Every time I hear or read that old English expression, "Suffer the little children...," I can't help but misinterpret the word suffer. I think of all the children throughout the world who know nothing but suffering. Whether in war-torn Iraq, the streets of Ciudad del Este, or the home that is not safe from mommy's boyfriend, millions of children suffer every day.

I'll never forget the images I saw while traveling with "Momma Jasmine" of REACH, International, on our way to the train station in Bucharest, Romania. Several children crawled out of a manhole—the door to their underworld shelter from the cold.

At the station, I saw three children working together. The oldest, a girl about eight or nine years of age, created a distraction while the younger two, a girl about five and a boy three, tried to snitch a snack from a nearby vendor.

A policeman also observed what I saw and cornered the two little ones. He grabbed both of them with one hand by the scruff of their necks, reeled back, and kicked them with his big, black boot across the floor of the station. I didn't understand Romanian, but I had no need of a translator to get his message.

I can't be in Romania, Cambodia, or Lebanon to care for all the suffering children, but I can partner with churches, schools, clinics, orphanages, and relief agencies who every day give these children a chance. When I partner with them, I partner with God.

Gary Burns is the Lake Union Conference Communication director.