The decision to appoint the first deacons was a result of discrimination, especially towards widows. ‘In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food’ (Acts 6:1). Over the years, it seems what we have to do for the widowed has been left to people who make the effort to care about what they go through.
It’s not only the pain of losing a loved one, there is the pain of knowing the only person who might have cared about your well-being is gone. In these times, we’ve adopted the ‘everyone is to himself’ order and many people like the widowed have to suffer it.
We don’t need to elaborate on this so much, except a few, most of the widowed persons we have around are aged and out of their prime to work. They lean on support from family to survive and when that fails, they turn to the streets. Some are sick and their family capitalizes on that to exploits them on the streets. Some are weak and their prayer is that they will meet a Samaritan.
Starlight Foundation over the years has dedicated our new year celebration to making the widowed smile. We do that not only as part of our agenda but also to remind you of the widowed in your community. Every year, we travel across separate districts in the country in a bid to meet widowed persons for interactions. We are not only gifting their material items, it’s also a time to listen to their part of the story of pain over the years. It’s within these talks that you find out that it’s not all about food, sometimes they need people to reason with them and show some level of concern.
That’s what we’re leaving you with as we journey to Dawhenya township on January 3, 2022. That widowed person needs attention, he or she needs a will to live and above all, we should ‘give proper recognition to those widows who are in need (1 Timothy 5:3)
#StarlightFoundation #LetUsSaveTheWorldTogether #NGO #YouAreNotAlone #YANA2022 #Aged #Fathers #Mothers #LessPrivileged #RuralAreas #Widowed #Dawhenya
