Dear Friend,

I have been so sad the last couple weeks, as I heard of the 19 children and two adults who died in Texas. And this morning I read of two teenage pedestrians who were killed by a speeding car only a few miles from our Five Talents office.

I don’t want to ever hear of children dying…and yet.

When I lived in DR Congo in the 80’s, almost half of all children died before they were five years old. Mostly from malaria and from dehydration related to dysentery, caused by a lack of clean water. Despite the herculean efforts of the moms, who usually carried drinking water for 30-45 minutes in large pans on their heads, often with an infant strapped on their backs, the water contained invisible E.coli that caused the dysentery.

Since the 80’s many countries have made huge progress in addressing the basic needs of most people who lived in poverty. But unfortunately, there are still many millions of children (many in the countries where we work) who grow up, or die, without access to those basic needs.

Our Five Talents partners can’t track, or measure, the number of lives saved as families begin to gain a tiny toehold on the minimal standard of living we all need. (At least not yet because our programs focus on improving livelihoods, not medical care, or drinking water, etc.). But we do know that starting a small business and gaining some resiliency makes a huge difference. Especially for those living in the greatest poverty.

I am convinced that when each of these precious children dies, God weeps with us. And I am also convinced that God expects me, expects each of us, to do everything we can to prevent another child from dying.