A Litter of Kids

A missionary friend who works in Paraguay told me this story. He was recently on a missions trip navegating the Paraguay River when they anchored at an island to deliver food, clothes and medicine. Someone came up to him and said, "So and so was looking for you." And So and so turned out to be a young boy from a poor, poor family that this friend had helped many times when they lived near him. They had since moved away, and now, he discovered them on this island. "Can you help us?" was the young boy's plea. Their parents had abandoned the three youngest children on a different island, and like many poor families with too many children--a litter of them-- couldn't provide for them, so they abandoned them like so many unwanted puppies. But the children weren't ready to lie down and die. They found a barrel on the island and put the youngest, who couldn't swim, into the barrel. Then all three set out, the two oldest swimming and guiding the barrel down the river until they came to an inhabited island and found help. But even the help they found was not sufficient, or they wouldn't have made an appeal to my friend. Yet, he cannot support this family, but will try to find a home for the youngest child at least. A pitiful situation.