Abandoned-Orphaned

Turkey Posts

My trip through Turkey has had me staying in some rather 'earthy' places, from the basement of a 100 year-old church to cheap hotels that make most missionary guest houses look like five-star luxury accommodations.

I’ve also had an extremely packed schedule, involving early mornings, late nights and 1,491 miles of travel in a compact car during a three day period.

Needless to say, I haven’t had much Internet availability or computer time along the way.

I’m presently back in Istanbul after various meetings, the chance to preach at two church services (Russian and Turkish), and – bonus - the opportunity to see all seven cities of the churches of Revelation, plus Colossae, Hierapolis and other cities of Biblical significance.

I have some amazing stories to share – stories of wonderful historical encounters; stories of trafficked girls finding redemption; stories of near-death experiences; stories of churches waking up to the call to care for the orphan and widow.

...But I’ll simply have to share them with you later.

Thanks for your prayers!

Let's Talk Turkey!

Dear Friends,

The end of my self-imposed international travel moratorium (after the birth of our new baby, Naomi) is at hand.

I’m presently on the way to Turkey, to visit one of our partners that is using the rescue and care of orphaned and abandoned children as part of a church planting strategy there.

As always, I would appreciate your prayers while I’m away...and for my wife, Lisa, and four kids at home.

You can follow my trip here on the blog.

Thanks,
Paul

Would You Press the Button? (part two)

I see the button as an allegory, a metaphor of sorts.

The fact of the matter is that we press that button every day.

As we go about our daily lives of comfort and excess, without consideration of how our choices and actions might impact others, we adversely affect ‘strangers’ the world over.

When we buy a new bathroom rug because the last one is apparently out of style, we keep an eight year-old boy, Rajan, chained to a loom in Nepal.

When we pick up a latte from our favorite barista, we fuel a conglomerate that forces Juan, a poor Costa Rican coffee grower, to sell at prices far below what would allow him to afford that same cup of coffee for himself.

When we buy the latest fancy T-Shirt with gold embossing at XYZ Casuals, we rob Ajay from ever leaving the cotton plantation that holds him and his sisters in perpetual bondage in South India.

When we go on an exotic spa vacation to Southeast Asia, we entrap Isra, a fifteen year-old Thai girl from the impoverished hill tribes, in a world of daily violation and exploitation.

When we visit that adult Website that our teachers warned us about, we enable pornographers to imprison a scared teenage girl, Imana, in a Burundian hotel room for three days, robbing her of her innocence and privacy.

When we choose to adopt a child from a country with a less-than-reputable child-placement program, we cause Esmeralda to reluctantly give up her new baby girl in Latin America.

When we select that rare hardwood for our kitchen cabinets because it nicely matches the existing wallpaper and is much grander than the neighbor’s remodel, we help to eradicate the ecosystem that sustains Daniel and his family in Brazil.

When we choose to get an organ transplant in Eastern Europe because the wait is too long in the United States, we cause the abduction of Serge, a street child in Moldova, and the subsequent harvesting of his kidneys.

Whether it’s the big and profound (organ transplants, Internet pornography, and international adoptions), or the seemingly trite and trivial (cups of coffee, T-shirts, kitchen cabinets, vacations, and bathroom rugs), we constantly enslave, maim and kill our neighbors around the planet.

What’s unsettling is that the facts are out there and are readily available. They can be researched with relative ease. But we simply don’t have the time and inclination to do so.

We’re just much too busy...and comfortable.

We keep pressing the button.

To be continued...

Sasha

The Director of an orphanage in St. Petersburg, Russia, described to us the jovial personality of an outgoing boy named Sasha. Sasha was one of approximately fifty orphans living with AIDS at the medical institution.

On one occasion, the Director asked each child who their best friend was. Sasha’s reply was immediate and deliberate, "My grandmother!"

Puzzled, the Director asked, "Who are you talking about, Sasha? You have been here for more than six years and I have never seen a grandmother visit you. You have no grandmother that I know of."

Six years ago an elderly lady visited the orphanage. She gave Sasha a stuffed animal, hugged him, and said, "My child, I could very well be your grandmother!"

She hadn’t returned since, but she left an indelible impression on Sasha. Over the years, the little boy held onto her sweet memory and statement. To him, the thought of a grandmother, of family, was to be cherished above all the friendships he had made since then.

She, or what she represented, made the elderly lady his very best friend in the world...even though he had encountered her briefly - just once - many years ago.

Children desire families.

And God desires to ‘set the lonely in families.’

Institutions aren’t the answer. Families are.

World Orphans Rescue! - Portfolios (part two)

Here are just a few current opportunities within the World Orphans project portfolios:

(Image: Rescued child in India)

SECTOR: Infanticide Rescue
REGION: South Asia (India)
PARTNERS: Impact International, New Directions International
CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: $450,000

DESCRIPTION: World Orphans has funded a fulltime representative to help identify and establish 15 church-based homes in an area of India known for large-scale female infanticide. Some of these children have already been rescued. Others are presented to our partners by midwives who are aware of a family’s intent to kill their baby if it is a girl. These children are literally saved from the grave.

(Image: Children of Iraq)

SECTOR: Children of Conflict
REGION: NAMEstan (Iraq)
PARTNERS: Major denomination not disclosed due to security reasons
CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: $1 million
MATCHING GRANT: All funds received by November 15th, up to $300,000, will be matched 100%

DESCRIPTION: "World Orphans Iraq" has now been officially approved as a charity in Iraq. Our office there is currently being opened and we have been given full permission to establish the first church-based orphan homes in the country. Many abandoned and orphaned children now seek stability and security. This is your opportunity to make a personal difference in this war-torn country.

(Image: Young fatherless girl in Moldova)

SECTOR: Abuse and Exploitation
REGION: Eurussia (Moldova)
PARTNERS: New Hope International
CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: $500,000

DESCRIPTION: Moldova is the #1 trafficking hub for persons in all of Europe and the world’s top exporter of forced child prostitution. Our partner is rescuing orphaned and abandoned children from the streets, as well as from institutions that would sell children into sexual slavery or for the harvesting of their vital organs. Our children’s homes are being established with churches that are situated in key regions of such terrible abuse and exploitation.

(Image: Children that have escaped the war in Northern Uganda)

SECTOR: Children of Conflict (Genocide)
REGION: NAMEstan (Sudan) and Sub-Sahara (Rwanda, Burundi)
PARTNERS: Operation Mobilization, ALARM, and a major multi-national organization not disclosed due to security reasons
CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: $500,000
MATCHING GRANT: All funds received by Nov. 30th, up to $50,000, will be matched 100%

DESCRIPTION: Widespread ethic massacre has left thousands of first and second-generation orphans. Children that were orphaned years ago are now having children that they can’t support. Abandonment is rampant. More recently, churches have been destroyed. Pastors and their congregations have been butchered. These churches are being re-established and homes for orphans are being built to care for the children that were left behind.

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

All contributions are tax deductible and eternally significant

Wrong Side of Their Chests

In Moldova, there is an expression concerning greedy, corrupt men that exploit people for personal gain. It is said that they "have their hearts on the wrong side of their chests."

Most people in the world are right-handed. Moldovans will say that this dominant hand is the hand that grabs, takes, and strikes. To have your heart on the right side of the body, instead of on the left, would be synonymous with a repugnant heart motivated by self-advantage and avarice.

Moldova itself has also had a radical change in symmetry. Its heart has been ripped out and reinserted out of place.

Previously one of the wealthiest regions in the former Soviet Union, it now holds the distinction of being the most impoverished country in Europe. More than 80% of its inhabitants live on less than a dollar per day. Official unemployment sits close to 100%.

Cheap wine used to be the country’s greatest export. That has now been replaced by cheap prostitutes and human organs. Moldova is the #1 trafficking hub for persons in all of Europe and the world’s top exporter of forced child prostitution. According to the Tiraspol Times, "Moldova holds a dubious world record: The country is today the leading haven for pedophiles and for traffickers who earn fortunes enslaving underage kids in a brutal international sex trade."

Many of those trafficked kids are parentless children plucked from the streets and institutional orphanages.

(WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR HER? A young girl in a Moldovan state orphanage)

The Tiraspol Times also points out that:

"In Moldova, much of the flesh trade is done with government involvement."

A recent U.S. State Department report confirms that:

"Low and high-level government officials are involved in trafficking crimes. Moldovan authorities simply turn a blind eye and refuse to arrest or prosecute anyone."

PBS Frontline reported earlier this year that:

"With full knowledge and often even complicity of Moldovan government officials, young girls are torn from their lives and sold into slavery. The prosecution rate is abysmal. We know that there is a level of corruption; we know that there is bribery. But without the political will to address this, traffickers will continue to operate with impunity."

Leaders are supposed to serve and protect their citizens, especially those that are the most vulnerable – the children, the orphans.

In Moldova, however, too many of these so-called leaders simply have their hearts on the wrong side of their chests.

Tearing Down Walls

"Nobody can see what goes on behind those walls."

During a visit to the World Orphans offices on Friday, our Moldovan partner shared more with us about the abuses against orphans and street children in his country. Stolen and trafficked for pornography, sex and vital organs, these children are in a constant state of abuse and fear.

It is indeed a State of abuse and fear also. Corruption, perversion and poverty make Moldova the regional epicenter for the trade in the flesh of children. Crooked communist officials and orphanage directors are very much a part of the mechanism that drives this wicked marketplace.

(Image: Some of the children that our indigenous Moldovan partner ministers to)

Moldova is a culture of walls. Walls around homes. Walls around shops. Walls around churches. Walls around orphanages.

Walls keep prying hands and eyes out. When you live in the poorest country in Eastern Europe and have such little, you need to protect it. When you try to make money from a readily-available resource – orphaned and abandoned children - you need to protect it.

The communist government of Moldova manifests a culture of walls also. Things are done in secret. Dissenters are removed or killed. The communists will "dig under their foundations and collapse them," according to our partner. To be critical of the government and its allowances of widespread abuses equates to social or corporeal suicide.

You can’t attack these walls head on. Much like Jericho, you simply circle them and trust in the Lord’s power. You go about the destruction of the barricades by educating the people and showing them Christ.

Right now, and all through this month and next, our Moldovan partners are working in concert with some other ministries in an "Anti-Trafficking Campaign" throughout the country. These ministries have been allowed to go into schools to conduct presentations that raise the awareness of rampant human trafficking in the country. Tens of thousands of children will hear and know. Their towns and villages are also exposed to the banners, brochures and activities.

The government is allowing the program presumably to gain favor in the international community, to appear that it is on the side of good.

The greatest problem concerns the orphans of the streets and institutions. The school campaign, however, is all about education and mobilization. It’s about getting a ground swell of folks to eventually fight the injustices, to ultimately tackle the broader societal and governmental issues that perpetuate children being stolen, sold, enslaved and killed...behind walls.

It’s about tearing down walls, one brick at a time.

A New Life for Orphans (part one)

Stark Contrasts

Bob Lepine (Vice President/Chief Content Officer, FamilyLife): This is FamilyLife Today for Tuesday, August 7th. Our host is the president of FamilyLife, Dennis Rainey, and I'm Bob Lepine. We'll hear today about some of the things Christians are doing all over the world to reach out to the "least of these." Thanks for joining us.

I know you remember your first visit to an orphanage, to a children's home, overseas. Was it in Russia for you?

Dennis Rainey (CEO/President, FamilyLife): It was. It was in Russia. I took a couple of our children over there, and Barbara and I went. I'm going to tell you, Bob, you're never prepared to walk into one of those orphanages and see those faces of children and just the starkness of how little they have, but still they have a place.

Bob: I had the opportunity, when I was in China a number of years ago, to visit two different orphanages out in an outlying area away from the city. The first orphanage I went to was quiet and kind of lethargic, you know? Just not a lot happening. A lot of children in cribs. It didn’t seem like there was much activity. It was sad.

(Image: The shiny new cribs and fluffy blankets were donated by a US organization I used to work with. But these children, over three hundred of them, are still packed like sardines into this Chinese orphanage.)

(Image: I saw this child left unattended for a whole day at a Chinese state orphanage. The makeshift play chair was more like a prison.) 

The next one I went to was in a housing development and there were three or four brightly painted homes. I remember walking into one of these homes. Kids were running around and playing, and I thought, "What a stark contrast to where I'd just been!"

I met the folks (running the homes) and found out a little bit about their work. They described to me the growing population of homeless children and the need for more and more of these kinds of homes for children. There are a lot of abandoned children in China.

There are (also) a lot of children in Africa who don't have a mom and dad. The mom and dad have died. And a lot of children in the former Soviet Union are homeless as children.

There is opportunity for us to do something about that.

From: FamilyLifeToday with Dennis Rainey
Broadcast date: 08/07/07
(Edited and Abridged)

To be continued...

PAUL’S COMMENTS

Sadly, most non-profit orphan care organizations currently build huge institutional orphanages (over 100 children) that have very little indigenous church involvement and support. These orphanages are most often set outside of municipalities because of cheaper or government-donated land. That means the children have essentially been removed from their communities and support structures and have been herded into sizeable establishments that frequently lack good care ratios and nurturing environments.

Typical World Orphans church-based homes, on the other hand:

• Are smaller-scale group care environments with high care-giver ratios
• Are owned and run by compassionate believers
• Are fully integrated into the church and community
• Are Christ-focused in meeting physical, emotional, educational and spiritual needs

(Image: A real family. The children enjoy a meal outside at one of our church-based homes in Northern Cambodia)

To learn more, please sign up for updates, here.
You can get involved as a financial partner, here.

Miriam's Malady

Miriam is an alcoholic. She is a young single mother who loves her eight year-old girl, Galina, and her four year-old niece, Raia. They both reside with her. She lives in a poor village in Moldova and works in the fields where she slaves for ten hours a day for three straight days just to earn two pounds of wheat flour – barely enough to survive.

On our visit, Miriam is presented with a small grocery bag with dried beans, rice, cooking oil and a few other staples. It’s about what my family eats in a single meal.

It will last her and the two kids for a full month.

The Moldovan government wants to take Galina and Raia away from Miriam. They are trying to get the children placed into state orphanages. The ministry we are working with on this day believes that Miriam can be helped and rehabilitated. They believe that she is receptive to the Gospel. They desire to not only see her come into the Kingdom, but to prevent two more children from becoming statistics, from entering a institution where they could be used and abused.

Along with the bag of food, Miriam is given a Bible that she warmly receives and cradles in her arms. It is evident to us immediately that she will treasure it.

Miriam started off as a squatter in a home that had been abandoned by its former inhabitants, a man and his family in the village, after a fire swept through the building and made it structurally unsound. Upon learning that Miriam and the children were living in a building that he didn’t even want anymore, he started making demands. The rental price? – wine and sex.

Miriam, unable to provide a roof over their heads otherwise, and hardly able to feed the two children under her care, has to give this man wine and sex upon demand in order to stay in the property that he willingly deserted.

To keep the act away from his wife and family this man, no doubt, imposes himself upon Miriam in the home she lives in. The children would either be sent out or, in the dead of winter, presumably be within earshot as they normally sleep in a chair beside Miriam’s bed. Miriam has to suffer the shame and humiliation in close proximity to the children she is trying to keep alive, trying to prevent from introduction into a state orphanage.

Such is the face of evil that drives men to take advantage of the widow and orphan.

"Woe to those who…rob the poor of my people of their rights, so that widows may be their spoil and that they may plunder the orphans." (Isaiah 10:1a-2b, NASB)

"Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry."  (Exodus 22:22-23, NIV)

Basket Case

A street orphan in Donduseu, Moldova ended up in Samara, Russia. His arms and feet didn’t make the journey with him.

It’s yet another example of extreme injustice towards the orphan in the former Soviet Union. And it’s yet another incident that is not unique or unrepeated. It’s another formula that is employed to turn a common resource, orphans and street children, into an income-producing commodity for evil-hearted men and criminal organizations.

This particular boy was kidnapped by gypsies. They then methodically went about removing his limbs so that he could be sold as a wheelchair-bound beggar to a crime syndicate in Russia. He’d be worth much more that way because he’d generate more sympathy, couldn’t escape, and would be entirely dependent on the owners that enslave him.

By some estimates, 50% of the child beggars in Moscow are from Moldova. Whether maimed beforehand or not, many have been trafficked there for the explicit purpose of generating income for crime lords that place them strategically around the city to fill beggar’s baskets for them.

(Image: Girl begging on the streets of Moscow, 2000)