Courage on the Word Day of Prayer and Action for Children

When I travel to the Africa and Latin America to visit our doctors who are serving in small mission hospitals and clinics, it is the faces of children that remain etched in my memory. The children running along the road, laughing at the lady with the camera, singing in the church, and the children in the hospitals, their parents anxiously standing at their bedside.

As a mother of four, in these childern’s faces I see my own children. I recognize the joy and the fear, the laughter and the tears.

Those of us in the west however need to awaken to the reality of the lives of children around the world. In Uganda today there are over 1.2 millions AIDS orphans. In Guatemala more than half the children suffer from chronic malnutrition. In Cameroon the burden of poverty is heightened by diseases of malaria, TB, chronic respiratory infections. The needs of these children and their communities is what drives our doctors to sacrifice so much to serve, and is what drive my own work.

Today, November 20 is the World Day of Prayer and Action for Children. On this anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, I would like to share with you the story of Courage. This story not only inspired me, but all of the doctors and nurses serving in this small mission hospital in Ghana. Courage is a young boy none of us will forget.

Imagine a World

I wanted to take a moment this week and share with you a powerful quote from the founder of Mission Doctors, Monsignor Anthony Brouwers, “Many do not know the needs of the world’s poverty; some do not care. Others know but refuse to lift a finger or open a tight purse. The present writer, on journeys through the mission lands, has had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with the reality of poverty. To see it in all its stark realism is not enough; one must smell and touch it before the mind drinks in the realities of the senses.”

His ability to help those of us here in the US understand the reality of the needs has called many of us to join in the work of Mission Doctors Association. It is true, that the needs in the Africa and Latin America are difficult to imagine while sitting at our computer screen in a warm home or office. It is my charge however, as a missionary myself, returned home, to share these needs with others and to encourage prayers and support.

Imagine a world where all needs of the poor are met. We can imagine this one patient at a time. Click this link to view a Mission Doctors video. You can meet our doctors serving and learn about the real needs that exist.