{"id":355,"date":"2008-03-11T22:59:11","date_gmt":"2008-03-11T22:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2008\/03\/the-african-boy.html"},"modified":"2008-03-11T22:59:11","modified_gmt":"2008-03-11T22:59:11","slug":"the-african-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2008\/03\/the-african-boy.html","title":{"rendered":"The African Boy in the Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people have asked me about the little boy I’m holding in the picture you see on the blog. I ran across my journal from the day I met this little boy when the picture was taken. So much has changed in Swaziland since then in a little over a year. Why? Because of people like you who care and are living the words of Jesus in a way that give them flesh, not lip service. This carepoint is now sponsored by Capo Beach Calvary in California<\/a>. God, help us to do more. Here are my thoughts from that day:<\/p>\n

“Today has been like no other. We went to Tembini carepoint \u2013 a very rural area outside of Mbani that feeds about 125 children.<\/p>\n

They walk, for miles. Three years old and up. Some of them came with sweat dripping down their face. \u201cWe saw the vans and came running,\u201d they panted. Some of the little girls arrived with even smaller girls on their backs. <\/p>\n

The homesteads in this area were spread out across the mountainous valleys as far as the eye could see. Small mud huts and cinderblock homes littered the hillsides. <\/p>\n

These children have experienced everything horrifying that you could imagine. Like watching their mother die of AIDS with absolutely no care and no medicine. But 8 year old Muteme would take care of her mother until the very end. Their father had already died from the virus, and mom was all they had left. Soon the mother gave up her last breath and left 3 vulnerable and innocent children behind. No money, no food, no way to work, they are just there. <\/p>\n

So these children show up to the care center for food and some love from people who truly believe they have dignity and are a child of God no matter what their circumstance.<\/p>\n

This little boy came up to me an grabbed my hand. He must have been about 4 years of age. Beautiful, amazing, sweet, but I could tell, very sick. His stomach was distended which meant that he lived with a very poor food supply. It wouldn\u2019t surprise me if he only ate a mean a few times a week. He wouldn\u2019t really smile. He just looked up at me with these haunting dark eyes that were so empty. I just picked him up, video camera in one hand, and him in the other. Just praying, just trying to love on him and show him the love of the Father. After fifteen minutes, he fell asleep in my arms sitting straight up, stiff as board. Almost like he couldn\u2019t relax, didn\u2019t no how to relax. I kept trying to put his head on my shoulder so he could rest, even for a few minutes. He didn\u2019t know how to relax in someone\u2019s arms. Maybe he had never been held with any kindness and tenderness, who knows? Finally, the love of God had its way with him and he laid his head on my shoulder as he slept. It totally broke my heart because that\u2019s what this entire nation of Swaziland needs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people have asked me about the little boy I’m holding in the picture you see on the blog. I ran across my journal from the day I met this little boy when the picture was taken. So much has changed in Swaziland since then in a little over a year. Why? Because of people…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orphans"],"yoast_head":"\nThe African Boy in the Picture - Red Letters<\/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\/redletters\/2008\/03\/the-african-boy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The African Boy in the Picture - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many people have asked me about the little boy I’m holding in the picture you see on the blog. I ran across my journal from the day I met this little boy when the picture was taken. So much has changed in Swaziland since then in a little over a year. Why? 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A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}