Your Church and the Orphan

You have been dreaming of ways your church could make a God-sized impact for the orphan. You have wanted to do something, but you didn’t know how to begin. 

Hope for Orphans will be hosting an event in Kankakee, IL on April 10th. The event will be a 1 day workshop for people AND churches who want to START or GROW their orphan ministry.

See what God can do through a mobilized Church!!! Join us!!! Click here to learn more and register.

Blessing the Unblessed

LIFESONG India, a report by Bob and Siromani Stoll, missionaries to India.

Lifesong for Orphans recently began its second year as administrators of a ministry to destitute children in India, a ministry founded in 1978 by Bob and Siromani Stoll. The focus of this ministry is evangelism, the heart of the ministry is blessing the unblessed, both physically and spiritually. Lifesong currently has in-country staff at 6 different homes for orphan and vulnerable children. These children are provided housing, daily Bible study classes, and 3 meals per day. They are being taught English and computer skills, in addition to the schooling they receive at their local public schools.

The need for such a ministry is evident; United Nations report 6 million children under the age of five died in India in 2006. In the face of such great need one might ask: Does a ministry caring for 585 children really matter? It surely does! By God’s grace it has meant that the thousands of truly needy children who have been cared for through the years in our six homes have entered their adult years as productive citizens with healthy bodies, an education and the knowledge of the one true God. 

Our Jyothi Nivas (Light) home is of a group of our girls of mixed ages from grade school to college students. They are from the “untouchable” caste (outcasts) and have known the many deprivations associated with that. Now they are among the very blessed and are very thankful for that. Their appreciation is shown in their smiles. Their hands are positioned to convey a greeting of great respect.

Lifesong Ethiopia

Lifesong Ethiopia Advocates,

Please enjoy these two updates from Gary and Peggy, directors for Lifesong Ethiopia orphan care -

The plans for the new grade school in Ziway are finalized, the builder has been selected and the work has just begun.  The block wall or “fence” surrounding the property is also going up.  In Ethiopia towns, similar to other third world countries, a property usually has a secure fence surrounding it to mark its boundaries and to secure the contents on the inside from theft.   

Lifesong for Orphans pays an elderly widow woman to make the injera used to feed the 300 children at school. She delivers the injera twice a week to the school on a horse cart.

Injera is the traditional Ethiopian bread that is made from a tiny grain called teff that is grown locally. Teff is naturally high in iron, fiber and calcium, which is really beneficial to the children’s diet.  The injera looks like a huge crepe that has bubbles in it, since it is made with a sourdough yeast starter which gives it a distinctive sour taste.  It is used as a base on the plate with the main dish added on top, usually as gravy. The meal is eaten by tearing off pieces of injera and scooping up the gravy with your fingers.

The children in the feeding program are taught to pray to Jesus and give thanks before their meal. This is a wonderful opportunity since not all of the children come from Christian homes. 

Nursery School in the town on Adami Tulu: The kitchen and the dining facility at the Nursery School are getting close to being ready to feed the 55 nursery students a hot meal twice a day. 

Plans are made to divide the Nursery School into two classes during the summer break recess.  There will be a room for nursery students and also lower kindergarten."

To Inspire and Equip Christians

With Haiti’s earthquake drawing global focus to the plight of orphans, Christians from across America and beyond will gather in Minneapolis, MN, for the Christian Alliance for Orphans’ Summit VI on April 29-30, 2010.  

The objective:  to inspire and equip Christians to “care for orphans in their distress” through adoption, foster care and global orphan care ministry rooted in the local church. 

 What you can look forward to:

• More than 50 workshops delivering nuts-and-bolts for adoption, foster care and global orphan programs – designed for both laypersons and leadership
• Orphan care resources for church ministries, as well as personal orphan care and adoption journeys
• Breakouts will also include 5 “Hague Hour” Credits for Adoptive Families.
• Q&A sessions and networking opportunities with respected adoption, global orphan and foster care organizations and veteran ministry leaders.
• For Christians stirred by the plight of orphans, Summit offers the biggest and best opportunity of the year to learn how to act upon conviction.  To learn more and register now, visit the Summit website here.

A taste of breakout topics:

• Haiti and the Local Church: What’s Next?
• Bridging the Great Divide:  Building Positive Relationships Between Church Ministries and Government
• Understanding Childhood Development of Overseas Orphans
• A Lifelong Love:  Keeping the Gospel at the Center of Orphan Ministry
• Church-Based Orphan Ministry 101
• Fundraising for Orphan Ministry
• Starting in the Right Direction:  Helping Pre-Adoptive Couples Make Sound Decisions
• Now What? Helping Children Age Out of Foster Care
• The Financial Challenge of Adoption and How the Local Church Can Respond
• Engaging Church Leadership
• A Child’s Journey Through the Foster Care System
• How Does It Work? Models of Global Orphan Ministry Based in US Churches
• Practical Ideas of Orphan-Focused Events
• Understanding HIV/AIDS and the Orphan 
• And many more…

And there’s more!  Five sessions will provide pre-adoptive families with needed Hague credits.

• Adoption and Orphans:  Becoming a Multicultural/Multiracial Family 
• Adoption and Orphans:  Attachment and Trauma (Part I and II)
• Adoption and Orphans:  Grief and Loss
• Adoption and Orphans:  Acclimating to a New Family Member

American Christians are stirring to the needs of orphans both at home and abroad as never before.  What’s thrilling is that even small ministries in local churches can make such significant impact.  There are millions of parentless children worldwide, but a single statistic matters more than any other:  it only takes one caring adult to make a lifelong difference in the life of an orphan.”

-         Jedd Medefind, President, Christian Alliance for Orphans

Lifesong Honduras

Please enjoy these updates from Guy, director for Lifesong Honduras orphan care -

Over the last month, the staff has been adapting to the many new changes caused by the new class hours.  Yes, we are all being stretched, but change is always a good thing when it is for the better.

The weekend of February 6^th all of the students arrived for the school year 2010, we registered around 450 students.   This number is up from past years, but we also have more new enrollees than in previous years. We literally have had to clear out storage rooms to create more space to house all of them. It is obvious which direction we will need to take with the next building project, adding on to the existing boys’ dorms to accommodate for the increase in enrollments. 

It  was brought to my attention this week that 40 of our 150 new students, primarily our 7^th graders, are way below the normal weight and height of someone their age, they clearly have not received the nutrition that they have needed to start the adolescent growth process. It is our desire to provide each of them with vitamins and minerals to help compensate for where they have been lacking in the past, their diets will obviously improve with the food they will receive from the cafeteria. We are used to that here, to some extent, but not to the extreme that we are seeing this year.  However, after consulting with the ministry medical clinic to see what we had available, I discovered that we have only two bottles of adult vitamins available. We would appreciate any help that could be given to help us offer this to them regularly, it would benefit many, to say the least.

We started classes this Wednesday on schedule, only to discover that we are lacking in providing 75 students with desks.  Currently, these students are sitting on the floor or standing, until this problem can be remedied.  We will need $2000 to construct the amount of school desks we are lacking. The beauty is we can do that right here on campus in our own welding shop.   

Until next time, God Bless!”