Do you remember your 16th birthday? I sure do. Sweet Sixteen usually means big parties and getting your driver's license. For a lot of kids, it signals freedom - in the next few years, you'll be graduating high school, maybe going to college, moving out of your parent's house. It's a time to celebrate!
Unless, of course, you're an orphan. If you are an orphan, turning 16 is a time of dread, fear, and hopelessness. Once you turn 16 - only 14 in some countries - your chances of finding a family are over. You will never get the chance to call someone mama, or have a family to call yours, or a HOME. In fact, the home you've known for the last few years is no longer yours, either. Your time is up, and it's time to "graduate". What a nice way of saying you're no longer welcome in the only place you've had to live, with the only people you've known. You're put out into the streets, ill-prepared, poorly educated, with the awful stigma of Orphan attached to you. You might as well have it stamped onto your forehead. If you are lucky, you may find a minimum wage job and scratch out a "living". More likely, you'll turn to crime, drugs, and prostitution. If you get pregnant, you'll have no way to support your child, and they will end up in an orphanage as well.
Maybe, you'll lose all hope and end your own life. Like so many others before you.
Seems pretty bleak, doesn't it?
Most of us are blessed, and have families and a home and food. You have been blessed so that you can bless others! My dear friends at Bible Orphan Ministry would really love to help some of these former orphans who are aging out of the orphanage. I really admire my friends, they are wonderful people who are fulfilling the Lord's call to help those in need. And they really need our help! Bible Orphan Ministry would like to buy items to help graduating orphans in their new life. Please read THIS POST to see a glimpse of their heart and passion for these kids. Visit THIS BLOG to donate, and you will be entered in a drawing. They only have a week left! Please help these kids!
Oh, Rachel, thank you so much!The tears have acted in my eyes when i read your post...Thank you!
ReplyDeleteCONGRATULATIONS, you have won the "Life Without Limits" book!! I sent you an e-mail, could you please confirm your shipping address. Thank You!
ReplyDeleteCourtney - Five and Two Fish Fundraiser