As the main liaison between our office in Colorado Springs and all of our personnel throughout the world, I receive messages about the triumphs of our children and how they are being blessed by the partnership between sponsors and Mission of Mercy.  Sadly, I also receive messages that do not describe triumph, but tragedy.

This last week I have received messages from our staff in India about two sisters and two young boys in our sponsorship program whose fathers suddenly died.  The two sisters, Angeline and Sneka, lost their father to a massive heart attack and are inconsolable and devastated.  The two boys, Deb and Amit, are both extremely lonely after losing their respective fathers. 

My heart broke for these children as I read about their situations.  I realized that in losing their father, these children also lost their main breadwinner.  All four of these children and their families were already living in extreme poverty, just making it because of the meager wages of their fathers, all of whom worked as day laborers.  Without this income, these children’s already precarious situations became even more difficult.  In the developing world families devoid of a father are often the poorest of the poor because they lack the income a father typically provides.

I was comforted by the fact that these children, all sponsored through Mission of Mercy, will have what they need to overcome some aspects of their tragedies.  But what comforts me more is the fact that “A father to the fatherless…is God in his holy dwelling” (Psalm 68:5).  It is He who will enable these children to overcome all aspects of their tragedies.

Being able to provide these children with education, medical treatment, and meals is undoubtedly a great blessing to them.  But I think what these children especially need, what all Mission of Mercy children need, is us for us to get on our knees and desperately plead to God to protect and provide for them.  Please pray for these particular children: Angeline, Sneka, Deb, and Amit.  Pray that these hurting children would see that while they are without an earthly father, they have a Father in heaven.