A Sparrow Falls - Neema Village Blog

June 24, 2015

A Sparrow Falls

I just finished fixing my breakfast and it made me cry. I had to throw away a half a loaf of bread because I couldn’t eat

it before it spoiled. As I let it drop into the trash I thought, we just lost a baby at Neema because she was literally starved to death. That is what the Doctor said, she was starved. Does that still happen in our world today?

I have been a little shaken this week by some comments made because we were trying to save the life of baby Noreen.

“Why don’t you save babies in America?” and “Is there really much purpose in saving a baby like this?”

Almost a year old, Noreen weighed about eight pounds, had

pneumonia and was HIV positive when she was brought to Neema House Arusha. But those were not what killed her. AIDs is manageable, you can live a fairly normal life now with it and she was being treated for pneumonia. She died of starvation. We tried. We had nannies staying with her 24/7 around the clock, she was in ICU in the best hospital in Arusha and being fed around the clock but it was just too late when we got her.

Would we even be asking those kinds of questions if it were one of “our babies” here? We would want the doctors to pull out all the stops, do whatever it takes, don’t mind the cost, do everything you can, try something else. Wouldn’t we? What makes some lives worth more than others? I know, I know this is my soap box but really if a child were dying here every minute from drinking unsafe water wouldn’t we be up in arms? God help us.

And with hundreds of government programs to help the poor in America and ninety five percent of all charitable giving staying in America do we have to hear that question once again!

Unfortunately children still starve and mothers still die at alarming rates in parts of this small planet we live on. Most of you read my blog because we are friends, you’re not looking for sensationalism and I don’t write for sensationalism. I just want you to see that Noreen was real, she laughed, she smiled, her mom had dreams for her and she cried more than she laughed. And I want you to see that hunger is real. I’m sorry but you need to see this.

Noreen

Every life is precious, if God knows when a sparrow falls, His heart must have been broken when this little one fell. We tend to want to blame God. I think the answer to the question, why does God allow starving children in Africa, is more – He doesn’t, we do.

Is what we do at Neema House Arusha worth it? Ask these little guys.