{"id":61994,"date":"2011-08-02T06:56:27","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T11:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesusneedsnewpr\/?p=61994"},"modified":"2011-08-02T06:56:27","modified_gmt":"2011-08-02T11:56:27","slug":"meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html","title":{"rendered":"Meet the little girl with the Bible in her hands…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Her little hands held the Bible like she needed every word to be true, like she\u2019d seen enough pain and felt enough heartache in the ten years that she\u2019d been alive to know that there must be more. Her fingers turned the Bible\u2019s pages like they knew with certainty that this couldn\u2019t be all there was, that as sure as they eventually found their place in the Gospel of Mark, she too, would find her place, her meaning, her purpose. As her big brown eyes darted around the room\u2019s circle of people, ten American bloggers, members of World Vision staff in Bolivia, and a host of her own peers, she spoke with humble authority about Jesus\u2019s words regarding the mustard seed. The words that came out of that little girl\u2019s mouth weren\u2019t merely preaching to us about what could happen if our faith in God was the size of the mustard seed, she spoke those words as if she expected Jesus to swoop in like a superhero and rescue her from the broken surroundings of the town that she and her friends called home, a town located an hour outside of Cochabamba, Bolivia.<\/p>\n

As I listened to her talk, I couldn\u2019t help but wonder which of Bolivia\u2019s dark truths was her truth. Was it the one about child malnutrition? Had malnutrition put her name among the thousands of Cochabamba\u2019s least of these (and youngest) as victims of stunting, a term that\u2019s used when malnourishment is so bad that it begins to keep a child\u2019s body from developing at a normal and healthy rate? Was this little girl a victim of abuse? Had she been emotionally abused? Physically abused? Sexually? It\u2019s estimated that in some areas of Bolivia nine out of ten children suffer some kind of life-altering abuse. Or maybe she\u2019s one of thousands of Bolivian children who have been abandoned by their fathers (in some cases, the child is abandoned by both parents.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the story that broke my heart the most today\u2014that chances were very good that every child I met lived with a personal truth, one that was bigger and deeper and more traumatic than their tattered houses, cold dirt floors, mud-stained clothes, and chronic coughs that many seemed to withstand. Behind their dust and snot covered faces, statistics suggested that another story existed, stories that rarely get shared during a first meeting, stories that aren\u2019t remedied with food and water, stories that stain and scar souls, stories that time might heal but the symptoms won\u2019t let you forget.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then I met Philippe (pictured above) when I walked into his story late this afternoon. One of eight kids. Philippe\u2019s the \u201cman\u201d of the house if you will. Not the oldest child. But the oldest brother. Before going inside Philippe\u2019s house, a World Vision employee informed us that Philippe\u2019s daddy left. We weren\u2019t told when or why. The World Vision employee didn\u2019t call the boy\u2019s father a deadbeat or a good-for-nothing addict or give us his personal opinion on whether or not this mom and eight kids were better off without the daddy around. I\u2019ve never once heard a World Vision staff member belittle or put down a man or woman whose sins or mistakes are the main reasons that World Vision must help. Besides, the answers to questions like when and why or the verbal judgment of Philippe\u2019s daddy\u2019s actions won\u2019t help this family survive. Still, I wondered how much Philippe knew of his father. Does he remember ever being held by his daddy? Can he think back to a time when he and his father kicked a football around? Can he recall the scent of his daddy\u2019s cologne or body odor? What would he feel, if anything, if the sound of his daddy\u2019s voice echoed through the mud and wood framed walls of his home? Would he be excited? Scared? Would he even know his voice? Philippe was probably two or three years older than Elias, and when that occurred to me, for some reason Philippe\u2019s truth hit me hard. Sometimes when you\u2019re out doing these kinds of visits to foreign countries, the hard situations that people encounter and live become mere words that you hear but don\u2019t feel. I can\u2019t tell you how many times today I heard about a group of brothers and sisters being abandoned by a father or mother or both? And it wasn\u2019t until I met Philippe that I heard and felt that truth. And I know that this is just me being emotional, but I couldn\u2019t help but look at Philippe\u2019s bright smile and lovable nature and not think about my son, Elias, and how he\u2019s asked his Mommy \u201cDaddy coming home today?\u201d every day since I left. And then I wondered, if Philippe does know his daddy, how many has he run up to his Mommy and asked her when his daddy coming home. Of course, unlike Philippe\u2019s Mommy, Jessica gets to tell Elias how many days still need to happen before his daddy comes home. Still, Philippe seemed really happy to see a bunch of white people from the United States of America walk into his backyard. His smile lit up my afternoon.<\/p>\n

Right before she started her talk, the little girl holding the Bible handed a volunteer a small bag of mustard seeds. Each of us received a seed to hold in our hands. Slightly bigger than a grain of sand, I looked down at that seed and then back at the little girl holding the Bible. In Spanish, she said, \u201cEven if your faith is this small, Jesus says we can still do great and wonderful things.\u201d And while there have been many times in my life when I\u2019ve questioned those words of Jesus, I didn\u2019t today. Today, I believed them. Because the little girl holding her Bible believed them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By the end of her talk, I was pretty sure that I was wrong to think that the little girl was anticipating Jesus to swoop in and save her. I think that she believed with all of her heart that he\u2019d already been there.<\/p>\n

Will you sponsor a child?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s $35 a month. For most of us, the faith it takes to scrounge up $35 a month is much smaller than a mustard seed. For some, it’s bigger than a mustard seed. You\u2019ll change a kid\u2019s life. You\u2019ll help change a family\u2019s life. And you\u2019ll also play a role in helping bring resources to a community of needy people, resources that won\u2019t enable them, ones that will give them the ability to become sustainable. And you’ll also help World Vision maintain the ability to continue helping children with special needs, offering professional counseling to children who are victims of abuse, and providing a safe place for children who are living in dangerous situations. It’s a small seed. But it will help World Vision do big things.
\n
\nSponsor a child in Bolivia through World Vision by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Please share this post…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her little hands held the Bible like she needed every word to be true, like she\u2019d seen enough pain and felt enough heartache in the ten years that she\u2019d been alive to know that there must be more. Her fingers turned the Bible\u2019s pages like they knew with certainty that this couldn\u2019t be all there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":412,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-vision"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the little girl with the Bible in her hands... - Jesus Needs New PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the little girl with the Bible in her hands... - Jesus Needs New PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Her little hands held the Bible like she needed every word to be true, like she\u2019d seen enough pain and felt enough heartache in the ten years that she\u2019d been alive to know that there must be more. Her fingers turned the Bible\u2019s pages like they knew with certainty that this couldn\u2019t be all there…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Needs New PR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-02T11:56:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/BOLIVIA-0381-1024x682.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Paul Turner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Meet the little girl with the Bible in her hands... - Jesus Needs New PR","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Meet the little girl with the Bible in her hands... - Jesus Needs New PR","og_description":"Her little hands held the Bible like she needed every word to be true, like she\u2019d seen enough pain and felt enough heartache in the ten years that she\u2019d been alive to know that there must be more. Her fingers turned the Bible\u2019s pages like they knew with certainty that this couldn\u2019t be all there…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Needs New PR","article_published_time":"2011-08-02T11:56:27+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/BOLIVIA-0381-1024x682.jpg"}],"author":"Matthew Paul Turner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html","name":"Meet the little girl with the Bible in her hands... - Jesus Needs New PR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/BOLIVIA-0381-1024x682.jpg","datePublished":"2011-08-02T11:56:27+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-02T11:56:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#\/schema\/person\/76db64a6819f8f63a896a0e0a5a6aaf6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/BOLIVIA-0381-1024x682.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.jesusneedsnewpr.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/BOLIVIA-0381-1024x682.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/2011\/08\/meet-the-little-girl-with-the-bible-in-her-hands.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Meet the little girl with the Bible in her hands…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/","name":"Jesus Needs New PR","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Matthew Paul Turner","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#\/schema\/person\/76db64a6819f8f63a896a0e0a5a6aaf6","name":"Matthew Paul Turner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8e9\/8e908220acd7221e2b6f851e31b19923x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8e9\/8e908220acd7221e2b6f851e31b19923x96.jpg","caption":"Matthew Paul Turner"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/author\/mturner"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61994"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61996,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61994\/revisions\/61996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesusneedsnewpr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}