God I thank you for life. God thank you in how you work. I just finished watching this documentary called “The Dropbox,” which I heard about before but never watched. I checked it out this week from my local library on Camp Walker in Daegu, South Korea. My 12 year old son saw the cover, said it “looked boring” and promptly went to bed. After a few minutes, I played it anyway. My Korean (born and raised in America) US Army husband put down his phone when he heard Korean from the screen.
Seoul is right down the street. So many babies were abandoned during the making of this film. Daegu is also a large city; what happens to the unwanted babies here? One thing we noticed since moving here to Korea for the first time as a family in September 2018 is that you don’t see a lot of children here. Usually children are in school until very late because after school they go to other schools for different subjects. Education is highly valued here. Many younger couples delay marriage because of the cost and pressure to provide. Having children changes your life and many choose not to. I have heard this discussed when I used to attend a language exchange group and I can just see for myself what is most valued here. Appearances are very important.
I often wondered what happens with unwanted pregnancies here in Korea? No one can answer this question that I’ve talked to… it is not really a topic of discussion anyway. But I wonder.
Mentioned in the documentary was that 60% of the babies who were put into the drop box were from teenager mothers. How do we help these young mothers during and after their pregnancy and delivery? I suppose it would provide some relief to know that someone like Pastor Lee would do all that he could to help their baby. But what about what happens when Pastor Lee is called home- who will continue this ministry?
Another thought that struck me as I watched this documentary with tears, so many tears rolling down my face was why is it always OLDER PEOPLE helping? Where are the younger people? How do they sacrifice? I thought about when we were doing foster care in Virginia before moving here to Korea. We had this one child over Christmas. He had just been removed from his home right before Christmas and because the foster family who said yes to adopting him had already purchased tickets out of state for plans for the holidays they needed a temporary home for him until they returned. This is where we came in as that time we were only providing respite (temporary) foster care services. We are sure this little boy had undiagnosed special needs and boy, we sure had a lot to learn. We had him for almost a week and by the time it was time for him to go we had a routine going but we were ready to have our regular life back. I remember when this couple came to pick him up, and I saw them for the first time (he was dropped off by a case worker), it struck me- just like in this movie- how OLD they were. This was a retired military couple. He wore his veteran’s ballcap. He had grey hair. We were worn out after that week and this retired couple said yes to caring for this child for an unknown amount of time in their home. When they left and the house was back quiet again my heart was filled with regret. Look at me. All I kept thinking of was how hard it was for me but what about that little boy? He was shuffled off again to another family, he was too young to know what was going on. Here we are perfectly able and perfectly capable to do more but we weren’t. I realized how selfish we were; what were we doing?
Oh God, please help us. Help ME. Help me serve you selflessly God. Help me to give everything like how you gave everything for me. God please, what do you want me to do God? How can I raise my children you entrusted to me to have a heart that is broken for the things that matter to you God? How can we have hearts that care enough to do something??
God I pray that when we go to Cambodia next week, and I fully acknowledge that this is ALL YOU that my whole family is able to go on this last minute whirlwind of a trip, I pray that my family will SEE what I saw when I was there before God. May they have a heart for people to SEE and EXPERIENCE the reality of life for these children in this village and yet also see the love they have for You God. I thank you for this opportunity and for whatever you will show each of us as we go.
Lord thank you for opening the eyes of the director of this Dropbox film. I am so glad I watched the special features after the movie was over and heard his testimony in how you saved him through the making of this movie. Thank you God. Your ways are definitely not our ways God. Thank you for saving me too! Use me Lord!!!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/btivie/the-drop-box/posts/1273138
https://dropbox.focusonthefamily.ca/
Read more blog posts about Foster Care here at https://sejanashines.com/category/foster-care/ .
Sejana Shines 