Self-Portrait Project

We learned a lot of things last week which has challenged my thinking, and helped me better define what I want to do, or maybe made me more confused as to what exactly I am supposed to be doing.
One of the projects Janna had us do, was make a poster to help us figure out what we areas we want to be involved when it comes to working with children.

I’ll tell you a little bit about some of the aspects of my poster. To start with, we had to pick a favorite quote from the Word: “He shall bring justice to the poor of the people; He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.” (Ps 72:4) and “Learn to do right, seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead the case of the widow” (Isa 1:17). I like these two together, because the first one talks about what the Father is going to do, and the second one basically tells us to be His hands, and a reflection of Him to those in need.
One exciting thing we learned about this week is the “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.” It’s been signed by all nations, except for two, Somalia - because it has no government, and the USA - because we don’t want kids suing their parents for silly things. That and we already apply these principles anyway.

Although I really like article 31 “All children have a right to relax and play and join in a wide range of activities, ” for the project, I used my other 2 favorites. #19 states, “Governments should ensure that children are properly cared for and protect them from violence, abuse, and neglect by their parents or anyone else who looks after them,” and Article #39 “Children who have been neglected or abuse should receive special help to restore their self-respect.” They go hand-in-hand, because violence shouldn’t happen, but if it does, we should do something to help the child.

Another question is: do I want to work in prevention or restoration? While I have heard it said that the best cure is prevention, I’d rather work mostly in restoration, and little bit of prevention. After things have started going down-hill (example - teen pregnancy) but before it gets really bad (abandoning the baby). I want to work with teen moms, single parents, and families where a child is the head-of household.I even wore my Indian clothes to present my project, because I want to live in India.