Paul Myhill's Blog

Give a Child a Gift of Hope This Season!

Dear Friend of the Fatherless,

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we remember that He was born into poverty under 'shameful' circumstances and then immediately fled to Egypt to escape death. As such, Jesus intimately understands the plight of vulnerable and displaced children around the world today.

I've listed a few special Project Opportunities on my blog here at Abandoned-Orphaned.Com. They include providing homes for abandoned children in China and Ethiopia, rebuilding lives in Rwanda and Sudan, giving backpacks for orphans in Bangladesh and India, rehabilitating former child soldiers in Burma, preventing child trafficking in Thailand and Moldova, and fitting orphaned kids with new shoes in Kenya and Guatemala.

As you purchase Christmas gifts for friends and family, will you please remember the gifts that were presented to our Savior on that first Christmas? Will you please give Him a birthday present by providing a gift of hope to the children that He identifies with so well?

"Whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." (Matthew 18:5, NIV)

These special project opportunities can be viewed here or by simply scrolling through the prior blog posts below.

Thanks and have a Blessed Christmas!

Until They All Have Homes,

Paul
President – World Orphans

Gifts of Hope in Guatemala and Around the Globe

GUATEMALA: Shoes for 329 needy children

In Guatemala City, many children make a living in the city's vast garbage dumps, picking out items that can be recycled. Working in the dumps is highly dangerous as hazardous wastes and sharp objects are plentiful. One of World Orphans' partner churches in Guatemala is reaching out to these precious children through various programs, one of which is providing shoes to protect their little feet from the broken glass, needles and ripped metal cans hidden in the heaps of garbage. This year, you can help. You can give the gift of shoes to a child, which our partner will use to build trust and relationships in order to eventually rescue them from the trash piles. Our partner is presently ministering to 329 children and desires that they each receive a new pair of or rugged leather shoes. To do this, we need to raise $4,277 (or $13 for one child.)

Giving Options

Enter the following code on your check or online memo: GUAT-Shoes

GLOBAL: Bible Distribution

In addition to our orphan prevention, transition and self-sustainability programs, World Orphans has provided indigenous churches around the world with over 500 homes for children in almost 50 countries. All these homes are owned and run by these churches who, in addition to providing quality care for the children, teach them about Christ. Most of these churches have given a Bible to each child, but we still need to raise $5,500 to purchase additional Bibles so that every child in our homes will have their own Bible. These Bibles typically cost less than $2 each.

Giving Options

Enter the following code on your check or online memo: Bible Distribution

GLOBAL: Emergency Relief Fund for children

In May of last year Burma (Myanmar) was devastated by Cyclone Nargis. Suddenly a country that was closed to most of the world was opened as many rushed to provide aid. Due to strict government policies, many humanitarian organizations were not given access to the hurting people. Thankfully, our indigenous partner was already on the ground working with local churches to provide emergency relief to orphans in the area. Likewise, with the South Asian Tsunami, our churches were already present in Indonesia, Thailand and India to provide assistance to children affected by the disaster.

Our Disaster Relief Fund enables our church partners around the world to quickly and effectively provide assistance to children in the wake of tragedy. We need currently need $30,000 to replenish this fund.

Giving Options

Enter the following code on your check or online memo: Emergency Relief

World Orphans Weekly! - Birth and Renewal

Dear Friend of the Fatherless,

The holiday season from Christmas to New Years brings about thoughts of birth and renewal. We reflect upon the new covenant, plus look ahead to the changes and promises that the next twelve months might offer.

The time is punctuated with resolutions and hope. For many of us, that means drastic changes or commitments. For some of us, it means picking our lives and spirits up from the rubble of circumstances and tragedies that temporarily got the best of us.

In that vein, I’d like to share some reflections that I’ve had over this season.

The first set refers to the third anniversary of the South Asian Tsunami. I’d like to introduce you to one child and show you how one of our church-based homes stood ready to not only take him in, but expand to give other orphaned children hope for a new future.

The second set is more personal. It shares further on the progress of my dear friends, the Ochoa family. David and Rhonda Ochoa lost their daughter, Talitha, to cerebral malaria earlier this year while serving children’s ministries in Uganda. They now have a new baby and have moved to Colorado to join World Orphans. It’s certainly a time of new birth and new purpose for them. I think their story will serve as a good example and inspiration to you.

The third set gives you a pictorial update on the opening of the World Orphans’ Iraq office. This serves as yet another illustration of fantastic new beginnings filled with great hope and possibility. Please rejoice with us as we pioneer the work for orphans in this conflict-torn country...giving them new families, new legacies.

THREE YEARS LATER

Part One – Death on the shores; Hope across the street

Part Two – Fire and water, one boy becomes a full orphan

Part Three – A new home and a new future

PERSEVERANCE & FAITHFULNESS

Part One – A time of healing and transition

Part Two – Of Christmas delayed

Part Three – Words of wisdom born by pain

WORLD ORPHANS IN IRAQ

Spirit of 1776 – Now tangible: A new hope for Iraq’s orphans

More from Iraq – A trinity of languages to introduce The Trinity of love

From all of us here at World Orphans, we wish you a very blessed 2008, filled with new purpose and promise.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Until They All Have Homes,

Paul Myhill
President/CEO

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.

Three Years Later (part three)

Pastor Jacob and his wife adopted six needy orphans many years ago. That was the beginning.

God had favor on Pastor Jacob’s heart and saw to it that Jacob now oversees twenty five churches in this tsunami-stricken region. He had prepared Jacob for this appointed time. Over 2,500 orphans have now been rescued by Jacob’s churches.

(THE OLD HOME. Paul and Scott during their visit 18 months ago)

Abejeeth is one of those lives that has been radically touched by the loving hand of this kind pastor and his expanding ministry. He and 39 other boys were in the care of the home sitting across the highway from the point of devastation that we visited. It was a rented facility. But because of your faithful support and prayers Abejeeth was moved down the street to a new church-based home that we helped to fund. There, he and the other boys were joined by another 30 more who were desperately waiting for a new home and a new hope.

(BLUE SKIES AHEAD. The new home as it appeared 18 months ago)

And that’s just the start. A second floor that can accommodate more boys and families is planned to be added shortly after the completion of the first phase of the project.

Abejeeth can still look across the road and see the reminders of a past life of pain and loss, but he is doing it hand-in-hand with those who comfort him and teach him about the Ultimate Comforter.

Three Years Later (part two)

Abejeeth is 5 years old. One year before the Tsunami hit his village, his mother was cooking the family meal over an open fire. An errant flame licked her highly-combustible Sari dress and she was soon engulfed. The shock and burns were too severe and she was quickly lost. Even the most commonplace of daily activities in India can instantly turn into life-threatening, life-taking situations. Life and death there are often separated by extremely thin margins of error.

On that dreadful day after Christmas, Abejeeth’s father was going about his normal routine of delivering tea to thirsty fisherman on the shore. It was a simple task, but one that supported the family and brought refreshment and joy to many who tended the nets for a living.

I can imagine the tea kettle and cups briefly floating on the surface before succumbing to the heaving, churning waters.

Fire and water...Abejeeth was now a full orphan.

(TSUNAMI ORPHANS. Aberjeeth (left) stands with other boys who lost parents on December 26, 2004)

The body of Abejeeth’s father was found three days later washed up down the coastline. He was just one of almost 300,000 lives extinguished in a moment, resulting in Abejeeth being one of thousands upon thousands of orphans left in the wake.

To be continued...

Three Years Later (part one)

Tragedy in India comes in many forms.

During my visit last year to this populous Asian sub-continent, seven terrorist bombs ripped through packed train cars in Mumbai, instantly taking lives through shredded metal containers. The carnage was unimaginable. Over 180 people were literally blown to bits, unveiling yet another gruesome chapter in the powder keg of Muslim/Hindu relations that has plagued Northern India for far too long.

I thought to myself, every person on that train fully expected to get to their destination that day. It was the evening rush hour and most would have been heading home to their families. Instead, those families waited anxiously for loved ones that were never to arrive. Empty seats at evening dinner tables. Empty hearts beating in the chests of those left behind.

Having a member of the family die as a result of a natural death is hard enough. Having one taken unexpectedly due to violence or catastrophe, is more than many souls can bear.

The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu is no stranger to instantaneous calamity and devastation. As a cataclysmic wave pounded shorelines and fishing villages three years ago today, many startled people were swept to a watery grave. The stories and numbers are now well known the globe over. Stories of tragedy and triumph, of loss and recovery. But forgotten are the stories that continue to unfold, the daily lives of countless children whose parents were snapped away in a blink of an eye.

To these children, the South Asian Tsunami of December 26, 2004, was not just a single point in history, not just a sensational news moment to occupy headlines for a brief period of time. For them, the disaster continues to play out daily in their lives.

Eighteen months after the Indian Ocean swelled and wreaked havoc in Tamil Nadu, we drove the coastline where fishing village after fishing village ceased to exist. In the stead of flourishing communities sat rows upon rows of flimsy reed huts erected by a plethora of relief agencies and other non-governmental organizations. A few hundred yards away new concrete buildings were springing up from the rubble of former lives and foundations.

And just across the ocean highway of one of the villages, perched on the northern boundary of the devastation, sat one of our church partners and one of their homes for orphans.

To be continued...