Celebrate Life!

Recently I was on a conference call with several people who love the children and community in Pothawira,   (https://goproject.org/village/pothawira/) where Pastor Peter and Emma Maseko champion the care of 104 kids.  Their daugher, Anne, was providing us with an update on how the children were doing.

“First of all,” she began, “we’d like to celebrate the fact that more than 100 children have been in care for one year, and not one of them has died.”

What?! 

We were a bit stunned.  In America,  “nobody died” is not a common opening for a good report, but by God’s grace, we had all been to Malawi to understand a bit of the context. 

In a country where life expectancy has dipped to 38 years, 65% live beneath the poverty line; a third of the population doesn’t have access to clean drinking water; where tubeculosis has doubled, where 1 in 7 people carry the HIV virus or are living with AIDS, including more than 70,000 children (3 at Pothawira itself) and on a continent where one person dies of malaria every 30 seconds — doesn’t it make sense to celebrate a year of life?  Actually, YES, and so we did. 

We also celebrated that these 104 children went to sleep each night in safe, dry beds, instead of being sexually abused; that they had the chance to go to school, instead of becoming child laborers; and that they were part of a church family who told them the Truth – they were created by their heavenly Father who loves them, gave Himself for them, has a plan for their lives, and will never leave nor forsake them.  We celebrate that God uses these beautiful children to communicate these truths to others, in Africa and America…..but before we move on too quickly, we join Anne in celebrating “the fact that more than 100 children have been in care for one year, and not one of them has died.”  We celebrate life…life that can be seen in the eyes and smiles of the beautiful children at Pothawira.

SOURCE:  http://africabags.org/id13.html