It makes a difference to this one

As I've thought the past couple of days about the last paragraph of my most recent post, I've had a lot of sadness about the orphans we will not be able to help. According to the United Nations, there are 143 million orphans in the world. That looks like this- 143,000,000! Over 43 million of them are in Sub-Saharan Africa with that number growing daily due to the huge HIV/AIDS crisis there.

I have had to remind myself of a story I heard many years ago, called The Starfish Story. This tale becomes more and more meaningful to me as I think on it more in regards to our upcoming ministry. I'd like to share it with you. If you have heard it before, I hope you can agree with me it applies well here.

As the old man walked along the beach at dawn, he noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them back into the sea. Finally catching up to the youth, he asked why he was doing this. The answer was that the starfish would die if left until the morning sun. "But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish," said the old man. "How can your efforts make any difference?" The young man looked up the endlessly stretching starfish covered beach and then at the starfish in his hand. Then he threw it safely in the waves. "It makes a difference to this one," he said.