Operation: LOVE

I try and find one good picture to use for each of our projects. I was looking at a lot of pictures to use for Opearion: Love (sending valentines/cards to orphans around the world). Many of the pictures I considered using were just beautiful and would have worked well...but I really felt like I should keep searching. I wanted to use one that really symbolized LOVE. I found among some of GABI DICKENSON's photos, images where kids were hugging each other and thought, "That is PERFECT for Operation: LOVE!"...but then I would change my mind. I saw some of people loving on orphans and thought THOSE would be perfect...but something just wasn't right. SO, I totally did a dorky thing and I "googled" images of Chinese orphans. I know. Lame. BUT... I came across this picture. The second I glimpsed it, it took my heart away. I clicked on it and read the story:

A man in rural China worked as a scavenger. He was quite old for the job, and should have retired. In China (as everywhere, I would assume), scavenger workers don't have a lot...they don't have a lot of money, food, clothes, a lot of space in a house. One day, he was out working and he saw a group of people all gathered around something. He was curious and went to see at what it was they were all gazing. He worked his way through the crowd and saw in the middle of the group a small baby wrapped in a thin sheet. The man was so sad that no one was doing anything to help the baby. They were just looking. Well, this kind old man, I imagine with calloused and wrinkled hands, lifted the small baby. The man said the infant was frozen stiff. He brought the small bundle home and he and his wife wrapped the little girl in a burlap bag and fed her soup broth. Soon, she warmed up enough to move. The wife felt sad for the girl and said she pitied her. She said that no one else wanted to touch the baby. "She is human", the wife expressed, something I think many people forget about orphans.

The years have passed and the man is now more than 80 years old. That first little girl he brought home was not the last. Over the years, he has taken in all of the abandoned children he has found and now cares for over 40 little ones. Everyone knows where to send abandoned children, and even the local law enforcement knows to bring abandoned babies or children to this man and his wife to care for.

This story absolutely broke my heart...and healed it at the same time. This man who had NOTHING, sacrificed EVERYTHING for that little girl. This man has a deep sympathy and a Christ-like love for his fellow-man. He does not judge those abandoned, or think they are less than him! He and his wife see them as deserving children. And although Christianity is illegal in China, this man is the greatest example of how to live a Christ-like life.

So, I chose this picture. It SCREAMS "love" to my heart. The picture is of one of the children he has taken in. You can see the boy is holding and LAYING IN the hands of this kind old man. It is so touching and so powerful!

May we all love as he does! Let us all perform this small act of sending a valentine so we can be like this man and show love for those so starving for it.