Paul Myhill's Blog

World Orphans Weekly! - FamilyLife

 

Dear Friend of the Fatherless,

We have just finished posting all the transcript excerpts from World Orphans’ featured interviews with Dennis Rainey on FamilyLife Today. Please check them out below to see what nine million people heard about World Orphans and the plight of the orphan over a two-day period. I have also added relevant comments and photos from the field...

UNTIL EVERY CHILD HAS A HOME

Day One: Changing One Life at a Time

Part One - Gucci Purse or Rolex?: Are orphans fueling the product knock-off industry?

Part Two - Sweatshops and Slavery: What does child slavery look like?

Part Three - Children of the Streets: What if these were your children? They are.

Part Four - Developments and Achievements: Where we’ve been and where we’re going.

Part Five - Involve and Integrate: They’ve already seen their parents die. Should we then ship them off to institutions?

Part Six - Connection Scenarios: How do US churches work with World Orphans?

Part Seven - Overcoming Evil with Good: A radical Muslim group destroys one of our homes. How do we respond?

Part Eight - Making a Difference: 143 million orphans. Can one person (you) really make a difference?

Day Two: A New Life for Orphans

Part One - Stark Contrasts: An institutional orphanage versus a church-based children’s home? No comparison.

Part Two - Trashy Beginnings: World Orphans: A ministry born out of the trash heaps of Nicaragua.

Part Three - Legacy and Credit: Want a surefire way to change your kids forever?

Part Four - Poor in Spirit: The death of a child and exposure to extreme poverty brings a new perspective.

Part Five - Taking Stock...The Right Partners: Who are we looking for?

Part Six - The Ultimate Franchise: Millions of orphans. Thousands of churches. What a great combination.

Until They All Have Homes,

Paul

World Orphans
1840 Woodmoor Dr., Ste. 100
Monument, Co 80132

All contributions are tax-deductible and eternally-significant.

 

A New Life for Orphans (part six)

The Ultimate Franchise

Dennis Rainey (CEO/President, FamilyLife): I think one of the reasons why I wanted you to come and share your story, Troy, was to give men and women who are in churches today a chance to picture and say, "You know what? I could picture our church doing that. I could start an orphan ministry in our church. I'm willing to champion that."

And so we created a resource called Launching an Orphan Ministry in Your Local Church. It's got a DVD and eight steps on how you go about it. It's very simple, but it's just all designed to enable a layman or a laywoman to pour out their heart on behalf of the helpless.

And, frankly, as we've gotten involved with this, just as you have, Troy, I just count it a privilege to be the voice of the orphan, don't you?

Troy Wiseman (Co-Founder/Chairman, World Orphans): Yes, amen, I do.

Dennis: I mean, just tell their story and challenge others to join with them. How have you benefited?

Troy: Well, you always benefit when you're on these trips, and you see the kids. But to know that we started with twelve kids and now there's forty there, and we have a little school we put in. The kids are working and selling school supplies to the neighborhood, they're self-sufficient, and now some of them – the first ones - are going to college.

Dennis: Introduce us to one of those children. Just tell us about just one of them that you've had a chance to watch grow, grow up and now move on in life.

Troy: Okay, the first group of kids from the Nicaragua home. Part of that group were four brothers and sisters. One of the families that got involved said, "Look, I'm going to take care of this child. I'm going to, through my church, send the donation. And they went and visited the kids. It's not just sending your money. Go see the kids, right? They basically did like any other parent, "You make good grades, and you want to go to college. I'll send you to college." This was (a family) in a church in Florida.

And so (they’ve) had a relationship with this child ever since 1993, and now this child is in school. There's thousands of stories. There are some sad stories, too, but there's a lot of success. I just like to see their lives changed. And they love Jesus. And they're going to heaven. And they're getting to go to school. And they feel like they're not abandoned.

So, you might not have a check. Go down and give them a hug.

Dennis: And now they have a roof over their head and someone to give them a hug and give them a little discipleship training and direction in their lives. What a great picture.

The Gospel is the power of God for salvation for the Jew and also for the gentile. We are orphans spiritually but fortunately our heavenly Father sent His son to adopt us and bring us back to the family. And I think it's why caring for the orphan is such a central part to the Gospel, and that's why, Troy, I'm thrilled you came and joined us here on FamilyLife Today.

In fact, I look forward to having you come back again and kind of tell us what happened as a result of these broadcasts and maybe we'll hear the story of how you are now opening one children's home a day. Talk about a great franchise.

You know, you think about fast-food franchises – this is the ultimate franchise.

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

This concludes the transcript excerpts from the two broadcasts that featured World Orphans on FamilyLife Today.

PAUL’S COMMENTS

It is indeed the ultimate franchise. The ‘target market’ is millions of children. The ‘opportunity’ to reach this market is thousands of churches. Explosive growth is available because these churches are already specifically positioned for the opportunity, already positioned in the midst of the huge target market. They just need the right franchise partner to provide the needed additional resources.

I think back again to the analogy I provided concerning God's distribution system for ministry. What a wonderful franchise opportunity the church of this generation presently has.

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

A New Life for Orphans (part five)

Taking Stock...The Right Partners

Bob Lepine (Vice President/Chief Content Officer, FamilyLife): Since you wrote that check for the first half of that orphan's home in Nicaragua, you've had other homes that have been built. The first year you said there was one, and then two the next year, and last year how many homes were built?

Troy Wiseman (Co-Founder/Chairman, World Orphans): We did two a week.

Bob: Two a week. So, 100-plus homes?

Dennis Rainey (CEO/President, FamilyLife): He's getting closer to his goal of building one a day.

Troy: That's right.

Bob: And to get to one a day, for you to achieve that goal, what's it going to take?

Troy: Well, obviously, it's going to take some additional people getting behind the ministry and sending some capital, but we actually slowed it down a little bit to reevaluate - Is the model right? What do we need to change? What are we doing well? What are we not doing well? You have to do that from time to time.

I don't want it to be about the numbers. I want it to be about the mission. We got to the point where, my original co-founder with me, kind of hit a plateau. We were looking at the tree, and we had to shake things up a little bit. So we found out the things we thought we did well, didn't do well, brought in a new President...

...But it's really about the right partners. It's really about the financial partner and the church.

Bob: So you're trying to get folks who could help fund the ministry to partner with you, but you're also trying to get local churches who would catch a vision for this. What's their role in making it happen?

Troy: I would say the bigger role is finding the right partner. What we want is the church to take the responsibility that the Bible commands the congregation to do, and "look after the orphans and widows" and be proactive in the church to say, "We're going to have an orphan ministry."

What we want is the phone to ring and hear, "We have a church who has some land. We have a church in China, Africa, Ukraine. They're going to feed them. They're going to educate them. They're going to teach them the Word of God. They're going to be their family. What we need is the money to build the building."

So that's what we need. We need the partner.

(Image: A homeless widow and her child in Caracas, Venezuela)

Dennis: You're looking for people who have the same passion as you and who are not just willing to give their money, but who are willing to get involved and connect their hearts to those children's hearts on an ongoing basis.

Troy: Right.

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

To be continued...

PAUL’S COMMENTS

For the nine months before I was appointed the new CEO/President of World Orphans, I was acting dually as a Vice President of the ministry and the President of Orphan Lifeline, an organization that came into partnership with World Orphans on numerous projects. During that nine-month overlap I visited 50 World Orphans projects in over 20 different countries (24 to be exact.) We effectively merged the two organizations thereafter as the visions became one and the same.

Based on our observed work in the field, as well as the return of almost 250 surveys sent out to our church partners, we did indeed discover what was working well…and what was in need of improvement. We determined what the "best partner" in the field looks like for us and how they are uncovered and approved. We also ascertained that we needed to better develop the partnerships here – US churches, businesses and individuals who heed the call to care for the widow and orphan.

This weekend, I will start to post excerpts from a letter that I sent to many of our stakeholders back in October last year. It is an "inside look" the details some of these changes as they were being implemented at that time. Much has happened since then and we hope to continue to effectively communicate all the wonderful partnerships and involvements that God has given to World Orphans.

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

A New Life for Orphans (part four)

Poor in Spirit

Troy Wiseman (Co-Founder/Chairman, World Orphans): We had a couple of situations where babies will just show up on the doorstep, and...

Dennis Rainey (CEO/President, FamilyLife): People just leave them there?

Troy: Right. I was in Mozambique with my twelve-year-old, Cord, last summer. A grandmother, eighty-something years old, brought a baby by the name of Lordish. She was a few days old. The mother died in birth.

Well, Lordish died also. I'm going back and forth on whether I should have taken my son on that trip, because he hasn't really gotten over that. He's got the picture of him holding Lordish as a screensaver on his computer, you know?

There's certain times that you just don't know what God's going to do. You just trust that it's going to work out but, in a way, I'm glad he went. It was a great time for us as a father-son, and I know it's going to change him.

You think about your own kids. When you think about a children's home, think about your own kids. How old they are now? Regardless, (even) if they're thirteen, they're in the streets – no family, no food, nothing.

(Image: Children playing in an open sewer pipe in a Manila slum, Philippines. Can you picture your own children there?)

Dennis: No guidance.

Troy: No guidance, right. What are they doing to do?

Dennis: No mentor. No one to teach them habits. No one to dress them. No one to give them a hug.

Troy: You can't eat. You're freezing cold. You don't know if you're going to eat.

One thing became apparent on the Mozambique trip. We've been doing these trips, but this last one was really, really, really tough. I always wondered what God meant by being poor in spirit. You know, he wants us to be poor in spirit. I really never got that until this trip.

(Image: More pipes spewing raw sewage between a row of slum homes in Manila. What if this was the street that your own children, orphaned, were left to play on and seek shelter on?)

If you think about the poor or the orphan, what do they have in common? Their sufficiency is in God, right?

"Am I going to eat today?"

"Am I going to live today?"

"Are my kids going to die today?"

They're in community. If I got food today I'm going to share with my neighbor because maybe tomorrow I won't.

Poor in spirit is about having all your sufficiency in God, in Jesus. That's where these kids are, and we have a responsibility to help.

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

To be continued...

PAUL'S COMMENTS

Troy's challenge really struck home with me, especially considering my entry from yesterday. Think about your own kids. What if calamity struck and took your lives?

What if these were your own children...

...left to play and find warmth in open sewers?

...left to pick through garbage piles for rotting scraps to eat?

...left to see other orphaned children die in their arms?

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3, NIV)

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

A New Life for Orphans (part three)

Legacy and Credit

Bob Lepine (Vice President/Chief Content Officer, FamilyLife): When was the first time you went down and saw what your money had built?

Troy Wiseman (Co-Founder/Chairman, World Orphans): Within a year. I took my son when he was pretty small. He was eight years old when we went down there. Remember, Nicaragua went through the whole Iran-Contra situation. The country was very much in shambles. People were scared to go down there.

Dennis Rainey (CEO/President, FamilyLife): Was it dangerous for you to go?

Troy: It was dangerous. I don't see danger, for whatever reason. I probably should see more danger than I do, but...

Dennis: But you took your eight-year-old son into that deal?

Troy: Yeah, I didn't ask my wife. No, I did, I did.

[laughter]

I had faith that it was a calling from God and we were going to be protected. We were supposed to be there. Parents are always (thinking), "How do I get my kids to have their own faith? How can they do something that's just not (because) we're dragging them to do it?"

You take them to an orphanage. You take them on a trip, a short-term trip, and let them see these other kids. You don't have to ask them anymore. They are changed forever. He came back and started giving (away) his toys. And he wanted to give his clothes, saying, "Send it to the kids, Dad!"

It's not about what you say. It's about what you do. It was a great benefit to our family that I never expected.

Bob: Describe for me what it was like driving up and walking into, for the first time, this children's home that you had helped to build.

Troy: It was great to see the kids' faces. We don't believe in putting your name on stuff. We don't believe that if you donate, you get a plaque on the wall. We want to be anonymous, right? It's the church. It's about Jesus. It's about what God's doing in that home. So it was just good to see the kids smiling.

 

(Image: One of the children rescued from the garbage dump at our first church-based home in Nicaragua)

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

To be continued...

PAUL’S COMMENTS

Concerning legacy...

There is something extremely powerful about exposing your kids to the needs of the world. My eldest child is just six years old, followed by my four and two year-old children. Despite their young ages, they have all been to Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Laos and Mexico (two trips), not to mention a couple of lengthy layovers in Japan. They may or may not specifically remember all these trips when they are older, but our hope is that there will be a cumulative effect of understanding through frequent, repeated exposure.

(Image: My children, Faith (with hand on forehead) and Caleb (R), chatting with rescued orphans at a home we helped to fund in Thailand)

My children also follow along on all my trips here on this blog. They look at my pictures, hear the stories read by mommy, and pray for the orphaned children, me, and the ministry of World Orphans. This is all part of the legacy that is being developed and distributed to them as they engage the global task in many ways.

(Image. Caleb with some new friends in Peru. They had never seen a camera before)

It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to cart your children off to exotic, depressed countries multiple times a year. Just simply get involved with helping children and immerse your children in the work through whatever means possible – praying, sharing stories, sending letters and artwork to orphans, etc. When you bring a child into your world, into your world outreach, you are creating a legacy that will long outlive you.

If you’re interested, you can read more about this in legacy (part one) and legacy (part two).

(Image: Paul and the kiddos with rescued children at a home in Thailand. Can you spot Faith, Caleb and Hannah?)

Concerning credit...

In the many cases where institutions orphanages are funded and run by western organizations, the surrounding communities typically look upon them as the "American sugar daddies" taking care of their children. Large, brightly-painted organizational names and polished plaques are prominently displayed on these buildings, further removing the local populace from a sense of ownership and community integration.

Our intent at World Orphans is to have a local indigenous church’s neighbors see the orphan care as an extension of that church’s ministry. This enables that church to have a greater attractiveness to its community. That, of course, translates into increased opportunities for outreach and ministry to those who live around the church. As such, we don’t put any World Orphans signs or donor plaques on these buildings.

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

A New Life for Orphans (part two)

Trashy Beginnings

Dennis Rainey (CEO/President, FamilyLife): We have a very special person here in the studio who has already done something about (rescuing orphans) and is here to help those who need a little guidance to know what they can do. Troy Wiseman joins us again. Troy, welcome back.

Troy Wiseman (Co-Founder/Chairman, World Orphans): Thank you, good to be here.

Dennis: Troy and his wife, Tina, have four sons. They live near Chicago. He is the co-founder and chairman of World Orphans. It's a ministry that has funded or co-funded the construction of more than 500 church-based children's homes. He doesn't like to call them orphanages, and I agree with that. And he’s done this in more than 45 developing countries.

Bob Lepine (Vice President/Chief Content Officer, FamilyLife): I'm curious about the first one in Nicaragua. Tell me how that children's home got built. I guess it's still active today, right?

Troy: Yes, absolutely. The co-founder of World Orphans, Bob Roosen, was actually in Nicaragua doing an outreach ministry and called me up and said, "Hey, there's this pastor here, there's all these kids, and he needs to get them off the street. If I put up half the money, will you put up half the money? We're going to do a children's home."

That's really how it started.

Dennis: You'd never done one before?

Troy: Never. He called me from Managua, and I said, "Well, where are the kids coming from?" He goes, "Well, we got them out of the dump. They were living in the dump." And so...

Dennis: Literally living off the streets.

 

(Image: A street child walks past his scavanging ground in Nepal)

Troy: Living off the streets, and...

Dennis: What ages?

Troy: Oh, wow, they were from 11 to 3.

Dennis: A three-year-old living in the streets?

Troy: Yes. Just around the garbage. They ate the garbage. And the older kids get the garbage first. They'll beat up the little kids because they could eat the garbage first. It was unbelievable.

 

(Image: A child surviving amongst the trash in Cambodia)

Dennis: Where would they stay if they were getting their food from a garbage dump?

Troy: Under a bridge, under the garbage, under a tree. They'd just sleep anywhere. They have these dogs that hang out with them. If somebody's coming at night, the dog will bark. That way they can wake up.

They just huddle together. But, you've got an eleven-year-old brother or a ten-year-old brother taking care of a three-year-old sister. That just shouldn't happen.

(Image: An orphan picks through the garbage in Sierra Leone)

Bob: Now, when your friend calls you and says, "This is the situation in Nicaragua," you'd never seen this? He's describing it to you over the phone?

Troy: Right, I saw all those street kids when we were in the factories building the clothing company, so I had a good picture. I didn't know they were living in the garbage dump, but that was God's way of saying, "Hey, this is what you've been praying about, and this is what we're going to do."

So that was the beginning.

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

To be continued...

PAUL’S COMMENTS

Please simply read the above link (repeated here) to get just a small glimpse into the lives of children who live in, eat, and defend trash piles.

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

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.

Changing One Life at a Time (part eight)

Making a Difference

Dennis Rainey (CEO/President, FamilyLife): You know, here is the thing I want our listeners to see. Here is a man - a couple, a family, just like your family, you might live next door to them - who saw a need, stepped out and did something on a very small, very modest scale initially, just trying to make a difference. And now, since 1993, 500 children's homes later, I think you're an inspiration to a lot of people who wonder if they can make a difference.

I think one of the great ploys of the enemy is that he takes people when they have a seed of faith, when they have a thought that perhaps God gives them to step out and to make a difference, and the enemy comes along real quickly and goes, "It's not going to matter. You're not going to impact that many. It's only 40 children in one home."

But you know what? If you build enough homes and impact enough groups of 40 children, you can make a difference.

 

(Image: Making a difference to these boys in India)

Troy Wiseman (Co-Founder/Chairman, World Orphans): Yeah, we always say, "One life at a time," and also, "Until they all have homes." You've got to do it one life at a time. And giving of your time, talent, and treasure is all equal. You might not have the treasure yet. So, give your time, give your thoughts. Writing a check is probably the easier one of the three but...

Dennis: FamilyLife is looking for 1,000 churches to start an orphan care, foster care, adoption ministry in their local church all headed up by laymen just like you describe – laymen and women who are willing to step out.

And we've got a simple book called Launching an Orphan Ministry in Your Church. It's eight simple steps of how you can go about it. It's got a DVD included. It's all about empowering people who care to make a difference just one life at a time.

And if we've touched you today, and you think maybe God's calling you to consider doing something like that, I'd just challenge you, as a listener, to go online at FamilyLife.com or call our 800 number (1-800-358-6329) and order the book and take a look at this because you know what? You may be the next Troy Wiseman. You may launch something that may someday far exceed your wildest imagination.

Bob Lepine (Vice President/Chief Content Officer, FamilyLife): Well, tomorrow we want to invite you back. Troy Wiseman is going to be back with us, and we're going to hear about how God really stirred his heart on this issue of orphan care, and we'll hear more about what he's doing in response to that.

From: FamilyLifeToday with Dennis Rainey
Broadcast date: 08/06/07
(Edited and Abridged)

This concludes the "Changing One Life at a Time" broadcast transcript. Tomorrow, we will start producing excerpts from the "A New Life for Orphans" FamilyLife with Dennis Rainey broadcast of 08/07/07.

PAUL’S COMMENTS

Quite frankly, the above links say it all: the value of the one in context with the many.

(Image: One child, rescued in Thailand. One of many)

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

Changing One Life at a Time (part seven)

Overcoming Evil with Good

Dennis Rainey (CEO/President, FamilyLife): You sent me an e-mail, back before Christmas, of something that took place to one of your homes that you built for a group of children. A group of extremists came and literally destroyed the children's home.

(Image: World Orphans' COO, Mike Vinson, and his family with the rescued street boys of Fountain of Life Church and Children's Home, in front of their semi-permanent school building. A year after this photo was taken, bulldozers driven by a Somali-muslim mob demolished the church and home. They threatened to flatten the buildings with the children in them.)

Troy Wiseman (Co-Founder/Chairman, World Orphans): Yeah, they did. It was a Muslim group, an extremist group. Fortunately for us, they gave the kids and the house parents a chance to get out of the home. They destroyed the church. They torched everything. They bulldozed it down. You're going to have those situations. We just rebuild. What are you going to do? You can't run and hide. It was a sad situation.

Dennis: That was pretty terrifying for those kids.

Troy: It was very terrifying for those kids.

Dennis: I mean, they could have all been...

Troy: They could have been killed.

Dennis: Exterminated.

Troy: Absolutely. That act of terrorism was about the message of Jesus. It was a spiritual battle. We're going to have to fight those battles.

Dennis: There's a passage of Scripture that says, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." That's really what you're doing, isn't it?

Troy: That's what we're trying to do.

 

(Image: One of the boys that escaped with his life that night.)

From: FamilyLifeToday with Dennis Rainey
Broadcast date: 08/06/07
(Edited and Abridged)

To be continued...

PAUL’S COMMENTS

It is indeed a spiritual battle. The enemy, in his many forms and schemes, doesn’t want to see these children rescued; doesn’t want to see the transformed lives of these children impacting communities; doesn’t want to see these children sent out as ambassadors of Christ into their towns and villages; doesn’t want to see the strengthening of the churches that care for them; doesn’t want to see an army of orphans becoming an army for the Gospel; doesn’t want to see the expansion of the Kingdom through the "least of these."

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

Changing One Life at a Time (part six)

Connection Scenarios

Bob Lepine (Vice President/Chief Content Officer, FamilyLife): The church that I attend is connected with a church in South Africa where there is a house set up for children who have AIDS. That's the exclusive population group. These are orphan kids who have AIDS or who are HIV positive.

And, you're right about the impact of (the church caring for the children) in the local community; how that is a witness; how it adorns the Gospel; how it makes people aware of what the message of Christ is all about; and how it fulfills the command of Christ to care for the widows and the orphans. Our church is thrilled to be playing a small part.

(Image: World Orphans' V.P., Scott Vair, hands candy out to children in one of our church-based homes near Hyderabad, India. The children's home is on the left. The church is in the background. Having them both on the same property is a tangible reminder of the love of the church to its community.)

I'm sure folks listening to our program (FamilyLife Today) think, "Well, this sounds like something that would be a great thing for a church (in America) to do, but we don't have the connections, we don't know a church in Africa or in Asia. If some church had an interest but didn't know what to do beyond that interest, what can they do?

Troy Wiseman (Co-Founder/Chairman, World Orphans): Well, relative to World Orphans, they can certainly go onto the website (www.worldorphans.org) or call (1-888-ORPHANS).

One of the things we’ve found is that it's got to be the people; it's got to be the congregation in the church getting behind the pastor.

Everybody seems to always blame the pastor – "we're not doing anything, we're not being proactive," but, really, it's the people in the congregation (that need to take the initiative). You have to form a small team and say, "Hey, we're going to lead this. We're passionate about this," and instead of just talking about it, actually doing something about it.

Listen, it's not about the brick, it's about the child and what God is going to do in the life of that child. Just get involved and do something.

(Image: Rescued child at one of our church-based homes in Uganda)

Bob: So does World Orphans help a church in the States find a church to connect with, to put the two together and help (the American church) figure out how to do all of this?

Troy: Yes. Normally, a church (in America) calls us and says "We have a need. We have missionaries in this country (overseas.) We have a pastor (there.) We have the church (there.) We have kids getting dropped off at the doorstep (there.) We have 40 people in our congregation (here) that have agreed to take care of a kid each. We need a building."

(Image: This home enables the pastor (leaning on pole) to care for these children in Sierra Leone)

(American churches) are calling us and saying (that the indigenous church they already have a relationship with) will educate (the orphans) spiritually, physically, mentally – "We'll do everything we need to do, but we need a building."

A lot of these (American) churches are called to planting (new) churches internationally. Well, they're already building a church and we want to build a children's home. So if we put the children's home on the second floor, the cost for both of us goes way down. We've done quite a few where the second floor is the children's home, the bottom is the church, and the costs are half for both.

Now, it's really, really cool for the (American) church to go there (to visit the church and home). The kids are there all the time, they've got the small group going on, etc. It’s amazing.

From: FamilyLifeToday with Dennis Rainey
Broadcast date: 08/06/07
(Edited and Abridged)

To be continued...

PAUL’S COMMENTS

World Orphans works with both scenarios. We can either:

• Connect an American church with an indigenous church partner overseas that wants to have a children’s home; or
• Get involved with an indigenous church that is already in relationship with an American church, or that is found by an American church through its own missionary relationships.

In either case, we can help with the funding of infrastructure and start-up costs if the American church commits to funding the ongoing costs. In many cases, World Orphans will also evaluate the funding of special projects so that the orphan home eventually becomes self sustainable. Once that is achieved, it frees up the American church to then take on another project in partnership with World Orphans.

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