Consider How precious children are to God....

This is Nkiru, an 11 year old girl who was brought to our centre this week. She was clearly very under nourished and very traumatised and withdrawn, she was sooooo skinny, it was very sad to see.
Her story is as follows :-
She was born out of wedlock and her father disappeared and she has never seen him. She has lived with her mother who has blamed her from the day she was born for causing her trouble by being born.... The mother married and has two other children whom she treats very differently.
Her mother is a heavy drinker and after working she goes to the local bars and comes back and beats Nkiru daily. She had been eating most days one meal a day sometimes no food at all, and told of being beaten, locked up and starved...Until she was so hungry when a woman offered her a biscuit in the street she ate it and then found herself initiated into the secret society (ocult movement)...and then all hell literally broke loose and she was abandoned by her mother, and an aunt brought her to us. Ironically getting involved in the cult was her salvation to getting out from a horendous life, where she has grown up with the messages that she is unwanted and unloved. It is so hard to imagine doing such horrible things to an innocent child. As she was recounting her story we were all moved to tears, to see how thin she is and how withdrawn was so cruel and heart breaking to see.
It made me think of how our creator God feels to see one of his precious creations treated in such a horrible way, his heart is surely breaking for so many like Nkiru who are not rescued and brought out to a ministry like ours. I recieved a book this week from one of our supporters in US entitled " Too Small To Ignore" reminding us all that the least of these matters....
It reminds me that Satans most important task is to break the heart of God and he knows how much little children are important to Him and so he attacks small and innocent children. I quote

" At the moment of birth all heaven waits in anticipation and breaks into songs of joy , each child born into the world is in the image of its creator with the potential of bringing glory to God, meanwhile Satan and his hosts are waiting ready to pounce and destroy that life as quickly as possible , knowing it will break the heart of God. Given this frightening warfare between Heaven and Hell it is all the more ironic that children are seemingly so unimportant to adults."

We see so many innocent children being abused by adults here for their own gratification in this withcraft it is horrible. Praise God he has armed us for the battle and He has defeated Satan and these children can be delivered by the power of prayer. Please continue to pray for the children all over the world who are abused and used by adults for their own gain, innocent lives each one precous to their creator, it is not something that can keep on being ignored.

He holds my every moment.....

Yesterday was a very sad day in our ministry . One of our boys who had been reconcilled back to his family died, aged 18 years of kidney failure. Something which probably could have been helped in a country with better medical care, but he suddenly became ill and within a few weeks was admitted to hospital and died.A young life so full of potential. Lukman was a gifted boy, he sang very well in a band, he was a gifed artist and a born leader. He was a converted Muslim and was sure of his salvation.

Death is such a common thing here, it is treated with respect and the whole family and community all come out to send the person home. The family are involved in digging the grave, preparing the body etc..there is no funeral directors to do it, a distressing thought to us but one in which the family has the chance to do something for the person one last time.

Lukman came from a village in the bush and so his body had to be taken home to rest in the family compound. As money is so short we as a ministry provided a truck and a convoy of us drove on the rough unmade roads, across rivers with no bridges, over rocks and grass, slip slidding in the mud for 4 hours to reach the village. The whole community was waiting to bury their dead, and our boys who were his classmates carried his coffin and laid him to rest. It was all hands on deck to fill in the grave with earth and to pray over the body...there was much wailing and agony at such a young life full of potential being taken......but leaving behind such a legacy to his community.

It always strikes me in church and whenever a Nigerian believer prays they always thank God that they are alive, among the living ones. Believing that they are no better than those who have died but that God must have a reason for leaving them alive to live another day.

They know that one day they will die and that could be today, life seems so short here and so they live with one foot in eternity, and are grateful for every day...it is such a sobering thought and it helps me to appreciate every day i am alive to think about what is the reason that God has left me alive today what is it that he is wanting me to do for Him?

What about you ?

I love the words of this song....

You hold my every moment,

You calm my raging seas,

You walk with me through fire,

You heal all my disease.

I Trust in You, Lord I Trust in You....

Nothing is impossible for you,

Nothing is impossible for you,

You hold my world in your hands....

I am glad that i don't know what will happen tomorrow but i am sooooooooo glad that my Heavenly father knows already and He holds my every moment....and He holds my world in His hands so i dont need to worry but just Trust and walk with Him one day at a time through whatever He has instore for me.