At World Orphans we have categorized the developing world into seven broad affinity blocs (and I do emphasize, broad). I was tasked today with writing descriptions for each of these regions for the new World Orphans website. I pained at the thought of putting together something expected and standardized with all the ‘necessary’ regional statistics, issues and opportunities.
I instead drew from my recent experience in Turkey, where I had the opportunity to see all seven cities of the Churches of Revelation – Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. As I journeyed to each location, I read, studied and reflected upon the seven letters, each referencing the sufferings or failings of the recipients. The visits breathed life into the verses and gave me a deeper understanding of Christ’s words and John’s visions.
I realized that, likewise, our seven geographic regions of involvement are fraught with affliction and fault. Such flaws are inherently related to the sin condition, of course, but are also the main determinants for the orphaning, abandoning and selling of children in these places.
These are the rebukes and cautions.
...And the Church in each region is the mechanism that restores hope.
Africa, You are ablaze. The raging firestorm of HIV/AIDS consumes your people with a vengeance. Malaria, tuberculosis, and other opportunistic demons prowl and pounce in the embers. Children are left to raise children. They crawl traumatized from the hot ashes and are preyed upon by disease-ridden men seeking healing myths or fleeting pleasures. The flames are stoked again as an affected generation becomes infected...and dies.
Restore hope...
Asia, Your southeastern peninsulas and islands have been ravaged. Poverty and perversion have had their claim on you. Your children are sold into slavery, play-toys of predators from near and far. Their commercial rape is your shame, the bitter badge of a morality void left by conflict, corruption and catastrophe. As always, the smallest victims suffer the greatest losses and cruelest injustices.
Restore hope...
India, You serve a myriad of idols, backed by powers and principalities that hold you in bondage. In your cities, the children beg for food and mercy in their shadows. In the villages, little girls’ lives are snuffed out slowly in the presence of their shrines. Evil comes in other forms also. Alcohol and debtor traps ensnare your families and disaster washes up on your shores. Meanwhile, little fingers are applied to dangerous work, limiting educations and stealing childhoods.
Restore hope...
Latin America and your satellite islands, You have seen much plunder and conquest. Your shattered realms fell to decay and exploitation at the hands of empires. Still today your people scatter and chase dreams of stability and promise. Your weaving slums and streets become a hotbed for abandonment and abuse while ill-gotten regimes milk the people of optimism and opportunity.
Restore hope...
North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia, You are held captive by a common jailor. He demands obedient works. But they are worth no more than the rags upon your disenfranchised children, borne out of shame and hidden away to veil the stigma. Your brothels are full of stolen youth, the sons and daughters of ‘infidels’ that have no place or value. Rise up and take hold of the heritage that came before. Retrace the steps of the great missionary who told and wrote of the One that weeps over you and your children.
Restore hope...
The sleeping giant who has awoken, You favor the heritage of sons. Meanwhile your daughters are silenced or abandoned to languish in bleak places, left to be sold into marriage or menial tasks. Millions of them are so, victims of government policies that limit population growth and devalue the fairest. The price will be reaped in the form of social instability and prostitution. Save your daughters now. Cherish them. Promote them in abundance.
Restore hope...
The Bloc that was broken, Institutionalized unbelief wreaked havoc on your proud history. Deception and base pleasures became a means to survival but now linger. Murder in the womb is rampant and many who make it out alive become tradable commodities, trafficked in whole and in parts. The tragic sting of liquor rips apart their families, leaving them to a sobering reality of frozen streets and smoky dens of prostitution.
Restore hope...
