2nd Rainbows of Hope Training

Children at Risk
Today we learned about children at risk. An clear way to think about children at risk is to first think of the attributes of a healthy child. They have vibrant social lives by building relationships, emotional ability, spiritual walk with Christ or at least the opportunity to learn about Christ, physical health, cognitive ability, education, safety, and security.
The Lord has been teaching me about what risk factors orphans have as they live in the world. Orphans are lacking in at least one of the areas of health listed above which leaves them vulnerable to the evil in the world. They are vulnerable to such things as sex trafficking, sexual exploitation (pornography,prostitution, and so forth), and gangs.

Job 24:9-11
9 The fatherless child is snatched from the breast;
the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
10 Lacking clothes, they go about naked;
they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
11 They crush olives among the terraces[a];
they tread the wine presses, yet suffer thirst.

This is a real danger to children that aren't protected and valued by adults. The Lord speaks against these acts.

Leviticus 19:29 Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.

The next question is how do Christians stops these things from happening? How do we protect the fatherless? Today Wendy from Rainbows of Hope shared an easy way to come up with a plan. When she did mission work in Africa, the church made a map of all the risk factors that could damage a child's health (gangs,drugs, pimps, satanic worship buildings) and resources they had in the community (health clinic, church building, soup kitchen). The church could look at the map and compare it to a list of needs of children in the community. When they saw a whole in their communities resources, they took them before God and asked for his guidance. It was another wonderful day of learning!