The Disposable Society

Some time back there was a well-publicised case in the media of a young three-year-old girl abandoned by her father at a railway station in my home town of Melbourne, Australia before he fled overseas to the USA.

The fact that he had murdered his wife (the girl’s mother) in New Zealand some days before was obviously the man’s motivation for dumping the girl and simply walking away as he did. Fortunately he was captured and brought to justice, and the young girl was eventually re-united with family.

The case made front-page news in Australia and New Zealand as authorities attempted to identify the toddler, who was dubbed "Pumpkin" after the Pumpkin Patch brand of clothing she was wearing when she was found.

I guess there were many, ourselves included, whose heart went out to the little girl who had lost her mother in such tragic circumstances, and who was simply left standing in a busy railway station, totally incapable of looking after herself at such a young age. She will now be raised by other family members, while possibly never seeing her father again.

Unfortunately, although under different circumstances, children are being abandoned daily all over the world, but of course it never makes international news. Daily, children are born to young girls and women who, for any number of reasons, choose not to keep the child.

Of those fortunate enough to survive, some are adopted very quickly and go to loving families, maybe never learning of the circumstances of their birth, while others are simply institutionalised and never get to know the love of real family.

Fortunately, organisations like International China Concern (ICC) exist to provide a sense of family, God’s family, to many children who are abandoned by their own parents. Often this happens because the child is either physically or intellectually handicapped, or perhaps in some countries for no particular reason other than the fact that they are girls.

Our foster daughter Deborah is both physically and intellectually disabled; however neither of these was probably evident when she was abandoned at three weeks of age into the care of the welfare authorities in China. But we believe that it was only due to God’s love and intervention through ICC that we came into her life, and she into ours.

Sadly, we have just been made aware of six new children being abandoned into ICC care, from around ten days old to 14 years of age. Some are left with simply a note with the child’s name and date of birth, but most not even that.

Please read on to learn more about ICC and how you can help them, either physically, financially or prayerfully, to provide God's love and support for China’s orphaned and abandoned children.

Wings As Eagles

02Aug08