wow... i haven't thought about xanga in quite the while... mmm. wonder who all still is writing... let me know if you're around!

 

this is something i posted on facebook a few months back. i've been restless about this again with the weather turning cold. it's a story that has a haunting nature to it. and it won't let me go.

 

~ the sleepless story ~

 

i can't sleep.  all i can think about are my little gypsy orphans shivering in the darkness. i can hear the deepness of their coughs, the kind that rattles every part of their little beings and leaves an overwhelming ache behind. i sit here knowing that they need warmth, nutrition and meds to take the ache away - and yet, some may not even eat today.

"Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy!"

i know that God is a father to the fatherless. that He upholds the widow, the orphan, the downcast and the poor. He's said so again and again. but right now, in a little gypsy village outside of oradea, there is an abandoned 4 year old taking care of her little 2 year old sister. sure, the gypsy mothers in this small impoverished village try to help... but they do not have enough food to feed their own families, much less this young pair. the government does nothing, except threaten to take away the licenses of the organizations that try to help. this is why i cannot sleep tonight.

pathway to joy is taking a stand. i love this ministry and the dear people who run it with all my heart. i long for the day when i can work along side of them - not for just a few weeks out of the summer, but in the hard cold months when all the short term trips are forgotten and the baby hospital floods with little ones, abandoned by their parents who are to poor to provide for these precious sick ones during the harshness of a romanian winter. i want to be there for the teenagers who live off of $3 a day in the state run orphanage. these kids have my heart... puiu, andre, sebi... they see so many people come and go. i want to be someone that stays. when i leave i feel as though my heart is being ripped out of my chest.

right now i feel worlds away these precious ones, and yet my mind keeps their beautiful eyes, little voices, their dismal situations constantly before me. i do not understand why they must suffer the extent of their poverty, but all i can do is call out to their Creator, the Great Physician, the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the Father of the Fatherless and Defender of the weak.

"Our God is mighty to save..."