after Isabella moved in, the family attended a Lifeway Camp, where Isabella began asking her parents about spiritual issues.

At a moving worship service at camp, Isabella asked Jesus into her heart as her personal Savior, and in July she was baptized!

What a blessing to see Isabella come to know real love.

Grace, mercy and the orphan.”

Won’t you, my friends, make a difference by sponsoring a child or by making a gift to support children in foster care or the adoption process? Together, we can be the answer to the prayers of children!

*Name has been changed for confidentiality reasons.