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.

War, Lies, Truth and Love

It’s early in the morning on February 24th, 2022. 

Citizens of Russia wake to the news that their country has started a “special military operation” in the neighboring country of Ukraine. They are told that this “special military operation” is necessary to liberate the Ukrainian people from what they describe as Neo-Nazis that are running the country and oppressing its people. Lies.

Just across the border in Ukraine, the citizens there awake to the sounds of bombs and missiles exploding. The ground shakes and sirens blare; a warning that there is more to come. And there is. Much more. It is an invasion. It is war. Truth.

In the Far East of Russia, the director of Life Ring (O.L.I.’s Russian counterpart) learns the news and sends me a hurried email. He is devastated by the news. He feels sadness and compassion for the Ukrainian people. Disdain for his own government. Sorrow at what the world will think of his country. His wife cries all day long. Many millions of Russians feel the same as he does when they learn the truth. Millions of others support the effort; believing the lies told to them on the State-run news media. Mental and emotional captives of lies and propaganda.

It’s the young people that quickly learn the truth about the war. They are connected on social media. They have friends and family in Ukraine that are sending them videos and pictures. Images of destroyed schools and hospitals. Men, women and children, lying dead in the streets and the rubble of destroyed structures. These young people are watching Western news on their smart phones. A much different version of news than what is being broadcast in their own country. They take to the streets in protest against the war. Thousands will be arrested in just the first couple of weeks. Thousands more will flee the country, refusing to be a part of the war. Truth.

I write back to Eugene in Khabarovsk. He has been our director there for 22 years and has distributed millions of dollars’ worth of goods and services to many thousands of orphan children in that time. I send the same email to Andrei in Barnaul, our director in that region. I warn them that this war and the sanctions from our country will have many unintended consequences; including making it difficult for us to send funds for the children. I warn them that Western public opinion might seem to encompass all of Russia; as if its citizens are responsible for the actions of their government. Eugene sadly agrees and fears that their good works of more than 2 decades might come to an end when it is needed most. Children always suffer the greatest loss in wars. Truth. Andrei agrees, but also states that he believes the Lord will prevail and provide in the end. More truth.

Here at Orphan’s Lifeline, we were all equally concerned. We don’t do politics here. We don’t blame the citizens of any country for the actions of their government unless they are truly complicit; and we certainly never blame innocent children that are simply born in a country by no choice of their own. We recognize that the children are the future of every country. We know that they are precious and innocent in the eyes of the Lord. They are mankind’s treasures as well; deserving of our prayers, time and benevolence. Love. God’s love. Our love.

It is March now and I am losing sleep. Searching for answers. Asking questions. Looking for solutions. Praying. I think about my daughter and the conditions of the orphanage she lived in when we adopted her. We can’t let things go back to the way they were. I worry about our Church partners and individuals who have faithfully given to the Russia programs; some for over 20 years. We can’t let them down. I am worried about the millions of children from Ukraine that have been orphaned. Displaced from their own country; now in Poland, Germany and other neighboring Baltic countries. They will need help too.

I am sending emails. Many emails. Emails to the State Department. Emails to the Treasury. More than 120 emails to Eugene in Khabarovsk and Andrei in Barnaul. Dozens of emails to NGO’s and churches in Ukraine and Poland. I receive answers from some. Silence from others. 

The answers come in the middle of the night, seven days a week from Russia, Ukraine and Poland. The answers slowly but surely lead to plans and solutions.

It’s complex, but legal. It involves multiple countries, and multiple banks. Small banks that are not connected to sanctioned oligarchs or governments. Temporary and possibly permanent migration of Eugene and his family to the country of Georgia. Arrangements with trusted individuals in Russia that have helped with delivery of goods and services to the orphans for years now. Registration as a non-profit in the country of Georgia. Plans for the implementation of new programs in Poland to help the Ukrainian children displaced by the war. Some are orphans. Some are not. All are deserving of our love and prayers. Truth. Love. War.

Eugene emails me. He is safely in the country of Georgia, staying in a hostel. It is filled with young people from Russia; 18 to 35 years of age. They have fled the country to avoid arrest. Some are protestors, some are those that refused to join the mandatory attendance of the televised rally for their president. Most have warrants for their arrest. The hostel is also filled with young Ukrainians; mostly young women who have fled the country of Ukraine. All are wearing shirts with Ukraine colors, badges and flags. Russians and Ukrainians, sharing accommodations. Sharing their worries and concerns. Truth, love, war.

And so, our work in Russia will continue. The lies and war will not stop our love or our aid for the innocent children there. 

Our programs will now also expand to help orphan children and other children who have been displaced and are victims of this war. We will be helping Ukrainian children in Poland and other Baltic countries; wherever we find them. 

We are thankful for the commitment of Eugene and Andrei, for the personal risk they have taken to help ensure the continuance of our programs in Russia. We are thankful to each and every one of you who have so faithfully given your financial gifts and prayers for the innocent children for so many years. 

We are thankful to God for providing the answers to our prayers for solutions and a positive outcome to this great challenge. Andrei was right. Is right. For this is God’s work. These are His children. His treasures. Truth, love and all things good come from God and will always prevail over mankind’s wars and lies.

Patience - A Precious Legacy

Patience is her name. Patience is, by definition, the ability to accept or tolerate delay, trouble or suffering without becoming angry or upset, and she embodies the very definition of that name as if it is her duty to live up to a title of royalty given at birth. Patience wasn’t born with any entitlement though. In fact, Patience was born into a household doomed to, instead, embody the destructive elements of a culture fraught with trouble and tragedy. 

She was born on February 22, 2004 into an impoverished household filled with sadness, abandonment and even disease. Her father disappeared when her mother was pregnant with her and he never returned. But he did leave HIV behind as a parting gift to his wife. Alone and desperate she quickly remarried, and in another act of desperation, followed her new husband to parts unknown, abandoning Patience at her sister’s home.

Patience lived with her aunt until she was 8 years old. It was then that her aunt, a widow herself, gave up the struggle to feed Patience and a brood of her own children, asking Irene at Life of Favor Children’s Home for help.

Patience came to Life of Favor a broken child. Her body broken from malnutrition; her spirit, broken from abandonment and neglect; her mind, stunted and broken because she had no formal education. A child without hope. 

But things would change for her at Life of Favor. Things would change quickly.

Look into the eyes of young Patience in the picture on the left. This was taken not long after she went to live at Life of Favor. Already you see the hope in her eyes. Already you can see the gratitude in her smile; the health in full cheeks surrounding that same precious smile. Both, a reflection of the love and care she received there. The sense of belonging. The security of knowing each day that there would be more. More food. The same warm bed and soft pillow. More hugs and more play. Slowly, but surely, she began to heal.

As her body grew, so did her mind and her spirit. Patience attended school every day now. She woke to a time of grateful prayer and ended her days the same way; thanking God for all she received. She attended Church and learned about Jesus and the path to salvation. A solid foundation to build on.

Over the years, her confidence in herself grew as well. She learned how to raise animals. She learned how to raise a garden; even how to make her own clothes and shoes. Arguably, her life was filled with positive elements not even found in the households of many developed nations.

Then her mind became open to new possibilities. She began to dream. To dream of what she might someday become. And now it actually seemed possible! 

Look into her eyes in the center picture. This is Patience when she was 16 years old. This is a face filled with resolve and confidence. A face filled with an inner strength and yet one that seems to reflect the seriousness of her age as she began to prepare to step out into the world to fulfill her dreams. The fleeting days of childhood were nearly over and Patience began writing to us about her desires for college and a career.

Her hope was to become a nurse and then continue to study and become a doctor. That has changed some. She has since decided to become a pharmacist and has been accepted to and enrolled in a college to earn that degree. She will start her first semester this month.

Now we can’t see the Patience of the future. That is a story that hasn’t been written. 

But what we do know is that you have given her all the tools to become successful in every aspect of her life. You have given her everything that she needs. You have cared for her from afar in God’s name, giving her a loving home filled with all of the elements necessary for a child to grow to become a healthy young adult. 

She will be the first woman in the history of her family to attend college. She will likely become the first woman in the history of her family to break the cycle and raise her own children in a safe and loving Christian home. She will likely be the first person in the history of her family that will have the ability to give back to her own community and be an asset instead of a liability. 

It is not difficult to imagine what her life would have been like without Life of Favor Children’s Home; without your gifts that made her life there possible. It is a heartbreaking thought though, and the result would have been ongoing generations of suffering and tragedy. If she even survived. 

You are the source of the wonderful realities and possibilities in the life of Patience. You have made it possible for her dreams to become fulfilled. You have given a broken child a level playing field. You have evened and moreover stacked the odds in her favor. 

There are many good things in this life we live. God has blessed us all in many ways, including countless opportunities to give back by showing His love in our actions. When we do good in His name, not only are we glorifying Him, from whence all good comes, we are also sowing seeds. And we may or may not be here to witness the reaping of the rewards… but someone will, and the world will be a better place because of it.

This young lady is a perfect example of that very thing.

Her name is Patience. And she is your precious, living legacy.

Change

 Everything seems to change; for better, for worse, or without any obvious impact. From small changes that are almost imperceptible, like the seconds and moments that age us, to highly visible, cataclysmic events that change the world. Everything seems to change.

Just here in the United States, there are more than 360 million souls whose lives change every day, bit by bit or all at once. Across the globe, that number is billions. Billions of changes every single day. Children are born. People die. Wars are started. Wars are ended. Someone gets a new job. Someone loses their job.  New businesses start and others fail. Everything seems to change.

As most of you probably know, one such change occurred for all of us here at OLI. We lost our President and co-founder, Dave Board, to cancer. He also happens to be my dad, and a family member or friend to everyone here. This was most certainly an unwelcome change.

I have walked the same path from my vehicle to the front door of our office every day for two decades. That hasn’t changed. On the way in, I pass by the office of Tim Murphy, a long-time team member at OLI. In front of Tim’s desk is a chair. Over the past 20 years, on most days, as I would pass by that window, I would see Dave, sitting in that chair, sipping his morning coffee and chatting with Tim. Now that chair sits empty.

From my own desk, I would hear his infectious laughter, assuming that he had once again recycled some old joke. Now, that laughter is absent from every morning. 

Even now I find myself waiting for his heavy footsteps as he approaches, then passes by my office on the way to his own. But now, the hallway remains silent. The chair behind his desk sits empty. His computer screen is dark and he will never login again. Nobody wants to put the computer away. But his legacy lives on in this good work and in the lives of the many thousands of orphans we have helped. That will never change.

Not everything changes. Some things remain the same. And of those things that remain unchanged, is that in life, there is a seemingly equal mix of good and bad. 

For us at OLI, one thing that hasn’t changed and never will, is that man’s sin and the inherent nature of life, continues to produce orphans and widows. This,  in turn, results in an ever-growing need for mankind to provide for them, and that is indeed, the very reason this mission was founded and is our privilege and unending task to perform. To God’s glory and by His will. Not everything changes.

Another thing that doesn’t change is God himself, from which all good comes. Evil, sin and its results come in many forms; but He is the one constant that exists as the single source of all things good. From that source comes His church, with His son Jesus as the head and His followers as the body. It is from that body that much good is done, but it is still His good. 

Here at OLI, we have had the privilege of bearing witness to that good for more than 21 years now; and this last year was certainly no exception.

In fact, despite all the challenges this country has faced in the last year, in 2021 we received a record amount of financial gifts from you; and were able to give a record amount of aid to orphans and widows in equal proportion. 

In addition to the thousands of orphans we care for, we began new programs that grew like wildfire. We built 11 homes for Widow/Orphan families in Kenya in partnership with Acts of Charity, a Kenyan Church of Christ charity. Already, some of those families are now sponsored by you, while all are receiving food, clothing, education, medical needs and spiritual instruction. We also have received financial gifts for several more homes as well. These homes are fully furnished and provide safety and basic comfort to these families for the first time in their lives. All to His Glory.

We were also able to help hundreds of orphan/widow families in India who were struggling because of COVID. Hundreds of widows who were sent home from work and had no source of income were given food, hygiene and other assistance this past year so that they could care for themselves and their fatherless children. Some changes are good.

Life is fluid. There are always changes on the horizon and even the horizons change. One such change is how we care for orphan girls in India. There, the government has made it difficult to care for orphan girls because they are requiring completely separate buildings and staff from the boys, effectively doubling the costs of care for orphans in general. Their reasoning behind doing this is to prevent trafficking and potential abuse, but they don’t have any solutions themselves. The unintended consequence of this action is that it has made the girls more vulnerable than ever; and will lead to untold abuse, neglect and even death.

Fortunately, we have a plan…and we have you.

Beginning this year, first in India, we will begin a new focus on providing for girls in orphan/widow families in their homes the way we are in Kenya, which was our pilot program for this model of care. This program will not only provide us a new way to care for the orphan girls, but will also allow the widow to stay at home and care for her children instead of travelling, sometimes hundreds of miles away, leaving her children without care. These girls will attend church and school just like the children in our homes and we are hiring teachers/counselors to provide in-home tutoring and mentoring as well. We are excited to launch this new program in India and know that it will save these innocent young girls from the horrible abuse and neglect they would have been subjected to in their lives. Some changes are good.

Yes, 2021 was most certainly a year of tragedy and challenges for all of us here at OLI. But it was also a year of unprecedented success and growth, both in the gifts you gave and the care we were able to give the orphans and now widows. 

2022 promises to be a year with changes as well; with the expansion of our programs in both scope and scale. We cannot do any of this without you. We are so thankful for each and every one of you that shows God’s love in your own actions; and that thankfulness, I am certain, is one thing that will never change.

Nexpectations

Shauna woke up from her nap with a start.

Her left earbud was nothing but static! It was no longer playing the soothing ocean sounds bluetoothed from her cell phone that had provided her with peaceful sleep.

She tapped the earpiece, but the static just got worse. She cursed her brother under her breath! He had borrowed them the day before and they hadn’t worked right since.

If they were broken he was going to die a slow and painful death! She thought.

She threw herself off the bed and stomped out of the room, screaming her brother’s name as she went. She checked his room. Not there. Checked the bathroom. Not there. She headed down the stairs, taking them three at a time, murder on her mind.

No sign of him in the living room, but she could hear noises in the kitchen, the next logical place for the little demon to be in residence. Revenge was just a few steps away and she smiled at the thought of the impending satisfaction. But, to her dismay, he wasn’t there either. Her mother was there though, and at least she would be able to get him convicted and sentenced in one swift move.

“Mom!” She yelled. “Where is the brat?! 

Her mother was standing at the sink, rinsing out a bowl, which she calmly placed in the dishwasher, closing the door with a knee before turning to face her daughter with her hands on her hips.

“He and your father left an hour ago to go see some movie he has been begging to see. Why? And why are you yelling? 

Shauna rolled her eyes. “Great! That totally figures. The little brat breaks my earbuds and then gets rewarded by going to a movie. That little creep owes me some new earbuds! He already basically destroyed my Playstation after destroying his own first, and he broke my phone just a couple months ago! By the way, when do I get a phone that doesn’t have a shattered screen on it?”

Now it was her mother’s turn to roll her eyes. “Shauna, are you listening to yourself? You just spent a lot of energy complaining about a bunch of broken things. Things that you don’t really need and didn’t have to pay for in the first place. I would suggest that you keep that in mind before you start calling your brother names and acting like they are something more important than he is. Maybe it’s time you got a job and started buying these types of things yourself. I am going to bet that you would quickly decide that they aren’t as important as you think.”

Shauna’s eyes went wide! “ Are you kidding me? Not important? Mom, name one kid you know that doesn’t have that and a whole lot more! Most of my friends already have their own car! I have to ride my bike to school and even then, it’s a piece of junk that you rode back in the stone age! It’s embarrassing. My phone is embarrassing and you know I can’t sleep or do my homework without my earbuds!”

Her mother took her wet hands off her hips and grabbed a towel off the counter. A deep frown creased her forehead and she squinted her eyes, fighting back the infancy of a headache creeping its way into her frontal lobe. She wasn’t sure what to say. Wasn’t sure what to say because in many ways Shauna wasn’t wrong. She wasn’t right about what she “needed”, but wasn’t wrong about the fact that her expectations weren’t out of the norm. They were the norm! And what would come next? What would she and her brother “need” next? What would this culture of wants add to the new norm? The next unreasonable expectation...or nexpectation she thought. 

Nexpectations. Yep,I made that word up just this morning for this story. And quite honestly, I think it needs to be added to the dictionary because it more accurately describes the rapid and ever-expanding evolution of expectations in developed countries... first world countries. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not condemning anyone. I would be condemning myself and the vast majority of people in first world countries. But it has become the new norm and it really isn’t something sustainable. Our supply chain problems are evidence of that. There are cargo ships parked on the ocean filled with many things that we really do need, and should be manufacturing ourselves, but also a lot of things that we have simply become quickly accustomed to having over the last couple of decades. And now they are being integrated into everyday life in such a manner that they are rapidly evolving into something that just may become a new need in developed nations. 

As I said, I don’t condemn this evolution, but it does come with it’s own problems. And it does fly in great contrast to the expectations of the orphan children, and now widows, that we work to help every day. I just wonder if the world as a whole needs to spend a little more time considering that contrast and focusing on a new kind of nexpectation? Balancing the new latest and greatest desire with a little more focus on the basic needs missing in a very large portion of our globe.

These are orphans and widows whose expectations were nothing before you started helping them in partnership with Orphan’s Lifeline. Their expectations were nothing because that is what they had the day before. And the day before that. They didn’t expect that they might eat, only hoped that they might. They didn’t expect that they would find a warm place to sleep because that wasn’t guaranteed either by any means. They certainly didn’t expect to get an education and they may have heard of God, but hadn’t seen even a tiny example of His love in their lives before you!

They certainly didn’t have any nexpectations and they probably never will. But what they do have now is hope! What they do have now is faith. What they do have now is a warm feeling in their hearts that they are loved by God and can see that love at work every day in their lives. What they do have allows them to go to sleep at night with a smile on their face, warm and secure. Happy in the most humble and basic of terms.

Over the past year many amazing things have happened because you have exactly the kind, caring, and balanced heart I am talking about. Unfortunately, you are the exception and not the rule; and we need more of you!

In 2021, we continued to care for the same thousands of children we did last year, despite the complications presented by the Pandemic. But we were also able to do much more than even the year before!

We were able to help feed hundreds of new orphan and widow families that suffered because of the pandemic in India. We built and furnished seven humble homes in our new program in Kenya for widows who were trying to raise their children in mud huts that once housed pigs or chickens. There, we also were able to provide for dozens of new orphan and widow families through our new orphan and widow family sponsorships. We were able to provide funding for the Church of Christ community program there as well, where dozens of children are fed and cared for and taught God’s Word. And much more!

It is truly amazing what you have made possible during a year that has been very trying and difficult for us all. God has truly blessed this mission with faithful partners and given us hope that next year will even be a better one for the orphans and widows than this year has been. That is our hope. That is our humble, but bold prediction. Our nexpectation...

The Miracle of You

Over the last couple of months we have been talking about Miracles in our newsletter. 

First, we let you walk in the shoes of a young girl, born to a mother who would become a widow, and a young girl who would become a widow herself, to illustrate the destructive and perpetual cycle that creates orphans in the first place. Within that, it is easy to see why someone in that situation would deem the love you show them as the manifestation of a miracle. Because it is.

Next, we talked about miraculous outcomes.

Through the words of the children themselves, we are able to truly see miraculous outcomes as orphan children without hope have been transformed into young adults; with every hope in the world. Children who have grown up in a loving atmosphere with proper nutrition, a good education, God’s Word and everything they need, not just to survive, but to thrive as young adults who are now giving back to their own communities. We can clearly see God’s influence in their lives. And their love for Jesus and their understanding of His perfect sacrifice are very apparent in their actions and words.

But what we have really only touched on, is the miracle of you.

The simple truth is that none of what I just wrote would be true if it weren’t for you. None of it.

This is not about any of us breaking our arms patting ourselves on the back. And it’s not because any of us have the power to reach out and touch someone to heal them. 

What it is about is faith.

It is about the faith you exhibit when you follow in the footsteps of someone you have never seen or physically met. Someone who lived a humble life of sacrifice, feeding the hungry and healing the sick. Someone who died nearly 2000 years, and in doing so, made the greatest sacrifice in Human History. 

It was the greatest sacrifice because He could have simply walked away. He could have called ten thousand angels and then just simply walked away, leaving mankind without any hope. But, instead, He chose to stay and sacrifice himself, enduring unspeakable suffering. 

But death wasn’t the end of the story of Jesus. It was only the beginning. For then, He performed the greatest miracle ever performed by rising from the dead and walking away from His sealed tomb. 

That is the story that was written down for all of us to read. And then choose whether or not to believe it. 

Untold millions have chosen to believe throughout the nearly 2000 years past. Untold millions have chosen to become faithful followers and the key word here is followers.

When you follow Jesus, you are walking in his footsteps, literally and figuratively. And where did His footsteps lead us? Where did they lead you?

They led you to live a life of compassion. They led you to make sacrifices. They led you to recognize your role in helping those who suffer needlessly. In telling them the story of Jesus.

When we first started working in Russia 21 years ago, the help we were giving was welcomed; but at the same time, it was questioned. A few years later, we faced the same questions in India. Then in Africa, the Philippines, Pakistan and even Mexico.

The question was always: “why?” “Why do you want to help strangers in a foreign country?” 

And the underlying and unspoken question was always “what do you want in return?”

When we told them it was because we believed that we were doing what Jesus would have done and that we believed that God wanted this done, their eyes would “open wide.” They wanted to know more. And as time passed and we asked for nothing in return, they began to trust us and eyes began to turn towards God. 

Now many of those we chose to work with were already Christians. But they were Christians who had struggled and suffered in their efforts to help orphan children. They received no help from the government. Very little help from the community. I am sure it shook their faith. They told us as much in more than once case. They wondered why God would let the children suffer. Why it was so hard for them to accomplish their goals of doing good.

So, you can just imagine what it must have been like for them when we started to help. When YOU started to help. When strangers from thousands of miles away, oceans away, chose to help them, help others. 

Their prayers were answered. Their faith renewed. All because you chose to follow in the footsteps of Jesus whose example of compassion and sacrifice has survived the centuries that tried hard to make it a distant and faded memory.

Through centuries of wars. Through centuries of changes in cultures. Through disasters and persecution. Through outright attempts to make us believe that Jesus was nothing more than fictional character. His example has survived. You are living proof.

That is the real miracle here. 

All good comes from God. Including His son. 

Including you.

We live in some strange and difficult times that are having a detrimental impact world-wide and when it comes to the welfare of orphan children, there is no merciful exception to be found.

The COVID Pandemic has created tens of thousands of new orphans world-wide and the governments in the developing nations we work in do not have the means to support them. Nor do the communities they live in, struggling themselves, just to survive.

Never before in the 21 years we have been doing this work, has it been more important, more needed. And never before has there been such an opportunity to show His example in our actions.

Already you have answered the call. You have made it possible, even during these difficult times, for us to EXPAND our programs rather than contract them. For us, and for the children, that is a miracle.

We are beyond grateful to each and every one of you for all that you do to make this mission possible. We couldn’t do it without the miracle of you.

Miraculous Outcomes

They were orphans. Either by definition or for the simple fact that they have no mother or earthly father. They were alone. Some on the streets. Others in homes where there was no one to care for them. They were starving and sick. Some were babies left in dumpsters. Some were toddlers left alone to fend for themselves. Some were teenagers, wandering the streets, begging, stealing, afraid and without hope. 

They received no education. They didn’t know how to read or write. They didn’t know anything about God. They existed, but just barely, and half of them would have perished with the other half turning to crime to survive.

That was then.

More than 20 years have passed. They have spent those years, or a portion of those years, in children’s homes of Orphan’s Lifeline International. They have spent those years being cared for and loved by Christians in the home and Christians thousands of miles away. They have been given shelter. They have been given good nutrition. They have been given primary education, secondary education and college or vocational school educations. They have been given their own Bibles and on average, across nine countries, they spend 3 hours per day in prayer, worship and Bible Study. They have been given a hope that transcends their sad past and shown the kind of compassion and love that Jesus had for those who suffered. All in His Name. All in His name.

So, what are they now?

They are still orphans, but they have a loving family. They are Nurses, IT Techs, Communications Techs, Electrical Engineers, Civil Engineers, Mechanics, Professional Drivers, Preachers and Teachers and the list goes on. Some are social workers and some have chosen to work for the children’s home they came from, helping orphan children in that home deal with the same mental and emotional issues they dealt with as a child. 

But WHO are they? That is the more important question that embodies what they were as well as what they have become. Who they are is a much deeper question and, at the same time, the most important question.

 I could tell you that they are well-educated professionals and that would be true. I could tell you that some are mothers and fathers with children of their own that they love and provide for; and that would also be true. I could tell you that they have grown to become young adults with an almost unheard of deep appreciation of the blessings in their lives, and that would also be true. I could tell you that they are filled with compassion; filled with empathy and that they love God and are faithful and obedient followers of Jesus. That would also be very true.

But that is just me telling you that. As they say, the proof is in the pudding. 

So here then is the pudding in the form of just a few excerpts from a few letters out of many hundreds of such letters. This is their words. This is the reason we do what we do. This is the reason that you do what you do.

“To expand my knowledge about the Goodness of God, I read the Bible you gave me every day. I participate in leading fellowships we have at home every day. I have verses which I memorize and my favorite is Psalms 27:10. ‘my father and mother may abandon me, but the Lord will take care of me.’ Thank you for loving and taking care of me. God bless you.” – Shifra

“Obedience is the act of doing what you are told or expected to do. Since I was young, I have been brough up with the element of obedience. It has helped me to live a peaceful life with my friends at home. I have gained much from being obedient. Everyone is willing to help me when I am in need of anything.

According to the Bible in the book of Isaiah, 1:19, ‘If you will only obey me, you will eat the good things the land produces.’ From this I learn to always obey God, for If I do so, He will always provide for me.” – Frank

“God has provided us with food, school fees, clothing. All in all, I call it favor. Indeed, God has blessed with favor among people and He has provided us with His love, care and mercy. I have grown spiritually ever since I came to this home. Through the fellowship here, I have managed to build my confidence and I love to lead my friends in worship and praise of God.” -  Judith

“… It’s a great opportunity to write to you about the beauty of God’s creation. The beauty on earth, all created for man. In Gods image, God created man. All the creatures, in mans hands he placed. He deserves the worship, the lives we have, the air we breathe, the creatures that exist, the plants that grow, the children that are born. Glory and honor be to God. Worship Him for it pleases Him. It is a command from Him. It is our response to His love. He destroys the enemy. It prepares us for the life to come. Worship Him in thanksgiving. Worship Him in sincerity.” – Grace

“I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Am so glad to write you once again.

Bible quiz was introduced at our home whereby we read a text from the Bible and answer the questions from it. 

Bible quiz has enabled me to learn many things which includes audibility while speaking, confidence among my fellows when giving answers, explaining the points correctly and has also improved my vocabulary in English, because I use a dictionary to understand technical words.

In addition, Bible quiz has enabled me to get deep-rooted in the Word of God. It is through the Bible quiz that I get encouraged to do Good, trust God and fully depend on Him.

I have been able to get memory verses like, ‘My mother and father may abandon me, but the Lord will take care of me (Psalms 27:10).’ This is what I got from one of my sharings.

From this verse I am assured that the Lord will take care of my needs when everybody abandons me. I always feel happy to know that the Lord always takes care of me as His child.

Thank you for sending me this lovely Bible, for I have gained so much from it. May God bless you. – Berna

“Time is precious in my daily life. For I am able to do all things, teaching and encouraging others, which continuously builds my social behavior, and enables me to become wiser each day.

Time is precious for I plan for my day accordingly. Doing things that take me to a brighter future, drawing my heart closer to God through reading my Bible, the living Word of God.

Time is precious, for I am able to learn new things in a day. Baking, sewing, tailoring, among others. Keeping in mind that time waits for no man. So, time is always ripe for me to do something great.” – Gloria

“…But my lovely sponsors, please I just request you for your prayers because I am going into form four and school fees have increased and no student will be allowed to enter school without payment. Even me, I am putting you in my daily prayers. I know God is ever able because I read Philippians 4:13. We can see miracles and wonders.             - Alishar

And now one last excerpt that says it all:

“Our dear parents, praise God. I am sorry to call you like that, but to me you are more than just a sponsor. You are my real parents. Surely. Because from the day God placed me in your hands of support, I forgot all the past and focused only forward and am seeing my future now.

I cannot write my heart with this pen on this paper, but how I wish you could hear my heart. I am so troubled in my mind and asking questions to God, day and night wondering what kind of love have these people who sacrifice and share with others??? Dear parents, the school fees, foods, clothing and every good thing that you send us has not only reached us, but has also reached God, your Creator. Therefore, the heavens together with your lovely daughter Esther from Butiki Children’s home. We say thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times and to the whole family of God. – Esther.

Miraculous outcomes…

Miraculous

It has been said that before we judge someone, we should walk a mile in their shoes. To really understand who they are and how they came to be where they are in life. 

Often times that is more easily said than done because our life experience is usually so different than theirs. But, if you would, I would like you to imagine that what follows is your life experience:

You are a young woman in Kenya. You were born to a mother but never knew your father. He was a lost soul, who lost his life via infidelity that became HIV and AIDS. Poverty is all you have ever known. You have depended on the kindness of others for your daily needs, begging and even stealing, but it has never been enough. 

Your childhood was one filled with endless days of hunger. Your days consisted of waking when the sunlight shined through the opening in the small mud hut where you lived with your brothers and sisters. It ended when the sun no longer shined through the same opening. A tiny space in a circle of dirt is the bed you share with them. You wished you could just keep sleeping rather than face what you knew the day would bring.

First, a long walk to fetch water in the sweltering sun. You walked past some children who were on their way to school, dressed in their neat, crisp uniforms. Families who had a bit of money. There åwere a few of them, but not many. Most of the children from your village were on the same daily journey as you. They too would fill their water jug and return to their family and prepare for a day filled with nothing. 

No school. Too hot and hungry to play. Your sister is sick and your mother has no money to take her to the clinic. Next week it will be your brother, your mother, or you. You return home with your water and your mother leaves you in charge of your siblings and wanders off in search of food.

And the years go by. Every day, every week, a miserable replay of the one before. Until one day, you find yourself to be 16 years old and a young boy from the neighborhood is now your husband. A brief time of happiness and hope!

Not a year later, you have your first child. She is born just three weeks after your mother dies from the disease that your father gave her. Your brothers and sisters are not there to meet their niece either, scattered to the four winds, living with 3 different uncles.

And so, the years pass by. You are older and still hungry. You now have 3 children, but their father is gone. Last you heard, he was in a clinic dying of AIDS. Just like your father. You have no education and no skills. You are living in a small mud hut with a thatched grass roof, much like the one you grew up in, only smaller. There are no windows, just an opening without a door. It used to be a place for pigs. Now it is your home.

You cry yourself to sleep every night because you have become your mother and your children have become you. It is an endless cycle that would take a miracle to be broken. 

Then one day, on a day like every other, something happens. A man comes to your village. You see him talking to one of your neighbors. A neighbor who is also a widow with children and a life very much like your own. A miserable and sad life without hope. The man spends quite a long time talking to your neighbor and then, quite to your surprise, he comes and asks to speak to you. 

He tells you that he is a preacher at a local church and he is there to help. He wants to know the story of your life. At first you are suspicious. A strange man who must want something. But he doesn’t. He only wants to know how you came to be where you are and so finally, reluctantly, you tell him. You see the tears in his eyes and suddenly you know this is a good man. He tells you he is there because there are people who want to help you. Christians from afar who want to help you. 

You don’t understand how this could be. You don’t know them. They don’t know you. Why would they help? Why would they care about a stranger suffering in a strange land? It is this thought that plants the seeds of doubt in your mind when the preacher leaves, promising to return. You know in your heart he will never return.

But then, one day he does. 

He is riding in a truck with two other men. A truck filled with food! He stops first at your neighbor’s house and you watch as two young men unload food from the truck and set it at the feet of your neighbor. Your neighbor, whose eyes are wide and filled with tears of disbelief. The young preacher is talking to her and hands her a book of some kind, then turns and walks your way as the other young men start the truck and back it up next to the front of your home.

Already you can feel the tears welling up in your eyes. Already you find yourself short of breath, even faint. This can’t be true. This can’t be happening. But it is. 

Now the truck is unloaded and the food is placed at your feet. More food than you have ever seen! The young preacher is talking to you, but at first you don’t even hear what he is saying. Then the ringing in your ears subsides and his words become clear. He tells you that he will be bringing you food every month and that it is a gift from Christians in the name of Jesus. And he hands you a book. It is the Bible.

Two more months pass. Both months, on the same day, the preacher and the two young men arrive with food and the preacher spends time talking to you about God and Jesus and reads to you from the Bible he has given you. He tells you about the Love of Jesus and the compassion He had for those who were poor and suffering. He tells you that Jesus died for your sins and tells you about heaven. It is because of Him, he tells you, that Christians want to help strangers like you.

Then he tells you something else. He tells you that these same Christians want to build you a house. Again, your ears are ringing as you turn and look into the dark opening of the tiny, mud hut you call home. But this time you don’t feel the doubt you felt before. You trust this man. You trust these people who are helping you and now more than ever you want to know more about this Jesus whom they follow.

Just three weeks have gone by. You are standing at the entrance to your new home. It’s nothing fancy. In fact, it is truly humble. But to you, it is a castle. A castle with windows and doors. Windows that let in light. Doors that lock and keep you safe. Space for a bedroom for you and your children. Space for a dining area. Clean concrete floors. No more worms, snakes and chiggers. 

You thank the young preacher, then you close your eyes and thank God. Thank Him for this home. Thank Him for His son whose example of compassion and love made this possible. Made this miracle possible.

I sit in front of a computer and watch miracles like this every day. A little black rectangle with images and words. Images and words of suffering that I pass on to followers of Jesus like you, using nothing more than a keyboard. It’s not long though, before those images and words of suffering have become images of joy and an end to suffering. All of it happens amongst strangers with only one thing that binds them together. The one miracle that lives on through acts of unconditional love more than 2000 years after it occurred. That in and of itself… is miraculous.

State of the ‘Unions’

Here in the U.S., it seems many things have returned to normal; if there is such a thing in these strange times.

Masks are tucked away in glove boxes for the rare instances in which they are still needed. Restaurants are operating at full capacity in much of the country. Sporting events, concerts and other large gatherings have begun to take on some sense of normalcy as well; with spectators attending, albeit in limited numbers.

The supply chain is slowly, but surely, recovering and most products are readily available to consumers. Even toilet paper.

All of this due to the fact that slowly, but surely, an ever-growing percentage of our population has become vaccinated and the numbers infected and ill shrink as well.

Unfortunately, such is not the case for many places in the world. Even many developed nations are experiencing spikes in numbers of cases and new variants of the COVID 19 virus continue to emerge.

In many of the countries in which we work, it is much worse than that. 

India is once again on lock-down with 50,000 new cases per day being reported. This is down from the high of well over a quarter of a million per day in April and May and experts in the United States estimate that India’s official numbers are only 3 to 5% of the actual totals. This is due to a lack of testing and poor access to the tens of thousands of unincorporated villages in India. In fact, experts estimate that more than 1 million people have died in this vast population of over 1.3 billion.

Just a little over 2 months after our children’s homes there were once again full, the government once again gave the order that the children be sent to stay with relatives or neighbors within their own neighborhood. Schools are once again closed down. Access to food and other critical items are limited to a few hours each day as the government scrambles to get more people vaccinated to slow the spread.

Orphan’s Lifeline has initiated the same plan and protocols as we did the first time this occurred. 

The directors are in constant contact with the children by phone. They are continuing their studies in the residence in which they are being temporarily housed. Directors and caregivers deliver food and other critical items to them during the hours they are allowed to travel about. 

All of the children are doing well, but they are frustrated with not being able to attend school and anxious to return to our children’s homes. 

As before, during this lockdown which they anticipate to be much shorter than before, information will be limited and we won’t have as many pictures and letters as normal because the internet cafés are closed and our directors can only use their phones to communicate information to us.

Also, once again, we have asked the directors to identify and care for additional orphans and widows during this lockdown as they are extremely vulnerable and live hand to mouth even when they are able to work. At this point in time, we plan to provide food and other critical items to 100 orphan and widow households in India.

At our Peter’s Memorial Home for Girls, the director tested positive for COVID 19 a few weeks ago. She received treatment in her home and while she did become quite ill, she is doing better and is expected to fully recover. Please keep her in your prayers.

The Philippines is also experiencing a spike in cases and the government has initiated a lockdown there as well, but is allowing the children at Amazing Grace to remain in the home because it is relatively small and these children have nowhere else safe to go. As you will see inside, this home also had the unfortunate added problem of the well going dry. We have sent funds and a new well is being dug at this time.

All is well in Pakistan at our children’s homes there. The director of the homes has just made full recovery from a battle with typhoid fever.

In Kenya and Uganda, they are also on lockdown, but the children will remain in the homes. Like India, things will be more difficult as it not easy to get to the markets within the hours that travel is allowed. Schools are closed and the children will only be able to study at the homes.

At Nantale’s Children’s Home, one of the employees at the home tested positive for COVID 19. She has been quarantined and none of the children have tested positive.

All is well at Freshfire and Life of Favor. The children are healthy and happy and have the added benefit of their own vast garden and chickens to rely on during this lockdown. This is important because it limits their exposure to COVID when deliveries of food and other supplies are made.

In Kenya, the government has closed many children’s homes; expanding on a campaign of inspect-and-close that they started about a year ago. Many homes simply couldn’t meet the strict criteria required under the new government rules that were imposed due to having little or no funding. With COVID 19 spiking once again, the government is giving no quarter to homes that were in the process of trying to comply with the new rules and children are being scattered to the wind with nowhere to go.

Our director at Home of Champions in Kenya has made many changes to comply with the new rules. We have built new buildings and made many other additional improvements and changes to be sure the children there are safe from such an unnecessary tragedy as many orphans are experiencing. It is truly sad that the government imposes these kinds of measures without any solution of their own as to the care of their orphan and vulnerable-children population. Please keep the orphan children of Kenya in your daily prayers.

There have been no new lockdowns or other such impositions in Mexico and it is “business as usual” for the orphan children at Manos d’ Amor. The orphanages and children’s hospitals in Far East Russia are also doing well and not affected by the pandemic. Please pray that it remains this way.

Yes, things are getting “back to normal” here. But for many around the world, the suffering from this pandemic is still very much a prevalent thing. 

Missions like Orphan’s Lifeline are more critical now than ever for the world’s most vulnerable populations. We are so grateful that God has blessed us with such caring and giving partners as you. It is that which makes it possible for us to respond in a way that ensures the children we care for are safe and secure. It is also that which makes it possible for us to respond and help others in dire need during times such as this. Thank you and God bless you for that!

Growing Up With Irene

Jinja, Uganda is not an easy place to live. 

There are many places around the world where there are cities with slums. Jinja, however, is a slum with slums. So much so that Gladys, our Africa Child Care Coordinator, told us it was a “very difficult place to be.” She called it “heartbreaking”. And Gladys is certainly no stranger to poverty, considering her work in Kenya serving orphan children in the slums there.

It is a place where people exist. Their days are filled with the struggle to find enough food for the day. Whether that be the results of very meager pay for those who can find work, or their own efforts to grow their own food or raise a few animals. Simply put, the options are few. For many, they simply beg from others who have little to give.

Many of the mothers there are single, with no education and no skills. Most have multiple children, but no means to care for any of them adequately. Each time they have a new child, they send the oldest child away to fend for themselves or try to find someone else to care for them. It was the same for them as a child in most cases. Cultures of poverty exist everywhere and children are born into them by no fault of their own. Without intervention, they are part of a perpetual cycle that is exponential with each new child that is born.

For these children life holds no hope. Their days are spent searching for food and shelter. They wander the dirt streets near kiosks looking for scraps of food. They beg and they steal if they have to. They certainly don’t go to school and their future has seemingly already been written for them by the father who abandoned them and the mother who couldn’t care for them.

When we first met Irene Nangobi, Director of both Fresh Fire and Life of Favor Children’s homes, it was in 2003. The homes she directed were some of the first we helped outside of Russia. We were shocked at the conditions the children were living in.

The buildings were not much more than four walls and a roof. The children were dressed in rags and looked malnourished and unhealthy. Little did we know that they were among the lucky ones in their community.

From the beginning, it was clear that Irene loved helping orphan children. It was also clear that she was a very resourceful woman, when you consider all that she had done with little or no resources. Such a rare thing for someone with very little to find a way to help others! But God had put it on her heart to help the orphan children in her community and she was going to find a way. Did find a way.

Many of the orphans in these homes have lived their entire lives there. A few have come and gone for various reasons, but for most this has been their home since they were very young. They have grown up with Irene. 

They have been witnesses to what can be done simply because someone cared, simply because you cared enough to share what God has blessed you with.

But the orphan children in these homes aren’t the only witnesses. It’s the entire community. I wonder what they must think as they have watched over the last 17 years as the lives of these children have transformed. I wonder what kind of influence it might have on the way they think.

I wonder because they too have watched as the children became well-nourished and healthy. They watched as the children went to school every day and went to Church. They watched as the home itself was transformed to the point where it now has acres and acres of agriculture. Bananas and groundnuts and much more. They watch as the children reap the rewards and bring in their harvest. Watch as the children care for their hundreds of chickens and reap the rewards in the form of precious eggs for their meals every day and plenty more for the community.

They have watched as the children in this home have grown from sad, little children with no hope, to healthy, happy young adults. They have watched as nine of these children graduated from secondary education and moved on to college and vocation programs. 

They will be witnesses to these young adults becoming nurses and engineers instead of just another child begging on the dusty streets of Jinja, Uganda with no hope.

It’s hard to put into words how thankful we are for what you have done for these nine young adults and all of the rest of the children in Fresh Fire and Life of Favor. But when I think about their lives when we first saw them and think about what they have become today, I definitely feel like a proud parent and so should you. 

When we first started helping these children, our mission was only about three years old. So, in a sense I guess we have all been growing up with Irene. 

Arrows in the Quiver

The hunter pulled up to the Forest Service gate and put his truck in park. It was still dark, but a soft glow to the East told him dawn was coming soon. He poured himself a cup of coffee from a thermos and took a sip as he made a mental inventory of what he was going to need for the day.

He had been up late the night before at a barbeque with friends and hadn’t taken much time to prepare for this hunt. It was archery season and the weather was still warm, so clothing was not a big issue. He felt good about that. He was dressed in warm camouflage fleece and his feet would be fine in the light hiking boots he had chosen. He had his bow and had grabbed a handful of arrows out of a box in the closet and stuffed them in his quiver.  He had made himself a light lunch and had plenty of snacks and water. Bow, check. Knives, check. Matches, check. Firestarter, rope and his hunting tag, check. Good to go. Time to find some elk!

Three hours later he was sitting at the top of a ten-year-old rolling clear-cut, nestled into some underbrush with a good view of the vast majority of knobs and ravines in the large clearing. It was an area he had scouted all throughout the spring and summer and he knew it well. He also knew that there were elk there quite consistently and as long as the cooler weather hadn’t sent them somewhere else, he had a good chance at having an opportunity to harvest one of the nice bulls in the herd.

The sun was warm on his face and he was just a little too comfortable lying there with his back against the brush. He drifted off to sleep and awoke with a start when he heard a loud thump!

He didn’t move a muscle. Just opened his eyes and waited for them to focus. He scanned from left to right and there, not 50 yards away, were several elk! They were all cows, but just beyond them, lumbering up the hill was a massive bull. He could feel his heart racing. The wind was in his face and just a steady breeze. The cows were quartering away from him across the sidehill and the bull would follow suit. Conditions were perfect. 

He waited until the cows had passed and the bull had made his turn, not 40 yards away. The bull stopped and began to graze on a patch of tall grass that still had some color. The hunter carefully moved to his knees and picked up his bow. He pulled an arrow from the quiver and felt his stomach drop. It was missing a fletching. He laid it down and pulled out another. Missing two fletching’s! The next arrow had only a practice tip! Two arrows left. He was feeling sick to his stomach. His hand trembled as he eased the next arrow out. It was perfect! But that only left one arrow. He pulled it out. The fletching’s were good and it had a hunting tip, but one of the blades were missing. His heart sank. One good arrow. 

He cursed himself for grabbing the arrows in the dark and not checking them. For not taking the time to properly prepare the night before. Sure, he had a good chance of hitting his target with one arrow, but what if he was just a bit off? He would have a wounded bull elk with no way to finish the job. Not an acceptable scenario for a responsible hunter. He breathed out a heavy sigh. The bull heard it, and turned and looked right at him before exploding from the spot he was standing and charging straight down the hill. He was gone in an instant.

“As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” – Psalms 127:4-5

God makes it abundantly clear that children are a treasure. They truly are our arrows in the quiver and the future of all humanity. How they are raised, and what they are taught is critical beyond measure as to our collective global future. 

On a macro scale, the world depends on all of our children being raised to know and love God and Jesus.

But, even on a micro scale, it is critical beyond measure for families, businesses, churches and missions like ours. In essence, it is our collective responsibility to be sure that we have not just arrows in our quivers, but good arrows in our quivers. Children who are brought up and trained in the admonition of the Lord. If not, like the hunter, we may have arrows in our quiver, but not the ones we want. Not the ones we need. 

Our job, on this earth, is to perpetuate a continuum of Christians that will take our place when we are gone.

This is true here at Orphan’s Lifeline and it is also true in our children’s homes across the world. As directors and caregivers age, it will become very important that there are good arrows in the quiver to take their place when that time comes.

The good news is that very thing is happening in our homes. A perfect example is Safe Home in Liberia where three good arrows are preparing themselves for a life of future service at Safe Home.

Joshua Dormeyan first came to Safe Home in 2009. Since graduating high school, he has been helping teach the other children at the school there. Now, he wants to go to the University to get his degree so he can return and become the head of the Educational Department at Safe Home.

Nathaline grew up at Safe Home from the time she was very young. She loves finance and social work and wants to get her degree in Social Services and return to work full time at the children’s home.

Joe F Steward has also lived at Safe Home for many years. He has served as a team leader and has helped in many capacities since graduating high school. His dream is to get a degree in Sociology as well and return to continue growing and learning and someday become the Director of Safe Home. John Travis, the current Director believes he is the perfect person to take the helm when the time comes.

These three are the true essence of this mission. They represent the ultimate goal of this mission to raise up children that love the Lord and want to serve Him through serving others. Loving thy neighbor. We are truly thankful and humbled to have all of you in our corner as across the world in 9 countries we are working hard to perpetuate this very thing. To raise up servants of God. To put many good arrows in our quiver.

A Good Chapter

Whenever someone you care about becomes ill, it truly gets you thinking about a lot of different things. The other day, someone I have known since I was a teenager passed away. He was on vacation and suffered a stroke and simply never woke up.

As I said, I have “known” him since I was a teenager, but what struck me when I learned of his death, was the fact that I didn’t really know him at all. I didn’t know his story. 

It’s like the headstones in the cemetery. Although there are many different shapes and sizes, from simple brass plates to elaborate statues and tombs, with rare exception, they all have one thing in common. The date of birth and the date of death.

Now some have a poem. Some have statements that sometimes only close friends and families will understand. Some have scriptures. But none tell that person’s story. Who were they? What kind of a person were they? How did they live their life? Were they a good person? A bad person? Somewhere in between?

The date of birth. The date of death. So much missing information. Because for the vast majority of us there is most certainly a story to be told. The story of our life such as it is, or was. 

Another thing that struck me when I thought about his death was the question it raised in my mind. All of us who were born will someday die, but how did many of us truly live? Truly live this life we were blessed with in such a way that we would be proud of the story of our life?

Just imagine that everything you did, everything you thought, was written down and at the end of your life, that story was read aloud to everyone at the same time. What would that story be? 

I know that for myself, there are certainly chapters I would not want read aloud. There are certainly chapters that would be rather boring and would not necessarily be chapters that I would consider examples of truly living my life as God intended. And that is the question we should probably be asking ourselves daily. Am I living my life as God intended and just what does that mean?      

Now to be clear, everyone would have chapters of their life they might not be proud of, but even without those, is not being bad really good enough?

What does a life well-lived look like? Should it be filled with great adventures? Should it be exciting? Perhaps, if we are living a life that incorporates all that has been set before us, then adventures and excitement are pretty easy to find. And those things can be good. They are things that help fill our life with joy; an emotion that was given to us by God. They are things that help us appreciate all of the blessings we have been given living here on His magnificent creation.

How about a life filled with chapters about raising our children, time spent with family and friends? All potentially good chapters that would elicit fond memories and warm the hearts of those listening to our stories. 

But all of that collectively, as worthy of a life-component as it may be, is still for the most part within the category of self-serving. Not a bad thing by any means, but still not necessarily fulfilling the purpose for which we were given this life and therein, the opportunity to live a good story.

When one considers the Story of Jesus, it all becomes clearer. Not that any of us can possibly have such a story. No one has. No one will. But we can look at His story. We can look at His life and spend more time trying to write chapters into our own stories that more closely resemble His. A life filled with sacrifice. A life filled with selflessness. A life filled with stories of serving others. A life filled loving others even when they did not and do not deserve it.

One does not have to look too far to find opportunity to do simple things that will fill their stories with chapters that reflect the kind of life that Jesus lived. Forgiveness is always there as an opportunity. Being kind to others is a daily opportunity. Giving while expecting nothing in return. 

How about you? What will your story be? I certainly don’t know all of you as well as I would like, but I do know this much: Your story will include chapters that might read like this. “Then one day they decided they wanted to help orphans. They gave out of love and saved lives. They fed orphans. They clothed them. They sent them to school and gave them a safe place to live. They gave them hope, joy and laughter. Precious smiles on precious faces. They gave them God’s Word and taught them the steps of salvation. They showed them His love in their own actions. They were an example of how Jesus lived His life, helping strangers and expecting nothing in return. But they did get something in return. They received joy. They received joy while watching the children grow and become young adults who love God and His son.”

We are so thankful for each and every one of you who help make this mission to serve God through serving His children a reality. And I submit that you are writing  some very good chapters into your own stories daily. 

A New Horizon

For some, life is a journey that is uphill both ways. And sometimes, many times, it has very little to do with their own choices, but rather a matter of dealing with the hand they were dealt.

Now I don’t play poker, but if I did, I do know that I would rather be dealt one card shy of a full house than to have nothing that even resembles a winning hand.

The latter was, and is, the hand that Ann Langat was dealt long ago. 

Ann is 91 years old and lives alone in a slum in Kenya. She has no running water. She has no electricity. She doesn’t even have a toilet of any kind. She does have tuberculosis. She does have a tiny mud and grass shelter more fit for animals than humans. When we first learned of her plight, she had these things and the clothes on her back.

Ann has been a widow for many years. She raised both sons and daughters as a widow; doing the very best she could with the very limited resources she had available. Then, as children tend to do, they all grew up and got married. Then moved away. In a strange irony, Anne became a parent without the care of her children. 

There was no nursing home to go to. No government subsidies to care for her in her elderly years. No work for her broken-down body. Just her little mud hut and the random and meager gifts of food from neighbors in the slum.

Ann did her job as a mother. She raised her children and cared for them the best she could. She worked hard and loved them and watched over them as they slept. She nurtured them into adulthood and watched as one by one, they got married and moved away.

She sees them now and then. Even travels to them in another district because they rarely come to see her. For all practical purposes, Ann is simply alone. Alone with her thoughts. Alone with her memories and very little else. 

There are hundreds like Ann in the area. Alike in the sense that they are widows. But most are widows still trying to care for their children. For the most part they themselves are uneducated. Their children will be uneducated and the sad truth is, most are likely to experience great suffering in their lives. Most will live the same life of poverty if they survive. The boys will become men who fall prey to the norm for men of the cultures of poverty in Kenya. They will likely abandon their wives and young children. They will likely die young from AIDS. Such is the case far too often when they don’t know God and they don’t know Jesus.

For more than 20 years Orphan’s Lifeline has been caring for orphans. We always will for as long as this mission continues to exist. From its inception, this mission has focused on the belief that children are the future. That is pretty much a universal belief. But we also know that God loves everyone and that we are all children in His eyes. We also know that James 1:27 equates helping orphans and widows and keeping one’s self clean from the world as perfect religion. Simply put, both orphans and widows are the lowest of the low. Alone in the world without the means of properly caring for themselves. 

Quite often the word orphan in the Bible is interchangeable with the word fatherless.

Being without a father subjects these children to a life without proper nutrition. A life without proper instruction, education, security. Most often, a life without God. The absence of the father is the absence of the husband as well, and these mothers, whether abandoned or widowed, suffer the same fate as their children. A life without hope.

The COVID 19 Pandemic has had a huge, negative impact on global society as a whole. Millions have perished. Many more millions have lost their livelihoods and those already in poverty have been pushed even further into poverty. Their lives have become more fragile and desperate than ever before. 

Not long ago, I wrote of tragic opportunities discovered during this last year as we worked hard to modify our programs to continue to care for the orphans during the Pandemic. Now, at long last, the vast majority of the orphan children have returned to our children’s homes and it will be back to business as usual. 

But the tragic opportunities that were exposed still remain. And knowing what we know, seeing what we have seen, we can’t just go back to business as usual. There is a new horizon ahead.

We have already begun a pilot program in Kenya. Specifically, in the village where Ann lives. We are working with a young man named Harrison who is a native Church of Christ preacher in the area and who operates a small non-profit called simply, Acts of Charity. 

With Harrison acting as a coordinator, we have identified and approved several orphan and widow families for admission into our new program. The primary principles, philosophy and essential elements of this new program will be the same as our Orphan Sponsorship Program. We will seek to provide the orphans and widows with adequate shelter, proper nutrition and hygiene, education and spiritual education, etc.

Already there are several such families being cared for in this manner and life is changing dramatically for them. You can literally see a new-found hope in their eyes! Just like the orphans we care for in our homes, it will take time for trust to develop. It will take time for them to believe that it will continue before they truly feel secure. It will take time to teach them to read the Bibles we are giving them, but already they are receiving spiritual education.

In India, it won’t be long before the same new program is initiated. Two of our very trusted directors are in the process of figuring out the logistics and laying the groundwork for the new program. Soon widow and orphan families will be identified and sponsorships will begin.

Yes, for some it seems that life is a journey that is uphill both ways. For these families, born in a developing nation by no fault of their own, that has certainly been the case; and it is unfortunately the default life for most who live there.

For us it is yet another tragic opportunity in this mission to do God’s will as we approach this new horizon.

Weary or Wise

He looked in the mirror and wiped the sleep from his eyes. The man staring back at him looked much older on this morning than perhaps any other before. Tired. Frail. The face in the mirror was thin. The cheeks hollow and sunken. Not even close to what he had looked like just a month ago. 

He leaned in a little and focused on the lines in the corners of his eyes. The puffy folds of skin under them. He put his hands to the sides of his face and pulled the skin tight, looking for a younger, healthier version of himself. “Ahh, there you are.” 

He chuckled quietly and shook his head as he stepped away from the mirror. He exited the bathroom, flipping off the light and closing the door quietly behind him. It was early morning and he didn’t want to wake his wife. Not yet. It would make her crabby even if it was just a half hour early. Besides, he knew she hadn’t been sleeping well either; her worried ears fine-tuned to listen for sounds; any sounds that might indicate that he needed her.

He hobbled back to the adjacent room and winced in pain as he lay down on the mattress there. Not the bed where his sleeping wife lay, snoring softly, perhaps in the midst of a dream. But just a mattress on the floor, two sound-muffling walls away from her. It’s where he had been sleeping for a few weeks now since the pain started. Since he got sick. Since the surgery that had saved his life.

He lay there in the dark and closed his eyes, searching for the precious sleep that had eluded him for too long now. He searched for sleep, but instead found himself searching for answers instead. How had this all happened? How had he gone from where he was just a short time before to where he was now? More importantly, what did it all mean in the larger scheme of things?

It had started out as just a pain in his side. A pain that he had dismissed as a pulled muscle. Pulled and sore muscles were a familiar thing after all, as he had spent 5 days a week in the gym for the past 4 years now. In fact, there were days when he had lifted a cumulative total of more than thirty-thousand pounds in his workouts. He had felt stronger and healthier than any time in his life. But that was then. For the last few weeks, he had barely been able to move himself around. Now, lifting the coffee pot was a gratifying achievement.

The pain had grown stronger and moved. Moved from the side of his abdomen to the front, and even the back and had felt somehow connected. He had felt tired and weak. His abnormally low pulse had become abnormally high on a consistent basis. That’s when he had known. Known that this was something more than just a pulled muscle. Perhaps much more.

A doctor’s visit had resulted in a C.T. scan. The C.T. scan had resulted in a rapidly-scheduled surgery to remove a ruptured appendix and a pocket of infection the size of a football. More than one of the physicians involved had told him afterwards that he shouldn’t have lived. Told him that only about 4% of patients with that level of infection ever did. “You continue to amaze me,” one had said on a follow-up visit. He hadn’t felt very amazing at the time.

But, as he lay there, staring at nothing more than the darkness above him, he realized something. He had been doing a lot of praying lately. More than usual. He had prayed for healing. Prayed that the infection would stay away and not come back. Prayed to regain the blessing of the strength and health that he had enjoyed. But he had also expressed his thankfulness for the pain. For the sickness and even the suffering. For the wake-up call that it had been. For the many realizations that the sleepless nights had given him. For the truths that he had learned in the dark of those many sleepless nights. For it had been there, alone in the dark with only his thoughts and prayers that he had realized a great many things about himself. Among those realizations, and really the sum total of those realizations, was the epiphany that while his worry, fear and prayers had seemingly been for himself, really, they hadn’t been.

His thoughts hadn’t been about all that he had done or achieved, but what he hadn’t. And, it was, he realized, the simple things that he would have missed if he wasn’t among the blessed 4%. 

It was the beauty of a sunrise. The majesty of a snow-tipped mountain. The thunder of a raging river or the soft bubbling of a mountain stream. The opportunity to make his wife smile. The innocent laughter of a child. The trust and loyalty in the soft, brown eyes of his chubby, little dog. 

It wasn’t the adventures he would have missed, but who he would have spent them with. It wasn’t time or money, but time with family and friends. It wasn’t what was left undone for himself that had worried him, but what was left undone for others. He was important. Everybody is. We all have a purpose, but sometimes we get blinded by the bright lights of life and the distractions therein.

That’s when the tears came. The guilt of time wasted. The furthering of the realization of his purpose in this short little space of time we call life. He lay there in the blackness and thought about the mirror and smiled. He suddenly felt a little less weary…and a little more wise.

One might wonder about the relevance of this story to the mission of Orphan’s Lifeline of Hope. The relevance is great for a few a couple of reasons. For one, it’s my own personal story. For another reason, it embodies realizations and lessons we have learned here at Orphan’s Lifeline over the years.

2020 was a year that tested us all. It tested our resolve. It tested our health, mentally, physically and spiritually. It tested our savings account and perhaps even at times, our faith. It made us take a close look at what is truly important in life. From the tumultuous political environment to the riots and rhetoric. From the hateful speech to the pandemic, it was a year that asked much from our fragile human nature and many out there in this world failed the test.

However, our perspective here at Orphan’s Lifeline was much different. For what we witnessed was humanity at its finest. What we witnessed was His image reflected in the kind and giving hearts of compassionate Christians.

When the pandemic began raging in the countries we work in, we asked you to help feed and care for even more children and widows. You did. When we told you that we would have limited information due to the lockdowns and government rules, you didn’t lose faith, but instead continued to give and entrusted us with even more financial gifts than usual. In spite of your own worries and troubles, you put the needs of others in front of your own. You shined His light upon the world.

As we begin a new year here at Orphan’s Lifeline, I believe it will continue to be one in which we are tested. There will be new “tragic opportunities” and already we are expanding the scope and the scale of our mission. It’s always a leap of faith.

But we step forward expecting there to be trials. And yet, we step forward with confidence because we can see the reflection of God’s love in your actions. We can see the compassion of Jesus in your actions. We have the advantage of 20 years of that experience and therefore we have faith.

Yes, I believe we will all be tested again this year, as life just tends to be a series of trials and blessings in some proportion to the other. But knowing where it all will end or rather where it all will truly begin, gives us an advantage. That advantage allows us not to just become weary…but wise.