I talk to you every month about different exciting things that are going on within our ministry. Today I’m going to talk about something a little bit heavier.

We are a Guardian Ad Litem for the city of St. Louis. This means that when a child needs an order of protection, we go out and we interview the children. We look at records, we interview families, we talk to everyone we can, and then we provide a recommendation to the judge who is determining whether or not that child should have an order of protection for them.

Our story today is, as I mentioned, kind of heavy. A mom gave the child to the father, and the father watched the child. And when the father was returning the child to the mother, he handed the child to the mom and then began to choke her and punch her and abuse her. And she inadvertently dropped the child because she was protecting herself. This went to court and based on our recommendation, we recommended that the child receive an order of protection against the father.

So again, it’s a heavy issue, but it’s real. It’s something we deal with every day. And we deal with that about 350 to 400 times a year. So, although a heavy topic, a real topic, it’s real work that we do and it’s important work that we do because if you think about what we’re doing, we are protecting children. We’re not their representative. We are a voice of theirs to ensure that what happens to them is safe. So thank you for all that you do. Thank you for enabling our success.