FORGET ME NOTS

DAY 128 

I’m not good with geography. So when I was invited to take a ministry trip to Moldova I naturally asked, “Where is that?”

It turns out I’m not the only one who has no idea where this little country is located.  With less than four million people and a landmass only slightly larger than Maryland (that one I know), Moldova is a country easily overlooked.  It not only has a diminutive size, it has made no noteworthy contributions in history.  In fact, for most of it’s known existence it has been a pawn for other countries, continually conquered and occupied.  Everyone from the Romans to the Huns to the Bulgarians have invaded and pillaged this little territory.  Once also part of Romania, it was eventually absorbed by the Soviet Union until providentially it became an independent country just 21 years ago.

Now, along with their declaration of independence, they can proudly boast of officially being the poorest country in Europe, with the highest per capita alcoholism rate and the lowest average income of under $5 per day. Moldova has no marketable natural resources, few exports, no industry, high crime, rampant corruption, dilapidated infrastructure, poor healthcare, and a floundering economy.  On whole, Moldova is a very forgettable country. 

It also has forgettable children.  An estimated 35,000 have been abandoned by their parents who have immigrated to other countries to find work or have succumbed to alcoholism. About 12,000 are in orphan houses. According to a study one child under 7 years is abandoned in Moldova every day. Nine out of 10 children under 7 who are abandoned have living parents, but their parents will never take care of them. They are forgotten.

On an allotment of about $1 per child per day, children are warehoused in buildings that would be condemned in the US. Some, like the one I visited in the town of Cupcuii, have no running water, and 50% of the 58 orphanages have no hot water. The stench in the buildings is so bad that it lingers on your clothes even when you step outside.  With no air conditioning in summer and no heat in winter, the walls are only good for keeping out the wind.

As bad as that is, when an orphan turn 16 things get worse; they are booted from the orphanage and given the equivalent of $3 and a bus ticket to their home village.   Those who are not abducted into the forced labor market or the sex trafficking trade, face an equally bleak future as they are forgotten yet again.

As I sat on the grass, outside away from the stench, to play with the kids, I wanted to forget them, too.  I wanted to forget their faces and their smiles.  I wanted to forget the way the boys craved my attention so they could show off. I wanted to forget the girls who played with my hair and hugged me so tight I thought my heart would shatter.  I wanted to forget because I knew remembering them would be too hard.  I didn’t want to remember the hope in their eyes when I know their world is hopeless. Even in all their neglect they are willing to be loved, but no one even remembers them. I didn’t want to remember.

After three orphanages and not a single piece of my heart left, I sat down for dinner that night and wept.  Lord, I asked, how could you show me these children when there is nothing I can do to save them? The whole world has forgotten them, God!

And then in the silence between my sobs I knew; God had not forgotten them.  He sees the boy with the cotton stuffed in his aching ears.  He knows the innermost thoughts of the tiny sprite of a girl who wouldn’t speak.  He gave the talent to the little sister who loves to sing and her older sister who loves math. He aches for the oldest ones soon to be turned out.

“But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.” Psalm 10:14

I know God sees them because He has made a point of showing them to me, as I know He has shown them to others.  I don’t know yet what I can do in the name of Christ to be a helper to the fatherless in Moldova, but I have stopped hoping to forget.

Perhaps needs go unmet not because God forgets, but because His people choose to not to remember what He shows them. It is highly possible that God takes trouble and grief  “in hand” by placing it into ours. 

In Today's passage in Acts, Paul and Barnabas both were remembering something God showed them and they were taking it in hand for the Lord.  As a Jew, Paul loved God's chosen people and wanted them to come to know Jesus as Messiah.  It would have been his first priority, to remember the chosen ones.  The gentiles, for most Jews, were forgotten people - irrelevant in God's eyes.  But God saw the need of the Gentiles was as great as the need of the Jews for a savior.  He had not forgotten them, but instead was ready to "take it in hand" through Paul and Barnabas. 

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 46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. 47 For the Lord gave us this command when he said, ‘I have made you a light to the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.’” 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers.

What if Paul had forgotten, or not been willing to make the cause of God's heart also the cause of his?  God's priorities don't always have to make perfect sense to us.  We don't have to feel up to the task.  We only have to remember what He shows us, and faithfully follow Him to take it in hand as He leads. God's forget-me-nots should be our forget-me-nots.

SEE YOU TOMORROW!


Day 128 of 365
2 Kings 1
2 Kings 2
Acts 13:42-52
Acts 14:1-7
Psalm 139:1-24
Proverbs 17:19-21