A Father to the Fatherless
There are some 11 million abandoned kids roaming the streets of India. I’ve been aware of that statistic for a while but nothing prepares you for meeting it face to face.
This is Puja Ghosh who is just five years old. I had the amazing opportunity to spend some time with her over the past few days and I can confirm that smile is just as beautiful in person.
She lives with a family here in the Khalpar slum who found her in a pile of trash. Her mom literally tossed her out like you would a loaf of moldy bread.
I know many of you have unhealed wounds from your parents. These are deep wounds because your parents are the two people on earth who by God’s design are entrusted to pour unconditional love into your heart. So when that doesn’t happen for one reason or another it bruises our very souls. It can be the deepest of all hurts.
It’s one thing to grow up in extreme poverty.
It’s one thing to grow up in a 3×5 tent.
It’s one thing to grow up wondering where your next meal is coming from.
But it’s a whole other thing to grow up with the realization your mom and dad threw you in the trash. To know you were so undervalued that you were discarded as worthless and left for dead.
Lack of love is the deepest and most painful form of poverty that exists.
I’m so thankful for the family that is taking care of Puja. She goes to our school here in the slum and is actually doing very well. She says she would like to one day be a teacher. I think she’s going to make a great one. I’m also thankful for the wonderful teachers who are pouring into her ever day. Not only will they teach her to read and write but they also share with her from the Bible about this God who claims to be a father to the fatherless. A truth she so desperately needs.
Will you guys join me all over the world in praying for Puja today.
Father God we lift up Puja in prayer to you today. We can’t even being to imagine what all she’s been through in her short life. While my kids have been growing up playing games, being tucked into bed, and flowered with love she’s been searching for food, sometimes sleeping alone, and desperately searching for love.
God, I know you have a plan for her. You allowed her cries to be heard from that pile of trash one day and I believe you’ll now hear our cries for her.
I pray as she deals with the pain of abandonment that she will come into a personal relationship with you, who promises us that you will “never leave us nor forsake us.” I pray as she struggles with not knowing her parents that you God will wrap your eternal arms around her as the Father to the fatherless.
As she grows up and is tempted by her wounds to seek love from loveless people and other things, I pray you will flood her with the thought that you love her more deeply than she can fully comprehend. That you couldn’t love her any more or any less than you do in this very moment.
Amen.
Thank you guys for all your prayers during this trip. If everything goes right I should be back in Nashville later tonight.
32 Comments:
How beautiful Puja is! I join you in praying Pete and pray Jer 29:11 for Puja. Thank you for sharing her story – makes me think about all the other children in that area that must have similar stories. So wonderful what God is allowing you to do in this area in India for these beautiful children….they have such amazing smiles.
[Reply]
Donna
8:17 am
the photo isn’t showing up….
susan´s last blog ..Passion 2010–Day 2, part 3
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susan
8:22 am
They found her in a pile of trash, tossed out like moldy bread. Wow.
“Lack of love is the deepest and most painful form of poverty that exists.” Wow.
Lindsey Nobles´s last blog ..It is So Easy…
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Lindsey Nobles
8:24 am
How do you just thow a baby in the trash & walk away?
Sarah´s last blog ..Calling In The Cavalry
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pete wilson Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 9:31 am
It’s hard for me to imagine Sarah. However, they live in a different world there. Totally different.
pete wilson´s last blog ..A Father to the Fatherless
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Sarah
8:26 am
Bless you, Puja, beloved of God!
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Robin Pippin
8:39 am
Thank you for introducing us to Puja, Pete. I can only imagine how God bends His ear to hear her little voice, and ours as we pray for this precious girl, and for all those beautiful children and people there. Thinking that you must be glad to be coming home, but also that a large part of your heart will stay behind. Thanks for taking us with you.
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pete wilson Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Forever changed…but SO ready to get home!
pete wilson´s last blog ..A Father to the Fatherless
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Tina Dee
8:39 am
I can’t get her little face out of my heart, not that I want to, but God will haunt me for prayers for her. Thank you for sharing her with us. Blessings for a safe flight home for you all.
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Tina Dee
8:46 am
Father I pray for Puja this morning. God I cannot even fathom the things that this little girl has been through. Lord I pray that though she was tossed out that she grows to realize that her Heavenly Father is always there for her. God, I also pray that you use her. Lord, she says she wants to be a teacher and I believe that she would make a great one. Father come. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Michael
8:49 am
Praying for that precious little girl. The photo didn’t come through on this end, but her story certainly did. Thank you for putting perspective in my heart today, Pete. Prayers for your safe journey home.
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Pete Wilson Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Think I got it fixed Diane!
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Diane Moody
8:51 am
You know me Pete being one for the useless facts, I did a few calculations and to try to get my mind around what 11 million kids would look like, homeless or not.
If my math is correct, 11,000,000 kids standing fingertip to fingertip could stretch from New York to Los Angeles and back to New York and still have enough kids let to go on to Dallas.
That is a lot of kids, all homeless, all needing love, all created by a loving God.
A little overwhelming for a Tuesday morning.
Thanks for helping keep my world small.
Harold´s last blog ..Pilots Partner with G.O.
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Harold
8:52 am
Praying…even when there are NO words.
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Eve Annunziato
8:54 am
What a sweet little face! Thanks for sharing her picture and her story with us. I just want to scoop her up and smother her with love. I pray that she always knows her Father’s love.
Jennifer´s last blog ..Kids Say the Funniest Things – Part 2
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Jennifer
9:13 am
Am praying for all of these children and trying to keep from crying while sitting at my desk at work.
Sean Sims´s last blog ..A little interruption to the resolutions…
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Sean Sims
9:15 am
Dang. I’m not even sure what to say. Or think. Or feel.
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kevin
10:19 am
i’ve never met her…but man do i love her. a story like that just wants to make her know how much she is worth and how much value she has.
Blake
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Blake Bergstrom
10:59 am
Pete, thank you for capturing not only the essence, but the unconscionable existence of what an orphan must go through, and what this particular orphan, Puja, must have endured until she was found by this family, and now your school. Puja now has a reason to hope for a future beyond just the basics of surviving or existing. She can hope for, and dream about, things beyond. And even believe there is a love like no other kind that lives with her and will never foresake her. Have a safe trip back and praying for your ministry in India.
Vicki´s last blog ..The Existence of the Thorn
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Vicki
10:59 am
And I was just complaining the other day that I don’t have a hi def Tivo. Stories like this make me feel like I’m part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
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Bill Renfrew
11:31 am
The picture didn’t come through for me either BUT I’m in tears none the less and praying for Puja! My heart breaks for children like her.
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Pete Wilson Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
It’s heart breaking when you realize there are hundreds of thousands of children just like Puja around the world.
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Becky
11:48 am
I agree in Jesus’ name…amen!
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Randy Kinnick
3:34 pm
Great blog Pete-very moving. Keep up the great work among the poor and oppressed. God’s favor is upon those who fear Him and do justice.
Andrew
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Andrew Magrath
3:58 pm
Yeah, man, that’s insane, like literally brain out of head insane. And then they way you followed up… that there are many of these girls around the world EACH DAY.
It’s a startling reminder.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
bondChristian´s last blog ..Top 10 places to find your ministry
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bondChristian
4:19 pm
Wow. Praying for Puja. Thank you for sharing her story, Pete.
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Patty V
4:22 pm
Praying with and for you Pete!
Kevin M.´s last blog ..Sermon Synopsis 2/7 – A disciple loves every other disciple
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Kevin M.
4:45 pm
The picture didn’t come through for me either but that doesn’t reduce the impact of this story. To be thrown away like garbage from the one that should do anything to protect you. Heartbreaking!
Bill Foote´s last blog ..How the Gospel Rescued Richard
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Bill Foote
11:40 pm
praying.
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patricia
11:52 pm
Definitely praying for Puja and those who are investing in her life.
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Nick
1:41 pm
Oh, my heart. Praying for her, and for the family that took her in and loved her. I’m also praying for her mother, because only wounds deeper than our imagination could allow a mother to throw away her child.
gitz´s last blog ..What and How: A Reminder
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gitz
6:20 pm
What a precious face! Praying for Puja today.
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Mama Koala
12:19 pm
Oh my word. Broke my heart.
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Melissa Fitzpatrick
12:17 pm
I pray for Puja and other children like her.
This is one of my biggest struggles with my relationship with God. I had a very hard time conceiving and I don’t understand how or why people that don’t take care of their children get them so easily. (I want to scream like a jealous child it’s NOT FAIR).
I pray with all my heart for all of these unloved children and also pray for myself and others like me to understand and be a good steward of GOD’S LOVE and PASSION.
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Katie
9:26 am
I am in agreement with you on that beautiful prayer. This post made me cry. It’s so hard to hear/see so many orphans that don’t have a mommy or daddy. Kids who will never know them or will ever be able to tell their children one day who their grandparents were, breaks my heart. I wish I had all the money in the world to adopt them all!
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Falguni
2:29 pm
Puja’s face reminds me of the many other girls and boys I met in India over the years. Many of them were in orphanages with stories similar to hers, while others were begging on the streets. Their stories are so heartbreaking to us, I can’t begin to imagine how the Father’s heart breaks!
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Denise Dilley
8:38 pm