“The Drop Box” Film:
Pastor Saves Scores of Abandoned Babies
“…A warm bin, lodged in a wall, that allows mothers to deposit their children without being seen.”
That’s the first thing you read at the website for “The Drop Box.”
This new award-winning documentary tells the incredible story of a pastor who set up a drop box — a little baby incubator in the wall equipped with an alarm that notifies him and his staff when a baby has been placed in it — to save the lives of abandoned infants in Seoul, South Korea.
The timing is interesting. A few days after I saw the news about this film, I saw this headline on DrudgeReport.com: “state mulls ‘baby boxes’ for surrendering newborns.”
It’s not just in South Korea where this is happening.
1,400 newborn babies in the United States have been abandoned in an illegal way since 1999. Two-thirds of those babies died — according to Dawn Geras, the president of the Save the Abandoned Babies Foundation in Chicago.
But there’s hope for these abandoned babies.
According to this recent news report, Indiana might be the first state to widely use a drop box or “baby box” program for abandoned infants. If the bill passes, the baby box option will be designed for one purpose: convince mothers who are intent on abandoning their newborn babies to do so in a non-deadly way.
The article stresses — as does Pastor Lee Jong-rak in South Korea — that the drop box is always the last resort. Convincing the mothers to speak to someone and receive counseling is always pursued and preferred. The pastor prays for the day when drop boxes are no longer necessary.
“The Drop Box” (#thedropbox) tells a powerful story, and it is coming to theaters for a limited time. I urge you to see it. (See the film’s site for theater listings.)
According to the film’s site:
The Drop Box tells the story of South Korean pastor Lee Jong-rak and his heroic efforts to embrace and protect the most vulnerable members of society. It is a heart-wrenching exploration of the physical, emotional and financial toll associated with providing refuge to orphans that would otherwise be abandoned on the streets. But The Drop Box movie is also a story of hope—a reminder that every human life is sacred and worthy of love.
South Korea is not the only country grappling with the issue of orphan care. Around the world, there are more than 150 million orphans waiting for forever families to call their own.
This film’s subject matter — though a stunning picture of the love of Christ in the midst of great darkness — might be a preview of things to come in the United States, sadly, if the problem of baby abandonment grows.
The pastor’s ministry is also a vivid glimpse of what the term “culture of life” really means: doing all we can to save life, no matter where that life comes from, instead of destroying and discarding it. It stands in stark contrast to the “culture of death” that has seeped into the life and politics of modern society.
