{"id":650,"date":"2012-07-17T14:11:52","date_gmt":"2012-07-17T18:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=650"},"modified":"2012-07-17T14:13:02","modified_gmt":"2012-07-17T18:13:02","slug":"heart-strings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/?p=650","title":{"rendered":"Heart Strings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have had the blessing of traveling a great deal in the past.\u00a0 I visited several countries and have seen poverty at it’s worst.\u00a0 Nothing breaks my heart more than witnessing homeless and hungry children, especially orphans.<\/p>\n

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Photograph by Chan Kwok Hung<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

This photo speaks a multitude, doesn’t it?\u00a0 This world can be such a cruel place. How I wish something could been done to help save every child and preserve their innocence.<\/p>\n

There are times I feel helpless and overwhelmed, like tonight for instance. I was walking crosstown on 42nd Street to catch my bus home.<\/p>\n

As I was walking, I took in my surroundings; the rhythm, activity and energy of rush hour.<\/p>\n

Until something caught my eye that caused me to stop in my tracks. I remained frozen, watching, pondering whether I should go do something.<\/p>\n

This moment reminded me of an incident I read in Jeff Goins’ new book, Wrecked<\/em><\/a>. I knew I had to make a choice.<\/p>\n

Suddenly a man spoke and snapped me out of my trance. I guess he noticed my struggle. He tells me, “Your heart strings are being tugged, huh?” I said, “Yes.”\u00a0 He nodded in understanding.<\/p>\n

Right then, I decided to walk over to her. This young woman who was pregnant sitting on the hot concrete floor with a toddler. She must have been no more than twenty-five years old. I asked her if she needed help.<\/p>\n

She didn’t speak English. She said something which sounded like Spanish.\u00a0 However, when she responded again, I realized it wasn’t Spanish, but more like Portuguese or Italian.<\/p>\n

She wanted me to give her money. I told her I didn’t want to give her money. She said she needed diapers. I said I would go buy her diapers if she wanted. She agreed for me to get her diapers.<\/p>\n

I asked, what size, she tells me size four. For the life of me, I don’t know how we were able to understand each other, it had to have been the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

She tells me she would wait for me in the same spot for only twenty minutes. So I take off in a hurry to the nearest place I could find and bought diapers. I also bought her a few other items so she could feed her child who looked dirty, hungry and tired. I especially felt compassion for her child.<\/p>\n

The city was so hot. I’m sure this poor child was outside all day in the heat while her mother begged.<\/p>\n

When I returned she was there waiting. I handed her the bag and she thanked me.<\/p>\n

What was most beautiful to me was the reaction on the little girl’s face. She pointed to the bottle of water and looked up at me with a big smile. She seemed genuinely appreciative. I grabbed her little hand and smiled at her too. My heart swelled with love for that child. I so badly wanted to protect her.<\/p>\n

I looked into the pregnant mother’s eyes and told her Jesus loved her. I also told her to be careful and to take good care of herself and the baby. I just hope she really understood what I said.<\/p>\n

I arrived home very somber. I began thinking about all the homeless mothers and children living in the streets of New York City and around the world.\u00a0My heart hurts for them.<\/p>\n

This tug never goes away. I guess it serves as reminder to never forget.<\/p>\n

I wonder how things would be if every Christian from around the world stopped to help and encourage one person each day?<\/p>\n

What do you think would happen?\u00a0 I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have had the blessing of traveling a great deal in the past.\u00a0 I visited several countries and have seen poverty at it’s worst.\u00a0 Nothing breaks my heart more than witnessing homeless and hungry children, especially orphans. This photo speaks a multitude, doesn’t it?\u00a0 This world can be such a cruel place. How I wish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[10],"tags":[44,42,21,45,41,43,35],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":661,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ordinaryservant.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}