The New Face of the Fatherless

On this first day of Spring, it seems like the widespread panic of the Ebola virus and the way it filled every news feed was so long ago. Friends would post the most recent articles and warnings of how Ebola could possibly have found its way to the U.S., and people chose sides about quarantine issues and expressed their outrage about the threat to our personal safety. Borders closed, travel plans were cancelled, and even as I planned a trip to Kenya, a location thousands of miles from Liberia, friends and family worried for my safety. Not surprisingly, I was questioned extensively by customs upon my return to the US about who I visited in Africa and if anyone I came in contact with was ill.

It's understandable that we choose to protect our own, to make sure we we do everything to keep those we love from being at risk. But now that the chaos has started to die down, in my own little self-centered way of only thinking of how things concern me, I really haven't given much more thought to Ebola at all. 

Yesterday I was brought to a halt when I was reminded that Ebola has left in its devastating wake the new face of the fatherless child. For those whose parents and caretakers fell ill and died from the illness, they are now left parentless and grieving all the while being forced to make it through the day on their own. 

Branded with the stigma of having lived in a house where the virus took up residence and killed those within, these children are now outcasts that no one wants contact with. Denied entrance back into their school's classroom, often no one will take them in and offer them shelter and guidance, and sellers may not even take their money when they try and purchase food for fear that any contact will bring about death. 

Loss has now become hand in hand partners with despair. 

But, there is always hope. In the darkest times, it is always encouraging to see how God's people will step forward and reach out to those in need. After all, we are called to give, to go, to love, to comfort. And in one area of Liberia , Lifesong for Orphans is doing what they can to shelter and care for the orphans of Ebola. 

Staring Lifesong's New Hope Children's Home, these children now have the chance to let go of the struggle for daily survival and return to school and a place they can call "home." I encourage you to read their story here and consider how you can partner with Lifesong to reach out to children such as these three precious faces:

(Source Lifesong for Orphans article)