Chalwe & the children | Zambia

A little glimpse into the Lifesong for Orphans School in Zambia...(written by Lifesong missionary Dru Smith currently living in Zambia)

We began our new school year on January 3 with 175 children enrolled; this is an increase of 30 percent over last year, and we turned many away. This year we have expanded to include a third grade. We’ve added two new teachers, both of whom are recently retired from the government school system and bring vast experience and the needed maturity to complement our staff. We’ve also hired a teacher’s aide, a part-time art teacher and another maintenance worker.

One thing that stood out as I was introduced to the new children was the frequency of an orange tinge in their hair, one of the signs of malnutrition. I am curious to see if this goes away after a few months in our feeding program.

They are also desperately in need of love and affection; they quickly responded to my hugs and now eagerly run in anticipation of that closeness and loving touch that so many of them do not receive at home. We’ve been plagued with a few serious cases of a strange body rash and malaria with high fevers; we took the children to the clinic and all are doing fine now. Another phenomenon has been the rash of complaints of stomach pains and headaches on Monday mornings. We discovered the cause—the children have not eaten in over 24 hours or more. 

One little boy, Chalwe, had what we believe was some kind of bug bite on his foot. The family took him to the government clinic and were given a powder to mix with water to clean it. Of course, the water they used was dirty as was the rag they tied around his foot. By the time he came to us, it had grown to the diameter of a nickel and was filled with infection down to the bone. He was taken to the private clinic where he was put on a course of antibiotics and daily dressing changes. By the second day he was running and playing soccer with his friends. Here’s a picture of a happy Chalwe! 

If You Were Mine conference | January 31st

 

Have you ever thought?...

• Is adoption or foster care for us?
• How do the adoption and foster care processes work?
• How do we choose an agency that's right for us?
• Can I really love an adopted or foster child?
• Can we afford it?

Find answers to these questions at the "If You Were Mine" conference as part of the Hope for 100 initiative @ Green Acres Baptist Church, in Tyler, Texas on January 31st.

This is a relaxed environment where you can consider practical information about adoption, foster care and orphan care ministry from an objective and biblical point of view.

Who is this kid?...

What do we desire or expect our children to be?... a "mini-me"?...

I'm challenged by this article to embrace our children for who they ARE...not what I expected them to be.

Andy

God is in the details | Sam, Wyatt & Gytis

 

Check out these 3 boys - amazingly they grew up in the same orphanage in Lithuania...

and now have been adopted into awesome families in America....

Wyatt and Gytis live in the same city!...and Sam only lives 3 hours away from the other boys!

  

Trash It | making your donations more effective

I might be going out on a limb here....since Lifesong for Orphans  is a non-profit organization who is funded by generous givers...  but I thought this article by Joel Belz @ WORLDmagazine was right on the money - so to speak.

Read the article to find out why your mailbox is so full...and why by trashing it...you might be doing a favor. 

If things are really bad for the economy in general for the year ahead, one component may have it even worse. Those are the folks who manage the charitable and non-profit organizations of our society.

Your mailbox has probably already been cluttered with the panic messages. Giving is drastically down! Our needs are dramatically up! Please dig deep! Whatever you gave last time, would you please consider doubling it this time around?

I have an alternative suggestion: When you get the next request like that, trash it.

 .....

So having lost control through so simple a process, I suggest it's time to take control again through an equally simple process. Just throw those appeals away—just as fast as they arrive. Or, if you want to be a bit more civil about it, prepare a form letter of your own to send to the organizations that have been mailing to you. Tell them you no longer want to play this game, and to save them money, you'd like your name removed from their list.

And then. Then get involved in some disciplined, thoughtful—and really generous—stewardship. Instead of shotgunning $10 and $25 and $50 gifts all over the direct mail landscape, pick two or three (or more) worthy causes and support them robustly.

Set a goal (I'm assuming you're already tithing to your local church) of designating an additional 1 percent for Christian education, still another 1 percent for Christian relief or social work, and still another 1 percent for missions or evangelism. (One percent is easy to calculate!). And then keep going.

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