HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!
As many of you know, the children we serve through Shaping Destiny have no parents. Many of them have no concept of father except what they have learned with us. And that is thanks to God’s grace working through you to help Shaping Destiny do what it is doing.
At our church today, we had people of all ages go to the stage and say words of appreciation to their fathers for the important role they have played in their lives. During service, I couldn’t help but remember how grateful the children we serve are to you who are sacrificing financially and through your prayers to make sure that they have what they need.
I want you to know that the kids show so much appreciation for your love and they literally pray for their sponsors daily. Many of the kids have fallen in love with the sponsors they have never seen or heard from so much so that when we recently asked some to write them letters, they addressed and signed some of the letters as “your son John” or “your daughter Mary”. While with my Americanized mind I wished they didn’t address those letters like that, I fully understood their longing for connection with someone who loves them enough to show it.
I was once in their shoes and I craved to identify with any male figure in my life who would show me any love that had any semblance to the love of a father to a son. From talking to them and understanding their yearning, you who are their sponsors are the only people who have come close to showing any love for them that they can call the love of a parent. If you are like me, the first reaction is to say you don’t deserve that much love when your commitment to them has been fragmentary or absent at times. That may be true, but you are the best they have. They call you their parents and even though they don’t celebrate father’s day in Cameroon, I am sure they love and are praying for you and everyday for them is father’s appreciation day. They do this through their prayers.
Thank you for adding value to orphans!
Thank you for standing in the gap and being fathers to them!
Thank you for reflecting the love of our Father, God, to them!
Thank you for making the statement “for God so loved the world that he gave…” to mean something to them!
Thank you for being the reason why they know and love Jesus!
Happy Father’s day!
God bless!
Kenneth Acha