Mercy to the Orphan
Dec. 20 2007
This week during the Christmas season we’re highlighting two organizations we’d love to encourage people to support.
Today we’re introducing you to Covenant Mercies, a gospel-centered nonprofit organization serving the poor, the orphan, the widow, and others facing severe adversity. Doug Hayes blogs regularly for Na and is the executive director of Covenant Mercies. We love Doug’s understanding of how the gospel informs social action.
Here, Doug Hayes shares a simple story of how Covenant Mercies cared for a boy named Onyango…
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One of the things I love most about my role as director of Covenant Mercies is the unique vantage point I enjoy, from which I can clearly see the connection between our donors’ generosity and the profound impact it is having on the ground where we’re working I love to point out what I see from this bird’s eye view, because I realize that few people have the opportunity to observe the impact of their giving as clearly as I’m able to see it.
Here’s an example of what I’m referring to… As a regular visitor to Uganda over the past five years, I have been stunned to learn just how many of my Ugandan friends have lost children due to disease and other causes. There are many things that separate my typical Western experience from their typical “developing world” experience, but none has been more personally jarring to me than this one. When I hear of a child dying, it is a shock to my system; a rare and unimaginable grief that I pray I’ll never know firsthand. For our Ugandan friends, on the other hand, this indescribable sadness is a common reality of life.
A few years ago, as this disparity of experience was becoming clear to me, I asked one of our Ugandan leaders to estimate the percentage of families living in that region who would have experienced the death of a child after childbirth. I was not prepared for his answer: “Over 80%,” he said. Thinking this could not possibly be accurate, I continued my inquiry, asking the same question to another of our leaders without informing him of the data I had already collected. “More than 90%,” he said. Could this really be true? Sadly, though my ensuing survey was admittedly unscientific, it seems that the death of a child is indeed a trauma experienced by the great majority of families in this region of Uganda.
Understanding this background provides a greater degree of appreciation for the story of a young boy named Onyango. In October 2003, I happened to be in Uganda when our indigenous director learned of this little boy and his plight. Both of Onyango’s parents had died the year before, leaving him in the care of his uncle who was alleged to be an alcoholic. When we went to see Onyango, the lack of adequate care was apparent from his severely malnourished condition. At that time, he could do no more than sit on a mat with a glazed look in his eyes. I will never forget the way he gobbled up some biscuits we had hurriedly purchased on our way, snatching them with his left hand as if he had not eaten in weeks. He used his left hand because the entire right side of his body was paralyzed, a disability that may have resulted from lack of proper nutrition combined with chronic, untreated malaria.
Upon ascertaining Onyango’s need, our staff began to search immediately for another extended family member who could take him in. After learning of an aunt who lived nearby, they quickly convinced her to begin looking after her nephew. We took Onyango to the medical clinic that day for emergency treatment, and thereafter he steadily recovered. Improved nutrition provided through the generosity of his sponsor, combined with the love and care he now receives as a member of one of our children’s home families (Onyango was not able to remain permanently with his aunt), have resulted in dramatic changes in this little boy’s life.
When I went to visit Onyango the following year, it was difficult to believe I was looking at the same little boy. Though full strength and mobility had not yet returned to the right side of his body (and still haven’t to this day), he was able to walk and he had regained some movement in his right arm. But that’s not what affected me most when I saw him; it was his eyes that told the greatest story. As the photo above attests, this is a little boy who now has hope and a reason to smile! Today, Onyango is known for his love of singing, and he’s typically the first one dancing – gimpy leg and all – on Sunday morning at church (see Onyango dancing here).
Each time I see Onyango today – especially when he’s dancing – I’m reminded in so many ways of the grace of God. If not for the eagerness of God’s people on one side of the world to excel in the grace of giving, combined with the eagerness of His people on the other side of the world to look after orphans and widows in their own community, Onyango would almost certainly have become another nameless piece of a tragic child mortality statistic. But because of the operation of God’s grace in the hearts of Christians both there and here, today we have a little boy whose mourning has been turned into dancing.
To you, O LORD, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!” You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever! (Psalm 30:8-12)
Dance on, Onyango, and tell of His faithfulness!
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Learn more at covenantmercies.org, where you can partner with the organization in prayer or with financial support.