Who Are Jesus’ Brothers and Sisters?
When we, adopted members of the family of God, sponsor, visit, love, write, protect, speak up for, adopt, and foster sponsored children in our own families we are living out the gospel. We are doing the will of our Father in heaven, and Jesus calls us brothers and sisters.
Continue Reading ›Will You Stand for Orphans?
Only Jesus can rescue a child from an orphanage and give the child a Heavenly mansion. But we need to bring them to His feet. This is not a commercial. This is also not a script. This is a calling.
Continue Reading ›I Met An Orphan Today
What follows is an excerpt from a blog post we recommend you read. It’ll move you.
We sampled the post selectively. There’s emotional stuff in between the samples. Promise.
I met an orphan today.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget her face.
. . .
I sat down on a bench and she scooted towards me. “What is your name?”
In perfect English, “My name is Susan. I am 12.”
She looked at me. I mean, really, looked into my eyes with a question in hers and then she blurted out, “Can I touch your hair?”
. . .
She tried braiding my hair and after a few minutes she gave up saying, “I think something is wrong with your hair. I can’t braid it.” Oh Susan, you are a wise one.
. . .
Again, her eyes found mine and she questioned, “Can I touch your skin? It is so white.”
This time I could only nod as she gently touched my arms and then my legs peeking out from my cropped pants.
“You are the first white woman I have touched,” she said in an almost hushed voice.
Read all of Kristen Welch’s post at We Are THAT Family.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget her face.Risks Remain Large for Kenyan Children
While the East African nation of Kenya does not grab as many headlines as its less stable neighbors to the west, disease, malnourishment and violence are leaving a mark on this generation of Kenyan children.
About 500,000 Kenyan children are missing school due to lack of food.
According to the World Food Program, in countries where school attendance is low, the promise of at least one nutritious meal each day boosts enrollment and promotes regular attendance. Where that is not offered, hunger interferes with the children’s concentration in class, affecting class performance. As famine takes its toll across the country, a growing number of students are staying away from school altogether to help their parents look for food (The Standard, Sept. 23, 2009).
Drought and famine have led to an increase in the high school dropout rate primarily in schools in the Njoro and Nakuru areas. While 29 percent of children in Nairobi are malnourished, that number increases to 42 percent in the Eastern Province (Daily Nation, Oct. 7, 2009).
The United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has stated that malnutrition is the major barrier to universal primary education in Kenya.
Famine conditions have also affected livestock in the rural areas of Kenya, undermining the primary source of income for pastoralists, especially the Maasai population. (more…)
Rwandan Genocide: Hope Lives
“I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil.” – Major General Romeo Dallaire, Force Commander, United Nations Mission Assistance in Rwanda.
But where evil is strong, hope is stronger.
I’m an employee at Compassion. I work as an assistant for our International Program Communications Director. I love my job and I love working for Compassion.
However, for years my heart has ached to travel to East Africa. I wanted to see firsthand the children that haunted my dreams and now consume my days as I work to help release children from poverty.
Last year, my boss agreed to let me take a two-month leave of absence to work at a Rwandan orphanage. I just got back a couple weeks ago.
While in Kigali, I experienced more hope and more devastation than I thought possible. But it’s because of Compassion that I am able to bring you this story about love, hope and sorrow in Rwanda. About some orphans, some widows and some abandoned children who when they have nothing left, cling to Jesus. In the midst of extreme poverty, they choose hope.
Rwanda. It seeped into every part of me. The only phrase that seems appropriate for this country is “Devastating Beauty.”
In Kigali, I saw more beauty than words can express. However, in some of the same moments, the realities of poverty and sickness overwhelmed and haunted me. All I know is that it profoundly changed me.
Like many 25-year-old girls in America, before I left for Rwanda, I attempted to define some characteristics of young men of integrity. In Kigali, I found examples of those men.
Song of Hope
He is the most remarkable storyteller there is. More than that, the brilliant author. He speaks and there is light. From His voice comes life.
His workmanship becomes ingrained within our being. He weaves stories into our lives. Stories of triumph, of sorrow, of sheer joy. Stories of hope.
Reading your stories of hope captivated me as well as resurrected a story of hope I have seen in my life, in a place before Compassion.
When He gave me this story, my life became enriched. My heart now scarred with such sacred radiance:
The Ripples of Child Sponsorship
“What can I do in the face of such hugeness?” we wonder. “What good would my pebble do in such a vast sea of suffering?” But here’s the amazing thing about pebbles dropped in the water — they create ripples.
