Oh yes, God answers prayers

There is a little girl here -- Destiny --who used to attend Holy Cross School. For a number of reasons, she is not in school this year, but she comes by fairly often when she needs something -- food, medicine, a hug. A little history on Destiny -- she is 9 years old and has cystic fibrosis. There is no facility in Belize that can do the definitive test for CF, but any physician who has ever seen her is convinced that she has it. She only weighs 46 pounds and looks like a strong breeze would blow her over. She is quite bright and can be articulate and sometimes mature beyond her years. She is one of several children in the family but is the mother's target. She often refuses to feed Destiny, and as I have written before, frequently makes her sleep outside the house (which is built in the swamp) in San Mateo. Months ago Destiny had been placed at the Liberty Children's Home in Ladyville. While she was there, she was happy; she got medical attention and love; and she was the healthiest she had ever been. Then, for some unknown reason, she came home. Some of the adults who care about Destiny had remarked that they would be willing to help pay her expenses at Liberty if she could go back, knowing it had been such a good place for her.
This morning Destiny appeared in the office in tears, asking if she could just stay with us because if she went home, her mother was going to beat her in the head with a hammer. (It's going to take me awhile to get out of my head the sound of her sobbing "Please, Miss, no make me go home.") None of us doubted her for a second, but what could we do? There is virtually no foster care system in Belize and only a tiny handful of overworked social workers with no resources at their disposal. Francis, Linda and I stood in the office and prayed out loud that God would help us help Destiny. It was a fervent and somewhat frantic prayer. Then Francis went to work. To make a long story short, she made a series of phone calls and learned that the very person she needed to speak to about having Destiny returned to Liberty was actually IN San Pedro TODAY!!!!!! We sent the driver for her; she came to Holy Cross and met with Francis, Cath and Kim, our social worker friend from Mississippi, and within a few hours, Destiny was on her way to Belize City, accompanied by 2 of the volunteer social workers here this week. She will spend some time in the hospital getting some of her health issues under control and then hopefully to Liberty Children's Home. While it is extremely frustrating that things had to reach such a crisis in order for Destiny to get help, I truly believe that God put all those people right here today to rescue this child. It is sad when a child is taken away from her family and home, but in this case, it saved her life.
In the past, when there has been talk of taking Destiny away from her, the mother has said that she didn't want her child taken away. It is a serious humiliation in this culture to have your child removed from your care. She never said she wanted her; she only said she didn't want her sent away.
Thank you God for rescuing this child, for putting in place what was beyond our abilities so that Destiny could be safe and cared for. Keep her under your wing and watch over her in her new surroundings. Amen