Look In...The Faces of Our Children

LOOK IN….
By: Krinda Joy Carlson
Intern, Ceitci Demirkova Ministries

Almost a year ago, while working as a camp councilor for my church youth group, I was struck by the horrifying reality of a pandemic striking our children. It was onset by a picture that was shown during an evening sermon of a little child of Africa, huddled on the ground, his skeletal frame protruding from leathery skin. The most haunting image from this picture was the vulture hovering in the background, just waiting for the babe to die. I think most of us have viewed images like this of children in third world countries, and they’ve pierced our hearts to the core. However, something different occurred inside of me when I saw this particular picture – for it birthed a further revelation. As the speaker was talking, I was looking around at the energetic and “healthy” youth surrounding me and thinking, God, how come you’ve called me here? Should I be overseas where the need is great and kids are dying right now, even as we worship? Suddenly, in my mind hovered a group of American youth, but I was seeing past the exterior and straight inside – and what I saw within them changed my life. Inside of every seemingly healthy young person was that dying little African child, right where their heart should have been. The vulture was there too. It was the devil. Waiting to devour the children spiritually. God whispered to me, “Krinda, this is why! The hearts and souls of America’s youth are shriveling and malnourished. Spiritually, they are like the children of a third world country and I need missionaries to rescue them as well.” I know for myself, I am called to be a missionary to the children right in my backyard, who are dying figuratively every day. I’m called to help keep the murderous devil from swooping down for the kill. Also, I must do what I can for those who literally are dying overseas. What about you? Will you look – really look – into the faces of our children across the world and in America – will you allow yourself to answer to the pain written there? Jesus loved and reached out to touch the needs of the little children. What about you?
"Let the little children come to me… And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.” Mark 10:14,16

…The Faces of Our Children
Poem By: Krinda Joy Carlson

Starved and thirsty with an empty cup.
Sick and throwing up.
A disease from the water,
or daily dying is someone’s daughter.
Mal-nourished and wasting …gone.
Third-word child and American girl sing the same song.

Exploit of the sex-trade.
Trapped in the moral degrade.
Just surviving from trick to trick,
or striving to satisfy from click to click.
Slavery – cost of porn.
From captured trafficked to captive viewer the industry born.

Alone with no home.
“Lonely. Empty.” is the groan.
Family gone from disease at the age of six,
or neglected boy lost in the mix.
Estranged and losing hope fast.
Child of Africa and son of a parental split seek to belong at long-last.

Children are starving, hurting, broken,
trapped in the system they live or in lies spoken.
The malnourished baby.
The anorexic teen.
The prostituted girl.
The sex-craved slave.
The orphaned boy.
The divorce-afflicted child.
This generation, whether literal or figurative, is dying –
eyes of the casualties pleading out, crying.

Look! Don’t ignore the faces of our children
or allow numbing from the painful truth.
Across the continent to right in America here,
the youth’s stare speaks stark and clear.
They need a rescuer to reach out a hand,
someone that cares and loves enough to stand
in the gap between life and death,
to be the bridge to Jesus – the Hope, the Healer… the very source of Breath.