Hello Friends: Our World in 2016
Last month at our church Christmas Eve service, I thought about the Christians who have recently had their churches torched by the terrorists in Iraq, Syria, and places in Africa. As I thought of so much suffering in the world, I felt more like crying than celebrating the Christmas season.
Among the pictures I have seen of the refugees, the one that grabs my heart the most is a four year old girl in one of the refugee camps. A journalist wanted to take a picture of her. She mistook the camera for a gun and raised her little arms high in the air. The expression on her face is indescribable. Her father has already been shot. She seems to be thinking “If you are going to shoot me, go ahead; I’m not going to cry.”
In the 1850’s N.Y. was full of immigrants.Many adults died and the streets in N.Y. were full of homeless children. There was no child welfare system then, and the kids were on their own.
Some church members saw the problem and thought up a plan: send the children out to the farm folks in the Midwest and maybe the people there would adopt them.
Usually they sent flyers ahead announcing the project and saying when the train would come through their area. They would furnish the children with clean clothes, a coat and a Bible and put them on the train along with two or three adults to watch after them.
When the train arrived, interested people would be at the station to look the children over, and make their decision. Usually the babies and the older boys were chosen first.
The Orphan Trains ran from 1854-1929, and about 250,000 children rode on them to their new homes.
We don’t know what the outcome will be for the children in 2016 who have no home. I wonder what we can do to help them?
– June Seat ( APJapan Founder and Friend)
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