Protecting Our Future

     Today, I read of a woman, Amy Carmichael, who shared her home and most of all her heart with children who were not even hers.  She opened her heart and God gave her the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the children she helped.  I am going to share her story with you and today I pray you get the opportunity to help a child so you too may help in protecting our future, for the children of today are the leaders of tomorrow.

Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)
You must not exploit a widow or an orphan  IF you exploit them in any way and they cry out to me, then I will certainly hear their cry. --Exodus 22:22-23

The number of homeless people throughout the world  (as a result of personal tragedy, natural disater, or war) seems only to be getting higher.  But reaching out to even one homeless person can be a life-changing experience--as Amy Carmicheal's life demonstrates.  One wintry day when she and her family were walking home from church in Northern Ireland, they came across a frail woman struggling with a bundle.  At first they were embarassed and wanted to turn away.  But Amy and two of her brothers decided to help the woman, despite the condemnation they felt from other parishioners.  It would be the first of countless times Amy would hold her head high while she helped society's outcasts.
     At age nineteen, she attended a Keswick conference on "the higher Christian life."  By the end of the conference Amy had committed to giving her all to Jesus.  In 1895, she was commissioned by the Church of England to go to Dohnavur, India.  There the painful consequences of the Indian caste system confronted her, and she was especially concerned with the treatment of women and girls.  Amy's home, which eventually expanded to the size of a village, became a haven for young girls whose parents had "offered" them as prostitutes in the Hindu temples.
      Though Amy never married or had children of her own, for fifty-six years she was Amma (mother) to hundreds of Indian boys and girls, whom she called her "Gems."  Thousands have encountered the loving arms of Christ because Amy opened her doors and her heart to these children.
 
Life Lessons:
-Sometimes we need to go against  our culture--and even follow church members--to help society's "outcasts."
-One way to show the love of Christ is to open our homes and hearts to children.

Matthew 18:1-6
About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?"  Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.  Then he said, "I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.  So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And anyone who welcomes a little child lik this on my behalf is welcoming me.  But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea."