A twisted little red-dirt street so nondescript, we drove past it the first time. But this little side road holds an important house. A house for children whose biological parents have abandoned them.
It is called Tender Hearts Baby Home, and it is run by a man named Kenneth and his wife whose name I forgot to write down. When I was visiting, Tender Hearts had seven children age five and under in their protection. These are children thrown away on the side of the road. Children born of rape. Children too expensive to feed. Whatever the reason, their parents do not want them, and so they are left.
Abandoned. Forgotten. Alone.
When the police find these children, they contact Tender Hearts. The children (sometimes only weeks old!) are brought to the home, their families researched and recorded, and medical treatment given as needed. If no relatives are willing to care for the child, they are made available for international adoption.
Kenneth and his wife have been running Tender Hearts for the past two years. But Kenneth’s interest in orphans started long ago. By the time he reached his early twenties, both Kenneth’s parents were dead. He was an orphan. At first, he became very angry with God. Why would a loving God allow this? Where was God anyway? Was he all alone in the world now? In his anger and confusion, he began searching the Bible. And it was there, in the Word of God, that Kenneth learned, as he said “to accept God’s will.” He began discipling orphan boys. He married, and he and his wife continued together in their work with abandoned children. Then God told them to start a baby home.
Tender Hearts is the result.
This is a very brief sketch of Kenneth and the work he heads. But, even though my visit was only a couple hours, I learned something very important from Kenneth. Something I would see over and over in my time in Uganda.
The people who are serving the children in the deepest pain, the rawest need - abandoned babies, street children, former child soldiers - these are the very people who once lived there themselves.
I see in this the power of God to bring beauty from ashes. From our worst calamities, our deepest heartaches, we have a God who is very capable of bringing good. So much good that we start to wonder if it wasn’t best that He wounded us in the first place. Who better to father the orphans than a man who has known the sting of being orphaned himself?
This is what Kenneth taught me. It wasn't the last time I would learn the lesson.
(If you would like more information about Tender Hearts Baby Home and Night Light, the heading adoption agency, please click here.)
