I ask her softly 'unahisi uchungu sana?' (do you feel a lot of pain?). She is quick to respond with a whispered 'yes', her brimming eyes spilling over and tears running down her cheeks.
She is young, maybe only 7 years of age and yet her resting face is sad, her beautiful chocolate skin marred by a scar across one cheek and a bruise on the other. This girl has dealt with a lot and she is tough. She quickly brushes her tears with a grimy hand and turns her face away.
I turn my attention back to the large open bleeding gash on her leg and after finishing cleaning it I use butterfly stitches to close it back together and bandage it securely. After a painkiller and a lollypop she is soon smiling and hobbling around with her friends.
Her mother has many children, a mental disability and a quick temper. It had taken this little lass most of the day to wrack up enough courage to come and ask for help- her mother had become rageful this morning and lashed out at her with a kitchen knife, slicing her leg open.
Why does this kind of thing happen so often? Why do people who clearly can't provide for offspring have so many children that are simply born into a life of poverty and hardship? Why is it ok for the youngest and most vulnerable to be the ones that suffer?
I know that it is not fair. I know that it is not how God designed families to be. I know I will not be able to fix the situation for many of them.
But I also know I can try with each and every child I come in contact with, I can try to love, to care, to show them there is good in the world. I can be confident that many others I know here are doing the same.
And I can pray that Jesus returns and fixes the world for ALL of them.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
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