Lost and separated

Fledgling alone and abandoned

I’ve always had a heart for birds, to rescue the injured, distressed, or separated, motherless. So when Neil pointed out what he called a “sick bird” outside our door on the stone patio last week, just before Mother’s Day I paid attention, stopped what I was doing and asked God what to do. It was all fluffed up feathers, trapping warm air for better insulation, wobbly legs and head resting under its wing, tired and cold. Many say that you should just leave it alone unless it is injured in that case get it to a Wildlife rehab center. This fledgling was not injured but was distressed and alone. I thought about placing it up higher in a tree or bush, but wasn’t sure where its nest was, nor what kind of bird it was as most baby birds look somewhat alike when young, and its legs did not look stable enough to do this, so I left it alone to fend for itself. I decided that I would put it in a box overnight for safekeeping if throughout the day I didn’t see its mother and it still looked abandoned. Just before nightfall, I looked out to find it under a large saucer, cold and abandoned and dead.
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How could I let it die? What should I have done? I was distressed and distraught now; extremely sad, I sobbed for its loss. Wondering why I had such a heartbreaking reaction, God then showed me that I had been praying daily for over a month a quote from “Seeker Small Groups,” by Gary Poole. “Lord help me see the lost as you do, to have a broken heart for them and great compassion. Help me think about their spiritual condition. Help them really matter to me. Lord, give me a renewed passion for lost people. Give me new eyes to see them as they really are - lost, separated, distressed.” We learned about these groups in February at a confernce and had been praying about starting one, when and how. To help us even more understand the important timing to sart a group soon, God brought a family with 10 month old adopted Ethiopian orphan twins to join us for Mother’s Day. What a delight to watch these happy African babies that had joined their family of four, knowing they were rescued from death and no longer motherless.

The message seemed clear, the timing was here to reach out to adults around us who are separated from God, distressed or alone. We stared our first group last week. With fear and trembling and God’s direction, we openly discuss spiritual issues in a safe place where they can self discover where they might be hindered spiritually, participate in out of the box discussions and learn how to be no longer alone. Pray with us, even more important than birds these human lives, that they might be found, rescued and no longer alone and many more would flock to our door.

see http://www.youtube.com/ angelambryant Lost fledgling

( If you are interested find out more about sponsoring an orphan from Africa as we have, not adopting, check out Rafiki Foundation, http://www.rafiki-foundation.org/ )