God, Why Don't You Hear Their Prayer: Making a Difference in Spite of Injustice

God, Why don’t You Hear Their Prayer? is a question asked by people everywhere. Many times we see injustices in this world. We watch innocent children die of diseases. We see children in cancer hospitals who have no hope of tomorrow. There are women in the jungles of Africa dying of AIDS leaving thousands of orphans. All the while we sit, watch and wonder why God allows such atrocities Founding president of Hope4Kids International, Tom Eggum, has seen every kind of poverty and disease imaginable. He has visited hospitals, with unthinkable, filthy conditions where people were sent to die. One children’s hospital in Russia had seven needles which they used over and over, unknowingly spreading AIDS & hepatitis. God, Why Don’t You Hear Their Prayer? introduces Cubans, Russians, Romanians and Chinese who have been persecuted for their faith in Jesus. Two years ago Tom visited a village outside of Tororo, Uganda. There he met a beautiful people in love with our Lord Jesus Christ. Children were dying of treatable diseases like dysentery, measles and malaria. Thousands of orphans whose parents died of AIDS roamed the dusty countryside and poverty was outrageous. Yet in the middle of all this, a sound rose toward Heaven. Along with mothers weeping for their children was a song of praise to an Almighty God. In the midst of all that was wrong, they believed in a God who can make it all right. Something about these loving, trusting people tore at Tom’s heart as never before. When they shouted, “God is good! ALL the time!” Tom couldn’t understand it. Alone in his hotel room he cried out to God. Incensed at the injustice of it all he knelt next to his bed and ranted to the Lord about how unfair it was. He ended with, “God! Why don’t you hear their prayer?” In the stillness Tom sensed God saying: “I have heard their prayer. That’s why I sent you.” Tom emerged from that hotel room with a purpose. God had called him to do more and he was willing. Tom is more passionate than ever as he urges people to find God’s purpose in their lives. He tells them to look for the hurting amongst their neighbors, co-workers and strangers and to reach out with a smile, an encouraging word or an act of kindness. The media has bombarded us in recent years with stories of people helping people. We saw the country pull together after the attack of 911. We heard human interest stories of people helping tsunami victims. This was followed by Katrina. Celebrities held fundraisers and inspired people to give of themselves. We saw churches opening their doors to feed, clothe and counsel the suffering. People left the safety of their own home to help those in crisis. The AIDS epidemic across Africa is well publicized as people from the ordinary to power figures such as Oprah and Bono are pitching in and raising awareness. Christians and non-Christians are finding they can’t sit by and watch their brothers and sisters suffer. While sharing stories of desperate people the authors have found individuals from very young children to the elderly coming forward to ask what they can do to make a difference.