changing a nation

Lifesong Honduras recently had their 4th Annual Alumni Conference.  At this yearly event, former students come back and share struggles and successes and reconnect with old classmates and teachers.

We were inspired as alumni shared struggles and how faith in God and values learned in Plan Escalon have helped them overcome. It's a joy to provide continued support they can rely on and to see them catch our vision to "change the nation" for themselves.  We know we are successful when our graduates, after living in the "safe" environment of our Lifesong program, walk in the convictions they were taught and make them their own when living in the "real" world.

Lifesong Honduras Director, Guy Henry 

Praise God for the work being done in children to change a nation!

A Trip to Zambia

This past January I had the opportunity to travel with a small team of Americans to visit our Lifesong School in Zambia and lead a week long Vacation Bible School program.  The week was filled with songs, games, skits, crafts, and many hugs.  

You know, many times we go on these trips hoping to make a difference, never quite prepared for the change that takes place in our own lives.  Such was the case here.  I think my fellow team members would agree, that these beautiful children changed us in ways we won't soon forget.

Zambia Team Video from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

Thank you, Lifesong Zambia staff, for your hospitality, warmth, and service.  We were blessed to play a small part with these kids, but you are the ones who sacrifice for them daily and through the grace of God make the difference that changes their lives.

Rescued

Our Lifesong director in Liberia, Bishop Emmanuel Jones, has a passion for children that is contagious... probably because he understands from experience what it's like to be hungry and abandoned.

Bishop Emmanuel Jones from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

Now, after spending years helping orphans and street children through their Master's Home of Champions program, he and his wife, Ramona, have taken their passion a step further and invited three newborn triplets, Faith, Hope, and Joy, into their home!

Imagine what it would be like to foster newborn triplets!  

Do you have that picture nice and vivid in your mind?

Now, imagine walking 11 hours to pick them up!  Not driving, walking! 

That's exactly what Emmanuel did when he discovered their need for a home!   

Wow!  What an awesome visual of Christ crossing leaps and bounds to rescue us!

A Tough Road Worth Taking!

This post was featured on Together for Adoption and written by Jedd Medefind, President of Christian Alliance for Orphans -

Last weekend, my brother and I hiked deep into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our mission: to re-supply my father and his two close friends who are filling a lifelong dream of hiking the John Muir Trail, 210 miles of breathtaking, rugged wilderness. Their faces glowed as they described the glories of God’s creation they’ve encountered, from Alpine meadows to granite peaks. But my father’s friend Henry, though never losing his smile, also reminded, “There’s been real pain, too.” Severe blisters, cramping legs, shoulder pain, biting hailstorms and cold to the verge of hypothermia were just a partial list. It was clear the three hikers were having the time of their lives, but pain was interwoven with the journey.

It is easy to feel it should be otherwise. Something deep inside us still recalls the world before the Fall, and joins creation in groaning at all the things that aren’t the way they should be. But this side of heaven, most anything worth doing comes with pain—care for orphans via adoption, foster care or global ministry as much as any.

Of course, keeping our roots in Scripture (from Jesus’ words about “counting the cost” to Hebrews 11:36-38) disabuses us of any fantasy that health and wealth are guaranteed compensation for faithfulness. Yet still there is a temptation to gloss over the difficult thing or just shove them under the carpet. In adoption ministry, for instance, there can be a pull toward making “ministry” mainly a “cheerleading” for Christians to adopt with little emphasis on support after the child has come home. There’s certainly a place for helping people see the beauty and purposefulness discovered in adoption and other forms of orphan care. But ultimately we need to know: there will be pain, too.

What’s tremendously heartening is that the movement of Christians committed to orphans is coming to embrace that truth. I increasingly hear church orphan ministry leaders talk about the journey—that long, often beautiful, often difficult road that comes with loving anyone for a lifetime, especially a child coming from a hard place.

My prayer is that more and more, church orphan ministry will be a place where this beauty-mixed-with-pain is shown for what it is: an inescapable reality of life in a broken world and a journey worth taking. May it be that in Church, like nowhere else, worn out foster parents, struggling adoptive families and weary orphan care workers can speak transparently about their burden. And where others can help them bear the load in discerning, well-prepared, sacrificial ways. That’s church orphan ministry—and just plain Church—at its very best."

Changed

Recently, 14 year-old Addisyn had the chance to travel to Ethiopia to pick up her newly adopted sister, Havyn. This amazing opportunity left her with a new found vision and desire to serve in a way few teenagers understand.

My favorite part of being in Ethiopia was getting to spend the day with missionaries Gary and Peggy Ifft. Gary took us to Adami Tulu Preschool in Ziway, Ethiopia and I am pretty sure I left a piece of my heart there. 

I knew that I couldn't return home and go on with my life the way it had been. I couldn't open my closet door and see 12 pairs of shoes in there without thinking about those left behind with none. I couldn't go into the mall with friends and spend $15 on yet another t-shirt knowing that $15 would have fed 5 children at the preschool for a month. I couldn't just be a regular American teenage girl anymore- I was different.  And different, I am realizing, is a good thing.

If you would like to read more check out her family's blog here!

Thank you, Addisyn, for your servant heart and passion for a work that is at the very heart of our Father in Heaven!