Greetings! I’m back after a short hiatus. Once I reached my halfway point in my book, I felt the need to take a break from writing and have just gotten back to it recently. I may not post regularly every week going forward. I’ve found spending less time on my blog is more time for my book! It is a difficult balancing act. However, there are, at times, incredibly important messages that need to be spread, and “Precious Children of India” is one of them.

His Precious Children: A Story-Sharing Ministry was formed by Elizabeth and Bruce Carpenter, of Columbus Ohio. Their goal is to work with needy children around the world and empower them through sharing their stories.  Their most recent trip was to India, where they worked with Light Life Ministries, an indigenous Christian mission that trains and empowers Christian leaders, operates homes for orphaned children, and minister to the poorest of the poor.

While in India, Elizabeth and Bruce interviewed many children who lived at New Beginnings Children’s Home, as well as other children around India, and have written down select stories in their book “Precious Children of India: Giving Voice to Destitute Children of the World.”

Simply written, but full of heartbreaking imagery, the survival stories of these children will draw you in and not let you put the book down. They are written with feeling and care, giving the children a voice in a world that would otherwise ignore them. With colorfully captivating photos in each chapter, you get to meet these precious children and hear of the trials they went through before they came to the New Beginnings Children’s Home. Each story recounts how their life has been immeasurably blessed now that they get plentiful food, clothes, schooling, and the loving care of adults who see each one as a precious gem, not as unwanted trash or as a resource to be exploited.

My favorite story is that of Leena, a twelve year old girl whose father divorced and left her mother because her mother only gave birth to four girls, no boys. After her father left, her mother fell into deep depression and became mentally unstable. She eventually strangled her three youngest girls, killing them in their sleep as Leena watched, leaving Leena all alone. Leena’s grandmother rescued her and hid her from her mother, eventually finding the New Beginnings Children’s Home for her to live at and stay safe. Though plagued by nightmares of her ordeal, the loving care and hopeful message of Jesus at the New Beginnings home has transformed Leena into a bright and happy girl who wants to be an English teacher when she grows up. Leena’s story made me cry, both for her past hardship, and for her present joy.

This book is a must read, whether you’re religious, anti-religious, or undecided. It’s a story about suffering far beyond most people’s capacity to imagine, and the hope a simple message of love brings. Read it and let it open your heart to people half a world away in desperate need of anything at all. Read it and let it move you to be thankful for all your many blessings here in America: housing, food, clothes, jobs, freedom. Read it and let it break your heart for the least of these who are forgotten, abused, and thrown aside like trash. Whether this book simply inspires you to be more thoughtful of your life, or moves you to donate time and resources, please, give it a chance to make your heart a more beautiful and thankful place than it was before you read it.

This, my friends, THIS sets my heart aflame. The plight of these children breaks my heart and makes me weep. I feel such a desperate need to help them in some way, and THAT is why I write. I’m not a good writer right now. But I write, trusting God to make me better so that someday, my stories will touch lives like this story touched mine. As E. B. White said, “Writing is an act of faith…”. I write, planning for the day I can spread the word through my stories to bring help and attention to the least of these at home and abroad, crying out in silent, desperate need of hope.

Please, please, share this post, share this book, share this message. Buy the book, donate as you are able, tell your friends and pray, always pray. God put a million million doors in the world for his love to walk through, and one of those doors is you. If not us, who will be like Jesus to the least of these? If not us, who?