Day 2 Ministry to Abandoned Widows and Children

     Most of us have not had those moments when someone is pressuring us to do something, something that is so against our moral code that we would rather die than comply.  That doesn’t happen in our world, or does it? Do you really think that young girls as they’re growing up dream of one day being a drug-addicted prostitute, living on the street, hustling to find money for her next fix? 

     Do you really think that young boys dream of the day that they can be kept locked up and rented out for the sexual pleasure of sadistic pedophiles?

     But things like that happen. They happen here and they happen around the world. It becomes  situational. Unfortunate circumstances lead to disastrous outcomes. 

      Today’s story concerns a widow with two children. Her husband beat her, but where would she go with 2 young children? And then he died. The beating stopped but the problem remains—what does a young widow with children do to survive. This particular woman found a job, two jobs in fact, but even that wasn’t enough to pay rent, buy food, and care for growing children. Their home was a mall room in the slum, near the forest from which hungry tigers often appeared. Just the life that every woman dreams of.

     But somewhere along the way, this woman met Jesus.

At first she prayed things like “keep us safe from tigers’, and He did. But thanks to a church family, she learned more about God and Jesus. She started reading her bible, her children learned to pray, and so when things got even worse, she turned to Jesus for help. And he provided. Jehovah Jireh.

      We want to think that bad things don’t happen, but they do. Suddenly the landlord starts asking for sexual favors, it’s easy to say ‘no’ when it’s a gentle request, but when there are no laws in place to protect tenants, it’s a lot harder to say ‘no’ when the requests become demands, and the alternative is eviction. Geeta, as a Christian, knew that to give in to these demands would be wrong, but she had two children to think about. Death seemed like a good alternative, but then who cares for the kids, who protects her daughter from lecherous old men, who feeds and clothes them and sees that they get to school? 

     But even in the worst of times, as Christians, we can turn to Jesus. When she needed him the most, Jesus appeared in Geeta’s life. Her GFA church brought food and helped her ‘extend her lease’ for another month so she could find a better place to stay. The church was the hands and feet and heart of Jesus.

   Geeta is only one of thousands of women in South Asia who are in this situation: widowed with children, and no place to turn. Until they find Jesus. Learn more about ministry to abandoned widows and children.ministry to abandoned widows and children 

Watch her story and testimony here in this 7 minute video.