Ahaziah, king of Israel, had just died. His mother, Athaliah, rose up to usurp the throne. Their story is similar to those we hear today, complete with abuse of power, deception and family violence. Athaliah ordered that all of her grandchildren and descendants be killed. She destroyed her own family.

However, a child of the king had been hidden when he was just a toddler. Where was he hidden? The temple, the house of the Jehovah.

And who was there to protect him for six years? A bold priest and some helpers who took care of this little one until he was ready to face the reality of his enemy.

But most important of all was the presence of God, giving strategies to the priest to prepare, teach and assist this little one and mobilize an army to care for him until he was ready. That time came when he was only 7 years old. He bravely stood up to Athaliah, and the Bible says that afterward, “The city was quiet.”

What a great responsibility we have as people of God!

In our positions as priests, servants or soldiers in the army of God, we can protect our children from the reality of violence, poverty and abuse — if we have the presence of God with us. Only then will the children see what is good and right in God’s eyes.

“When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered.

“She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed. He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the LORD for six years.” — 2 Kings 11:1–3, NIV

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the opportunity to care for Your children. Your sweet presence is always with us. In moments of weakness, help us remember that we are part of the army of God. Amen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Martha Morales is a Complementary Interventions Administrator in our
Colombia office.

Read all the One in Spirit devotionals.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Bludgeoned by an ax at the hands of her husband, Solomon, Chandrakanthi lay on the floor bleeding. She screamed,

“Help me, please help me!”

It was almost an hour before anyone came to her aid. Blood gushed from the deep cut in her head, covering most of the floor in the bedroom.

This is not a short story or the beginning of a novel. It is a truly horrific, yet very real, event that took place in Puwakpitiya, Avissawela, Sri Lanka.

But above all, it is a story of victory and God’s amazing healing.

Puwakpitiya is situated about 160 kilometers northeast of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. Lying 138 feet above sea level, this is a quiet community.

Compassion’s Child Survival Program (CSP) started here almost a year ago and Chandrakanthi was a regular attendee. She and her youngest daughter, now 1 1/2 years old, have greatly benefited from the CSP program.

Chandrakanthi, her husband Solomon and their four children, lived with his father, Vennan, under the same roof. The house belongs to Vennan.

On that fateful night, Vennan had gone to a family function. In the early hours of the morning, he received the news that Chandrakanthi had been taken to the hospital.

“I rushed home and as I got there I met Solomon. When I asked what had happened, he said she had fallen and hurt herself so she was taken to the hospital.

“I knew that was a lie as soon as he said it.”

Yes, it was a lie. The reason Chandrakanthi had to be admitted to hospital that night was Solomon himself.

During an argument, Solomon had attacked her in a drunken rage and repeatedly hit her with an ax, crushing one side of her head.

The Child Survival Program manager shared,

“Chandrakanthi was found with blood all around her. It was when the house was being cleaned that it was realized how much she had bled.

“Under the bed was a large pool of blood. The floors had been almost completely covered with blood.”

At the hospital, Chandrakanthi lay almost lifeless in a coma that lasted more than three months. Doctors in Colombo gave up on her and sent her back to Puwakpitiya.

In Puwakpitiya she was placed in the intensive care unit. She couldn’t move. Lying flat with a sheet up to her shoulders, she looked like a lifeless body. As Chandrakanthi slowly recovered, she was able to hear and see but unable to speak or move her limbs. She would just shed tears.

When her children came to visit her, she would cry silent tears. When Vennan visited, all he could do was cry as he held her hand.

Chandrakanthi’s eldest son had witnessed his mother’s vicious attack. Each time the child visited her, he just held his mother’s hand. Now nearly a teenager, he still doesn’t speak about that day.

Through the Child Survival Program, extra nutrition packs were provided to Vennan as he cared for the children on his own. Mothers from the CSP joined hands in prayer.

Compassion’s ministry stepped in to provide additional medical help and pay the medical bills. For a humble family living in a small hut, the cost of Chandrakanthi’s extensive medical care was far too much to bear on their own.

As Chandrakanthi lay in her hospital bed, many people were on their knees in prayer for her. Prayer chains were created not just in Sri Lanka, but throughout the Compassion ministry family. Many people in many countries prayed for her.

Churches and youth fellowships in Sri Lanka cried for Chandrakanthi and God heard each prayer. He saw each tear. Chandrakanthi began to improve. Limbs started to move. Words started to form. The healing had begun.

It has been eight months since the attack. Today, Chandrakanthi sits outside her grandmother’s house smiling, laughing and calling out to us as we come to visit her. Tears fill our eyes and our hearts are warmed as we see before us God’s amazing work. Chandrakanthi, healed!

Chandrakanthi recently went for a routine checkup in Colombo. Her sister reported,

“When the doctors saw her, jaws dropped. They couldn’t believe it was her. They couldn’t talk for some time after seeing her. They were stunned.”

Chandrakanthi’s family is Buddhist. But as we met them this day, her father and her sister had this to say:

“We didn’t think she would be healed like this or even live. We cannot believe it. It is unimaginable. We know so many people have prayed for her. Maybe that is what healed her.”

Her children visit her almost every day. But her youngest child doesn’t recognize her and breaks out in tears each time her mother calls out to her.

Chandrakanthi’s speech is still developing, but it is not hard to understand her. Her mind is alert to sounds and words that are spoken to her. She communicates with those around her. Her left hand and leg are still a little numb and she hasn’t regained full control of them.

The Child Survival Program is working to obtain a walker for Chandrakanthi to enable her to get around the house more easily.

A family member tells us,

“Before, she couldn’t even walk. But today, look at her. You know, she came and sat outside on her own after grandma gave her a bath. She held the wall for support but she came here alone.”

Her father-in-law, Vennan, still continues to care for the children in any way he can and our ministry supports his sacrificial commitment.

“I will do all I can for these children as long as I have to look after them. It was God who made Chandrakanthi well.

“Nothing is impossible for Him. God knows that I cannot continue doing this. He will heal her completely. Only He can do it. He can do what men fail at. Nothing is impossible for Him.”

Chandrakanthi is truly a living testament to God’s amazing power and an answer to prayer. Her road to recovery has not ended, but she and her family have the faith that she will be fully healed. Her own father and sister, though they do not believe in God, know and have seen His power working in their family.

Chandrakanthi’s mother, who works in Dubai, has made it back to Sri Lanka for a short stay to see her daughter.She has also recently accepted Jesus as her Savior.

“Thank you, and thank you to the church for saving my daughter. If not for you, if not for this program, if not for this church, my daughter would be dead.”

Chandrakanthi’s sister is Buddhist. During one of her visits, she stated,

“No other organization or even a religious institution would have been able to help my sister. Your God must be special.”

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Foreigners and Brazilians go to Recife to travel and to rest. But hidden behind the great avenues and beautiful places is another Recife: the Recife of violence and drugs, with broken families because of the troubles that drugs bring together; the Recife of gunfire that scares children and kills innocents.

“I still have no emotional structure to even listen to fireworks,” says Adriana, director of Centro de Desenvolvimento Integral Vida 1, which lost an employee to murder last year, a victim of a gang war. “There was so much shooting, so much shooting!”

The employee’s name was Alexandre, and he was killed as he was leaving the center to exchange a crate of soda. A drug dealer suddenly grabbed Alexandre and to protect himself from gunfire coming from another drug dealer. It was urban warfare, and an innocent died.

Inside the center, the children could hear the shooting and were scared and started crying. They lay on the floor in fear after the gunfire began.

“It was a terrible time. It was difficult to explain to the children that God was in control. We lost a friend. Alexandre was loved by the children.”

If losing a beloved teacher is traumatic, imagine when a child sees his mother being arrested by the police?

Emídio is only 5 years old. He saw his mother crying, asking him and his siblings to forgive her as she was being arrested and taken to jail.

Michele left Emídio, another little child and two twin babies without a parent because of her irresponsibility keeping guns and drugs inside the house. She did it to earn some money, even though she knew it was illegal, and that the police could come any minute, just like they did when her partner was arrested for the same reason. (Emídio’s father was murdered in front of the development center while Emídio was still in his mother’s belly.)

After the arrest, it was not unusual for Emídio to arrive at the center worried about this situation. Even as a young child, age 4 at that time, he knew what consequences his mother’s actions could bring.

Emídio warned his mother many times and asked her not to keep drugs inside the twins’ socks or below the sink.

“She slapped me in my mouth every time that I warned her.”

The first time the police invaded the house searching for drugs and guns, Emídio’s mom hid them and the police couldn’t find anything. But before they left the house, they beat her in the face to try to get her confession. This shocked Emídio.

The second time, the police found the drugs and guns. Now Michele, who is only 23, is in jail. She might be free at the end of this year or in early 2011.

Each of Michele’s children is living with a different relative because no one relative can support all four. Emídio is living with his grandfather.

Emídio loves his mother, despite her mistakes. Once, Emídio asked for coins from a neighbor, and Michele didn’t like this. Instead of talking to him about it, she put a hot spoon in his mouth as a punishment.

The next day he arrived at the center with a big injury. At the end of the class, a teacher called him to talk and asked gently the cause of the wound. With maturity, the boy, age 5 at the time, answered:

“I would like to say to you what my mother advised me to say … but I can’t lie. I know that he who lies is the devil’s son. She told me to tell you that this wound was caused by hot soup. But the truth is that she put a hot spoon in my mouth.”

Adriana walks through the center slowly, watching each step taken by the children. She knows their names, their stories, their pain and fears.

The center is a safe harbor for the children. It plants the seed of God into the little hearts, and when a tragedy happens, like Alexandre’s death, the teachers talk to the children about sin, heaven, salvation in Jesus, and the love of Jesus taking care of them.

After the initial shock of Alexandre’s death, the teachers talked to the children about the resurrection and the hope for Alexandre’s recovery in heaven.

Emídio gets special attention at the center because of his story. When Michele was arrested, Adriana observed Emídio and noted that he was in depression, despite his efforts to stay strong and hide his sorrows and concerns. He refused to eat and struggled to play and participate in the classes.

“We saw his sad eyes and we missed his smiles. We prayed for him and always brought him over to talk. Here, at my room, he opened his little heart talking about his problems.”

Emídio was accustomed to looking after his three siblings, and he was worried when they had to separate to live with different relatives. Before Michele was arrested, Adriana says that once Emídio came to her room nervous, and vented:

“I can’t take care of my twin sisters anymore! If I hold one, the other starts to cry! I’m thinking about giving one to someone in the street! Teacher Adriana, please, would you like to take me to your house to take care of me? I need someone to take care of me!”

Emídio has a heavy burden and he vents the way he can. Inside the secure walls of the center, Emídio has the chance to show his feelings and to be a child, forgetting about his worries.

Emídio’s story represents the story of many children who attend Centro de Desenvolvimento Integral Vida 1. Children who are victims of the drug dealing, gangs and the violence hidden beneath the Brazilian Venice.

But the grace of God overflows in these places and in the lives of the little ones, through the actions of his servants, such as Adriana, the center staff and others.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

This has been a busy year. Our world is in turmoil and much of that turmoil is affecting Compassion’s work.

Here’s a snapshot of the things I’ve reported over the past 11 months:

military rebellion, slum fire, dengue fever outbreak, H1N1 virus outbreak, flooding, strike, civil conflict, volcanic eruption, earthquake, heavy rains, political unrest, hotel bombings, protests and violence, typhoons, meningitis outbreak, polio outbreak, cholera outbreak, famine, landslide, tribal war, ferry sinking, riots.

As an organization entirely dependent on your trust, we have made a commitment to be honest and transparent in everything we do. This means, among other things, that we do our best to let you know as soon as possible when your child is affected by a crisis or disaster.

In a perfect world, here’s how the process would work:

• Within 24 hours of a crisis, our Field Communications Specialist (FCS) submits a crisis report via e-mail. This e-mail comes to an inbox that I check regularly.
• As soon as I receive this e-mail, I determine whether funds will need to be raised to provide relief, and summarize the report and e-mail it to our partner countries (the countries where the sponsors live).
• Meanwhile, the FCS is in contact with the Partnership Facilitators (PF), field-based staff members who are contacting our affected church partners.
• The FCS then submits a follow-up report via e-mail, with further details from the PFs about which centers are affected, how they are affected, and any other relevant details, photos or video.
• As soon as the church partners are able to provide specific information on registered children, the FCS e-mails that information to me. I do a quality check and then forward that information to the partner countries.
• Each partner country then contacts all the sponsors with affected children to let them know the status of their child.

Seems pretty cut and dried, right? And often, the process works exactly as I just described it.

However, as we all know, we do not live in a perfect world. Sometimes a disaster will wreak havoc on the field’s end, thus affecting our communications process.

Let’s take the recent typhoons in the Philippines as an example.

Typhoon Ketsana hit the Philippines on Sept. 26. Almost 17 inches of rain fell in 12 hours, halting any semblance of normal life, flooding everything in sight, killing hundreds and displacing thousands more.

Roads were destroyed, electricity was out and much of the country was underwater, neck-deep in some places.

Eighteen of Compassion’s staff members in the Philippines office (more than half) were personally affected by the flooding (including the FCS responsible for sending the crisis report).

After the typhoons, every single staff person in the Philippines office was involved in the relief efforts and for a time, Compassion’s entire staff put their regular duties on hold in order to help those in desperate need.

During disasters like this, while you are anxious to hear news about your child, keep in mind that many unforeseen and unavoidable things can occur, hindering good communication. Grace, patience, understanding and flexibility are critical.

Here are some things that might affect the communication process after a crisis:

• Getting information from the field to the partner countries isn’t always the No. 1 priority.

  After a disaster, the highest priorities are critical needs such as shelter, clean water and food. Communication sometimes takes a back seat to meeting basic needs in life and death situations.

• It’s not just the sponsored children who are affected. Sometimes the staff members themselves are in need.

  While our staff members are trying to address the immediate needs of our registered children, they also must take care of their own families and homes.

• Communication tools are not available.

  The infrastructure in developing countries is much less stable than in the developed world. For instance, telephone and electricity were out throughout Manila, remaining out for weeks in some places. Communicating with the church partners was difficult, and in some cases, impossible.

• Different cultures put different importance on time.

  Many countries where we work are not time-oriented the way we are in the United States. Time requirements do not have the same importance as they do here.

Despite this, you can be confident in our commitment to share accurate information with you as quickly as possible after a crisis. It’s just that sometimes this may take longer than we’d like.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

The woman drove to the house and greeted the young girl who was sitting at the front of the house alone. She asked the young girl questions that are typically asked among the people in this area.

“Do you want a new cell phone?” “Do you want to live in a bigger and nicer house?”

The young girl was surprised by the lady’s questions and remained silent.

“If you are interested in these things, I can give them all to you. All you have to do is come work with me. You will earn a lot of money so that you can have pretty clothes to wear and you will have a nice car to drive. It is a very easy job. C’mon. Trust me and come with me.”

“No, thank you,” replied the young girl, Supattra, a 14-year-old Compassion-assisted child. This situation is repeated over and over.

Nongki is a town in northeastern Thailand. It is very close to some of the major cities in Thailand including the capital city of Bangkok and Pattaya. It is no surprise that Nongki has quickly transformed from an agriculture town to one that increasingly resembles surrounding nearby cities like Bangkok and Pattaya.

“One of the significant issues in Nongki is prostitution,” says Ratchaya, director of the Thai Children Development Center.

“Prostitution has crept up silently in our community and has become a very significant source of income over the past three years. There are so many nightclubs, pubs and restaurants that have opened up here, and it is increasing. These places are targeted toward and service the local men who work at the factories or as daily workers in this area.”

“Marriages between Thai women and Westerners working in Bangkok and Pattaya have become increasingly common. It is becoming a major problem, and our center is deeply concerned.

“There are too many cases of poor, working Thai women becoming rich suddenly. They ride in nice cars and build big houses over their small former shelters. These women’s rapid rise to wealth has resulted in influencing young girls from this area to follow these women in their professional footsteps to pursue material wealth.”

A common problem is older Western men moving to Thailand and taking young women as wives. They move to Thailand in their retirement because of the low cost of living, and meet young Thai girls in a club, who become their companion or wife. The Westerner gets a companion, and the girl gets money.

Another problem is the gangs that seek to lure girls into prostitution. It is very easy for gangs to seduce and persuade young girls to drop out of school to work at night in local bars or pubs.

The gangs approach poor, young girls from the early age of 12 or 13, who do not live with their parents. They lure these young girls by talking about the significant amount of money they will earn so that they can buy the luxuries they desire.

Being born and raised in a poor family often makes young children feel they are unworthy, and frequently causes their self-confidence to diminish. They respond to their feelings of worthlessness by turning to material things to reaffirm their identities and self-worth in society.

About half of the young girls from the Thai Children Development Center do not live with their parents, who work in factories in big cities. Often they stay with an extended relative such as an aunt or grandmother. This creates a gap or distance between the young children and their caregivers. Ratchaya says,

“It’s the center’s duty to vaccinate our children and warn them about the seduction and danger of prostitution. We cannot stay calm while these issues are corrupting and ruining our community. It is harming our children. We have to take action.”

The child development center has always emphasized the importance of social awareness both locally and nationally. The center leaders read the news to the children, updating them on what is going on in Thailand every Saturday before the children attend their activities. It helps the children gain a wider perspective of what is going on and what steps they need to take to be prepared to protect themselves and make better choices for their lives.

“We know that many of our children struggle with low self-esteem, so we encourage and teach them that the value of their life does not depend upon how much they have or the amount of money they earn. Rather, we encourage the children to stay grounded in dignity and to do what is right.”

Chonticha, a sponsored child, says,

“A lot of my friends want to have pretty clothes or nice shoes from the latest fashions they see in magazines. They ask money from their parents to buy those things or work in restaurants at night in order to earn more money, which causes them to drop out of school.

“I feel really sorry for them. Before they decide to quit school, I tell them to think twice about their decision and try to stop them. I have learned from the center that when young girls ended up working in a restaurant and neglecting their education, it often leads them into a life of prostitution.

“I want them to come back to study. I asked a friend of mine who quit her school if she was happy and she said no. She has many things she wanted but they mean nothing to her now.”

And Supattra agrees.

“I will not let myself get involved in a risky situation like prostitution because I don’t want to degrade myself. I know that my body is worth more than material things. It is not worth it to trade myself in order to get the latest cell phone or a big house. If someday I ever chose the wrong path, I know I would lose everything, including my pride.”

Compassion Thailand realizes that child trafficking is a crucial issue that needs to be resolved immediately. We’ve worked with International Justice Mission, and they conducted training sessions and workshops on “Child Rights and Child Protection” for all 220 child development centers in Thailand in 2008.

The training taught the staff who work directly with children how to prevent children from being abused and how to protect them from being taken advantage of.

At the workshops, they discussed the common problems of children at risk, abuse, exploitation, trafficking, sexual abuse, domestic violence and lack of citizenship.

They wanted to reinforce the knowledge and skills of the staff to help uphold children’s rights. The workshops were a success. Those who attended gained a deeper understanding about these issues and were able to use the information to write plans on how to protect registered children at their centers.

They created a Child Abuse Protection Network for every center, linking with organizations that can provide help in child protection and child abuse situations. Most important, they now know what to do and who to contact if something happens to any of the children.

Sai Tan Rak Child Development Center is located in the city of Phitsanulok, in an area with a high rate of prostitution. Often, groups look for young girls who hang around an area in the park at night. They persuade and take these young girls into the evil prostitution cycle.

After the center staff attended a training workshop, they brought back useful materials and information to regularly conduct activities for young girls to fight the prostitution. Valia, the center director, says,

“The center teaches young women about sexuality, virginity and how to protect themselves from a risky situation.

“Whenever we learn that our children are in a risky situation, we personally talk to them and do everything to help them from making unwise choices.

“I see changes in them after we train and talk to them. Groups of registered young girls who used to hang around the park at night are decreasing. Girls who are who are at risk of being exploited come and tell me that they will not go to the park at night again because they are scared and they don’t want to be victims.”

Jenjira, a sponsored child, says,

“My village is in a danger zone for prostitution. I see too many young girls being lured into prostitution because they desire more money, but they go into it without knowing the consequences.

“Attending the center has been very good and helpful for me because the center teaches me, and now I know how to protect myself from this prostitution.

“If someone were ever to try and persuade me to become a prostitute, I would tell my family or the center staff at the church because they always have good advice and would help me out.”

Parents also play an important role in a child’s life.

At Sai Tan Rak, parents often do not have time to educate or teach their children. They are busy working to earn money day and night. Some parents are not even aware of the prevalence of prostitution in their area. It is the center’s responsibility to inform the parents of the children about relevant issues such as prostitution that could affect their child or children, so that even busy parents can keep an eye on their offspring.

The center staff members regularly visit the children’s homes to raise awareness and have personal time with the parents. If the center knows that a child is in high risk, they will visit quite often.

Unlike the parents of children in Sai Tan Rak, some parents of children in the Thai Children Development Center actually encourage their children to work at a restaurant in Bangkok or Pattaya because working there earns them a lot of money.

“We cannot talk openly to parents about this issue. We made the mistake of doing so in the past and do not want this to happen again. Instead we teach, talk, play videos and give materials for the children to address this issue,” explains Ratchaya.

In the past, if the center learned that a young girl was involved in prostitution, the staff would make several attempts to visit and talk to the parents at home to try and explain the devastating effects prostitution can have on the life of a young girl, and help the child get out of the situation.

Then a few weeks later, the child’s mother would come and ask to take her child from the center. Unfortunately, this would result in the child dropping out of school and working at night.

Some parents work in Bangkok or Pattaya and request that their child stay with them during the summer, when the children are out of school. Even though it may only be two or three months, it can change a child’s life if they are exposed to the world of prostitution.

“If they are ever confronted with having to make difficult choices in their future, I hope that in attending the center it will help them make the right choices for their future,” says Ratchaya.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

One of the first things I do each day when I get to work is open up six world news websites. I browse each site for headlines about our 24 field countries to get an idea of what kind of crises I might be reporting that week.

When I’m reading through the headlines, I sometimes get the surreal feeling that I’m getting a tiny glimpse into God’s view of this world. For a few moments, my perspective shifts from my self-centered, ego-centric worldview to one where we are simply a severely broken and hurting creation in desperate need of redemption.

Right now in the United States, we are practically smothered with political ads and news reports about the faltering economy, but really these “issues” pale in comparison to what’s going on in the rest of the world.

Besides the global food crisis (which you’ve probably heard about by now) here’s an idea of what our staff and children on the other side of the globe are currently facing:

• Thailand and Bolivia are both dealing with political unrest and violent protests of the current government.
• Haiti and the Dominican Republic are struggling to recover from four successive hurricanes.
• The Philippines has faced violent political conflict.
• India is in the midst of serious and deadly religious conflicts between Hindus and Christians.
• Burkina Faso has recently had heavy rains and flooding throughout the country.
• Bangladesh is dealing with continual flooding.

I’m sure there will be more bullet points to add tomorrow. It’s difficult to read the same kinds of headlines day after day, reporting over and over the non-stop fighting, corruption and scandal happening in every corner of the globe. But more than depressing me, it makes me angry. I know who is ultimately responsible for the evil in this world, and I hate him. But I also know it will end someday, and I know how it will end.

And this is what keeps me going.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates