{"id":301716,"date":"2008-11-24T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/%series%\/abuse-satans-tactic-to-destroy-children\/"},"modified":"2008-11-24T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-24T17:00:00","slug":"abuse-satans-tactic-to-destroy-children","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/abuse-satans-tactic-to-destroy-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Abuse: Satan&#8217;s Tactic to Destroy Children"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A life full of secrecy and abuse can be Satan\u2019s tactic for destroying a child.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":294104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"https:\/\/web.familylifetoday.com\/fl2008-11-24.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"00:","filesize":"12.65M","filesize_raw":"13266294","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":""},"categories":[2906],"tags":[2949],"podcast_series":[7412],"cwp_profile":[8978],"series":[2101],"class_list":["post-301716","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-becoming-a-christian","tag-abuse","podcast_series-too-small-to-ignore","cwp_profile-wess-stafford","series-familylife-today"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg?w=508","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2023\/02\/image-scaled.jpg","download_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-download\/301716\/abuse-satans-tactic-to-destroy-children","player_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-player\/301716\/abuse-satans-tactic-to-destroy-children","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/familylife-today\/id212174303?mt=2&app=podcast","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0j5UaKdQOHQCuo1bt0ebEm","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/feed\/podcast\/familylife-today","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"K0RKYwAn12\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/abuse-satans-tactic-to-destroy-children\/\">Abuse: Satan&#8217;s Tactic to Destroy Children<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/abuse-satans-tactic-to-destroy-children\/embed\/#?secret=K0RKYwAn12\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Abuse: Satan&#8217;s Tactic to Destroy Children&#8221; &#8212; FamilyLife\u00ae - A Cru Ministry\" data-secret=\"K0RKYwAn12\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var 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child.","meta_box":{"show_notes":"","transcript_url":"https:\/\/transcript.familylifetoday.com\/fl2008-11-24.pdf","transcript_content":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Do we think children are as important as Jesus thinks they are?\u00a0 Wess Stafford, who is the president of Compassion International reflect on the time when the little children were trying to get to Jesus.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Finally, the kids get too rambunctious.\u00a0 Some disciple says, \"Shh, children, would you just be still?\"\u00a0 Someone must have said, \"Children, would you just go away.\"\u00a0 And I maintain that that is the moment that Jesus absolutely snapped, and this powerful young carpenter, this great rabbi, shouted at him, \"Don't you dare do that!\u00a0 Don't you remember what I told you about their place in the kingdom, how important they are?\u00a0 Don't you dare send them away!\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> This is FamilyLife Today for Monday, November 24th.\u00a0 Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 Children are on the heart of God, but do we esteem them as highly as he does?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd welcome to FamilyLife Today, thanks for joining us.\u00a0 I think every child who has ever been to Sunday school or to Vacation Bible School has, at some point, heard the story about Jesus and the little children who are around, and they wanted to come, and the disciples tried to keep them away, and Jesus said, \"Let the little children come to me,\" and when you're a child, that's a neat story to hear.\u00a0 Jesus loves the little children \u2013 we sing songs like that, and it resonates with us as children.\u00a0 But I think we get to be adults and maybe we forget some of those stories, you know?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> I think we do and, Bob, I think what Jesus did is He brought great dignity and worth and value to the lives of children, and I think within the Christian community there is a need for revival about the value of children for the future. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThey really are the future of the church, and we need to, first of all, esteem them as image-bearers of who God is but then, secondly, we need to be about sharing the Gospel with them here in America but then thinking literally of the tens of millions of children who have no families to introduce them to Jesus Christ.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd we have a friend who joins us on FamilyLife Today for the first time \u2013 Dr. Wesley Stafford, President and CEO of Compassion International, joins us on FamilyLife Today.\u00a0 Wess, welcome to the broadcast.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Thank you, it's an honor to be here.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Wess has two daughters of his own.\u00a0 He has been married to his wife for 26 years, and your bio said that you have a cat who worships himself.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Doesn't everybody?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t[laughter] \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> I know every cat does, I don't know if everybody's got one, but that's endemic to cats, you're right.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> It really is.\u00a0 We share a common value, and it's the value of children.\u00a0 Wess has completed a book called \"Too Small to Ignore, Why Children are the Next Big Thing.\"\u00a0 And I really agree with you.\u00a0 I think if we miss this generation of children, it's going to be generations before this thing is turned around again, Wess.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong>\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 This is our one and only chance, those of us who are alive right now, and the tragedy is they are \u2013 I think the first thing we teach children to do in school is to stand in line.\u00a0 You remember kindergarten?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> I do.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Stand in line.\u00a0 The tragedy in our world is that they get really good at that, but they're always at the end of the line.\u00a0 There is always somebody bigger, somebody with more resources, somebody with more clout, and they wind up being the poorest of the poor, no matter what country, almost no matter what family.\u00a0 They become a second-rate mandate, I think, in our world.\u00a0 And they can't speak for themselves, they don't have any financial resources, they are not politically organized.\u00a0 So the Bible tell us speak up for those who can't speak for themselves.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Compassion International is really a ministry that's an advocate \u2026\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Absolutely.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> \u2026 for children.\u00a0 That message was imprinted in your heart as a four-year-old in Africa?\u00a0 Share with our listeners how that occurred.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Well, you know, I think very differently about children than I think many people that I talk to do, but I think, every time I see a little four-year-old go by, the thing that I ask myself is \"So what is God up to there?\u00a0 What's under construction there?\"\u00a0 And when I was four years old, surely, when I was knit in my mama's womb and came out, everybody in heaven must have said, \"Well, he's not a rocket scientist, is he?\u00a0 We're going to have to make it kind of clear what he is to do with his life.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd God graciously did \u2013 He allowed me to be raised, literally, among the very children that I now minister to.\u00a0 I was raised in a little African village in the Ivory Coast of West Africa.\u00a0 My parents were missionaries.\u00a0 My sister and I were the only two white children in town, and I was raised by an entire village of very compassionate, poverty-stricken people.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo when I think of the poor, I mean, God knew that eventually He wanted me to lead something called Compassion International, but when I think of the poor, I don't even subtly, not even subtly, think downward toward the poor.\u00a0 As I understand the principles of the Kingdom of God, the heart of God itself, and what \u2013 the way my life was touched by the poor, I think upward, and I tell our staff around the world, \"You need to earn the right to even be around them.\u00a0 It's pretty holy ground.\"\u00a0 A child in poverty, boy, that's about as close to the heart of God as you get.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> That same experience, though, also exposed you to profound evil that really taught you an important biblical principle that the devil of hell really wants to destroy the image of God in children \u2026\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Absolutely.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> \u2026 at the beginning when they're just starting out.\u00a0 You had an encounter that was pretty evil, pretty profound.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> My life \u2013 my childhood was split, really, between two settings.\u00a0 You know, kind of the best of times and the worst of times.\u00a0 Mostly when I talk about my childhood up until just a few years ago, I talked about the village, I talked about the poor, I talked about the values that those people instilled in me.\u00a0 I tell people, \"Everything I need to know to lead Compassion's ministry basically I learned from the poor themselves in that little village.\"\u00a0 And up until about five years ago that was all of the story I told.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tBut five years ago I began to see some of the suffering of kids that were a part of the other side of my childhood, and that was all of us kids in West Africa were all sent off to one basic boarding school where we spent nine months of each year, and that was a very harsh, very cruel place.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo my year was split between a very loving, supportive, tender village and wonderful parents \u2013 a tremendous father who loved me and included me in his ministry, in his activities, and a boarding school that all but extinguished my flame, all but put me out of business.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Now, I want our listeners to know that a boarding school is really standard education for many of the missionaries who are serving long haul over there.\u00a0 It's not that they're trying to get rid of their kids.\u00a0 There really isn't the kind of education locally for them to tap into, and so \u2026\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Nothing necessarily wrong about a boarding school.\u00a0 This was 45 years ago, nobody anywhere in the world goes off for nine months at a time without going back home at all or seeing their parents at all.\u00a0 This was pretty tough times, but there were no options.\u00a0 The truth is, they didn't even have a school in my village until I was 13 years old.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> At what age were you sent off to boarding school?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> I went off to school when I was six years old the first time.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> And you stop and imagine, again, a six-year-old going away from Mom and Dad, that can be a traumatic experience in itself, but what you described as a \"cruel place\" and a \"cruel period,\" share with our listeners some of what went on at that boarding school so that they can get a picture.\u00a0 You're not just saying the teachers were strict and made you sit up straight and wouldn't let you go out for recess, right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, there was that and much, much more.\u00a0 You know, now that I'm sitting here \u2013 I turn 56 this week, I am able to look back over my life, and I can now see God's purpose in how He orchestrated that as a part of the fabric of my life, but the kind of cruelty and abuse that we experienced there is very similar to what poverty does to a child.\u00a0 It basically speaks this message \u2013 \"Give up.\u00a0 You don't matter, nobody cares about you, you're small, you're weak, nothing good is going to happen to you.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> \"You're worthless.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> \"You're worthless.\"\u00a0 We fight to have compassion on the poverty side all the time.\u00a0 The greatest part of our ministry is helping children understand, \"You are incredibly valuable, loved by God, loved by a sponsor, love by your local church.\"\u00a0 So that message was there.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI began to understand that I also had something to say about kids who are abused, kids who are hurt, not necessarily by poverty but by the circumstances and the cruelty of people in their lives, and I never understood that part.\u00a0 In fact, I never told that part of my story.\u00a0 It was like those puzzle pieces don't fit into the fabric of my life, so why talk about this?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIn retrospect now I can understand how God was weaving this together, and essentially, again, we were at the end of the line.\u00a0 Children were the least important component out there.\u00a0 The people responsible for it did not really want to be there, and so they ran the place in a very cruel way.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tA typical example would be \u2013 the bell would ring, you stomach would turn.\u00a0 To this day, look at me, I'm thin.\u00a0 I don't eat much to this day because food brings me really no pleasure.\u00a0 We were so afraid of the punishment that was coming at the end of every lunch meal that we just didn't care to eat.\u00a0 Our stomachs were just in a constant churn. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tBut a typical day would have been out of maybe 20 of us would have been on the bad news list.\u00a0 I don't know why Wess Stafford was on this so often, but I was a regular feature of that list.\u00a0 It would say, you know, \"wrinkled rug,\" \"wrinkled bedspread,\" and \"a pair of socks on the floor,\" \"dust in the cubbyhole.\"\u00a0 I could do the math.\u00a0 What that meant was one swat for the rug, one swat for the bedspread, two swats for the socks, that's two things, and a swat for the dust in the dresser.\u00a0 All of us kids would then line up outside the houseparents' room, we would walk in one more time, they would read us our charges, we would reach over and grab our trouser legs so it would be tight up against our little bottoms.\u00a0 They would read our charges like Judgment Day and then hit us, one strike for each thing, as hard as they wanted to do it.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> With a slipper made out of a truck tire?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Right, it was a big, heavy slipper, much too hard for a little six-year-old.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> And you would get five or six \u2013 these aren't spankings, these are beatings?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> I was beaten 17 times a week in that place.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Seventeen events, not 17 individual blows, right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> That's right.\u00a0 This was 17 events to be spanked.\u00a0 Because the next event would be, we would go straight to what we called \"noon rest,\" where children were not allowed to be caught talking, playing, you couldn't even be caught with your eyes open, and the houseparents would patrol the hallway up and down just looking for violators.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIf your eyes met the eyes of one of these houseparents, they came in and beat you yet again, and they could beat you \u2013 that time \u2013 as long as they felt it took to destroy your spirit.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Wess, I would think this might go on for a period of weeks or months, but I would think there would come a point where children are going to go to their parents and say, \"Mommy, Daddy, I don't want to go back there.\"\u00a0 They would get sick to their stomach with the thought of returning.\u00a0 How is it that they were able to keep this up?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> That's the most amazing thing is that, yeah, naturally, you would expect all of us to have run \u2026\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Write letters home.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong>\u00a0 We wrote letters every week.\u00a0 Every week we would write letters home, but we could not tell them anything bad, and the leverage they used on us was that if you do, and you discourage your parents, or you make your parents frightened or angry, you will destroy their ministry, and there will be \u2013 I remember, literally, the words \u2013 \"There will be Africans in hell because of you.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo they used our love for God, our love for our parents' calling to Africa, and our love for Africans against us, and do you know, dozens of us kids went years without ever telling our parents.\u00a0 Listen to our Mom and Dad on deputation, answered questions church after church \u2013 \"Are the kids happy?\"\u00a0 \"Oh, yes, they love boarding school.\u00a0 They go on bike hikes, they climb trees,\" and we just kept our silence because we loved our Lord, we loved our parents, we knew their precious calling to Africa.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tBut I was the first one to spill the beans, and we're going back to Africa \u2013 there's about 20 of us missionary kids all traveling in a convoy airplane, but our parents were coming by ship later.\u00a0 One of the saddest things for us as little kids was we wouldn't see our parents for nine months.\u00a0 The first month, you couldn't forget what they looked like.\u00a0 We didn't have any pictures.\u00a0 They didn't let us have any pictures of them, but every time I closed my eyes, as a little boy, for the first month I could see my parents in the exact position they were in as we left, and I would cry myself to sleep every night for the first month or so.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tBy the ninth month, I couldn't really remember what they looked like.\u00a0 And so here I am, going back to this horrible place.\u00a0 I haven't talked for a year to my parents about the horribleness of this, but I'm nine years old.\u00a0 I take my mother's face in my hands at the airport, and I just look in her face, and she says, \"What are you doing, Wesley?\"\u00a0 And I said, \"Mom, I just don't want to forget what you look like.\"\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, of course, what mother wouldn't burst into tears at that point, and so she burst into tears, I burst into tears, they were loading up at the gangway, the jetway there, it was propeller planes back in those days, and in a desperate one- or two-minute effort, I thought, \"Here is my chance.\u00a0 I've just got to tell her how awful it is,\" and so as haltingly as a little nine-year-old can tell mom, \"They beat me, they hate me, I'm afraid of them, I don't want to go back there,\" I did, and then I had to go.\u00a0 There was no stopping the process of boarding a plane and getting out of there.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> You just kind of blurted it out?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> I blurted it out with my little nine-year-old's desperate words.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Any recognition on your mom's face that maybe it was the truth?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Horror, yes, absolute horror on her face.\u00a0 She had never heard this, it was, like \u2013 she gave me a huge hug, and she says, \"I don't know what to say.\"\u00a0 She was full of tears, so was I.\u00a0 My voice was broken because I was desperate.\u00a0 I was looking for protection.\u00a0 I thought, \"If they just know.\"\u00a0 We climbed on the plane, the rest of the missionary kids, nobody would sit with me.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Because they heard you?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> They did, and they looked across the aisle at me, like, \"There is a dead man sitting there.\u00a0 All of us know you can't do this, you can't tell.\u00a0 It will absolutely destroy everything.\u00a0 What have you done, Wesley?\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI remember staring out the window thinking, \"That was probably the unpardonable sin they've been talking about up at that school.\"\u00a0 Well, they were right about one thing, sure enough, on the boat trip back to Africa, my mom was absolutely distraught, as you can imagine, but there were no telephones, no nothing.\u00a0 They'd had a month and a half of ocean travel to get back.\u00a0 By the time she got back, sure enough, she had a nervous breakdown and, sure enough, we got word that she had had to return to the United States for treatment.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, when word got up to the boarding school, by then, rumor had leaked out, \"Wess told.\u00a0 And his mom, sure enough, just like we said, that ministry is destroyed.\u00a0 She's back in the States, Africans aren't coming to Christ because of this.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo the houseparent chose to use that moment to put an end to this.\u00a0 He gathered all the kids together and said, \"You know, you cannot serve God and Satan.\u00a0 Wess tried to do both, and his parents' ministry is destroyed because of this.\"\u00a0 And he got this clever idea, I think it must have struck him just at the moment, but he called for a birthday candle, and he carved off the other end so there was a wick at both ends of this little thing and had me stand up on a chair where all my friends could see me and lit it from both ends.\u00a0 I could look at this and see what was coming.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> You were holding it?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> I was holding it in my little fingers, and he was \u2013 he turned to make the point, \"You can't serve both God and Satan.\u00a0 Wess tried, and he's destroyed his parents' ministry.\"\u00a0 And I thought to myself, \"This is so wrong. This is so unfair.\u00a0 This place is absolutely not the right place for a child to be,\" that I thought, \"You know what?\u00a0 They can beat me all they want, they can make me feel guilty, they can abuse me in every way, but they are not winning this one.\"\u00a0 And, at 10 years old, I said, \"I don't care how much this hurts, I am not letting them have this victory,\" and I watched as it got to my skin, and the skin began to turn red then bubble and smoke, and one of the children, at that point, jumped up and slapped it out of my hand, or I would have let it extinguish itself on me.\u00a0 I had that level of rage at the injustice of my little life.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThat was a moment, as awful as that is, that ultimately launched my life, because I began to realize \u2013 no, wrong is wrong.\u00a0 Sooner or later, you have to take a stand and say \"It stops here, it stops now, it stops with me.\"\u00a0 And that's what I did.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> You know, we hear a story like that, and a lot of folks would ask the question, \"Where was God in the midst of this?\"\u00a0 Your parents are faithfully serving Christ, missionary families, how could He allow this to happen to children?\u00a0 What's your answer to that?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> You know, I can't speak for the other children and, by the way, you may notice I didn't really use the right name of that school in the book because not all of my friends are ready still to deal with that, and I'm not ready to put them through it.\u00a0 Some of them \u2013 I mean, I went until five years ago without even telling my own wife what had gone on.\u00a0 I thought, \"You know what?\u00a0 I have left that behind, and I'm not going to dwell on it, I'm not going to let it destroy me.\" \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI ultimately made that decision when I was 17 in the United States.\u00a0 I heard a talk at a camp about forgiveness, and I thought to myself, \"Well, who do I need to forgive?\"\u00a0 And I thought, \"Whoa, all those people at that school.\"\u00a0 But then I thought, \"None of them have asked me to forgive them,\" and I thought, \"Well, so what do I do?\u00a0 Do I wait for that?\u00a0 It will never happen.\u00a0 If they'll let me burn myself with a candle, they're never going to ask forgiveness.\"\u00a0 So I decided \"I am going to forgive them.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow I can put it into context.\u00a0 I understand poverty, and I understand abuse, because I have been there.\u00a0 I witnessed it, I tasted, I've seen it, and I recognize that God put that in my life to allow me to speak to some of these things that don't get spoken of very often.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> And, you know, no person can do it all, but the interesting thing is, Wess, I think the great lie of the enemy today is he convinces children they have no value, and he convinces adults that they can't do anything.\u00a0 Adults can do something, I mean, look at you.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Believe me, if God can use me, He can use anyone.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> You know, I think back to a few hours ago when Wess arrived, and we were in a room with a group of other folks, and there was a mom there with a four-month-old baby, and I noticed hits \u2013 you know, Wess came in and was gracious in saying hi to all of us, but you really went after that baby.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> He greeted the baby better than I did.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Wess:<\/strong> Little Isaac.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Yeah, and it should be that way \u2013 that we would look at the children who come across our path on any given day, and we'd take time for them; that we'd not ignore them; that we would not see them as an inconvenience or an interruption or in the way but that we would view them the way you have learned to view children and the way that you coach us to learn to view children.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIn the book that you wrote, called \"Too Small to Ignore,\" which we have copies of in our FamilyLife Resource Center, and I'm thinking not only of parents who need to read a book like this, but the folks who direct the children's ministry at a local church ought to read it.\u00a0 It's a book for all of us.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tYou can go on our website at FamilyLife.com, on the right side of the home page you see a box that says \"Today's Broadcast.\"\u00a0 If you click where it says \"Learn More,\" that will take you to an area of the site where there is information about Wess's book and how you can get a copy of it from us.\u00a0 Again, our website is FamilyLife.com.\u00a0 Click on the right side of the home page where it says \"Learn More,\" and you'll be on the page where you can get more information about Wess's book, and there is also information there about other resources \u2013 about adoption, about orphan care, which is really at the heart of what we're talking about here \u2013 taking care of children around the world.\u00a0 Not just our children but children in all kinds of circumstances and situations.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tYou can also call us for more information about getting a copy of Wess's book.\u00a0 The number is 1-800-FLTODAY, 1-800-358-6329, that's 1-800-F-as-in-family, L-as-in-life, and then the word TODAY, and when you call, someone on our team will let you know how you can get whatever resources you need sent out to you.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd I know that this is Thanksgiving week, and I know we're getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving here in the United States this week, and I don't want to rush the Christmas season, but I do want to let our listeners know about the book that Barbara Rainey has written for Christmas this year called \"When Christmas Came.\"\u00a0 It's an extended look at John 3:16, which, when you stop and think about it, it's a Christmas verse, and Barbara has combined new, original watercolors with her own reflections on John 3:16 in a beautiful gift book.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd we wanted to let our listeners know if you'd like to have a copy of this book to read through either on your own or with your family as you look forward to Christmas Day, we would love to send you a copy when you contact us this week to make a donation of any amount for the ministry of FamilyLife Today.\u00a0 All you have to do is go online at FamilyLife.com or call 1-800-FLTODAY and make a donation and simply request a copy of Barbara's new book.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIf you are online, you request a copy by writing the word \"Christmas\" in the key code box on the donation form, and if you call 1-800-FLTODAY and make a donation over the phone, just mention you'd like Barbara's new Christmas book, again, we're happy to send it out to you, and I should let you know it's not available anywhere other than through FamilyLife Today.\u00a0 It's not in stores anywhere this year, so if you'd like to get a copy, just go online and make a donation or call 1-800-FLTODAY and request it.\u00a0 We appreciate your financial partnership with us and your support of the ministry.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, tomorrow we're going to find out more about what God did to enlarge Wess Stafford's heart for children and how maybe some of that can rub off on us, and I hope you can be back with us for that. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.\u00a0 On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 We'll see you back tomorrow for another edition of FamilyLife Today. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tFamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013 help for today; hope for tomorrow.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t____________________________________________________________\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe are so happy to provide these transcripts for you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider <a href=\"http:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/donate\">donating today<\/a> to help defray the costs?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tCopyright \u00a9 FamilyLife. All rights reserved.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>www.FamilyLife.com<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<\/p>","theme_header_position":"","post_header_is_sticky":"","is_header_overlay":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast\/301716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/podcast"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301716"},{"taxonomy":"podcast_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast_series?post=301716"},{"taxonomy":"cwp_profile","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cwp_profile?post=301716"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=301716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}