This past summer I led a mission team to Ghana, West Africa for two weeks. Daily we spent time in the local villages with hundreds of children, teaching them gospel songs and stories about Jesus. However, one day after leaving a group of villages, we stopped by an orphanage for the afternoon. As the children were playing, the director offered to give me a tour. Although I had seen thousands of children and families in poverty in the previous days, nothing prepared me for the moment that I stepped into the “bedroom” of the orphanage. Seventeen children, boys and girls, ages 0-12 slept in this room with four dirty mats piled up in the corner. No sheets. No pillows. No blankets. As I stood in that doorway, my heart broke and I began to weep. As the tears were running down my face, I felt the Lord whisper a question to me: “Kristi, why are you so sad?” I responded quickly to the Lord declaring that these children could have so much better and I just wanted to get them out of this filth to show them a clean, warm, loving home. And the Lord just gently replied, "Kristi, now you have a small glimpse into my heart as I look into the countries, cities and families of those that are lost." I realized at that moment that my heart was more burdened for the physical state of seventeen children in one orphanage, than for the spiritual state of seven hundred thousand lost people in one city. Today, ask the Lord for eternal vision to grasp what breaks His heart.
"When Jesus landed, he looked out at the crowds and had compassion on them..."
