It is overwhelming to me to think of trying to raise three children if I let my mind go there. To think of raising close to five dozen children (many of them babies and preschoolers) simply takes my breath away. However, that is what friends of ours from my hometown are doing right now – and they’re doing it all the way across the ocean in Kenya, without many of the luxuries we enjoy here.

Greg and Mary Rose Dow are the parents of these precious children, and the founders of the Dow Children’s Home in Kenya. They responded in 2006 to the call of God to sell everything they had, leave friends and family, and literally lay down their lives in another land for the sake of children whom they’d never met.

To read the stories of where these little ones came from – how they were found, and the conditions in which they lived – is almost too much to bear. But what is so glorious is to see what they are becoming, and to know that the hand of God is restoring these sweet children and giving them life and love where there used to be abuse and neglect and starvation – the smiles on their faces say it all!

I want to spotlight our friends and the Dow Children’s Home in order to ask anyone reading this to take a moment to pray for these little ones – that the kingdom of Heaven will come in their lives, and for strength and joy and “grace upon grace” for their self-sacrificing parents. Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me” (Mark 9:37 – NIV).

There is no higher calling than to nurture and respond to the welfare of children. James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Even if you cannot physically visit these orphans, a heartfelt and specific prayer knows no distance, and is a means to “visit” blessing into their lives. If you would like, you can also contribute something to their care, or even sponsor one of the children.

We bless and honor the Dow Family, and say again how thankful we are for these ministers of mercy who have surrendered everything to Christ in order to care about what He most cares about. May we do the same.