The same day that we celebrated Sonia’s first birthday, several men and a baby came to our door. The mother died a week ago and this baby needed milk. The Schwenks started a project where a goat is lent to a family to feed a baby whose mother had died. This has been used for some families but many seem to reject this. It is too much work to milk a goat to feed a baby.
This father came asking for milk powder. We encouraged them to consider borrowing a goat. They didn’t seem interested. We provided them with a small jar of milk powder for the 4 month old baby but urged them to consider the goat. They were welcome to come back. The baby also had an eye infection and I gave some medication for this. (This morning, a different child was brought with an eye infection as well).
Will this child live? It is unlikely. I wanted to just scoop this baby in my arms and keep it with us. How can I send them away knowing that they don’t really have a will to care for this child? They don’t have other options in their culture. And this young father has another young child to care for as well.
Pray that God would transform this culture so that when tragedy strikes a family, there are loving arms to care for them. Pray too that we would be filled with compassion and wisdom in knowing how to demonstrate Christ’s love and not be overcome by all the needs around us.
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