Building Futures- The Book PT 2

She awoke to the sound of laughter in the bedroom. She had fallen asleep on the couch, the book still somehow held tight in her hands across her chest. She yawned and stretched and looked around her humble home. Humble and relatively small, it was still a castle in her own estimation. Compared to what she lived in before. Compared to what she had grown up in. Nothing more than tiny mud huts, suitable for animals, but not humans. Dirt floor. No windows. Just an opening where a door should be.

She was beyond thankful for her new home. Sometimes it still seemed like a dream and she half expected to wake up and find herself back in the mud hut. Find her two boys huddled together for warmth on the hard dirt. No pillows. Just a single ragged blanket made from grain sacks she had acquired in the daily search for food. Food, or anything of value that she could trade for food.

That was the daily challenge each day back then. Feed her two hungry boys; and on a good day, feed herself. 

Now, as she looked around her home, those days somehow seemed to be an impossible reality. How had they even survived? She thought about that very thing as she stood and peeked into the room where her two boys were whispering and laughing. It was just barely dawn and light was leaking in under her east-facing door. She padded to the door and opened it, a gentle breeze hitting her in the face, carrying the pungent scent of cows in a nearby field.

She lit a fire and poured water into a large kettle.  As usual, at least nowadays, porridge was on the menu. She poured water into the pot from the rusty, tin can. It was the last of it and either she or the boys would be hiking to the community well to replenish their water supply. Probably after school. School? She still hadn’t gotten used to her boys going to school. And a good one at that. Already, the older boy could read to her from the book. That after just one year in a school where they actually learned something. But she also felt guilt that they had rarely gone to school before. It had just been too hard to make it happen. They were usually sick or hungry. Quite often, both sick and hungry. 

Now, they were never hungry. Well, beyond the fact that young boys always seem to be hungry. They were well fed and healthy. She had watched their cheeks become full and healthy. Watched their eyes come to life with that sparkle that reflected their overall well-being. So much had changed for her little family. 

But the memory of the way it was before wasn’t far from the surface in her memory. The way it was before the book.

She stood and poked her head in the door, calling her boys by name and telling them to get dressed and wash themselves. Breakfast would be ready soon and then she would walk them to school.

She sat down on an overturned bucket and stoked the fire underneath the pot with the same charred stick she had been using for a week. She watched as the flames licked the bottom of the pot and curled hungrily towards the sky in search of oxygen. And that’s when her mind drifted back again. Picking up where her thoughts had left off the night before. Back to her childhood with her widowed mother. Her father gone and dead on a road somewhere. 

If life had been hard for her and her mother when her father was alive, it was nothing compared to life after he was gone. She could almost feel the desperation even now, so many years removed. She could almost still hear her mother crying at night. Almost feel the hunger that she had felt every day. 

She can still remember the day, not even one year after her father had died, that her mother joined him wherever he was. It had been a heart attack, she was told. Sudden and violent. And then she was alone. She thinks she was thirteen when that happened, but she is not entirely sure even now. A bad age for a girl to become abandoned by her parents for any reason. Too old to be a child in the eyes of most, and too young to really make it on her own.

She had ended up at her uncle’s house some miles away from her home. Ended up eating the scraps they didn’t want each day. Ended up fetching water, cooking and cleaning. Being beaten when she didn’t do it exactly right. She had slept most nights with her back against the wall and her knees pulled to her chest. Petrified of her drunken uncle. Ignored by her aunt. Tormented by their two daughters who regularly kicked her and spat on her, all the while calling her bad names. 

She remembers her aunt and uncle arguing at night. Arguing about her. Her uncle wanted her gone and knew some men that were interested. Her aunt had been appalled at his suggestion, reminding him that she was too young. He had vehemently disagreed and told her aunt that he would wait, but not for long. The burden, he had said, was just too much and the day he missed a meal would be the last day his sister’s child would be there.

That had gone on for several months. And then one night, under the cover of a loud storm, she had run away into the darkness. Where she would go, she really hadn’t known and she really hadn’t cared. Her destination was anywhere but where she was. Death from the unknown was better than the awful life she was living. 

And so, she had run into the night, the sideways drops of rain, driven by strong winds, pelting her face without mercy. She had run for what seemed an eternity, until breathless and weak, she had collapsed on the ground under an old, twisted tree. There she had laid sobbing. Free, but alone. Nowhere to go, but somehow relieved. She missed her mother. Even her drunken father. Simply missed knowing that they were there. 

She had awakened the next morning and realized that she knew where she was. She was not far from her old home, in between there and a small village to the east. She remembers now that feeling she had at that moment. The sudden realization that she had no idea what to do. She had looked west, towards the small, scattered farms and her old home. Familiar territory, but territory that held nothing for her. She had looked to the east, towards the village. There were kiosks there. Food. People that might help her. A tiny bit of hope. Back then, before the book, a tiny bit of hope was double what she currently had. And so, she had nodded her head in decision and walked straight east, into the blinding sun. – To be continued.

Building Futures - The Book PT 1

She sat down on her couch and leaned back into its soft, welcoming comfort and breathed out a long sigh. A sigh of contentment. A sigh of accomplishment after a long Sunday with her two boys who were sleeping peacefully in a warm bed in the adjacent room. The soft glow of a lantern illuminated the entrance to their room, but beyond that, darkness. She could hear one of them snoring softly and she smiled. She knew which one it was. It was a comfort to hear him snoring; so sound asleep.

She sat up and reached under the couch and pulled something out and carefully unfolded the paper that surrounded it. It was the book. That’s what she called it in her head each time she thought of it. The book. She flipped open the cover and began carefully turning the pages; one by one until she came to one with a picture. Then she held it close and studied every last detail. The pictures were in color and although they were simple illustrations, they sparked her imagination so much, that to her, they came to life. 

She had spent many hours flipping through the pages, studying every detail of every picture. She knew all of them intimately and yet she never tired of looking at them, as if one day they would change and become something new. But she did have a favorite and she had just turned the page that had revealed it.

It was a picture of men who had gathered for supper. They all wore long, flowing clothing, with oversized sleeves that cascaded with folds that overlapped one another. The table was filled with dishes and cups. Although there were several men seated around the table, one was obviously the center of attention. All eyes were on him. She knew who He was. But not until recently. Although she had heard His name spoken, she simply didn’t know who He was. She hadn’t known Him. 

That very thought brought a tear to her eye. It rolled unnoticed by her; down her cheek and fell with a tiny splat in the center of the picture. It had fallen on Him! Her eyes went wide, and she inhaled sharply, carefully wiping away the droplet with the tip of her bony index finger and blowing on the damp spot through pursed lips as if trying to nurse a dying flame to life.

The book was a precious treasure to her now. A source of comfort. A source of hope and promises. But it hadn’t always been that way. Sitting there, she could still remember how mad she had been on the day she first received it. It had not been a good day to begin with. Terrible in fact. Like many days, weeks and even years before that. But that day was terrible indeed, because it was the end of a week in which she had failed every day to find food for her two boys. So, when the missionary had appeared in the space where a door should be on the mud hut she lived in, she had been in a foul, defeated and hopeless state of mind. He had an interpreter with him and introduced himself through that interpreter. Then he had proceeded, again, through the interpreter, to tell her that he was there to introduce her to God and give her a free Bible. As the interpreter had spoken those words, the man had extended his hand. In it, was a book, held firmly in his pale, thin grasp. She remembered looking down at the book in his hand and thinking about what she had been told. She remembered feeling the fire in the pit of her stomach that crept up her body, then her neck and her face. Her lips had trembled and she had spat out words like daggers in her fit of rage. “God? Who is this God and where is this God? I know nothing of your God because he has never shown himself to me a single day of my life. I am alone with my two boys in this filthy pit with no food for a week now. And you are here to give me a book? Am I supposed to feed my children with that book?!” She had paused, her body trembling in anger and even fear of the words that had come out of her own mouth. And yet she continued, with fire in her eyes. “Take your book and go! Take your God with you as well. There is no place for any of you in my home.” 

She could still recall the look of sadness on the interpreter’s face. In his eyes. And she could still recall the pink that had painted the pale man’s cheeks. Anger? Embarrassment? She hadn’t known and she hadn’t cared. She had simply turned her back and walked into the utter darkness of her house made of mud. The men had left without another word. But a while later, when she ventured out to be sure they were gone, she had stumbled on something on the ground at the entrance. The book.

She had picked up the book and gave it a closer look. She had thought about using its pages to start her cook fires. But in the end, she took it inside and placed it on a shelf carved into the mud wall. She thought she would probably burn it later or find another use for it. She rarely threw anything away as a use could be found for most things.

She had slid down the wall and sat on the dirt floor under the shelf and pondered the interaction with the two men. They had made her so angry, but she remembers feeling guilty as she sat there against the cold, dirt wall. How could they have possibly known what she was going through back then? Or for that matter, most of her life.

They couldn’t have known, that she, like her own children, had grown up without a father. The memory of the day he left has haunted her. 

He left on a warm and rainy summer day. He had returned from working in the fields and the look on his face as he stepped though the door was burned in her memory. A look of defeat. A look of total exhaustion and defeat. Her mother had been washing beans and stood up from the worn, wooden bench she was sitting on, wiping her wet hands on the skirt of her dress. She had turned to greet him with a smile on her face, but the smile had turned to a grimace when she saw the bottle in his hand. He was holding it like a bat, and she could see that it was mostly empty. She looked up at his face and then to his eyes. Bloodshot eyes. Angry, drunken eyes.

As her mother stammered out a greeting, he interrupted her with a terse “quiet woman!” He had continued in the same brutally condescending tone. “Do not even speak to me, standing there with a smile on that ugly face! I work in the sun. I work in the rain. On my hands and knees with my back bent for hours. I have to come home to this?” He swept the bottle around in an arc that incorporated the sum total of the tiny hut. “And to you two lazy and worthless females?” He had glanced at his daughter before turning his drunken gaze back to his wife. “You do nothing but watch after this one. And she is as worthless as you! Why couldn’t you have given me a son to help provide? And now you can no longer have children? Why should I work so hard to feed you two when I get NOTHING in return?”

That is when he had thrown the bottle. It had struck her mother in the chest and she had shrieked in surprise and her hands had flown to her chest. And then…her father had turned away and walked back out the way he had come. That was the last time she had ever seen him. Three days later, in the dark of an early morning, he was struck and killed by a truck as he lay passed out on the side of the road somewhere.

Sitting on the couch, the flood of memories had brought fresh tears to her eyes. She sobbed for a moment and then, once again, picked up the book. To be continued.

The Same Old Story

I may be telling the same old story. But that is because it is the truth.

Over the last 23 years of writing 10 stories per year for the newsletter, it’s very likely that I have repeated myself a few times. I am quite certain of that fact. And I know that I am also preaching to the choir for the most part. But the truth is, not only do we consistently have new partners in this mission, but you just never know who needs to be reminded of why we do what we do.

It’s also the same old story because we are fighting an endless battle. We have to accept that fact. Endless… but very worthwhile, and in fact, God calls it “perfect religion.” The theme for this year is “Building Futures”, with a sub theme of “The Battle for Tomorrow.”

We chose this “double theme” simply because they go hand in hand with what we are truly doing and what we are up against. Really, The Battle for Tomorrow describes the reason why we are Building Futures, not just for the orphans and widows that we help, but for ourselves.

First. Let’s just consider this fact: Muhammed, the false prophet, the one who went into the cave and claims to have been given the contents of the Koran by Gabriel the arch angel, was an orphan. He was raised by his uncle and grandfather.

First consider the many millions of innocent lives that have been lost because of his great lie. Perhaps the biggest, most catastrophic lie ever told. And it is ongoing because in terms of followers, he is second only to Christ, the Son of God. Now consider this: What if he had been raised by followers of Christ when his parents died?

Alexander Hamilton was also an orphan. When he was a teenager a group of local businessmen paid for him to go to college at what would become Columbia College. Alexander Hamilton would go on to play a key role in the formation of our political system, serving as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention as well as authoring many of the Federalist Papers.

Now consider what our country might be like if he hadn’t been cared for when his parents died. What if those businessmen hadn’t paid for him to get the education he needed to become who he did? How many lives has his contributions impacted over the course of our country’s history? Yes, it’s the same old story I am telling. But that is because it is the truth.

That’s why we are Building Futures. Not just the futures of the orphans and widows we care for, but as I wrote before, our own. And our children’s and grandchildren’s as well as many generations beyond until Jesus returns. I will never be able to stop being amazed at the power of a single act of kindness. And I wonder sometimes if I should be amazed or just nod my head when I witness such a thing and think to myself, “well of course.” After all it is really a simple thing when you consider that the source of all good is God. He invented good. And all the blessings that go along with doing good. I have come to realize through this work, that those blessings are far-reaching indeed.

Winnie comes to my mind when I think of such things. Just the other day, Jeff Timmons, our Director of Orphan Aid, sent me a copy of an update we received on Winnie. I just sat there staring at her pictures because I was so amazed. Winnie was the daughter of an orphan who had been abandoned, and she too, abandoned Winnie, repeating the same harmful and cruel cycle that we battle to break every day.

They used to call her “the ever-crying Winnie”, simply of course, because she was always crying. No one knew why she cried. Physically, there was nothing wrong with her. Over time, thankfully, the wails ceased and the tears stopped flowing.

This is Winnie when she was younger. At this point, she had already been at the home for years. She had already been loved and cared for since she was an infant. She had learned about God and his Son. Been given an education since the day she was old enough to be eligible.

And this is Winnie now. Nearly an adult. An entire young life spent being raised in a Christian Children’s Home. From being the “ever-crying Winnie” as an infant and young child, to a young lady who praises God daily for all the blessings in her life.

What and who will Winnie become? We simply don’t know. But like Alexander Hamilton, she has been given the love, care and instruction to become whatever she is capable of becoming. And perhaps she will simply become a good mother. Perhaps she will simply raise her children in the manner she has been raised and teach them about Jesus and the steps to salvation. But somewhere down the line, Winnie or one of her descendants will make a profound contribution to the world. And eventually, odds being what they are, she and her descendants will become thousands of souls in our Father’s Kingdom.

But conversely, what would have become of Winnie and all of her descendants if someone else with less good intentions had cared for her? Well, we don’t’ know for sure, but again, odds and statistics play a role here.

Winnie would have likely lived out her life in a pattern of behaviors similar to that of her mother. Five children before she was 18 years old. All of them abandoned. A life of crime to survive. Fair game to men with ill will who exploit the vulnerability and desperation of young women. A very good chance of a legacy of descendants that would be uneducated and know nothing of God or Jesus. And yes, one or more of them would eventually do something that would have a profound impact on this world’s future. We must remember, that tens become hundreds. Hundreds become thousands and thousands become tens of thousands over time. Tens of thousands doing good, or tens of thousands doing less than good, or doing evil.

And Winnie is just one person. So, what is the value of helping just one person? What is the value of that single act of kindness in helping a fatherless child have a good life? In showing them God’s love and helping them become a follower of Jesus? Giving them an education so that they can care for themselves and their children? Just what is the impact of Building Futures one child at a time?

When you consider Muhammed and Alexander Hamilton, apparently it is relatively profound. And that is why we intend to Keep Building Futures, Keep fighting The Battle for Tomorrow… and yes, keep telling the same old story.

This is Why

It’s hard to believe, but the ever-hungry “father-time” has insatiably devoured the better part of another year.

Be that as it may, it has been a very good year here al O.L.I., largely thanks to you. Your compassion in action has resulted in a record number of orphans and widows receiving life-changing care. We have expanded our programs in both scope and scale and none of this would have happened without you.

So, with the fact that it is November, the month of Thanksgiving, I felt it was an appropriate time to be giving thanks to all of you that make this mission possible, and all to the Glory of God.

“Through the past 23 years we have seen the wonderful outpouring of generosity and love from Christians across the nation for the work we are doing to rescue vulnerable orphan children - children who, without your help would be left to lives of abandonment, loneliness, hunger and poverty.  Thank you for being a part of this mission. Words alone cannot express our gratitude to you for sharing in this good work. The Father of the fatherless has seen your kindness also and has said He “will not forget your work and the love you have shown to Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them”. May God richly bless you!” Larry Bertram-Orphan Advocacy & Church Relations

“I want to share my deep gratitude to all our awesome donors who have allowed their hearts to be touched by God to share in this wonderful ministry. You have not only opened your hearts; you also opened your wallets in sharing with these amazing children. It is such a joy to see your awesome gifts, and it is such an encouragement to me, but more than that, it is such an encouragement to the children and those caring for them. Thank you for helping God’s ministry grow one child at a time as we work together to cultivate change in our world!!” Kelvin Hoover- Orphan Advocacy & Church Relations

“Dear friends of the orphans and the OLI mission,  For the past 23 years I have seen thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children’s lives forever changed through your love, prayers and support. I have read your encouraging notes to our team, your letters of love to the children and have had countless heartfelt conversations on the phone and through email about your genuine care and concern for the orphans that you support. Every month I read the children’s letters of love and gratitude to you for your support and how much their lives have changed because of you. This is a beautiful and divine connection that I am so grateful to be a part of. Thank you for giving us this opportunity and blessing to be a part of your journey in caring for ‘the least of these’”. Laurie Timmons-Administrative Assistant

“I am continually moved when I think about all that you as donors have done; how you have truly transformed the lives of so many. In love, your giving has even raised babies and toddlers up to young adults who now are in college or tech school, striving to stand on their own, to make a difference in their communities and to tell others of Jesus and what He has done in their lives through you. I wonder what sacrifices you have had to make to be able to give to help raise them into what they are becoming or have become. I wonder what you don’t buy for yourself so that you can feed, clothe and educate a child throughout so many stages of life. I am humbled on behalf of the children that you would do so much, that you would care so much and that you would give so much. It truly is monumental, enduring, eternal. Thank you.” David Miller-Graphic Designer

“For over 20 years Orphan’s Lifeline has worked to help the widows and the poor. Through your generous contributions we have been able to see amazing changes in the lives of many, as well as large projects, such as, homes for widow families, children’s homes, and schools.

It has been my honor to work with the Orphan’s Lifeline foreign directors for 20 years now. We have seen our way through many challenges, happy and sad times. We have been able to build strong working relationships, respect and trust. Each month we read hundreds of letters that are written by the children. These children write amazing letters that talk about their appreciation felt to all of you that help them go to school, eat healthy food, and have nice clothing. They talk a lot about prayer and their relationship with God. These children are very proud of whom they now are. We cannot thank all of you enough for the gifts, blessing, and the real difference you have made in so many lives. God Bless every one of you.” Jeff Timmons-Orphan Aid Director

“Dear Sponsors and Donors,

As the Orphan Aide Director’s Assistant, one of my jobs is filing monthly pictures that are required from our Children’s Home Directors. Over the near 14 years that I’ve had the pleasure of working here, I can honestly say that I have personally witnessed unbelievable transformation in the lives of the children and widows that have benefitted from the generosity of our OLI sponsors. It is truly amazing and life changing!

I would like to take a moment and personally thank each and every one of you for your constant support of our mission here at Orphan’s Lifeline. Folks like you are the reason we can continuously support the needy and poverty-stricken families and children throughout the world and we can’t thank you enough.” Blessings, Carla T.-Orphan Aid Assistant

“Every story that we receive is a heartbreaking situation for orphans and widows. But because of Christian partners like you, we can and have changed their stories to happiness, contentment and dreams and goals of the future. Without you we could not do any of these things that bring Glory to God, and the least of the least are the ones that benefit from this incredible work. Thank you in His name and may He continue to Bless you!” Tim Murphy-Orphan advocacy & Church Relations

“I want to express my heartfelt appreciation for your support towards the orphan children. Your generosity has significantly impacted their lives, providing them with the care, education, and resources they need to thrive. The outpouring of your devotion has been an example to these children of Christ’s love for us and the best gift you can bestow on them. I hope that your example will encourage others to give open-heartedly to those in need. Thank you once again for your support, and please know that your gift has made a lasting difference in the lives of these children.”  Best wishes, Ariel Malloy-Donor Accounts Manager

“As Donor Relations Manager, it has been my great privilege to work with you. I really doubt any Donor Relations Manager in any nonprofit organization in our nation has worked with anywhere near the special, wonderful, amazing people I have worked with over my years at OLI. Thank you for not only blessing the children and widows, but for blessing me in such an amazing way. If I could thank you in every language in the world, it still wouldn’t be enough.” Faith Adams-Donor Relations Manager

“Thank you to all of you who support us and have made such a huge impact in the lives of many. Many of these children and widows have come from dire situations, and it is your generosity and your compassion that has fed, nurtured, educated and given them a chance. We have seen the impact of your efforts, children graduating and going on to college, entering the workforce as well as beginning and caring for families of their own. We know to some degree the impact your work has made, the things we have seen, but I have no doubt that down the road, where we cannot, that these children will go on to touch others’ lives, paying forward the love, compassion and generosity they received from all of you. No matter the need, you all have risen to the occasion and provided for each and every need. We are eternally grateful for the trust you have shown in us to do this work, enabling us to be a lifeline for your generosity to care for God’s Children and Widows.” Kevin T. – IT & Sponsorship Coordinator

Most of these individuals have worked here for more than a decade, with the vast majority of them, including myself, for more that 20 years. Not only does that speak to the dedication of everyone here to this good work, but also speaks to the fact of how good of a work it truly is, that so many of us have chosen to do this year after year.

For me personally, there is no adequate words in any combination, that could truly express how humbled and grateful I am to all of you for loving these orphans and widows in a manner that is truly Christ-like and in a way that not only changes their lives, but the lives of many millions in future generations. You are truly changing the world, one child at a time. For that, we are all Giving Thanks.

This is Why- The Shape of Things to Come PT 2

Meet Isaac. We are praying that Isaac is the shape of things to come. And we know he will be.

Isaac lost his father when he was very young, when he succumbed to the health-ravaging effects of AIDS. His mother is alive, but also suffers from the disease and was unable to take care of the numerous children her husband left her to care for.

Isaac’s mother and father are the antitheses to our goals here at O.LI.

Their lives represent the exact thing we are endeavoring to prevent from happening to the children we care for.

I don’t know the history of Isaacs parents in terms of their childhood. But it is very likely that they were among the millions of fatherless children out there. They very likely went without proper care. Without education. Without God’s Word or instruction. They very likely embodied the learned behaviors of those that helped them to survive the harsh realities of a lonely and hopeless childhood.

They somehow survived long enough to bring several children into the world. Unfortunately, at this point, other than Isaac, they are children that are very likely to repeat the same mistakes as their mother and their dead father. Simply because that is what happens to the vast majority of children born into such sad conditions. If they survive, they will do so by imitating their family and peers. And then they will have children of their own at a rate of 2 ½ times others outside of their sector of society. And they will have them more than 5 years earlier as well. They will again become the example to the children they bring into this world and the cycle will continue. The cycle of poverty. The cycle of crime and disease. The cycle of a life without morals. The cycle of a life without the hope of salvation. And they will grow exponentially in numbers over the generations.

There are 719 million of them. This is our battle. This is our opportunity. We will be a part of determining the shape of things to come in our world. Simply by doing or not doing.

Dire words, I know. But the point of this is not one designed to instill a sense of doom. I am simply presenting a mathematical equation that has two possible outcomes based upon the variables within that equation. Those variables that are known, are what and who are required, but the outcome depends greatly on the quantity of that what and who.

I say all of this only to stress the incredible value of what you do for the innocent children that you are caring for in this mission. I say these things so that you can truly value by comparison when you consider first, just a single child and his story. Then we can consider a much brighter future. A much better outlook on the shape of things to come.

So, let’s take a closer look at the life of Isaac. From what could have been, to what is now, and what very likely will be. Keep in mind that Isaac is not unique in terms of the children that we care for. To the contrary, he is the epitome of the before and after that we see in this mission.

We already talked about his early life. Where and what he came from. But what has Isaac become in the years under the care of Life of Favor Children’s Home via his compassionate and loving sponsors here in the U.S.?

I can tell you that Isaac is happy and healthy. I can tell you that he is receiving a quality education and has dreams of hopes of a bright future. I can tell you that he is VERY thankful and that he loves his Lord and Savior. That he reads God’s Word and spends time in worship and prayer. I can tell you that the impact that has been made on his life in a positive way is one that he will never forget and that I have no doubt he will pay forward whenever he can.

Just the day before I sat down to write this letter, we received a very curious and surprising message from a contact form on our website. It was from Isaac. Apparently, Isaac decided to do some research to see just who Orphan’s Lifeline is. And let us know how he feels about this mission. Here is what he wrote: “Hi our dear parents. How are you doing today? Hope you are doing well. Back to me in Uganda; I am doing well and so happy to be one of your sons... so happy to be at school and I will work hard and excel. Thank you so much for your support.”

Imagine our surprise to receive this message from our website. The very first of its kind. But it won’t be the last. Not even close.

Here are some more words from Isaac. Excerpts from letters he has written to his caring sponsors who have forever changed his life. “How are you doing over there? To me in Uganda, I am doing well and am so happy to write this letter to you. I thank God for the gift of life. “From another letter: “I greet you in the name of Jesus. …I thank you so much for paying my school fees and this year 2020 am going in primary seven. May God bless you!

Just think about the words he writes and what those words imply. Words of thanks. Gratitude to God for his very life. Thankfulness to those who have given him a better life. Thankfulness to those who are caring for him from afar. Thankfulness for the simplest things in life, and recognition of how very precious those simple things are. He is a grateful, young man who takes nothing for granted. A young man with a loving heart and a bright future that knows the source of all the good in his life comes from God.

Now, as I have said, Isaac is not unique to our mission. We have thousands of letters from more that 800 children, expressing the same sentiments. They are all the shape of things to come.

From a mathematical perspective, they are just the beginning.

Over our 23 years in this mission, outside of Russia where we began this good work, more than 2000 children have made their way to become young adults that are prepared for a life of success and service.

And based upon extensive research, and historical examples, when you include such factors as a loving and caring home environment, a quality education, coupled with the key ingredients of God’s Word, and belief that Jesus is indeed our Lord and savior, the exponential and generational outcomes are truly amazing.

Remember last month when we talked about how 1 disciple has become 2.8 billon? The same math applies here because of Jesus. We haven’t just helped out a few thousand fatherless children; we are effectively changing the lives of millions in the future. In fact, if we just continued this work for another 20 years, just three generations from now, we will have positively impacted the lives of over 4.5 million. That is based upon an average of 1.5 children per adult that have been helped directly or are the product of a home with the same values. And that is if ONLY half of them pass on those values.

Imagine, 200 years from now, 4.5 million people just like Isaac because of your simple, yet profound acts of kindness and love, given in the example of Jesus and to God’s glory.

But it’s not just the good you will have caused to happen, but the bad you will have prevented. For example, based upon the same research and the same exponential factors, you will have prevented more than 28 million crimes and almost as many unwanted and uncared for children.

I won’t even go further into the future, because by now, I am sure you can see the picture clearly.

Never think for a moment that your kind and loving gifts are just helping one or a few innocent and suffering, fatherless children. Even that would be profound and worthwhile beyond words. For just how precious is the life of a single child? To us, and to God? He makes it very clear how precious they are to Him. So just imagine what you are REALLY doing collectively when you consider the impact on future lives throughout the generations to come. You are changing the world, one child at a time. You are truly and profoundly, changing the shape of things to come.

This is Why- The Shape of Things To Come Part 1

This is Why. It’s been the theme of our stories and other content in The Voice of the Orphans this entire year.

And “This is Why” began as my own thought on one particular moment in time.

They were the words that popped into my head when I saw the heartbreaking picture of a widow and her three children. I took a good, long look at that picture. I looked at their tattered clothing. I looked at their distended bellies. I looked at their feet and fingers, literally mangled by the infestation of parasites. All of it sad. As sad as sad can be.

But, all of that aside, it was their eyes that it made my roaming gaze freeze. I blew up the picture and just sat there and stared for a solid minute. It’s what I saw in their eyes as well as what I didn’t see that spawned the phrase “This is Why.”

I saw sadness. I saw mistrust. I saw trauma. I didn’t see any hope. And I thought to myself, “this is why.” This is why we do this. This picture and all of the other pictures like it and what they represent.

But, as you read in earlier letters, life has changed dramatically for this widow and her innocent and fatherless children. They no longer live in a filthy, mud hut fit only for animals. Instead, they live in a modest, yet comfortable home that you built for them. They have been treated for their various ailments and are now healthy. They have a steady supply of nutritious food. They have been given God’s Word and now attend Bible study and worship services. We have introduced them to God and His son Jesus.

Their eyes now reflect hope for a much brighter future and smiles have replaced the sad and forlorn looks of the past.

And think of this. They are not unique to this mission. In fact, they are typical. Most of the children we care for have similar if not worse conditions in their past. Some were even babies discarded in trash heaps on the side of the road.

But you have heard all of this from me many times throughout the 23 years I have been writing to you about the plight of the orphans around the world. Because it is my job to be a voice for the voiceless. We are, in fact, The Voice of the Orphans that we care for.

Last month we talked about the mountains we are climbing in this mission. And the fact that we really are just heading in a direction; up a mountain that has no summit.

But there is another side to that coin. Another element to that visual concept to truly make the picture complete. Because all of this is the beginning of something very special. A shape. The shape of things to come.

This shape, as it were, is truly based upon simple math. Because math also has a shape when time and exponential factors are applied.

It’s like the rose bush in our front yard. We planted it years ago on the center of a round flower bed. It was a single, solitary branch with a small root, grown in a bucket of water. Now, for a few years it struggled and only produced a few tiny offshoots. But then at some point, it just took off. It had enough “offspring” that came from that single branch that they then multiplied at an unstoppable rate. That point, was the point of inflection. The point where the mathematical shape of that rose bush made its rate of growth exponentially stronger. The point at which it’s base was wide and it roots deep and firmly grounded in the soil. Now, despite the fact that I trim it back every year, it escapes its boundaries every year as well. It is a self-perpetuating entity that requires no help to be self-sustaining. It is trying to eat our yard.

All because it was nurtured to the point of inflection.

But there is another, far more powerful and relevant example of what I am writing about.

Consider this: When Andrew dropped everything and chose to follow Jesus, while there were many who believed in God at that point, Jesus was a prophecy yet to be fulfilled in the minds of most, and there was a strong resistance to the very concept of the Son of God walking among men. People died for that very belief. So, as far as disciples go, it began with Andrew. A single person and the first to be called upon by Jesus.

Now, putting aside the denominational factors, it doesn’t diminish that fact that there are now more than two and a half billion people that believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. From one follower to 2.5 billion in just over 2000 years. Not only does this show the power of exponential and generational factors on the growth and sustainability of  anything, but more importantly, shows how perfect God’s plan was when He sent His Son down to live among us.

But another key here is His disciples. They were willing to, and did die, proclaiming the truth that He is the Son of God. Without their faithful obedience and the subsequent generational teaching of God’s Word and therein, the story of Jesus, Christianity would have never reached the inflection point where it became an unstoppable force.

Another element of This is Why, is the very fact that God tells us that it is perfect religion to come to the aid of orphans and widows in their time of need and to keep ourselves unstained from the world. If He said it, it is certainly true.

The orphans and widows of the world, and all who suffer, are “the least of these.” Collectively, they represent a very large percentage of the earth’s population. Someone will have influence on their lives. Someone will teach them something. It will either be good or evil. There is no one more vulnerable than this population, and at the same time, no one more easily influenced by those who will give them what they need to survive. Because they have nothing. That source of survival will either be based upon good or evil motivations and the influence will have the same flavor.

There are roughly 719 million people that live in abject poverty on the earth. Two thirds of them are children. The most vulnerable. The most teachable. The most easily influenced.

If one person has become 2.6 billion, what will 719 million become? They are going to be a very big part of what this world looks like in the future, simply because children are the future and the world is failing them.

They are the shape of things to come... To be continued.

This is Why-Just Keep Climbing

I think life is like a mountain. Moreover, a series of mountains. Some of them easier to climb, with comfortable scenic paths and easy summits and with immediate satisfaction. Others, are far more difficult; with many treacherous and precarious portions within the climb. Simply put, while life can be a wonderful adventure, it is often fraught with challenges and trials for us all.

I think we often find ourselves clinging to a sheer face, not sure which path to take and full well knowing that down is not a good option. Not only can you not see the handholds and footholds, but even if you succeed in safely reaching the bottom, you are right where you began, with the mountain still before you. So, you just keep climbing; because there are no other viable options.

Even in the sport of mountain climbing, particularly soloing, the goal is to reach the top. Not the middle. It is only when you reach the top that you begin your descent. But life is not a sport. We don’t often get to choose the mountains set before us. They simply rise up and we must climb; just to exist.

It is not all that different when you choose to climb a mountain in life. Except for the fact that you do have a choice. I guess it all depends on what is driving you to choose to climb that mountain. Some mountains are things like college. Difficult and costly. One can easily get to a sheer face and not find easy hand or footholds.

Other difficult mountains are things like starting businesses. You choose to climb that mountain knowing full well that you have a one in five shot at best of successfully reaching the summit. But there is a summit. And when you reach it, you can choose what to do with that success. You can simply choose to quit climbing and retire by selling the business or simply shutting it down; as you move on to more peaceful pastures in your life.

The point here is that many things in life, like a solo climb, as well as the metaphorical ascents such as college, careers and business, have a relatively clear point of completion, wherein, the “climber” is satisfied with the achievement, or simply stops because they are unable to reach the summit by their own estimation.

There are however, mountains we choose to climb where that peak is never reached. Not because one quits trying, but simply because there simply is no summit.

Twenty-three years ago, a small group of us chose a mountain to climb. That mountain is this mission to serve the least of these, and thus the mission to “come to the aid of orphans and widows in their time of need…”

Interestingly enough, we didn’t begin that climb alone. And it is a simple fact that we could not have made that climb alone. So, we brought all of you along with us on this endless journey.

Along the way we have had the opportunity to simply take a relatively simple path too. That path would have been one in which we simply fed some orphan kids and patted ourselves on the backs for a job well done. But we also knew that path is not one that God would want us to take. After all, is there even a single example of God or Jesus doing something half way? Or giving up part way through because something (“something” being us) was just too difficult to deal with? Nope.

Neither God, nor His son Jesus ever gave up on us. In fact, in the end (or actually the beginning), Jesus ended up making the ultimate sacrifice for all of us, regardless of the fact that we certainly didn’t deserve it. We still don’t. We never will. He could have chosen the easy path.

So, that being our example, it’s clear that we still have a lot of work to do.

If saving the lives of orphan’s and widows is a mountain, one which we have chosen to climb, we are barely in the foothills at the base of the mountain. Together, we are climbing this mountain, knowing that we will never reach the peak in our lifetime, or anyone’s lifetime for that matter. God’s word makes that painfully clear.

But this is not a case of us pointing to the peak and proclaiming “that is where we are going.” It is more like pointing to the endless night sky, filled with stars and saying, “that is the direction we are heading.”

And think about this: It’s not just us on this journey. It is also the orphan children. It is the widows. It is the caregivers. The local community, the governments. Everyone who reads about this good work. They are all on this climb with us. They are facing the same difficult climb as us or at the very least bearing witness to the same.

And so, what does that journey look like so far?

As I mentioned, we may be only in the foothills, but we have come a very long way together.

Thousands of children with absolutely no hope have had their lives saved and forever changed. Thousands have been led to God. They have been given His Word and know and believe that Jesus is their savior. Thousands have received a quality education and experienced the love of a family that they would have never had otherwise. Thousands have grown to become successful adults that have broken the cycle of poverty that creates orphans in the first place.

That’s how far we have climbed. But we have a long way to go.

We are at base camp. In the distance looms a very large mountain with many obstacles… and many opportunities. It is our K-2. To climb it will take careful planning. It will take well placed caches because we cannot just move ahead with what we have. Because where we are going will require more and the timing will be critical. It always has been.

And we will need more people to come along on this journey as well. People to provide the means to make this journey possible. But it will be worth it. It already is.

Inside this newsletter, you will find the date for this year’s Annual Orphan Sunday. This is a major source of our “cache’s” that allows us to act quickly as well as plan for the future. Knowing what we can do and when we can do it saves lives and also makes us more efficient at what we do. If your congregation is not participating in Orphan Sunday, please consider asking your leadership to participate this year.

And we need more of you. So please spread the word and help us get more people on this journey; this mission to help “the least of these” in God’s name and to His glory.

Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your financial gifts. Thank you for caring enough to make this journey with us. The mountain that lies ahead may be daunting. And it has no summit to reach. But we simply must keep moving forward in faith. Just keep climbing.

This is Why-Hung Out to Dry

They say a picture is worth a thousand words…but whose words? Whose thoughts? What do different people see when they look at a picture?

This picture is deceptive in many ways. Some, perhaps most, would simply see an adorable girl, hanging her freshly washed, stuffed animals on the line to dry. They may or may not even wonder why. They may or may not notice and therefore question the old building to the left and behind the adorable girl. They are seeing what their mind tells them to see based on their unique perspective.

When I look at this picture, I of course recognize that this girl is adorable, as most children are, but beyond that, I see something entirely different than most people would in looking at this picture.

That is because I, like everyone else, also have a unique perspective based upon inside knowledge about the picture as well as less-than-common knowledge about a particular sector of our global society that this adorable girl belongs to.

What do you see? And how does it make you feel?

Before I answer the first question myself, I will answer the second question. It makes me feel angry. Angry because although I don’t personally know this girl, not even her name, I still know who and what she is. I even know, for the most part, how she feels. I know the secrets she hides about those feelings.

I know, because besides sharing the adorable attributes of a young child, she also shares something else with the many millions of children around the world that fall under the category of what is known as an orphan child.

I know that she was abandoned or taken away from one or both of her parents. I know she has no relatives that are capable and/or willing to take her into their home and care for her. I know that she likely asks the question “why?” nearly every day of her life. I know she feels sadness and probably wonders why her family doesn’t or didn’t love her enough to keep her.

I know that she lives in that old, musty and run-down Soviet-Era building behind her; because not even the government can and/or will provide her with a safe and comfortable environment to live in. I know that she has nothing of her own. Not even the clothes she wears or the stuffed animals she hangs on the line are her own. Because in places like this, it’s first come first serve for the children in these institutions.

My daughter lived in a place just like this until she was 4 ½ years old, which is when we adopted her from Far-East Russia.

I was there in that old, also Soviet-Era building that she lived in. I watched as the children there dug through piles of shoes to find a pair that matched and maybe even fit their feet. Community shoes. First come, first served. Nothing belongs to anyone except the hard mattress they sleep on with a number on the wall above it.

When we first started this organization 23 years ago, Russia was the only place we worked. In all these years since, our role there hasn’t changed. We are a subsidy. We provide the children with critical needs that the government doesn’t. We also provide them with education, entertainment and opportunities that they would never have otherwise. But make no mistake about it, there are limits to what we can do for these children, because like those stuffed animals she is hanging, the children in institutions like this one have been hung out to dry.

Thus, the anger I feel when I look at this picture with the adorable girl.

That anger is only mitigated by the fact that I know she has a much better life there than she would without our help. Without your help.

I know that she is well fed and taken care of. That her medical needs are met. That she is learning how to grow crops and raise animals. How to cook and sew. That she even has access to a stuffed animal to snuggle with at night. None of these things would be true if it weren’t for you.

The phrase “hung out to dry” is one that dates back to the 60’s, even the 50’s by some accounts based on searches I did.

Regardless of the time frame of origin, it’s meaning is pretty much agreed to by all who comment on it. It simply means, that like laundry hung out to dry, sometime people are left to the elements as well. The wind, rain, sun and blowing dust and whatever else life throws at them because of neglect by others.

Simply put, abandoned to whatever unknown fate they may face.

Look at the picture again. What do you see now. And how does it make you feel? Do you still just see an adorable little girl and cute stuffed animals? Or do you see and therein feel something different now?

To me, even the stuffed animals look sad and alone. Some hanging by one ear. Some by their feet. Their smiles, more of a grimace. Soon they will be left alone. Just Hung out to dry.

Now I would be lying if I told you that anger is the only feeling I have when I look at this picture. And it is also because of my unique perspective. And the feeling of anger I have, comes more from the fact that this young girl was abandoned in the first place and that even today, her government doesn’t consider her well-being a priority in their fiscal budget.

I also feel hope. Hope for this adorable, young girl’s future.

Because I know that her life is much different because of you. That her future is not written simply because nobody cared. You cared. You are giving her a chance at life that she would have never had. And a chance is all that any of us have if you really think about it.

Her life in this place is not, nor ever will be ideal. But it is much better than it would have been. Much better.

In every country we work in, the story is the same for children like this young girl. It is also true in hundreds of countries we don’t work in. Every country in this world has children that have been abandoned by their parents. Every country in the world faces the problems associated with finding a suitable solution to not only care for the orphaned and abandoned children, but how to proactively try to prevent the endless cycle.

Many, if not most, fail to adequately do either.

Thankfully there are people like you out there. People who understand that the problem may be big, but the solution is not that complicated.

We collectively simply show them God’s love in our actions.

We provide them with a home and caregivers who also show them love. We provide them with an education. Mentoring and nurturing. God’s Word and spiritual education. We teach them life-skills and through that they obtain self-actualization and therein, confidence.

Even in the countries outside of Russia where we are able to provide so much more because we control the programs, the lives of the children are not “ideal”, but as I said earlier, whose is?

One thing is for sure. Because of you, these children know that they are loved. They know God and His son Jesus. They have a real chance at a full and good life, and as young adults they are proving every day that this mission to serve the orphans and widows is worthwhile and good.

Life may not have started our easy for these children. It may not ever be “easy.” But the playing field has been levelled. Simply put, because of you, they are no longer hung out to dry.

This is Why-You’ve Really Done It Now!

Sometimes in life, you just have to hit pause for a moment. Stop and take it all in. Stop and smell the roses. This is one of those moments for us here at Orphan’s Lifeline.

It would simply be wrong if we didn’t hit the pause button for a moment, because it has been a very busy and amazing six months here at the home office. And in taking it all in, there is only one place we can place the blame for all that’s gone on for the last six months. That “blame”, such as it is, lies squarely on your collective shoulders.

Let’s just take a quick look at what you have done so far this year. You have collectively taken 28 new children off the streets and given them a home or supported them in a surviving relatives home. But what does that mean? Well, to begin with, you probably saved their lives. Statistically speaking, you definitely saved the lives of fourteen of them, at least. For the other half, you have saved them from a life of complete and utter misery. You have saved them from a life of crime and disease as well as drug and alcohol addiction. You have saved them from the hunger, pain and loneliness that they were sure to experience in the life that orphans without care are forced to endure. You saved them from a life without God. Without the hope of salvation. However you look at it, you have saved them. God has saved these 28 children because His faithful and caring servants have followed the example of His son and have obeyed His word.  You have built houses and outdoor bathrooms, and all the while supported the lives of thousands of orphan children in our homes around the world.

You have really done it now…

But that is not all. Not even close. You have also successfully completed phase three of the David Board Memorial Training Center in Liberia. You have purchased the land for, and completed phase two of the Coulter McCall Elementary School in Kenya. And just three days before I wrote this newsletter, you successfully gave enough for our higher education fund to hit the mark for the pledged $22,000 in matching funds. And therein, we have reached our needed goal of just over $45,000! This is truly amazing and humbling. Beyond that, it means that 27 young adults can now continue their college and vocational training!

And, since we are talking numbers, let’s just take a peek into the statistical crystal ball and see what that translates into as time goes by. Let’s see what kind of return on investment you will get for sharing what you have with the “least of these.”

Based on numbers supplied by multiple sources that study the relationship of income to education and other elements within the countries we work, and where these 27 young adults are attending institutions of Higher Learning, this is your ROI for that $45,000.

The statistical averages add up to this: Of the 27 young adults, 86% will be hired immediately upon graduation. Of the remaining 14%, 75% will be hired within the following 14 months, leaving approximately 4 that will either be hired sometime later, or not at all, due to either becoming a dropout or having some other life-altering event that changes the direction of their life. That means approximately 23 students working in their chosen or related careers. The numbers are much higher in these countries than even developed nations due to the demand for young adults with degrees compared to the small percentage that ever even have that opportunity.

You’ve really done it now. You have moved them from one statistical pool to another.

In the first year of employment, these young adults will generate and spend or save $720,000 of income. Without the education, those that chose to work rather than choosing crime to survive, would generate just $17,344 in income. Not each, but in total, for a full year of hard labor from all 27 young adults. That’s just under TWO DOLLARS per day or $642 per year. Nobody can live on that regardless of where they live, let alone raise a family on such paltry income. It is indeed a cruel world for those who live in such countries unless they are given a hand up. A way out of the culture of poverty they were born into by no fault of their own.

That’s a pretty amazing ROI, all on its own, but it translates into much more than just income.

Based on averages, you have also prevented 60 children from becoming orphans. You have prevented 81 people from contracting and ultimately dying from HIV/AIDS.

You have prevented 20 divorces and 20 cases of family abandonment. All of this for $45,000. And that is just for these 27 young adults. When you factor in the generational impact of intact family units and carry it forward a few generations, the ROI is nearly hard to fathom in terms of the positive impact it will have for thousands of people, and arguably, someday, even millions.

But, the most lucrative part of this investment, by far, is the precious souls that will be added into heaven one day. Souls that would never have had a chance without God’s Word coming to life before the very eyes of these children as they watched what they could only perceive as miracles happening around them every single day!

They need only look around their own neighborhood to value by comparison. They need only to see the poverty and suffering all around them and ask themselves the question, “Why?” Why the difference between their lives and those around them? What changed? What and who, stepped in to make the difference? Why did they step in? What and/or who motivated them to step in and help a stranger thousands of miles away in what may as well be another world?

The answer is the same for every question. It is because of God and His son Jesus. It is because of His followers showing His love in their actions. It’s amazing how many times these children quote James 1:27 to us in their letters. They are living the truth of that scripture. And they are thankful. Thankful to you. Thankful to Jesus and thankful to God.

And so, I thought it was time to just hit pause and say “thank you.” To stop for a moment and take a look at all that has been done; and even smell the sweet perfume of the roses you have planted in the name of God and to His glory.

Again, thank you for your caring hearts…because you’ve really done it now.

This is Why-Field of Dreams

In rural Kenya, there sits a field. It is flat, and as of now, void of much structure. It is surrounded by a make-shift fence, and in the center there are trenches dug into the soil and a concrete and rock foundation protrudes from the soil.

It has no apparent significance at this point. Nor is there anything apparently special about it. But looks can be deceiving; because it is special. Very special. For very soon it will become a place filled with dreams. A Field of Dreams.

Now, all dreams have a seed of origin. Planted in our minds by someone or something of great personal influence. Dreams, though, are fueled by something else if they are ever to be believed as being something of potential substance. Something other than a fantasy. That fuel is hope.

When I was a kid, I dreamed of being spiderman. That’s not the kind of dream I am writing about. Even my young mind knew there was no reason to believe or even dare to have hope that I would ever have spider powers. And I wasn’t eager to seek out a radioactive spider and let it bite me to test the theory either. Those kinds of dreams fall into the fantasy category and are a common playful escape from reality for children the world over.

I am talking about the kind of dreams that have the potential of becoming true. Perhaps a young child dreams of becoming a doctor one day because of a personal experience in which a doctor saved their young life. Or mended a broken arm; even something as simple as medicine for a cold that made them feel so much better. A significant, personal, influential moment in time.

These are the other kinds of dreams that children have about their future. About who and what they will become. But for millions of children, such dreams are as much a fantasy as my dream to become spiderman. In fact, I may have held out more hope of actually becoming the webslinger than many children in the world do, as they contemplate even surviving to become an adult.

Yes, in many parts of the world, the fuel that is hope is in short supply for a significant part of the citizenry. Particularly within the vast cultures of poverty that exists in much of the world, wherein there is little governmental social-infrastructure in place for those who suffer daily and struggle just to survive.

Hope, the fuel of dreams, is the component of the dream, that is grounded in some sort of reality. It is based upon evidence that such a dream could really come true. For children, that evidence is often the example of the achievement of their parents or other family members or peers within their community. But, in cultures of poverty such evidence is in short supply.

Many of the children are fatherless. No good example or evidence there. No hope there. Many have no mothers either. Again, no good example, evidence or hope. Those that do have mothers still live a life in which there is no reason to believe that even the next meal is assured, let alone the hope that something much better is headed their way, for their mothers suffer right along with them. Begging, stealing and digging through the trash for scraps to fill their distended bellies. When they lay their heads down on the cold, hard ground at night, there is little reason to hope. Little reason to dream.

Dreams never come true without action either. The dreamer must have the opportunity to act upon their dream. Then, based upon their own actions and blessed by their own hard work, and in some cases, even a bit of good fortune, dreams can and do come true. But the key word here is opportunity. We must have the opportunity to act before we can act. That is a simple truth. Those of us that are blessed to live in developed nations often squander many opportunities without even considering for a moment how precious they really are. And in the countries we work in and for the children we care for, those opportunities would be rare indeed if it were not for a single mitigating factor…you.

We, working together, are the ones acting on our compassion for these innocent children that are creating those opportunities. These opportunities could be easily divided into two categories.

The first category of opportunities requires little action on the part of these children, and is in fact the least that any human deserves. Within this category are: The opportunity to be safe. The opportunity to be healthy. The opportunity to be loved and cared for.

The second category of opportunities does require action on the part of the children as they grow, but is still the least any child deserves and is in fact a category of critical opportunities. One could even make the argument that without them, the first category will not be enough to sustain them in the long run. Not even close to enough. This category includes: The opportunity to know God and read His Word. To learn about His son and the steps to salvation. And the opportunity to have an education that allows them to break the cycle of poverty that has imprisoned their family for generations.

I’ll say it again. The opportunity to break the cycle of poverty that has imprisoned their family for generations.

For many years, we have worked hard to expand our programs to include an educational component that goes beyond basic education to the point where every child has an opportunity as a young adult to attend either college or a vocational program based upon their own achievements and capabilities. To facilitate this means an ever-growing and expanding program for educational opportunities for every age of child, from toddler to young adult.

One such opportunity is becoming a reality in a one-acre field in rural Kenya where cows and goats once roamed freely. Where the grass and weeds once grew, now there is a foundation. The beginnings of what will become the Coulter McCall Memorial School. It will initially be a school for the very young children in our programs there through Acts of Charity. Over time it will expand to provide education through the secondary grades. It will be the foundational learning component for children that will one day become eligible for Higher Learning in college or trade school. This school is only possible because of the loving parents of Coulter McCall and their gift in his honor; and their belief of the importance of education. This school will also provide daily Bible School for the children through teachers from the local Church of Christ.

Without it and the quality education it will provide, this rural area would struggle to provide a safe and adequate education for these young children. This is one end of the spectrum

In another field of dreams, on the same continent in Liberia, The David Board Memorial Vocational Training Center has entered its 3rd phase of construction. When it is finished, it will become an opportunity for young adults that struggled in school or had little to no formal education, to learn a trade so that they can support themselves and their family.

And in between, are our dozens of young adults attending college in several different countries. Future electricians, nurses, engineers, teachers, and social workers, just to name a few of the dreams that will come true in just a few, short years. These are young adults who would probably have not even survived without your help, let alone have become successful, educated professionals that will give back to their own community and the world as a whole. It’s truly amazing. All because you gave them hope. All because you gave them this opportunity and they took action. All because you showed God’s love in your actions.

But this is just the beginning. There are so many more dreams that need to be fulfilled. So much more hope to give and the resulting opportunities for the ‘least of these.” So many more opportunities for us to turn a field of dreams into reality. Whether it be a school we build, or just the simple dream of a life well lived in the mind and heart of an innocent young orphan, we can be a part of making that dream come true.

This is Why-Forgiving The Past

Janat thinks she is about eleven years old. But she is not really sure. There were no birthday celebrations back then. In fact, there were no celebrations, or anything to celebrate for that matter.

In fact, Janat knows very little about her younger self. That younger self is like a small, dark shadow that lingers in the back of her mind. A starved and abandoned version of the healthy and beautiful, young girl she is now.

A shadow that sometimes invades her dreams at night to remind her of what life was like before the police brought her to Nantale Lifeline Children’s Home when she was arrested for being a vagrant.

The dreams she plays a part in are nightmares indeed. But nothing compared to the reality that spawned them. They creep into her mind even now and leave her gasping for breath.

The reality that was is more than she can bear to think of as she values what she has now by comparison to what she had then. Or more accurately put, what she didn’t have.

Janat tells us that she was abandoned by a woman named Birra. Birra, who claimed to be her mother, dumped her off at the home of an old woman who went by the simple moniker of “grandma.” There were several other children already living there by similar circumstance. Janat was a tiny and frail little thing at the time. Malnourished and sickly, she immediately became a target to the unruly and undisciplined mob of young orphans at “grandma’s” home. The mob mistreated her and stole her food. She was no better off there than before.

And so like so many young girls in her situation, she began taking to the streets to find food. She would beg first; and when that failed, she rummaged through “dustbins and rubbish heaps” in search of scraps of food that she would never think of eating now. She remembers how disgusting it was. How she had to hold her nose to get the “food” down. Yes, sometimes her younger self invades her dreams to remind her of the way it was back then. Reminds her of how “miserable, homeless, hungry and even angry she was.” Angry at the mother she doesn’t even remember and the father she never met. Angry that there were no “good Samaritans” willing to even give her starving, little self a scrap of what they had plenty of, when she had nothing at all herself.

Did I mention, she thinks she is about eleven?

Janat may not know who her mother is for sure. And she will never know who her father is… or was. But there are some things she does know, even at the age of “about eleven.”

She knows that if she had not been arrested by the police and taken to Nantale Lifeline Children’s Home, things would have gotten much worse for her younger self. And it wouldn’t be the healthy and happy version of Janat that smiles back at her on the mirror each morning. In fact, it would have been someone much different than who she has become.

She tells us that she knows what happens to most young girls that are abandoned. She knows she would have likely been “defiled” at a very young age. She knows she would have become pregnant when she was still a child. That she would likely have contracted HIV/AIDS as well. That she would have likely died due to hunger, or torture, or from being kidnapped and having her organs taken from her and sold on the black market. The latter is a frightening and growing trend that children there are warned to be aware of.

She tells us that if she survived, she would have been a street kid. A beggar. A drug addict. A thief. Likely all of the above. She tells us that she knows she would have never gone to a single day of school. And she knows that there in Uganda an uneducated young woman has no chance at a life even worth living. She has seen it, even at her young age. She has lived it; and saw the writing on the proverbial wall.

The director echoes Janat’s beliefs. And she has seen it all in her role as the Director of the home. The alternating bed in the home has routinely been slept in by young girls who have suffered nearly every item on Janat’s fearful list of things that could have happened to her.

But Janat has forgiven her past. Forgiven her mother and father, despite their despicable acts of abandonment and neglect. She has forgiven the cold, harsh streets that held her young self in their cruel embrace. And she has forgiven the heartless people who ignored her plight on a daily basis, shooing her away like a troublesome rodent. But why? How? Where has her anger gone, and what has it been replaced by?

In one word, God.

She has seen His love in the actions of others; and so, in reading His Word, it has come to life all around her. It is real. She experiences it every day and is surrounded by it. Her words express the miracle she has found: “I have learned that God loves me so much. He sent his son Jesus to die for all of the people that He created, including me. It has also made me realize that God can use anyone to help others in danger. That I should keep hope and faith alive. That tomorrow will be better than today and that our God will be with me until the end of time. That He will never abandon me because He loves me and works in mysterious ways. I have forgiven my parents who abandoned me and never came to take me back. And I plan to be well behaved in order to receive the blessings from our Lord. I have learned to love people and learned that not all people are bad and God calls on us to love people how they are. I am no longer lonely and sad.

It is a miracle to me to be loved by people I do not know and I have never even met or seen. They are so special to me. They are so kind and loving. I ask myself, ‘How can strangers love me more than my parents or relatives do?’ And I know it is because of God. I feel happy and fortunate inside myself. May the almighty God bless you immensely. Because of you, I am forgiving the past.”

This is Why -Destiny Redefined

Nobody likes to believe that they have a specific destiny beyond their control, wherein nothing they do truly has an impact on who or what they will become and how their life will play out.

But there are places in this world wherein the forces of evil and the results of mankind’s sin have a powerful, detrimental impact that predefines lives in a way that could be easily equated with an unavoidable destiny.

One such place is India. Doubly so if you happen to be born female. Matha was.

Matha was abandoned by both of her parents when she was only 5 days old. Her father was already gone before she was born, having abandoned her mother when he learned she was pregnant. He had been having an affair; left and never returned. Still hasn’t.

Her mother, facing the prospect of rearing a child on her own, simply chose not to do so and left her tiny, infant girl with her sister and her mother. She ran off with another man. She has never returned either.

Now such a story would be sad in any country. But in places like India, it is far different than here and other developed nations due to the complete lack of social services, and therein, assistance of any kind for the raising of someone else’s child. If you don’t have the resources to care for a child, all you can do is share what you already have. For Matha’s Aunt Pooranam, those resources weren’t much, as you can see.

For years, her aunt and grandmother struggled to care for Matha who struggled with asthma inherited from her mother. Her mother had nearly died several times for lack of treatment due to lack of money to pay for treatments. And it seemed to be the destiny for Matha as well. She was sick often and seemed to catch every cold and flu that came around. She was suffering from malnutrition and not attending school.

You see, her aunt and grandmother were, and are, both agricultural laborers. They earn less than enough to care for themselves, let alone young Matha. As young women, they both suffered the abuse that uneducated women must endure in India. They are considered a liability and an unnecessary cost without skills that contribute to the family wealth.

Without an education, their husbands are chosen for them. Their husbands are paid to take on the “burden” of their existence. It’s obscene. It’s cruel; and yet it is indeed the “destiny” of a young, uneducated female in India. Oftentimes they are physically abused by their “husbands.” Beaten. Used as indentured servants. Punished daily simply for being the “burden.” Many are punished by having acid thrown on them, burning and scarring them for life. Making them “undesirable’ for any other man. An evil brand of sorts. Destiny.

But this will not be the life that Matha leads. This will not be her “destiny.” Because you have changed that destiny. It’s been redefined.

That’s because Matha is part of our new program in India that provides for fatherless children within the home of a caregiver or relative. In this program, our goal is to not only lift the child out of the endless cycle of poverty they suffer in, but also to allow them to be with a family member who loves them but struggles to provide the care every child needs and deserves. We lift up the family so they can stay home with the child instead of suffering through hard labor for nearly nothing in return.

The assistance includes all of the elements of our programs within our children’s homes, but keeps a family together. They attend school. They have a licensed tutor/social worker to assist them with their education and emotional needs. They are given God’s Word and attend worship services. They are provided with assistance to make their lives more self-sustainable. Like the goats we bought them.

Already her life has changed dramatically. According to our Director of this program, P.T. Rajan, her health has improved dramatically. Her teachers are thrilled with her progress at school; and he has no doubts her grades will allow her to attend college. She will have a career. She will choose her own husband.

He tells us: “She is proud of the love and care from her sponsors across the ocean.” That “both her and her aunt’s hearts are melting because it has made them understand how God’s love is manifested in the actions of Christians who have never seen them or met them.” Their words. Their feelings.

And as for her destiny... that is no longer something that will be determined by the status quo for a young girl in her situation. Because we have removed her from that situation and the heartless parameters of the cultural prison that she was trapped in.

Already she has begun to dream of the destiny that she will mold and shape with her own hands and hard work. She dreams that one day she will graduate from college. She dreams that when she does, she will find a career “helping the poor and the disabled.”

Her words. Her hopes. Her dreams. Her destiny... redefined.

This is Why…”The Fruition of Hope”

I can’t speak for this family. But I have been doing this long enough to have a good idea. A good idea of the hopelessness they must have felt just a few short months ago when you read their story in our November Voice of the Orphans.

Back then they were hungry every day. Just scraps from caring neighbors who have very little themselves. Back then the cold from damp earth they slept on seeped into their bones and infected their skin with tiny parasitic fleas that grow hundreds of times their original size as they feed on the flesh of their victims.

Back then, every day was the same as the day before. An endless recycling of the prior 24 hours of hopelessness and boredom. There was no school to expand or stimulate the minds of the children. No work for the widowed mother other than the constant begging for food.

Back then, tattered and filthy rags hung on their undernourished bodies, and even in a culture of poverty, they were shunned for being so dirty.

But even when our Director, Harrison, suddenly appeared and entered their lives, I doubt very much that there was any trust that he would actually help; and even less that he would continue to help. After all, no such thing had ever happened in their lifetime since the children became fatherless and their mother a widow.

So, you can imagine their lack of belief when they first met him and he bought them food. Even when he returned with more food and a nurse from the clinic to treat their infections and rid them of the fleas. And what about when he told them we were going to build them a new home? And fill it with furniture? A table to sit at and eat as a family? A couch to relax and a warm, soft, bed to sleep on?

They couldn’t have even dared to hope that it was true.

For what evidence did they have from their lives that would give them such hope? And when he told them why and gave them a Bible, they must have just sat and stared, but still dared not to hope. For although they were raised to believe in God, their trial had been a life-long trial. They had only seen the worst that life has to offer. They had never had a foundation on which to build their hope. Quite simply, it was a word that held no meaning to them.

But they had prayed. And one day, just like any other day, our director showed up and everything changed. Everything changed forever and their old life was cast off in an instant.

Yes, they now have food every day. Without begging. Their skin is clean, and along with it, they have gained their dignity and are no longer shunned by the people in the sprawling rural village. The children are now allowed to go to school and their minds will be opened and their eyes will shine from the stimulation that learning brings.

Yes, they dine together around a table and relax and talk on the couch afterward. They sleep warm and comfortable in a soft bed, safe in their home behind closed doors.

Yes, every day they become healthier, and in time, the fear, hopelessness and pain of the past will fade and their new life will become familiar like a comfortable pair of shoes.

But they will never forget.

They will never forget the man with the Bible who showed up out of nowhere and changed their life forever. They will never forget when he told them why. When he read them James 1:27 and told them that it was because God loved them that he was there that day.

A man didn’t send Harrison to the door of their mud hut that day. And a man didn’t take credit for what God’s Word had instructed him to do either. Because from Orphan’s Lifeline International to the donors that share their financial gifts, the motivation and the reason are all the same. It’s because God loves them and he considers it perfect religion to came to their aid.

This isn’t just a story about hope, but a story about hope transformed into belief and belief transformed into faith. Faith in God where all good things come from. And the good has only just begun for this family. The transformation from a life where hope didn’t exist to one where they can now begin to dream of all the possibilities this life has to offer. It is truly a story about the fruition of hope. This is Why.

This is Why… “Lest We Forget”

This is why.

This picture is why. And all the pictures like it.

It’s the definition of poverty. The definition of hopelessness.

Can you see it in their eyes?

The far-off stare of the mother? A mother who was abandoned by her husband and left to fend for three children without any means to do so. A mother who begs for scraps every day just to keep her family alive.

The blank, nearly emotionless and lost look in the eyes of the children? Young eyes that have cried too much; and now the tears are gone because they were pointless tears that brought no resolution to their cause. Young eyes that cannot read. Eyes that have never even seen a book. Minds stunted from a lack of stimulus and a lack of education.

None of them have ever set foot inside a school. They are just too dirty and infested with bugs and are not allowed.

Tattered clothing that bears ironic symbols of an affluent country far away. Tattered clothing covered in filth from sleeping on a dirt floor night after night.

Toes without any toenails. Deformed and full of infection. The fingers are not as bad; but almost.

Can you see it? This is why.

A tiny square room of dried mud is their home. A place made for animals. Just four walls and a few dozen square feet of dirt, filled with bugs and bacteria. There are no beds. Just rags to lay their heads on. The rusted and tattered metal roof leaks when it rains and the wind blows through the empty space where a door should be. A pair of muck boots sitting on the floor and a couple of items sitting on a shelf formed into the mud wall constitute the sum total of their wealth.

There is no wash tub. No dishes. No utensils. No bathroom. Everything you see is everything there is.

This is why.

Over the years as our programs have grown, you have watched children grow to young adults in warm, loving and clean environments. You have watched them marching to school in clean, crisp uniforms; with shiny hair and bright, white smiles. Eyes that are filled with the satisfaction of a full belly and the hope of a new day.

You have watched as they grew into young adults, their minds filled with the knowledge of man’s education and the knowledge of God’s education through His Word. You watched them grow into young adults who know Jesus and the steps to salvation. From the cradle to college and even beyond, you have watched them grow and prosper, some now with families of their own. Families who won’t have to suffer as they did.

You watched. And you made it happen in God’s name. You gave the fatherless a family on earth and the comfort of knowing they have a Father in Heaven.

But lest we forget, this picture is why.

This picture is how we find all of those beautiful little children you see in our newsletters and on our Facebook pages.

Not all of them are in this bad of shape when we find them. Not yet. But given time, they would be. Given time, they would look like this or simply be gone. Just a fading memory in someone’s mind. A life unlived, untested and unfulfilled simply because not enough people cared to seek them out. Or simply didn’t know that such poverty and hopelessness still exist in our world.

Because it shouldn’t.

But we also know that it always will. God’s Word tells us that there will always be orphans and widows as sure as there will always be wars and rumors of wars.

And we know it is true because He said it and we see it every day.

I’ve been doing this for more than 22 years now and so one might think that I wouldn’t need a reminder of the “why.” But even I do. I do because over the years I’ve grown accustomed to focusing on the success we have had with the thousands of children we have cared for. So many young lives have been saved and forever changed. It’s easy to get a warm and fuzzy feeling from that. And that is certainly not a bad thing! Everyone involved in this mission should get a warm and fuzzy feeling when we consider the good that has been done and the lives that have been saved and forever changed. There are entire communities where a generation of fatherless children have been saved.

But then a couple of weeks ago, I received an email with this picture attached from Kenya. The email was an emergency request from Harrison, who is the Director of Acts of Charity. You’ve read about our work there with him. Already we’ve built 15 homes there and are caring for over 80 orphan children and 15 orphan/widow families. That’s in just two, short years.

When I received the email and opened the attached picture, I just sat there for a long moment and stared at it. It was hard to look at and still is. Which is also why it is now the screensaver on my computer. And after that long moment of staring at that heartbreaking picture, three words settled in my mind.

“This. Is. Why.”

The holiday season is upon us here in these United States. Thanksgiving and Christmas, closely followed by New Year’s Day.

It’s a time of family gatherings. A time of sharing and giving and celebrating the beginning of a new year. For most, it is a time of joy.

But there are those out there who will be suffering throughout those same days. Suffering alone without hope. And so, I ask that you take a moment during the holidays and just pray for the families out there like this one. The ones without hope or joy.

All of you involved in this mission already do so much for children just like these. But there are those among us who might not even know how to help. So, say a prayer. Pass on this newsletter to a family member or friend. Perhaps a co-worker. Let them know about the need and the opportunity to help. Let them know how they can change this world.

Because this is why we are called to “come to the aid of orphans and widows in their time of need.”

It is because God loves them and without us they have no hope. Without us “the least of these” don’t stand a chance. It’s that simple. It’s that sad.

But I can’t leave it there because this mission is about giving hope.

The family in this picture will spend this Christmas in a new home already being built for them as you read this newsletter. They will eat Christmas dinner on a new table and from plates, not from their hands or the dirt floor. They will sleep in warm beds. Their fingers and toes will be well on their way to being healed from the treatments and medicine they have been given. On Christmas morning they will all open the gifts you have given them and it will be for the very first time in their lives.  And they can burn the rags they are wearing because they will all be dressed in new clothes.

They will lay down their heads on soft pillows on New Year’s Eve and wake to a New Year in which there is hope.

And they will know that it is because of God for it is all done in His name and because of the example of His son Jesus.

Lest we forget…This. Is. Why.

Lost and Found

The Past - Lost:  She sat down on the ground and leaned against the privacy fence that defined her yard. The yard is just a couple dozen square feet of hard dirt that seamlessly binds with the floor of her tiny home. The floor is also dirt, packed hard by decades of bare, dirty feet. Those of herself and those of her long-dead husband, her children, and now her grandchildren.

The fence she leaned against is comprised of a grid of a myriad of different shaped sticks. Some short and flat. Some long and round. They are tied together with various types of rope, all faded to gray by the same relentless sun that has produced deep wrinkles across her thin and weathered face. Sheets of woven palm fronds are further woven into the horizontal braces, providing privacy from the prying eyes of those passing by in this village filled with homes much like her own.

She pulled her knees to her chest and used a thin, gnarled hand to brush away an errant piece of trash that had blown up against her fence. A pointless effort because it was just one of many in a constant daily barrage of such trash. A gentle breeze blew a matted clump of white hair from her eyes. Eyes filled with the newly formed tears from her morning grief and despair. Grief and despair were a daily thing back then. Old friends almost. And like her desperation and hunger, truly the only consistent companions she had in the early hours of the morning.

She searched her heart and mind to find a new emotional companion, and after some thought, came to the conclusion that the companion of the day, definitely not new, but perhaps newly defined, was that she felt lost. Hopelessly lost.

She had lived in poverty for a very long time. She had been accustomed to having little to nothing and had managed to survive, but just managed. Then her daughter had lost her husband. That was the beginning of a new and even more desperate normal for the family. Suddenly there were no men to earn an income. An income that combined with the fruits of her own labor and that of her daughter, had barely been enough to provide meager meals for all the hungry mouths in the family. And locally, there just weren’t jobs available to her or her daughter to make up the difference.

She had watched with great concern as her daughter struggled to find better work. She stayed home to care for her two grandchildren and watched in anguish as they grew ever-thinner as the days and weeks passed. She heard their moans in the dark; and the anguish she felt for their pain was unbearable.

Then one dark and moonless night, she and her daughter had sat down against that same fence and whispered a long conversation about what must be done. They had held one another to calm the sobs and bury the sounds of their cries into the cloth on one another’s shoulders. The decision had been made. A desperate decision, but the only one that made sense.

Her daughter had found a job that would be enough to feed them. Not enough for anything else, but enough to keep them alive. There would be no school for the children. No money for anything else, but they might just survive. The caveat, as it were, was that she would have to travel hundreds of miles away to work in a factory. She would be gone for months at a time. Perhaps even years.

The children had cried the day she left. One of them had run off and been gone for hours. The granddaughter. She was so sensitive, like her mother. The grandson had gone off to search for her and found her down by the river and brought her home. Although he was younger, he had put on a brave face and convinced his older sister that they would be fine. That their mother needed them to be strong and their aged grandmother needed their strength as well. There wasn’t going to be time for tears anymore.

Months had gone by and they had settled into their new normal. Every couple of weeks money would come from their mother. Money and a short note, both of a digital nature, and both a welcome gift amidst the long and drawn-out days with nothing to do but consider their predicament. The children missed their mother and missed their friends at school. Their grandmother missed her daughter and grew more and more concerned as time went by. The situation was simply not sustainable. She, of course, was growing older by the day and the meager funds sent by her daughter just weren’t enough to provide adequate nutrition for her and the children. They were growing thinner and so was she.

But it wasn’t just the hunger and resulting malnutrition that had her concerned. She knew things. Things about the future that terrified her. She worried for both her grandchildren’s futures without an education, but worried most about her granddaughter. She knew all too well what happened to young ladies in India who had no education. She had seen it many times. There simply were no good outcomes for them if they didn’t have an education.

And that is how she ended up there. Her back against the fence. Tears in her eyes and a hopeless feeling in her heart. The future was just so dark.

The Present - Found:  Being lost can be terrifying, but it also matters who or what finds you. There are predators out there everywhere, seeking to take advantage of your situational weakness.

So, it was no surprise that this desperate grandmother, caring for two young and vulnerable children, was a bit suspicious when a stranger came knocking one day. He was well-dressed and seemed kind, but there were wolves out there in sheep’s clothing. Hungry wolves.

He had told her who he was and that he represented an organization that helped widows and orphans. He told her they were starting a new program that was intended to help keep families like hers together. They would provide food and clothing, an education for the children, children’s Bibles and even counseling and spiritual education.

It had taken a few meetings to convince her. It had taken a few months after that for her to believe what he had told her. To trust. But the food had kept coming. The children were going to school and the color was back in their faces. The weight back on their bones. Smiles and laughter instead of tears and sobbing in the middle of the night. The counselor had been there too. He brought Bibles and talked to the children about God and Jesus. She could see the hope in their eyes and felt it in her own heart.

She no longer worries like she used to, although now and then she catches herself fearing that it will all go away. Everything else has. But as each day passes, she grows stronger. As each day passes, she sees a brighter future for her family and she is thankful beyond measure.

One old ritual remains. She still sneaks out to the fence and leans back against those old sticks, brushing away the trash and bowing her head to her knees. But she no longer cries tears of desperation. Instead, she cries tears of joy and closes her eyes and thanks God that while she was once lost, she has been found.

Precious Legacies-Open Doors

When I was 12 years old, I had an epiphany of sorts and decided to write a song about it. The chorus was the summation of that epiphany and the entire song pointed to the chorus as songs tend to do. The hook in the chorus was “life is a hallway where the only doors are exits. Once you’ve gone through them, you can never go back again.”

I wrote it because at a very young age, I realized that you couldn’t get back even a moment of time that had passed. And more importantly, that it matters what you do in a moment because it could be anything from just time lost and wasted time, to a terrible mistake that you made, both of which cannot be undone… at least not by us.

If you think about it, all of life is like that. It is a constant series of decisions; or invitations to open doors. And opening doors and then choosing whether to go through them are two different things. God opens doors for us quite often, but is still up to us whether we choose to go though them or not. He doesn’t drag us through those doors and quite often it takes a good amount of faith to step across the threshold into the unknown.

Sometimes it is not God who opens doors for us and presents us with less wholesome opportunities, but in either case, once you have stepped through that door, the act itself is done and cannot be undone. The doors truly are exit-only and in a physical sense, the ramifications or repercussions of the decision can be immediate, intermediate, or even not forthcoming for many years. That’s why it is so important to make a prayerful determination as to the source of any door before you step through it! If there is a stone or  serpent (Matthew 7:7) on the other side, one might want to reconsider the value and the consequences.

I say all of this because events over the last several years have been a series of such opportunities. A series of some doors closing and other doors opening that have required a lot of prayerful consideration.

A few years ago, a door was seemingly closed when a landlord decided to sell the building of our CCIM Children’s Home in India. There were no buildings for rent in the area and it seemed as though these innocent children were going to be sent back to a life of suffering and hopelessness. Before this happened, we did not build structures. It simply wasn’t a part of our programs. When this happened, it became a part of our programs as Christians worshipping at The Church of Christ in South Dakota gave us the necessary funds to make it happen. Door closing. Doors opening.

When COVID hit, some doors were partially closed as governments temporarily shut down some of our children’s homes and orphans and social-orphans had to go back to households of relatives who couldn’t care for them in the first place. That’s when God opened the door for us to improvise and care for them temporarily in those homes until we could open our children’s homes again. This resulted in the opportunity for a whole new program to “keep families together” and allow us to also care for widows in dire need as well as their children.

That led to more doors opening as we saw what many of those widows lived in with their children! Mud huts with no windows or doors and dirt floors, oftentimes nothing more than old shelters for animals. Filthy, dark and depressing places fit for no human. That in turn led to us building homes for these families in Kenya, more than 15 to date with more under construction, which shed light on the fact that they had no bathrooms. So, we built bathrooms and are still building bathrooms every day.

In India, also during COVID, we learned that the government was not going to allow us to have girls in the same children’s home as the boys. Once the girls aged out, no more would be allowed in. A closing door. But God opened the door for us to care for them in their current homes, supporting not just the child, but the caregiver as well. We are in the planning stages of building a new home just for girls as well.

For many years we were able to provide a quality primary education for the fatherless children, but didn’t have the funding for college and trade schools. God opened that door for us when many of the children we were caring for reached that age and we stepped through it not knowing where the funding would come from. Dozens have graduated from college with dozens more currently in college or trade schools.

Then again, the opportunity came this year to build a vocational training center for children who didn’t qualify for college. The Dave Board Memorial Training Center will provide young adults the opportunity to gain skills that will allow them to care for their families instead of creating more orphans. Sometimes prevention is half the cure. The list goes on and on. Doors opening.

As I said, the caveat to doors opening is that they do require prayerful consideration and ultimately, faith.

I was raised in a family of entrepreneurs. From a very young age I worked in family businesses; for-profit businesses. So did my brother. By the time we were eighteen, we were managing those businesses. That also means that we grew up knowing that it was hard work to make a profit. Hard work to be sure you could pay your employees; pay your bills and taxes and still have enough to pay yourselves. If you didn’t produce a quality product, you didn’t get paid.

So, the transition to working in this mission was hard for my mind to grasp. Suddenly, we were asking for financial gifts in order to do this good work. It took me years to realize that it really wasn’t all that different. We were producing, are producing, healthy young adults who love Jesus and love and care for their own children. Collectively, we are all working together to provide a service that not only helps these children and their families, but also changes the world… one child at a time. And to God’s glory and in His name.

And it does require faith. A good amount of it. Oftentimes, most times we start these new programs quite literally on a wing and a prayer. We don’t assume, but rather simply believe that if we step out in prayer and faith that God’s people will see the value and help us continue to expand the scope and scale of our work to care for His precious children, and now widows as well.

And you have. There were times when it was tough, but you have always come through in the end and we are eternally thankful to all of you and to God for orchestrating this collaboration of His people to do this work. Thank you for trusting us with your financial gifts to provide this service in God’s name. We strive very hard to be worthy of that trust.

As fall approaches and the end of another year is in sight, we stand ready to continue moving forward in faith as God continues providing us with new opportunities to help orphans and widows in His name. Open Doors. Precious legacies.

Precious Legacies- “Taking Flight

They come from two different parts of the world. But they are the same in many ways.

Musa, a five-year-old boy from Uganda, has an infectious smile that belies the tragedy of his early years. His father worked in the swamps cultivating rice. One day while working, he was attacked by a huge snake and despite the best efforts of a local clinic, he did not survive. Musa’s mother panicked. She dumped her two children with her sister; left, and never returned. The burden was too much for young Musa’s aunt, having several children of her own, and so Musa and his sister were taken to our Life of Favor Children’s Home in Jinja where Irene Nangobi and her staff have cared for them since.

Thousands of miles away in Andhra Pradesh, India in our Learning Estate Children’s home, 8- year-old Susmitha has not yet consistently found her smile. It’s not hard to understand why. Her father abandoned her before she was even born. He divorced her mother and remarried and has never returned. In India, when this happens, young mothers do not have a lot of alternatives if they are uneducated. None of them are good. All of them are labor, and quite often the job requires the mothers to travel hundreds of miles away from their children. Even then, the rate of pay is such that it is not enough to provide adequate care for themselves or their children. The children are basically raised by the neighborhood in the slums. Sometimes it is an aunt. Sometimes a grandmother. Other times, just an unrelated neighbor or neighbors.

These children wander the streets with little supervision and are harassed by authorities and business owners. They live without education. For all practical purposes, they are alone… without hope.

This was the life for Susmitha before she was taken to Learning Estate Children’s Home.

Yes, these two precious and innocent young children may be thousands of miles away on separate continents, but they share the sad title of the word “orphan”. Both are fatherless. Both have mothers who cannot or will not care for them, by no fault of their own. Simply by being born they inherited this title and all that goes with it as well as all that does not. Like two little birds trapped in a cage they were simply victims of the endless cycle within a culture of poverty; a fate shared by millions of children with different names but the same or similar circumstances.

There was a time in the early years of Orphan’s Lifeline International when most of the faces were like that of these two. So young, and just beginning to cross that first bridge in our programs wherein we strive to provide them with the most basic and critical of needs. Food, shelter, a warm, soft bed of their own. Their first Bible, mentoring, nurturing, love and security, knowing that each day there will be more of the same. It is during this time that we transition them from the hopeless feeling they have lived with to a life filled with hope. One in which they can dream about who and what they might become and slowly but surely, begin to believe in those dreams as they cross new bridges throughout their lives in our children’s homes.

When you have been doing this good work for more than 22 years, it means that it becomes generational.

Those children who were so young back then have grown to become young adults. Young adults who are just now coming into their potential because of the love you have shown them. It is those young adults that we have been writing about over the last several months. They were the first children in our homes and now they are crossing that final bridge before they go out on their own. They are finishing up their higher education and some have already crossed that bridge and have careers. And, in some cases, new little families of their own. Families that they are fully equipped to care for. Families that will be taught about Jesus and the steps to salvation. Families that will give back to their own communities. Families that, like all families, will have their own struggles but have been given the opportunity to begin life on an even playing field. The odds are no longer so deeply stacked against them.

And, as they move on in life, the space they once occupied is filled with new children, including Musa and Susmitha. This is true in all of our Children’s Homes around the world.

Just imagine what that must be like for these young children. Imagine how hard it must be at first. To trust that the bed is really theirs when they’ve only slept on the hard ground, often without so much as a blanket. Imagine what it feels like to have a full belly, perhaps for the first time in their life. Imagine what it must feel like once they realize that there will be good and nutritious food each and every day!

Imagine the wonder of having companionship and friendship every day in contrast to the utter loneliness that has been the staple of their existence. The warm feeling of a hug from a loving caregiver each and every day in contrast to the knowledge that their mother is far away and their father is gone forever.

What must it be like to attend school every day when they have watched other children heading to school in their uniforms, but never even dared to dream they would one day be in that school line? Just imagine a life in which daring to dream about anything good only ends in bitter disappointment where the dreams and hopes are consistently shattered.

I truly believe you have done what Jesus would do when it comes to caring for these children. You have shown them His love in your selfless actions and have forever changed the lives of many children over the past two decades.

And now, just like these two young children, there will be thousands more whose lives will be changed over the coming years.

As you watch them grow, never forget where they came from and what their lives would have been like if they had even survived. Only half of them would have. This is important because the pictures you see are those of smiling and happy children. Simply because, they are smiling and happy children. They have full, healthy faces and bright, sparkling eyes that reflect the love and care they have been given.

It’s easy to slowly forget that it wasn’t always that way. That these children you are watching didn’t used to play and feel carefree and secure. They didn’t go to school and they didn’t attend worship service. They didn’t know God and they didn’t know Jesus. They just existed and barely so.

It wasn’t all that long ago that they were in those cages. Trapped in a dismal existence without any hope.

As this new generation begins their journey and cross the bridges you build for them, always keep those cages in mind. Never forget that without you, the doors to the cages of poverty that imprisoned their mind, body and souls would have never opened.

But now they are free… and they will take flight.

Ground Breaking-Precious Legacies

My father (our late CEO, David Board) was never much of one to simply give a hand-out… at least not unless it resulted in a hand-up. That was pretty much his unspoken, but obvious rule.

Don’t get me wrong. He was capable of great compassion. That was always the initial catalyst. He was without a doubt one of the most giving people I have ever met in my life. It’s just that he didn’t believe in simply handing someone money or things without expectations that it would make a permanent change; as opposed to a temporary change that would likely require more benevolence in the future and a cyclic reoccurrence. That was his choice. The way he chose to make a difference in people’s lives.

Over the years, growing up, I watched him do the same thing over and over again. I watched him hire people in our businesses when we didn’t really need employees at the time. We simply had to find more business to justify it financially after the fact.

He even started businesses simply to give people jobs during a time when there were few to be had. People who were ill. People who were just down on their luck.

He also invested in other people’s businesses when they couldn’t obtain the financial resources necessary to be successful in their start-ups. He loaned money so family members could buy homes; helping them remodel them and raise the value of the property so they could then get the final mortgage themselves and then pay him back.

Without a doubt, he followed the “teach a man to fish” principle… believing that constructive investment in others lives was much better than a one-time gift. A hand-up, not just a hand-out. It’s therefore no surprise that he ended up becoming one of the co-founders of Orphan’s Lifeline International. It’s clear that he had been practicing the principles of helping others in careful and pragmatic ways for a very long time.

From the beginning, it was our goal to develop programs that were just that… a hand-up and not a hand-out. And as the years have passed, we have continually expanded, not just the scale, but the scope of our programs as finances and opportunities have allowed us to do so.

So, it is a fitting and well-deserved tribute to him, and his life, that we announce the beginning phase of the construction of the David Board Vocational Training Center in Liberia. This center will be overseen by John Travis, the Director at Safe Home, also funded by Orphan’s Lifeline.

This center will become a critical educational offering for young orphan adults from Safe Home and the area in general whose lives did not allow them regular attendance at schools, and also for those who simply didn’t perform well enough to qualify for college. The Training Center will offer certification courses in Agriculture, Auto Mechanics, Carpentry, Sewing and Home arts.

With these skills a living wage is very likely. This translates into the ability for them to care for their own family while also providing a valuable service to a community where such skills are in short supply. This, much like college, is one of the key elements required to break the cycle that creates orphans in the first place.

Conversely, without college… without vocational skills such as will be taught at this facility, the odds are very high that the cycle of poverty that creates orphans will continue. The needless suffering will continue. The hunger, crime and hopelessness will continue and be passed down to their future children and so on.

We live in a country where there are many resources for those who suffer from the effects of poverty and a poor education. We also live in a country where there are many opportunities to earn a living wage even without a higher education. Unfortunately, that is simply not true in many developing nations. The alternatives for those with a poor education are few and generally are hard-labor related. Hard labor jobs in these nations do not provide a living wage. Not even close. It is generally less than two dollars per day.

Now it might seem strange, but the statistics back this next fact up. That is that individuals in poverty don’t just have their children earlier in life, they also have more children. Usually twice as many children. That’s twice as many children living in heart-breaking conditions. Twice as many children going to bed hungry on a dirt floor; most often without even the comfort of a simple blanket. That is why it is so critical that we be sure that the help we give them is not a hand-out, but a hand up. It is the only way that we can be relatively certain that we are effecting lasting change.

God gave us all a mind, a body and a soul. Each has its own requirements to be healthy and yet each is integrally connected with the other. Together, if properly fed and nurtured, they are what makes us whole persons. When one of those are neglected, the sad truth is that the whole being is broken.

As I have said many times over the years, the good we do for the orphan children of the world is exponential and generational in nature. When we help an orphan child become a whole and successful adult, they pass the attributes that made them successful on to their own children. They give them a comfortable home and feed them good nutrition. The send them to school. They teach them about Jesus and the steps to salvation. They save them from repeating the same life of suffering and hopelessness they knew as a child.

This is critical because just as the good is exponential and generational, so is the bad. The orphan children of the world who don’t have the help they need, that even survive, will do so through means that are not acceptable or productive. Those means include begging on the streets and crime. These learned behaviors of survival will be passed on to their own children, and as mentioned before they will have twice as many children and they will have them 6 to 8 years earlier. The prevalence of disease and illness will be much higher as well.

As Christians we have a huge opportunity to make our world a better place to God’s glory. We have a huge opportunity to use Jesus’ example of love and teaching in our own actions. We have an opportunity to make a life-changing impact in the lives of the most innocent who suffer the most.

The David Board Vocational Training Center will become a new tool in our ever-growing toolbox to combat the suffering of innocent children. There, we will mold the minds of young adults and give them skills that will help them truly have a chance when they go out into the world on their own. They can do so without the fear and uncertainty that is so inherent in the lives of those who don’t receive such help as young adults living in poverty. They will have confidence. They will have hope.

We are so thankful to each and every one of you whose prayers and gifts allow us to continue to grow in scope and scale to create more precious, living legacies in God’s name and to His Glory.

We will be breaking ground soon for the construction of the David Board Vocational Training Center. He would be so honored for such a place to bear his name and for the many young adults whose lives it will change. It is truly a ground-breaking addition to their community and to their young lives.

Precious Legacies - Building Bridges

A man went for a long walk one day; lost in his own thoughts. He walked for hours into the forest; climbing hills, crossing streams until he reached a deep canyon and had to stop. Across the canyon he could see the edge of the small town where he lived, but the deep chasm between made it impossible to reach from where he stood. He realized how tired he was and sat down to rest, wishing there was a bridge.

The sun was starting to sink in the West and he decided it was probably time to head back the way he came.

He rose to his feet, stretched his weary legs and headed off, following the depressions his feet had made in the tall green grass. He reached the tree line and entered the forest, leaving the warmth of the sun-drenched, red-rock canyon behind him. He was sure he recognized the path he had taken there, a thin game trail that winded its way through the dense canopy of evergreens; a trail that would eventually lead him back to where he had parked his truck.

He walked for about an hour, being sure to keep the fading sunlight behind him until its light was no longer direct, but just the diffused light of a late afternoon.

Suddenly up ahead, the forest seemed to brighten and he could see what looked like the edge of a meadow. He frowned. He hadn’t crossed a meadow on the way there.

As he neared the clearing, he could feel his heart beating in his chest as he realized something very disturbing. He stepped out of the trees and his fears were confirmed. It wasn’t a meadow. It was the same canyon he had encountered just an hour before! The same canyon and the same view of his unobtainable destination!

He panicked for a moment, his pulse pounding in his head as he tried to think how he could have ended up in the same place. He was sure he had followed the right path, yet here he was! Now the sun was sinking even lower and he knew that once he entered the forest, the shadows would be getting long indeed.

He had heard about people walking in circles because one stride was longer than the other, but didn’t believe that could be possible in his case. Where was the streams he had crossed? The hills? As he entered the forest again, the urgency he felt was evidenced by the quick, long strides he took. He focused his eyes on the trail and moved along as quickly as he could, certain he was headed in the right direction this time. Soon he would see the first stream, then the hills.

But once again, just an hour later, the forest began to lighten. And once again, the trees opened up to reveal the very same canyon. The very same view. He sat down on a rock at the edge of the canyon, put his head in his hands and sobbed. Everything he wanted was right there in front of him…but it may as well have been a million miles away. What he needed now… was a bridge.

Can you imagine the fear and frustration this man felt? To be able to see everything he wanted and needed right in front of him and still not be able to reach his destination? Such is the case for millions of people living in poverty in developing nations. And doubly so for the most vulnerable of all in those developing nations… the orphan children.

They are born into a cyclic cultural issue that is perpetual in nature. Without a bridge from the life they were born into, they are doomed to repeat the cycle and create more orphans themselves… if they even survive. They are doomed to a life in which they will survive in one of two ways… begging/crime or hard labor. Neither of these options do anything to break the cycle.

We have been building bridges for many years now. Bridges that give the orphan children a way to move from a life of starvation and hopelessness to a life filled with everything they need to survive.

We build bridges that give the orphans a way to move from a life with no security or love to a life wherein they know that there will be love and care every day. There will be a warm bed and a roof over their head every day. This gives them the state of mind they need to not just survive but to thrive.

We build a bridge to move them from ignorance to mental and spiritual enlightenment through education and spiritual education; unlocking the potential of their mind and soul to be able to use the gifts that God gave them.

We build bridges in relationships. Bridges that move them from a place of mistrust to a place filled with trust. This gives them hope. This allows them to dream about what and who they might become.

We started out in Russia more than 22 years ago. But we have been working in many other countries now for more than 16 years; building those very bridges. That fact means that there are very many orphans who have spent their entire lives in our homes and are now young adults at a very critical stage in their lives.

They are quite literally standing at that canyon, looking across the chasm at everything they want and everything they need, not just to survive, but to thrive and realize their full potential. Across that canyon lies everything they need to become successful and break the endless cycle of poverty and cultural norms and lack of spiritual care that cause them to become an orphan in the first place. Across that canyon is everything they need to begin a generational and perpetual lineage of success that doesn’t just change their life, but the lives of their own future children and everyone they meet and interact with.

In Africa alone, we have dozens of children who are now attending college. Dozens of children who are baptized and know the steps to salvation through Jesus Christ, the ultimate and only bridge between here and heaven.

With college or trade school, these children can and will break that cycle. Without it, they would be a bridge shy of success, and would very likely become laborers at best. The income for laborers is at poverty level.

We are so thankful to each and every one of you that are helping us build this last and critical bridge that will provide a path to success for these orphans that we have been loving and nurturing for so many years now. They will make you proud! They are your precious, living legacies.

Gloria- A Precious Legacy

There is a sign that hangs on the wall where Gloria sits and works behind a desk; and behind a computer, working diligently towards her goals of obtaining degrees in both marketing and accounting. It reads: “with God, all things are possible.” What a fitting motto for a young woman named Gloria; a name which means “Glory to God” in its Latin origins.

Gloria’s own origins in this world would not typically lead to someone with college degrees in anything. Her own origins would not typically lead to having much of an education at all, and that fact is not lost on her by any means!

In her own words: “At last, I can’t imagine the tiny little girl all the way from the extreme Northern Uganda would be able to become one of the students at Makerene University Business School, pursing a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. It is so wonderful that I am on the journey to accomplish my dream career of being a Marketer as well as an Accountant.”

As you can see, Gloria is well aware of what the typical life is for a girl from rural Uganda. 

The simple fact is they don’t go to college. Many don’t attend school at all and if they do, it’s only until they are 14 or 15 years of age which according to the Ugandan Government’s own statistics, is when the average adolescent female becomes pregnant for the first time in rural settings. Pregnant and single. Pregnant and alone with no means of caring for their child. Children trying to raise children. This is where orphans come from. This is where the perpetual cycle of poverty comes from that creates 3 to 4 orphans per young female in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Those 3 or 4 orphans, if they survive, will create 3 or 4 for more, regardless of whether they are male or female and it just goes on and on. It doesn’t take a very good grasp of math to figure out what those quantitative representations of exponential factors result in over the course of just two or three generations within our cultures of poverty around the globe.

From the beginning, our goal here at O.L.I. has not been just to be a hand-out, but rather a hand-up for the orphan children of the world. We have never wanted to be a band-aid. We have always wanted to be a bridge, providing first for critical needs that keep the children alive. Then for the needs that help them thrive. 

To thrive and not just survive, the children need more than just food and shelter for their bodies. They need food and shelter for their minds and spirits which comes in the form of nurturing and education. Man’s nurturing and education and God’s nurturing and education. The respective paths to success on earth and a home in heaven through Jesus Christ. When we give them both, their success is not just their own. It leads to them giving back to their own communities…and to their own future children. The same exponential factors mentioned prior, now apply as a positive multiplier of good over the generations to come. The good being done is paid forward from a single act and to God’s glory.

In Glorias own words, once again: “I am eagerly looking forward to completing my Bachelors degree by God’s grace. My plan is to get a job and extend a helping hand to those in need, especially the young ladies to uplift their standards of living by setting up a skills training center and I would love to continue for a master’s degree thereafter.

Apart from the studies and the moral part of it, Nantale’s Children’s Home has provided me to learn different skills. For example, crocheting, knitting, tailoring, and baking among others. It is amazing today, as I am one of the experts in tailoring and have been able to sew several beautiful dresses, trousers, shorts and skirts. I also have crocheted beautiful bags, head socks, neck scarves and tablecloths. I also teach my friends here how to do it.

In addition, I bake very delicious snacks… All these skills are very beneficial to my life. All thanks to God and to you my lovely sponsors for always supporting me.Thanks for making the life of one girl who had no hope become beautiful and full of joy, peace and hope. Long live my sponsors!”

You can see from her own words that Gloria recognizes her own blessings and is thankful to both you and God for those blessings. You can also see from her own words that she knows that those blessings cannot just stop with her. She must pass the blessings she has been given to others in the form of giving back to her own community. Her success becomes theirs as well. 

When we help Gloria, we are not just changing her life, we are changing the lives of everyone she will meet and interact with throughout her own future. We are changing history. Her history, the history of the community she lives in, her children’s history and so on. Like ripples in a pond. 

We will not live long enough to see all of the good being done with gifts we have given to children like young Gloria, but others will. Others will reap the harvest from the seeds we have sewn and the precious crop we have fed and nurtured all these years; as the love they have been given in God’s name is reflected in the lives of thousands for generations to come. 

Her name is Gloria. Her name means “Glory to God.” She is your precious legacy.