The reality of the need can be overwhelming. What can one person do in the face of such suffering? We may be tempted to consider ourselves incapable of addressing these vast problems. However, as Davis says, every person can still make a difference. Every person can offer hope. Read the following story of one ordinary couple who offered live-giving hope to many children and their families:

In August 1992, an abandoned, four-month-old boy found his way into our home. He was extremely malnourished, neglected, and deprived. He weighed only 3.4 kgs (7.5 lbs)! As I nursed him back to life, he found a very special place in our hearts and lives. When he was well and gaining weight and the threat of death had been removed from his life, we tried desperately to find a good family to take him in, as at this point we had three of our own children and a foster son to care for. When we realized that there was nowhere else for him to go, we decided to adopt him as our own son. In November 1993, another little abandoned boy found his way into our home. This one was twelve months old and had been physically abused, also suffering from neglect and kwashiorkor (extreme lack of protein in the diet). After nursing him back to health, we realized that there was nowhere for him to go, and so we adopted him as well. It was due to this lack that we looked into the matter and found that very little help was being given to the abandoned or unwanted babies. In Swaziland, there is no Children’s Act to protect the child. Children are not at the top of the priority list, and so very little was being done to accommodate them. The Swazi government is gradually becoming more aware of the plight of abused or abandoned babies, and something is starting to be done about the problem. But change takes time, and for some children time is running out. When we realized this, we made a decision to help these children wherever we could. It was out of this need that ABC Ministry was born.

ABC’s vision is to love and care for abandoned babies and give them the chance to bond to a mother figure in the early months of their lives. The babies they are unable to return to their families or place into adoptive homes remain a part of the ABC Ministry Home until the age of three or four. Then they’re moved to permanent foster homes in the Bulembu Village of Hope Orphan Village, where they can be raised to adulthood under the love and care of foster parents. (Chapter 9)

This couple’s story is just one example of how God has used the “ordinary”—“ordinary people who got out of their ordinary chairs and followed our extraordinary God to give hope to the hopeless” (Chapter 9).