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 the Middle East

EGYPT: Ministering to street children in Cairo

Cairo is a very strategic city in the Middle East with very few Christian organizations working there. Through our contact in the region, we have connected with churches who are reaching out to the many orphaned and abandoned children on the streets, especially those working in "Garbage City." As you can imagine these children are highly vulnerable are are often stolen into slavery or extremism. We need to support churches to aid and rescue them. Our goal is to raise $15,000 for this strategic task.

Giving Options

Enter the following code on your check or online memo: EGY-Street Children

IRAQ: Medical care for orphans in Baghdad

The situation in Baghdad is constantly in the news. But the plight of the orphan is rarely highlighted. Many of these children are sick, injured, and have nowhere to go. Through our World Orphans office and partnerships in the country, we are providing much-needed medical care to these precious children. You can play apart in this vital ministry with a precious gift towards our goal of $12,000.

Giving Options

Enter the following code on your check or online memo: IRQ-Medical Care

More on Reaching the Orphans of Iraq

Here's a version of the Iraq appeal we just sent out to our subscribers . . .

Dear Friend of the Fatherless.

Iraq. Just the name brings many images to mind – most likely of war, hardship, politics. Words that might not come to mind are hope and promise. But indeed, there is cause for hope, because there's a promise for a new tomorrow.

In one special community in Northern Iraq, World Orphans is partnering with a local church to develop an outreach and community support ministry in an area where many of the country's widows and orphaned children live in government-provided housing. We have been granted ownership of a piece of land directly in the middle of this housing area, where construction recently began on a community center and two homes for younger children. Our location and facility will offer tremendous opportunity for help and support in this war-torn nation. With this project comes the hope of the Gospel, to women and children in desperate need.

Will you join us in bringing hope and help to this community of widows and orphans? Will you be part of this amazing adventure as we watch the Lord advance His kingdom in Iraq? We have seen the Lord's favor and provision in the remarkable progress so far, and we welcome His continuing work through your partnership in this project.

We also ask for you prayer for this work, for the people of Iraq, for the many orphaned children, for our church partner, for the Gospel's advancement, and for the Lord's continued favor and provision.

Your gift and your prayers can and will make a difference.

CONTRIBUTIONS:

To give to this project please view our giving options (link below) and write "IRQ-552" in the online memo field or on the memo line of your check:

Giving Options

Strategic Involvement for the Church and Children of Iraq

PROJECT PROFILE:

Iraq has been torn apart by conflict and strife for decades as Saddam's regime, war, and sectarian violence have all taken their toll. The recent conflict alone has caused around two million Iraqis to be displaced and almost one hundred thousand to lose their lives.

In the midst of this cauldron, the Church is small yet surprisingly strong. World Orphans is partnered with the Church for a very strategic involvement in Northern Iraq. After years of prayer and effort, the government has now given World Orphans one acre of land for the building of a community center and homes for orphaned children. The community center is presently under construction and sits right in the midst of 250 government-provided homes for widows and orphans. As such, the center will serve as an important outreach hub, providing much-needed vocational training and counseling to a hurting and needy population. In order to provide a measure of sustainability to the project, a second floor is being constructed to house a celebration hall for weddings and other special events for the community.

The project cost is $137,500 for two homes, $275,000 for the community center, and $16,500 for the playground facilities - a total of $429,000.

We need your help to raise this amount on behalf of the widows and orphans of Iraq - the silent victims of this conflict-ridden country.

IRAQ COUNTRY PROFILE:

Population: 28,945,657

Average Annual Income: $540 per person

NETWORK PARTNER:

(Due dilligence and ongoing accountability provided by in-country World Orphans staff.)

CONTRIBUTIONS:

To give to this project please view our giving options (link below) and write "IRQ-552" in the online memo field or on the memo line of your check:

Giving Options

A Positive Direction in Darfur

PROJECT PROFILE:

Since the conflict in 2004 broke out in Darfur, the UN estimates that 200,000 – 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been displaced. Sadly, nearly half of those affected are children. Many of these children have been abandoned or orphaned and are extremely vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Statistics can often seem overwhelming and impersonal, but each of these children represents dreams lost . . . or a life that can now transform their nation.

World Orphans has partnered with a strong evangelical denomination to plant a church in Darfur and construct a home on the church's property. Currently, twenty kids live at the home after being rescued from the streets. As such, the church is reaching out in very tangible ways to the Muslim community around it. In the midst of genocide and hatred, the church is extending a hand of love to the community through the rescue and care of its children.

The home infrastructure is fully funded and the ongoing needs are partially funded. World Orphans still needs to provide $2,444 per month to help care for these children who will serve as agents of change and reconciliation in a land that has suffered much hurt.

SUDAN COUNTRY PROFILE:

Number or Single Orphans* (one parent lost): 2,040,000

Number of Double Orphans* (both parents lost): 210,000

*not including abandoned, sold or trafficked children

Population: 41,087,825

Average Income: $290 per person

NETWORK PARTNER:

Major Missions Organization - Undisclosed for security purposes

CONTRIBUTIONS:

To give to this project please view our giving options (link below) and write "SUD-537" in the online memo field or on the memo line of your check:

Giving Options

Iraq Project Update

Dear Friend of the Fatherless,

After three years of visits, countless negotiations, the placement of an in-field team, formal NGO recognition, and various switchbacks and setbacks, I'm very pleased to announce that we (World Orphans) are pouring the foundation on our project in Iraq today!

This new community center is set in the midst of 250 homes for widows and orphans, allowing it to be an amazing support and outreach to some very vulnerable women and children in Northern Iraq.

I'll be taking trips to Iraq in December and January to see the progress and to bring people along who have a heart for funding the work in significant ways. I'm very excited about this next chapter of our work in Iraq and the Middle East and would appreciate your prayers as the construction continues over the next several months.

Until They All Have Homes,
Paul

Pop-Pop-Pop

We had just turned in for the evening. The four of us were sharing a dorm room in a seminary within walking distance from the city dump. The surrounding neighborhoods were cordoned off by concrete barricades, presumably to prevent unknowing persons from driving into the wrong area and to hinder the escape of vehicles involved in drive-by shootings. We were told that even the police dared not go into some of these communities.

Pop-pop-pop. The sound was close and distinctive. Unlike the resonance of small explosions that most Hollywood sound editors use, the blast of real gunfire is one of staccato echoes piercing the quiet. Pop-pop-pop-pop.

Minutes later we heard the sirens, followed by a rapid volley of shots. As quickly as it began, it was over.

Guatemala’s three-decade civil war fostered a culture of violence and left almost 200,000 people dead. By most accounts, that many juveniles are now part of vicious street gangs, causing the country to be one of the most violent in the world. The homicide rate is astronomically high, almost ten times that of the United States.

Three people were killed in our neighborhood during our short stay in Guatemala City. The week before our arrival, a shootout in the housing development next to one of our church projects resulted in the death of four gang members who had kidnapped a six year-old girl for ransom. Days prior, they had invaded her home, murdered her parents, and were demanding money from the extended family. Multiple drivers were also executed on their routes while we were in the country. In response to bus companies’ failure to pay protection money for driving through gang territories, the drivers are routinely killed by these wayward youth, to the tune of dozens of deaths each year.

In this decade after the civil war, Guatemala remains a country beset by savagery and unrest, this time at the hands of fatherless youth – either orphaned or effectively so because of absent fathers.

Child Soldier (Longing for Death)

The year I was numbered eight years old, they began to teach me to be tough, to hate, to have a heart to kill my enemies. This was easy. My only family was the army and I hated them too. I couldn't run away, though. There was nowhere to hide. A few years before, many of my friends ran away. I thought I heard the guns barking in the distance but I don't know. Only a few returned out of many ten's of fingers of children that fled.

I began to train with weapons when my instructors decided I was near my tenth year. This was good because I spent less times quarrying rock and my back and legs did not ache as much. Because so many of my friends died, there is a void in my heart.

Some of my friends would go to bed with the older soldiers at night. They escaped the sound of the rope in the morning and, afterwards, there was money in their pockets to buy small things. It frightened me, though, because many of them wept in the days that followed. Some became very sick and if we are sick in that place we most likely die. There is no help and no hope for the sick there. The dark spirits are very powerful.

What is death like? Do I wander around like a ghost or can I just forget that I am alive and sleep a very deep sleep? These are the questions I asked myself sometimes, but most days were too difficult for the lips of my thoughts to speak to me.

View part one of this story here
View part two of this story here

To be continued...

Child Soldier (The Rhythm of the Rope)

My first morning I still remember. I woke that day to the rhythm of the rope upon my body. The song of the rope I know well now. It woke us very early every morning, before the great light had risen in the sky. It struck the flesh of all who were not rising from sleep quickly enough. Most of us did not wake unless we had to. Our bodies ached fearfully and in sleep we could forget. The rope that bit our flesh seldom causes us to bleed but there are times, oh yes, there are times.

We would gather to attention in the courtyard. There we stood and drilled. Every day was the same.

The rope was our companion as we marched out to the fields to work. All of us had to labor in the fields. We also worked in rock quarries, we built roads, we carried the burdens of the soldiers, sometimes many days by foot. If we had ridden on a truck to work, we would be like pigs going to market. And who would want to do that? They would be going to market to be slaughtered. Yes, we learned that we were animals. The difference is we speak and other beasts are dumb.

After a stretch of work in the morning, we would get a break. We were given food in dirty, cracked bowls: rice with some vegetable broth. It gurgled painfully into the knot that lived and twisted in my stomach. I think it was an angry spirit that came to steal what little food I got. At night I was given maybe half a bowl of the same food...if I was fortunate. If we tried to take more, the rope slithered across our shoulders.

The rope's only comfort is that it is familiar.

View part one of this story here.

To be continued...

Child Soldier (Abandoned to the Army)

The story that follows is a compilation that was crafted using the real lives and circumstances of children rescued by our partner who visited us last week. The individual story details are merged together in order to protect the identities and lives of the children involved, but the compilation is an accurate representation of real world scenarios involving non-combatant child soldiers in Southeast Asia:

Abandoned to the Army

When I was six my parents gave me to the army. Early in the morning my father pulled me out of sleep. It was still dark. He packed me on his back down the mountain trail from the village. His long black hair tickled my nose all the way. After we came to the main road I had to walk. We walked most of the day. I had no water and my throat was chalky dry because it was the time of no rain. We walked between the rocks in the red powder of the earth as the red sun beat upon my head.

Finally we came to a cluster of houses. At the side of the road was a tin roofed lean-to. Men with guns sat in the shade of the slanted roof and also some stood in the shadow of a great tree that spread its frog-like limb’s over the road. They looked mean and I was scared but my father walked over to them. He left me near the base of the tree and went to talk with some of the men near a truck. I played with a dung beetle in the dirt.

Father turned away from the men and began walking down the road. He never even looked at me. I thought he had forgotten me. I cried out, "Papa," but he did not turn back. I began to run after him but one of the men in green caught me by the arm and cuffed me. "You stay here," he slurred at me. I was shocked. I tried to lunge away but he struck me again.

That evening they threw me on the supplies that awkwardly filled the truck and told me to hold on or die. We drove all night till my arms ached and my skin stung sore from the dust and wind. In the morning we arrived at a town and drove up to a cement and metal fence. This was to be my prison. I did not know what a prison was. I did not even know what an army was. But now I know because I have lived in this place of no escape. I later found out my parents had offered me for nothing, I was not even worth a few coins!

Some of my friends came here because they were orphans. Some of them were conscripted. Others were abandoned. I was one of the most unfortunate –so I thought. My parents disowned me. I don’t know why. Maybe, as I learn more about my world, I will figure it out. I think there was not enough food and my mother’s stomach was taut with a coming child. Another still nursed at her breast. My two brothers, both older than me, worked hard on the farm. They could help father better than I could –I heard them say it.

To be continued...