As I write this from my upstairs bedroom (turned office by day) I can hear the noise my three year old and eleven month old boys are making. There is a wide spectrum of noises made through out the day. Some are refreshing to Daddy’s ears and others require Daddy to get out of Daddys office chair and exercise some Daddy discipline. And love of course. One thing I have learned in my three plus years of being a father is that kids are RESILIENT!! I’m completely blown away by kids ability to take in, absorb, embrace and bounce back from the toughest words and situations. I’m truly inspired by my boys and kids in general.
I have had the wonderful blessing of traveling all over this beautiful planet. I have seen wonders of the world, stood in famous places, eaten exotic foods, met wonderful people and been jet lagged more times than I care to count. After 13 years of traveling this planet one thing always hits me harder and deeper than any other. The condition of the children. Ravi Zacharias said “All you have to do is look into the children’s eyes to see what the affects of the wayward life has done.” It’s not the wayward life of the child, of course. Its us adults. Its the fathers and mothers. It’s the “head” of the household. We are the responsible ones. I see lot’s of fathers and mothers as I travel the nations. I just wonder where DADS and MOMs are? There’s a difference! A big difference! And in the midst of it all… Kids are still persevering. Being resilient.
I just recently returned from the nation of Peru. There are some glorious Kingdom things happening in Peru that I get flat out giddy about! In a few short days, I met with the Compton family who is planting a wonderful church in Lima. I stayed with the Gutierrez family who is on staff at a MegaChurch that has the heart beat of God and is making a major impact in their community. I went with the Bosch family 15 minutes outside of the nice town of LaMolina. 8 minutes away from a Starbucks are families living with hardly anything. But now, the Bosch family is basically playing the role of the government by touching this community with education, food, shelter, water, jobs and the great Gospel!! I was also hosted by the Wissmann family who are literally pulling people out of the jungle and discipling them. I also think of Julia Chuquitype Quintana, she ministers to poor disabled/special need kids and gives her life to them so that they might have hope for theirs. Last but not least, I think of Ronald and Nancy Santillan! They minister almost daily in an outreach to the shanty town of Pacifico.
Pacifico is where it happened. I guess I was kind of expecting it to happen. You see, on one side of Pacifico there is a mini valley which now services as a dump. As I walked along this side of town I was observing the dump when out popped this ball. As I got closer I saw a slightly larger image chasing that ball. There he was, one of the cutest little things I have ever seen. A little 4 year old Peruvian boy who had been chasing his ball through the filth of a village. There he was smiling and curious as to who we were and what we were doing. We brought him over, high fived him, hugged him and showed him himself on the camera. It was a wonderful moment. I asked the Santillan’s if anyone was overseeing this boy and they said that almost all the children in the town go unsupervised. No supervision? No care?
It’s moments like these that remind of that Ravi Zacharias quote. Knowing that so many children throughout the world live day in and day out with minimal to no adult help. Minimal food. Minimal security. Minimal love. For me it deepens my burden to give, love, reach out and pray. To make sure that I’m being intentional about how I can help. That little boy with the ball is the boy who is pictured in the image in this article. Take a minute to look at the picture again and think about what you are looking at. Maybe take a second and ask God what he is saying to you. My hope is that at a minimum we have tens of thousands praying for the thriving of children around the world!!
What I saw in this Peruvian boy and what I see in kids around the world is not the beautiful gift of resiliency. It’s survival. There is a massive difference. A difference that must not be confused. My two boys are resilient. This Peruvian boy is simply trying to survive. Surviving should be the last thing on this little boys mind instead it’s the first thing. What do I need to do to survive today is what’s on his mind. My goal in writing this is that I can get people praying, giving, loving, serving and reaching out to kids where you are and in the nations. Kids are meant to be resilient. They are not meant to survive alone.
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Marvin Slaton
Modern Day Director
