The Tears of Buduburam Camp
How we got involved
My husband and I were unhappy with our service to the Lord, and we were praying for God's direction in our life. It seemed that we were not getting any direction from God, so I said to my husband, "I remember once that I was able to lead a Police Officer to the Lord in a chat room and it gave me such joy." So I suggested that we try it. We went into the Yahoo Christian Chat site. We were fairly new at it as it was a long time ago that I had been in a chat room. People began to talk privately with us and wanted to put us on their messenger list. Most of the people that were contacting us were from Africa. There seems to be a mighty move of God there, as most were young men from Nigeria and they said everyone wants God in their life there. It made me sad to see how our country does not really want God. I guess it is because we have everything and don't believe we need God. But in Africa people are going hungry and aids is a plague there, and there is hope in Jesus, so they are turning to him. One message we got was from a young girl, fifteen years old, in a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana. She said that her and her 6 year old sister did not have enough food to eat and they needed clothes. It seemed strange that a she could get on the internet but not have enough food to eat. As there are many scams on the internet we were not sure if she was telling the truth to us, but we felt if she were honest about her situation we would have to do something about it. She told us that the library there let them go on the internet. We decided to send $25.00 as it would not hurt us to send it if the girl was telling us the truth. Inside we both felt we should send it. That started us off investigating the situation over there. The more we dug into information on the web about the camp, the more we discovered that this girl could be in this desperate situation. Most web sites were from Christian organizations that were at the camp, or had been visiting the camp. My husband started sending e-mails to ministers at the camp and nearby in the city of Accra, Ghana. We received a couple of replies. In the mean time the young girl, named Laurine, sent us a message and said that her sister had been running and hurt her leg, and it was swelling up, and she asked me what she should do. She said that it cost money to see a doctor or go to the hospital, and asked if I could send some money to help her sister. At this this point my suspicious mind started acting up. I thought she must be just trying to get money out of us, but what if she were telling the truth. We could not imagine what it would be like to be in a situation like that, as we were living in a country that even the poorest have access to hospital care free of charge. God kept speaking to us about what if it were true, could we in good conscious not help these children. We prayed and told God that we would help if he would confirm their situation was as Laurine told us it was. We contacted the two pastors and asked them to check on the girls and see if they were as bad off as were told. Laurine had given us a Zone number and house number, so we told the pastors, and both of them did check and they could not find the house number. We felt that it must be a scam, as they were not at the place they said they were. But one of the pastors said he would send her an e-mail to meet him on Sunday, and if she came he would find out their situation. We felt that this was the perfect way to find out for sure if it was a true story we were told. To be honest, I did not think the girl would show up but to my surprise she did meet the pastor and took him to her little sister, and this his message back to us: "Dearest Brother Nelson, She got that problem when she was out playing with her friends
What could we do? What would you do? We don't have a lot of money but if it was one of our children, we would pay the money whatever it cost, so we did. Because we knew God brought these children across our path, and His will is for us to help them. What joy it gives when you touch another life with the love of God. How spoiled we are in this country. That is what really hit both my husband and I. We have taken on the responsibility of these two girls, but the sad thing about it, is that there are hundreds more in the same situation. My hope is that if you read this story, it will touch your heart as it did ours and you will consider getting involved with helping some of the orphans at the camp. Jesus told us the real evidence that we are true Christians, is that we help widows and orphans. |