Anita Geurink works with Beautiful Africa, a campaign devoted to the care of children who have been abandoned or orphaned as a result of poverty and HIV/AIDS.  Beautiful Gate is a home providing such care that is supported by the Beautiful Africa campaign.  Anita recently wrote about an experience at the Beautiful Gate home in Maseru, Lesotho, in southern Africa.

Yesterday we had a visitor and I took her into the baby houses to see some of our kids.  One of the babies began to cry so I picked him up and was given a bottle to feed him.  We received several babies all at one time a few weeks ago, so it took me a moment to figure out which baby I was holding.  Then I just had to look at him and smile.  I will never forget who he is again because he has a story of grace and mercy.  What the devil meant for harm, God turned to good in his little life.

While I was away at a missionary ladies retreat, a new baby boy was brought to Beautiful Gate.  He was only a month old and was found abandoned in the forest just outside of town.  This is very significant based on the events that followed on Friday evening.

In her blog, Anita told about a terrible hail storm that struck the area on the previous Friday night.  The hail beat down on Maseru for seven minutes damaging windows and causing leaks in roofs, including their own home.  Marble sized hail drummed down to earth in the exact spot where that baby boy had been lying only a few hours before.  However, the abandoned boy had been found before the storm hit and was safe at Beautiful Gate.

The boy’s name, translated, means “mercy”.  His name reflects the mercy that had been demonstrated in his being rescued from abandonment, serious injury, and likely death. *

Neal Pollard reminds us that we should “see ourselves as the little orphaned Lesothoan boy, vulnerable and helpless and in need of rescue” due to our sins. *

The Apostle Paul wrote to some people who had been rescued from their helpless and grave condition:  “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:4-9).

God will rescue and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).

Won’t YOU accept His merciful offer of salvation and eternal life on His terms?

* From “A Story of Mercy” by Anita Geurink, http://blog.www.beautifulafrica.org and “Mercy Personified” by Neal Pollard in Daily Bread (8/31/16).  Neal is the capable preacher of the Bear Valley church of Christ in Denver, CO.

David A. Sargent, Minister