Too Small To Ignore.

Book Review.

Stafford, Wes. Too Small To Ignore. Why the least of these matters most. Waterbrook Press. 2007.
W.S.- Dr. Stafford is president of Compassion International one of the world’s largest Christian child-development agencies, partnering with more than sixty-five denominations and thousands of churches to serve more than six hundred thousand children in twenty-three countries.

Comment. Henry.
Although the focus of the book is the work of Compassion International it is very much a biography of its president. It is a story of great suffering and tragedy that became a driving force for good. It champions children and those who are involved with helping children realize their potential.

Wes spent his childhood in an African village of the Ivory Coast and in a residential school for missionary children, Bandulo Christian Academy, 750 miles away. The village part of his childhood was heaven compared to the school part which was hell. That hell was physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse of major proportions by the adults of the school. As a ten year old child Wes became the first child to break the silence forced upon the children to keep parents and other ‘outside’ adults from knowing what was going on.

Wes explains how his understanding of community and relationships developed in his life in the environment of a close African village. He felt involved and needed as a child in his father’s missionary ministry. He observed very strong relationships in a primitive culture. This gives him a unique understanding and motivation in his present ministry.

All the children of the boarding school during the time Wes and his sister were there experienced serious trauma. Many of them were damaged for life. As an adult Wes was able to turn that damage into good. He became a ‘fanatical’ champion for children. He was able to use the pain to become a “superachiever, which is a prison of its own”. (263)

For most of my 36 years as a school teacher I worked with elementary aged children. I was encouraged by the reading of this book that I did have an attitude toward these children that was based on Jesus’ teaching about the importance of “the least of these”. It was also a reminder for me to not neglect opportunities that I still have to encourage and empower children in their faith and development and the realization of their potential.

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