Abandoned-Orphaned

The Sum of the Parts

...In part, a portal that whisks you to exotic worlds and immerses you into the real cultures behind the curtains – the byways of life and the gritty existence of people struggling to survive against pitiful odds. Along the journey, children are found left in the wake, abandoned and orphaned by powers and principalities that seek to destroy them, to destroy communities and nations.

...In part, an exposition of the Biblical mandates of caution, judgment, justice, care and blessing regarding the "least of these." An intimate look at God’s truth and what it means for us today in the midst of millions upon millions of children that simply desire to be loved.

...In part, an acknowledgement and exploration of the mega-issues of our time and how they are all interrelated, interconnected – and addressed – through the rescue and care of parentless and discarded children. In short, a unified view of the greatest outreach opportunity of our time, an approach to shatter vicious cycles that ensnare humanity and to mobilize masses to attack the core issue of spiritual separation.

...In part, a plea to realize and engage the amazing front-line force that God has placed and mobilized for the most significant global task before us. A rebuke and encouragement to put aside personal motivations and to instead join the bride in all her radiance - to support her, cherish her and strengthen her – by "letting the little children come" to her.

...In part, a synergistic, synchronized framework of action to help bodies of believers - both near and far - to reach out in an organized holistic approach that will change the very course of history...by changing the children’s lives that will immediately and ultimately impact it.

...In part, a consideration that the One who became incarnate in poverty, thrust out immediately as a refugee, and adopted in love and obedience, would use such as these for the completion of the wondrous commission we have been given.

...In part, a treatise that puts forth the absurd idea that we, in affluence, need those, in physical and spiritual depravity, for our own sanctification...that the orphan, widow and stranger are indeed precious gifts to us.

The sum of the parts?

A literary adventure that I’m presently embarking on: a book that reflects upon my exposure to over two-hundred care contexts for the fatherless in over sixty developing-world nations; a book that draws upon lessons learned in leading a ministry that has helped to provide five hundred homes to orphaned and abandoned children; a book of transparent admission of the many mistakes along the way; a book to inform, engage and mobilize for the most powerful world evangelization and church growth strategy of our generation.

Stay tuned!

Maria's Miracle Fund

(Click to enlarge)

Dear Friends,

Almost eight years ago, a precious family stepped forward at our church and offered to pay for adoption costs for us to receive our first daughter from China. At the time, Lisa and I were on staff at the church and were wondering how we could afford an international adoption on rather paltry ministry incomes.

If it were not for the generosity of our dear friends, Faith Elizabeth Li Ke Lin Myhill would not be a part of our family right now. Perhaps she would still be languishing in a Chinese orphanage. Perhaps she would have been adopted by a family that rejects Christ.

Either way, God used our friends to change the course of an eternal life.

This, in part, is the ministry of Shaohannah’s Hope, the organization founded by Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth Chapman. As most of you now know, Steven and Mary Beth tragically lost their Chinese-adopted daughter, Maria Sue Chapman, a couple of days ago.

"Maria’s Miracle Fund" has been set up by Shaohannah’s Hope in Maria’s honor. The Chapman family has asked, in lieu of gifts and flowers, to make donations to this fund, to help families rescue their own "Maria" from desperate situations around the globe.

Due to the commitment of a World Orphans donor, you can double your participation in this fund and help change lives forever.

From now until June 1st, all checks received at our office, with "Maria" written in the memo line, will be eligible for this matching gift, up to $10,000 ($20,000 total.) In addition, all online donations received during this time period will qualify for the same doubling program. World Orphans will be taking out no administrative fee on these donations. 200% of funds will be forwarded.

For those of you sending in checks, please make them payable to World Orphans and also feel free to enclose a message for the Chapman family. We will send on all the cards and notes accordingly.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS OPPORTUNITY TO FRIENDS WHO WISH TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR THE CHAPMANS AND THE BLESSING OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION!

Until They All Have Homes,

Paul
President

World Orphans
1840 Woodmoor Dr., Suite 100
Monument, CO 80132
1-888-ORPHANS
719-487-1700
Facebook Profile

All contributions are tax deductible and eternally significant.

A Sense of Urgency

Our fourth stop to view church-based school programs being conducted amongst the ethnic Vietnamese living on the waterways in Cambodia, took us across the Mekong from the capital city of Phnom Penh. Here, set in the current against a small chiseled cliff on the opposite bank, sits a small community of boats and barges within eyeshot of the metropolis that preys upon its children.

As I was sharing and praying with the young students, two of our group spoke with the teachers. When asked how often children in the community are sold to traffickers, the response was an affirmation of steady frequency. The teachers then pointed out the two oldest girls in the classroom, aged 12 or 13, and stated that, "If they don’t get jobs and provide income for their families soon, they will probably be sold."

These same girls smiling for my camera lens in a school setting could very soon be forced to pose for pornographic photos as men repeatedly take advantage of them, up to twenty times per day.

Our minds went into action. The need for sound research and approach collided with an immediate sense of urgency. This is typically the case with such scenarios. One has to figure out the right culturally-relevant strategy and implementation steps through the local indigenous churches, but also acknowledge that, as each day passes, more and more children are placed in imminent danger. (Please view my related, ‘Green Lights’ post regarding this delicate balance.)

And so this is my promise:

We’re quickly going to assess trade-skill development programs that also provide immediate income opportunities for these older children as an alternative to being sold into prostitution. These programs will include capital equipment needs and micro-finance initiatives to then place fully-trained girls into positions of self-sustainability. As we evaluate the market opportunities for the goods these girls can produce, we will also open up western markets to them through inventive Internet-based tools.

After all, World Orphans not only seeks to respond to orphaning and abandonment, but prevent them.

........................................................................................

If you are interested in contributing to this pilot program that will be executed using trusted, experienced partners, please send donations to World Orphans and write "Child Sex-Trade Prevention" in the memo line of your check.

World Orphans
1840 Woodmoor Dr., Suite 100
Monument, CO 80132
1-888-ORPHANS
719-487-1700

All contributions are tax deductible and eternally significant.

Approach and Tools

A couple of weeks ago, I joined the Board of Directors for IllumAlliance (please click the link to learn more about this wonderful humanitarian organization and to see the appointment announcement.)

While I was in Iraq, IllumAlliance’s President, Robert Cipriano, asked me to respond to a question that he posed on his Facebook Profile.

As a follow-on to the question, "What does it take to get involved with crisis children?" Robert asked:

"With an ever shrinking world brought together by social networks like Facebook, Linkedin and MySpace, what can we as captains of this new voyage do to minimize poverty, homelessness and abuse and maximize our impact?"

The answer had to be limited to 255 characters. Well, as anybody who knows me, and anybody subscribed this blog (upper right-hand corner), can attest...I can’t keep anything under 1,000 characters, let alone 300.

I’ve therefore posted my – still brief by my standards – response here for the benefit of the IllumAlliance folks and my own abandoned-orphaned subscribers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, Rob, I’ll tie both questions together.

It’s a multifaceted issue, requiring both a top-down and bottom-up approach as well as macro and micro engagements. It’s too complex to really get into much detail here, but...

The major issues that affect the children (including the causes and symptoms you mention: poverty, homelessness and abuse) have to be tackled in part at the governmental and international community levels, yes. But ultimately everything ties back to fallen human nature and the multitudes of iniquities inherent therein. Reconciliation to our original design and nature is truly the only all-encompassing resolution. After all, everything that plagues the children can be traced back to the sinful character, intentions, actions and outcomes of mankind.

Having said that, to attack the greater societal issues from the top-down using secular approaches (but driven by the Love that guides us), we have to put pressure on nations and international oversight bodies. The issues have to be continually brought to the surface and our voices must be heard through the clutter.

The new medium of connectivity and voice is indeed the Internet. Blogs, social networking sites, and streaming/reporting technologies are truly a ‘viral’ way of raising awareness and mobilizing masses to action – to solicit political parties, nations and their broader associations to change.

From the bottom-up, ‘grassroots,’ angle, it’s simply the rescue of ‘one child at a time,’ knowing that each child rescued is not only a child taken out of the statistics, but also a child who becomes an advocate for change herself. It’s a geometric impact.

When you consider the interconnectivity and cause-effect cycle of the issues, it becomes clear that you just have to reach in and break the chain at the most opportune point.

For example, HIV/AIDS causes orphans who, in turn, are raped, trafficked to brothels, or engage in prostitution to survive. They become the next breeding ground of HIV/AIDS. One can help to tackle the behemoth problem of HIV/AIDS by therefore rescuing an orphan. It’s a practical, tangible, measureable approach to fighting the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

You can look at other related vicious circles also. Terrorism causes orphans who are then recruited or stolen into terrorist camps; Prostitution causes abandoned children who then become prostitutes; Child soldiers cause orphans who are then snatched up to be child soldiers; Poverty causes discarded children who grow up impoverished, etc. By attacking one link in the chain – in this case, orphans – you break the cycle. Given the huge composite issues involved, I would also argue that this is the easiest and most practical link to break.

This, of course, is what I’m involved in personally at World Orphans. According to the United Nations, there are 143 million orphans (semi and full) in the world. There are hundreds of thousands of churches (across all denominations and styles) set in their midst. A very practical, cost-effective strategy, therefore, is to partner with these churches to simply rescue and care for the orphans in their immediate community- even preventing orphaning and abandonment in the first place. This involves the resourcing and training of these churches.

If we can get each church to rescue each child, we will see each community transformed. We will see nations transformed.

This is doable. This has results. It’s not a highbrow, straw-man proposition built on just theory and conjecture.

For a deeper perspective on this, please review my blog posts, the Mega-Issue and Home Placement.

Now as far as awareness for all of this is concerned, the present tools are the same as for the top-down strategy – the electronic media options of our time. Direct mail doesn’t work. Advertising doesn’t work. Organizational booths at thinly-attended conferences don’t work.

Just as we rescue a child who then impacts communities as those communities see the transformation of the child, and just as that child acts as a direct advocate for change, so must we also approach the exposure/awareness/mobilization task in the same multiplicative way. We need champions who can infect the cyber world with the message. We need tools that immediately broadcast the issues to people who can be advocates, who can solicit and enlist others to get involved.

We all have our part, Rob. You are a workhorse that does so much for this effort in so many areas. But I’m especially excited by the more effective IT tools and broadcast options you are bringing online to enhance the roles that we each have to play.

Thank you for that!

From personal experience on the whole social networking, blogging thing...

I’ve only been a member of Facebook for three months, but have almost 1,800 folks in my network that are enquiring everyday about general volunteer opportunities, participating in short-term trips to orphan homes, contributing to the work, advocating on behalf of the children to their social networks, engaging in intern roles, etc. In addition, over just a span of a few weeks, we have over 1,000 members in our sponsored, "A Heart for Missions" group. We have also just gotten started on the "Fight Campaign" group that specifically looks at breaking the chains mentioned above.

Likewise, the abandoned-orphaned blog here has only been up for a year but has hundreds of subscribers and almost 1,000 people faithfully visiting it each day. Wherever I go to speak at or attend conferences and seminars, organizational leaders and attendees approach me and tell me how they use the blog as a significant source of info on orphans and abandoned children. This has resulted in new network partners, new donors, new people approaching us to join the team.

I don’t say all this to toot my own horn. To the contrary, this has happened with very little human effort on my part. It’s just indicative of the reality that people have a heart to connect, learn, and make an impact. And it’s evidence that God will use such vehicles to spread the message.

The tools are there...and you’re adding to that toolset, Rob.

We just have to utilize them in a concerted effort for change, coupled with sensible, realistic avenues of involvement.

Potholes

We were told a ‘joke’ today by Iraqi man who said that it was a famous yarn spun around the country. Although it originally referred to a certain region of Iraq in a derogatory way, it has a far-reaching association and conviction for us today.

The joke goes as follows (with a little artistic license and Iraq photography thrown in by me for good measure):

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was an inept governor overseeing an important province in Iraq. One day he was approached by citizens who were complaining about a giant pothole in the provincial capital’s main street. The gaping blemish caused tires to blow out, hurtling cars into each other. There were many injury accidents. Furthermore, people crossing the street would fall into the hole. They experienced numerous broken bones, gashes and bruises as a result.

The citizens challenged the governor to immediately take care of the hazard.

"No problem," said the governor. "We will put an ambulance by the pothole to be ready for the injured."

A few days later the citizens approached the governor again. They explained to him that the ambulance wasn’t enough; that it was constantly being filled up and put into service while many pothole-accident victims suffered without attention.

"No problem," said the governor. "We will assign more ambulances there for the task."

A week passed and the citizens again visited the governor. This time they complained that, even with the additional ambulances, there were more accidents than the emergency vehicles could handle.

"No problem," said the governor. "We will build a hospital next to the pothole."

Many months later, a new state-of-the-art hospital was completed at great cost next to the pothole.

Shortly after its opening, the citizens once more turned up at the governor’s office. Angrier than ever, they explained to him that the hospital was completely full and that more accidents were occurring than the new facility could cope with.

"No problem," said the governor. "We will lower the whole city to the level of the bottom of the pothole."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As absurd as this tale sounds, it is the approach that many nations, organizations and individuals take regarding a whole host of problems that plague the developing world. We are good at mobilizing against symptoms, but often ignore the root causes. Consequently, we frequently make the problem and related symptoms even worst.

We have poured billions of dollars into Africa over the past five decades, but the continent suffers from a lower standard of living than when we first started. We should have invested right off the bat into training and self-sustainability initiatives rather than straight financial aid and temporary humanitarian-relief projects.

We have expended countless dollars for mosquito nets, prophylaxis medications, infection care, and after-care programs in response to the scourge of malaria. We should have instead worked harder to convince governments of the necessity of, and provided the resources for, the eradication of the airborne pests through widespread extermination strategies.

We continue to spend even more billions on the treatment of deadly diseases associated with unclean water, instead of providing the lump sums and technology required to drill wells that supply safe water for communities.

In the orphan and street children context, we donate money for feeding centers that actually help and enable kids to stay on the streets; that actually cause more kids to run away from home. We build huge, isolated orphanages that raise kids who don’t know the value of a family and how one works. These children end up becoming the parents of the next generation of children that are abandoned or orphaned.

Rather, we should be working through the community care providers – the churches – that already know what families in their vicinities are suffering and are at risk of orphaning or abandoning their children. The churches can identify and tackle the underlying problems and, if necessary, stand in the gap (the pothole) to take these children into family-style homes before they hit the streets, dumps or brothels.

From another angle, it is all too clear that the developing world is mercilessly bombarded by HIV/AIDS, prostitution, human trafficking, drugs and all manner of other societal ills. All these blights can be diminished through the rescue of children; children that are taken out of the statistics themselves; children who can in turn be raised up and educated to challenge and fight these evils. This is analogous to reaching in, breaking the cause-effect chains, and attacking the root causes in a very tangible way.

Instead of dancing around the issues and throwing money at the symptoms, it’s time to pick up a shovel and start filling in the potholes.

(Images: Iraq street scenes)

As if You Yourselves

Gary Haugen, President of International Justice Mission, incorporated a moving illustration into his speech at the 2007 Global Summit on AIDS and the Church.

Gary asked us to imagine coming upon a burning building. Flames are licking out of the windows and the unstable structure is quickly being consumed by the ravages of the fire.

He then told us that there is a person in the building in need of rescue.

What do you do?

Do you stay? Do you call for help? Do you go in?

Can you imagine yourself nervously weighing all the options?

I did.

I inserted myself into that horrible scenario. Would I be wondering whether the building would collapse upon me? Would I be scared of being disfigured for life, perhaps without even being able to successfully save the person?

Gary then added another element into the consideration: "What if you then found out that it was your own child, or your own mother, desperately calling for help from the building?"

I thought of my children.

Given that additional scenario, most of us (most of us with healthy relationships, that is) wouldn’t even think twice about it. Pure adrenaline would set in. We would rush into the blazing torment, through the curtains of flames, without heed of our own safety or potential consequences. We would do anything we could to save our children. We would sacrifice all for even the chance that they could be rescued.

Gary correctly pointed out that Scripture tells us that we should "Remember...those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." (Hebrews 13:3)

That thought simultaneously hit me right between the eyes and straight through the heart.

Do I care for all these orphaned and abandoned children, all these abused and exploited children, as if they were my own, as if they were even myself?

Do you?

That’s what we’re called to do.

Overkill?

Why all the Rwanda genocide blog entries on this visit? Entries that assail the senses and bruise the soul? Entries that relentlessly discomfort and offend?

Is it all overkill?

(an intentional choice of words.)

Why I am repeatedly plunging you into the descriptive imagery and pictures of a mass murder, especially during this Christmas season?

Enough is enough, right?

The Finley Peter Dunne quote I saw hanging in Dr. Wess Stafford's office sums up the answer in one respect. It also sums up a good part of my job and calling: "Comfort the afflicted; Afflict the comfortable."

This would fall into the "afflicting the comfortable" part.

In 1994 we all sat silent. US AID evacuated its Kigali office, leaving its Rwandan staff to die. They now have a plaque there commemorating the deaths they could have helped to prevent. The UN didn’t heed the warnings and also withdrew instead of engaging. The media was quiet.

Just another bunch of Africans killing Africans. We all sat idly by in our apathy or ignorance.

It wasn’t until 10 years later, at the anniversary of the tragedy and with the release of the challenging and inspiring movie, Hotel Rwanda, that it really hit people’s radar screens. Only then did people even become aware of what happened during those 100 days of tumult, here in Rwanda.

The Hotel des Mille Collines has been relegated to a tourist attraction, a place for then-disinterested persons to now go to be able to brag about staying at Hotel Rwanda. Just another notch in a globe-trotting tourist’s belt.

We shut these atrocities out, or never allow ourselves to truly understand them. We rarely delve into the mire to get into the lives behind the statistics or to even comprehend that real lives underlay the statistics. We’re too busy. Too distracted. Too comfortable.

But maybe we’d think differently about 800,000 to 1 million people being brutally exterminated if we saw the bashed skulls, the pierced and ripped clothing bearing the stains of bloodied dismemberment, the horrific images of intense pain and suffering, the evidence of unrelenting evil that encapsulates the heart of our enemy?

The enemy that wants to snatch and dash the dreams of children.

The dirt road up to the Ntarama Church is one of beautiful serenity. There is no evidence of war or wicked bloodshed as you traverse its bumpy, rutty trail. The outside grounds of the church are peaceful, shaded by majestic acacia trees and decorated with white and pink streamers free-flowing in a gentle breeze. Even a person living one block away could easily forget the thousands of bloodcurdling screams that emanated from its walls...as the heads of adults were being cracked open within them and infants were being hurled against them.

By the Rwandan government’s estimate (reported at the Kigali genocide memorial center), the murderous rampage left 300,000 orphans. That’s reason enough to dissect and dwell upon the tragedy here.

But there’s another tie-in. Just as we forget that the one million victims each – individually - met with extreme personal pain in their demise, and just as we forget that the one million victims each represent a personal life of goals, dreams, and ambitions, of grand plans and mundane tasks snuffed out prematurely...so do we forget that 143 million orphans today have faces and lives of suffering.

The same enemy that wants to steal the hopes of children, wants to physically steal away their parents.

He wants to see hundreds of millions of abandoned and orphaned taken in a slow, quiet genocide.

The media is still silent as they die.

May we never sit idly by again.

Green Lights

"As churches in the west keep planning and planning, children are dying."

This was one of the criticisms communicated to us here in Rwanda. The belief is that western churches and organizations tend to spend too much time planning, and too little time implementing.

Like most things, it’s a balance. It order to ensure right relationships, good accountability, and successful outcomes, a fair amount of groundwork and organization has to occur. After all, God Himself is a God of planning and order.

But often, the west is too gun shy or simply scared into inaction.

As I flew from London to Nairobi on this trip, I watched an Indian movie on the plane. The dialog was in Hindi, with English subtitles. One of the main characters was a young lady who was looking for a husband. Her requirements were numerous and restrictive – he had to be smart, creative, successful, humorous, sensitive, attractive, of good character, from a respected family, etc. The catalog of qualities went on and on. She didn’t accept courtship from anybody who failed to meet all her criteria.

As she was listing all the necessary items, a co-worker interrupted her by asking if she wanted to hear a story about a friend and his new car. She wasn’t really sure what a car had to do with anything, but she reluctantly agreed.

Her colleague said that his friend’s car was beautiful, a shiny work of art, but that he refused to take it out for a drive until all the street lights were green. He didn’t want to encounter any possible impediments or incidents on the road.

The young lady got the point. You can’t wait until every detail lines up perfectly. It may never happen. You simply have to go out for a drive and see what conditions and circumstances are presented. Yes, one learns how to drive, how to anticipate and navigate around potential problems, but you actually have to get behind the wheel and put things in motion to make any progress and get to any destination.

Again, it’s a balance. We don’t blindly go into things. And with so many orphaned and abandoned children in the world today, we can choose to be especially picky in who we associate with as agents of their rescue.

But there are definitely many churches and organizations that appear to be trapped in analysis paralysis.

Why they navigate bureaucratic structures and debate the finer points of ministry engagement and budget line items...

...children are dying.

Invitation to the White House

Jay Hein, Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI), has invited me to the White House Compassion in Action Roundtable this Friday. The theme of the Roundtable is "Faith and Community Solutions for Orphans and Vulnerable Children."

According to the invitation:

President Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative flows from the conviction that the most effective way to address our communities' great needs is to draw upon the unique strengths of every willing community and faith-based partner. At the vanguard of efforts to care for orphans, foster children and other vulnerable youth are community nonprofits, faith-based groups and other dedicated service organizations. Any serious effort to address the great needs of our day must recognize these organizations as necessary and invaluable allies.

The Roundtable will focus on innovative policies and partnerships that are effectively aiding orphans and vulnerable children. The audience will be comprised of government officials, policymakers, business leaders, foundation representatives, philanthropists and faith-based and community leaders.  We have limited attendees to allow for more significant interaction and discussion.

After the necessary clearance by the Secret Service (not a slam dunk for me since I’m not a US citizen), we quickly re-arranged my Thailand trip to accommodate a quick visit to Washington D.C. this week.

(Image: President George W. Bush addresses faith-based and community leaders at a prior Roundtable. White House photo by Joyce Naltchayan.)

We would greatly appreciate your prayers as I network and dialog with governmental, secular and ministry leaders...for the rescue and care of the orphan.

Facebook

Well, I gave in. After multiple invitations and a little coaxing, I finally signed up for Facebook a few days ago. I’m actually pretty surprised how many friends I’ve already re-connected with there...friends from college, friends from seminary, friends from churches I've served at.

You can view my Facebook profile here. I invite you to join me there also. It’s free. And it’s a great place for us to further interact about the amazing opportunity to reach abandoned and orphaned children in the developing world. For that purpose, we’ve also formed a WORLD ORPHANS group on the Facebook site that we’ll kick off shortly to promote discussion about the strengthening of indigenous churches to reach the least of the ‘least of these.’

In addition, we’ll soon be using the Facebook site to launch The Fight Campaign, an integrated approach to mobilize people to help the multitudes of parentless children impact our world for Christ. The Fight Campaign is designed to take people who have a heart for any or all of the issues that cause and affect orphans (HIV/AIDS, drugs, prostitution, disease, and more), and show them how all those same issues are tackled by simply rescuing the orphans themselves. It’s about breaking the vicious cycle. It’s also the full-blown campaign version of the mega-issue series that was first presented here on the abandoned-orphaned blog months ago.

Furthermore, The Fight Campaign is being developed into an accompanying book that we’re currently working on. We’ll announce it first on Facebook.

Don’t miss these exciting involvement opportunities. Go to Facebook and sign up to have a voice in these upcoming programs! Click on my profile and it’ll display a page that'll help get you started.

One person truly can help change the world. That person is you!