This will date me, but I remember during my elementary years and early teens sitting in the dining room eating breakfast before school, watching the Today show. I even recall the name of the newscaster, Frank Blair. I watched daily as he broadcast the reports regarding the Vietnam War.
What was both captivating and disturbing to me wasn't so much the black and white raw reporting from the fields of Vietnam, but at the end of his report, he would always in a matter of fact manner, give the numbers of the dead and the wounded from both sides. I'm not sure why listing the "numbers" of dead seemed odd to me, but it did.
I was thinking about that all day today as we drove around the outskirts of Danang. My thoughts kept going to, "I wonder how many died in these hills. Did they find bodies near this river?" For whatever reason, I kept thinking about the dead...that was until I went to the Father's House which is supported and funded by Giving It Back To Kids.
The Father's House is a home for unwed mothers. At this present time there are 7 moms and their children. The local governmental agencies wanted to call it a home for "unwanted" moms and children. Robert Kalatschan, the founder of GIBTK, wisely said, "Nope, there is no such thing as an unwanted mom or child in God's eyes."
However, let me cycle back to my thoughts today about death...you see, it was at the Father's house where I experienced a geological shift of sorts toward focusing on LIFE. Many of the kids at the Father's House were going to be aborted, killed...for numbers of different reasons. Yet because there is a home where the "unwanted" are WANTED (yea!), the kids you see in the above video, are full of life. They are among the living.
So today, I end my newscast reporting live to you from Vietnam. 7 children are ALIVE...and that's a good thing, because it's a God thing.
Thanks for reading,
Tim Celek
Lead Pastor
The Crossing
P. S. Make sure you watch the video, I hope you notice the "bubbles." No matter the culture, kids squeal with excitement and joy over the simplest of things.
