Picture of the Essence

“Essence” – The intrinsic or indispensable properties that serve to characterize or identify something.

Salima, Malawi: our last stop in Africa. There we received a clear picture of the essence of The Global Orphan Project.

Here are some pictures of the Malawi project:

And here is the picture of the essence:

So many of you reading this have engaged deeply with GO Project. Whether in Haiti, Africa, or elsewhere, you’re in deep. When you first engaged, you saw children and the miraculous transformation that occurs in their lives with a little investment of money, and consistent, enduring investment of heart. Simple. Pure. Right. That’s what drew you in.

As you get deeper into the journey, some complexity may blur the vision. You see challenges, and feel disappointed at times. The well you funded went dry. New showers and latrines are needed. School’s not open this month for a myriad of reasons that don’t compute in our way of thinking. No one can neatly explain the full life game plan for each child. Etc… When we get deeper into the work, we see the myriad of challenges of caring for kids who’ve been hurt, abandoned, and abused. Caring for them isn’t really a quick turnaround and done situation. It’s a day-by-day-by-day battle of love amidst brutal earthly conditions, where complete dependence upon the Almighty is not a luxury, but a daily bread necessity. It’s real easy to get so deep inside the earthly challenges, that we lose sight of the simple clarity at the heart of the ministry.

And then the Lord refocuses our vision, and reminds us: He is in control. The battles and challenges of orphan care do NOT alter the essence, which remains simple, pure, right. We must choose: what do we see?

When Adrien and I got off the plane in Malawi, we were greeted by our local partners, Peter and Emma Maseko. God’s reminder to us rested upon Emma’s back. Alpha Alanane Maseko.

Last year, Peter learned of a newborn baby tied in a plastic bag, dumped on the roadside. Miraculously, the baby survived. The authorities knew Peter and his wife, Emma, and knew the work the Lord called them to in Pothawira Village for orphans (Pothawira means “Safe Haven” in Chichewa language). But the work was just starting. No homes were done. No school. No clinic. The village was just a future vision and a plot of land. The child in the bag was NOW.

God put this child before them. The mandate of orphan care does not commence at our right time, or when the complexities of construction projects are through. The purity of orphan care is not found in the challenges of its trappings. Nor does it depend upon our notions of comfort, stewardship, disappointment, or challenge. So what did Peter and Emma do? They adopted the baby girl as their own child, committed to love her all the way, and named her Alpha (first): the first blessing God brought to them in this orphan care work.

The Masekos later learned for sure what they suspected – Alpha’s HIV positive. She was a discarded “AIDS baby” likely from a mom who didn’t expect to live long. Can you imagine the risk and courage it takes for a husband and wife who’ve raised 8 of their own children to fully expose their hearts to love this child?

Alpha’s not made a single decision about her life. She made no decision to be born. She made no decision to become HIV positive. She made no decision to be tied in a bag and dumped on a roadside minutes after birth. She made no decision to survive. Yet, she is no mistake.

Here is this mommy and daddy, Peter and Emma, who love Alpha all the way – without a single condition being placed upon Alpha. Here is Emma carrying Alpha on her back. What do we see in these pictures? Challenges of building. Disappointments, heartache, and frustrated expectations that are sure to come in the future? A project to be managed? Funds to be raised?

Or do we see a love so simple, risky, and abandoned that it threatens the integrity of our sins of self-protection?

This ministry isn’t about clinical models of “orphan care.” It’s not about cause. It’s about love and freedom of the heart. When I think of the love of Jesus Christ, I think about Peter, Emma, and Alpha. It’s as practical as it is mysterious. The givers receive.

I am grateful to be part of this with all of you. Thanks.

Joe

Saved from Self Addiction

Jimmy Dodd preached at Woodman Valley Chapel recently. His sermon centered on getting outside ourselves to reach the world for Jesus. Near the end, Jimmy asked Mike Fox to share his personal journey. In the attached clip, Mike talks about how taking a risk for orphans changed his life. Investing in a cause bigger than himself moved Mike from self addictive trappings to experiencing the grace of God. Blessings flow both ways. Always. That’s the surprise ending. We’re grateful God has invited us into His work of caring for His kids. Thank you for your heart to care for His kids as well!

Woodman Valley Chapel 8/5/2010 by The Global Orphan Project

Or you can watch the sermon in its entirety, here:

Awaken – Part 2 from Woodmen Valley Chapel on Vimeo.

Lira, Uganda

A few pictures from The Global Orphan Project’s children’s village in Lira, Uganda:

Hope for “Dependents”

The life of a pastor in Uganda is an eye opener. We’ve been in Lira, northern Uganda.

We arrived to find the pastor hosting us in mourning. He just learned his 6 year old “daughter” died. She drowned. Digging deeper, we learned it was actually his brother’s daughter. Culturally, he considers his niece his own child. That’s important because his brother and his wife are both “sick” (meaning they have AIDS). The pastor embraces that their children will one day be with him in his home – his children.

We had only a short time with the pastor before he left to prepare for the burial ceremony. In that short time at his home, we found he now has 22 children he’s caring for. 7 are his biological children. The rest are “dependants.” These are orphans from relatives or nearby friends. The burden of care has fallen to the pastor, and they are family. He does all he can for them. This is the way – reality.

Hearing this, we surveyed other church leaders in the room. Each one cares for dependants in their homes. One man has no biological children with his wife. They have 5 dependants.

Here’s the problem…

There are too many dependants who have no one like the pastor or other leaders in the room. This extended family system is beyond saturated. Consequently, children suffer and die.

This is where you all come into play, GO family. We work with churches to expand their capacity to care for the children at the bottom – the ones with no support network. We don’t take the dependents from the pastor’s house. In this cultural fabric, they should be with him. Rather, we help the local church reach those who have no one to be dependent upon.

In Lira, the church has started its ministry to these hurting children. The first 20 girls arrived in care in June. Malnourished, sickly, scared, they arrived alive. Praise God. The local church body has poured love into these girls in a simple and safe environment. The children go to school, many for the first time. That’s not easy. For example, a 9 year old girl is enrolled in what we’d call kindergarten. It’s not easy. But it’s good.

Local church leaders are spending time with the children, each day. It’s not just the children and the mommas, alone. That’s the beauty of the local church. This is an extended family that has grown.

One church leader, Tomali Okao, is in her 60s. Her husband was murdered by the Amin regime, and she raised 7 of her own children and the dependents God placed in her care. Tomali now embraces these children as her own. She bought 20 small pine tree saplings and planted them with the children behind their homes to grow with them. Tomali has hope for the kids, offers great wisdom to them, and shows her love in practical ways. Tomali and many others now have more dependents, more family members. They just need a little help to carry this burden. GO family, you’re providing that modest help.

And look what can happen… Here are a couple of clips of the girls at Lira, just 2+ months since they arrived filthy, hurting, and malnourished.

Don’t get me wrong. There are and will be many challenges with these girls. But Jesus is much bigger than our circumstances, and He provides many, like Tomali, to stand lovingly in the gap.

Just take a minute to celebrate this scene. The girls just got home from school. They’re playing. They’re laughing.

God is good.

Faithfully yours,

Joe

Worshiping the King with the joy of a child!

A different kind of ministry

Trace Thurlby, Live from Haiti

On the bus heading to Phaeton to love on more than 100 kids with an incredible team of 17 Bloncs from four time zones.

Randy and Tiffany Wild from O’Fallon had their heart pierced for orphans in their first trip to Haiti in 2009. They decided to build a home and have been full speed ahead ever since….literally. Randy helps organize boat “poker runs.” Whatever a poker run might be, I was told this is NOT a boat race. Take a look at Randy’s boat with The GO Project logo he put on it and tell yourself….it’s not a race . Tiffany has organized a Shop-a-Thon in a few weeks…that’s right more than 50 ladies “Shopping for Orphans”. 20 percent of what is spent will go to orphans.

Damon Arrendondo is a 20-year-old going to school at Mesa State who came with his buddy, Frank, to play soccer with orphaned kids. This morning he made a Haitian breakfast sandwich with an egg, alvacado, and mango. He may be on to something…after all, this is a different kind of ministry.

I wish I could tell you all the stories. You’ll just have to come with us. We’re at Phaeton now. The kids are singing, “Worthy is the Lamb!” Amen!

Kabale, Uganda

Joe Knittig, Live from Uganda

Yesterday, we arrived in Kabale, Uganda. This is the site of our first children’s village with the Church of Uganda. We were blown away.

We’ve hung a few pics of the site and children.

This village is called “The Father’s House” after John 14:1-4. The local church views the children as Christ’s own, and therefore, their own. They just needed a few more rooms in the Father’s house.

This village is a story of heroes. The local church formed a leadership committee to manage the village. Community leaders – pastors, teachers, entrepreneurs, a veteran – from within the church have carried the burden of this work with passion, faith and excellence.

They formed a humble but innovative construction business to do the building. They constructed 10 homes, a kitchen, latrines, and a depot – the profit goes to development ventures. They sent a leader to Zimbabwe for advanced agricultural training. They very carefully selected the neediest orphans in the community – truly the lowest of the low. They hand selected educated mommas with a passion for children and a deep love of Jesus, and trained them. These mommas prepared to meet their children with excited anticipation. They tirelessly canvassed the surrounding community for months to gain community understanding and support. (They did all of this, and even came in well under budget!)

The local church leadership has preached on the church’s orphan care duties, and exhorted participation. Church members have responded. One local farmer brings 2 large trays of eggs for the kids each week. Others bring fruits and beans. Others just stop by with their children to play and have fellowship.

The man who went to Zimbabwe has already begun ag development. He’s teaching the mommas and the mommas the children how to tend to pigs, and care for the coming garden. That man is the committee’s heroic leader, Pastor Obed, one of the local church pastors. He leads by example. He has worked 15+ hour days to prepare the way for the children. He went to Zimbabwe to take the farming class and now teaches what he learned to the mommas and kids. He stops by to see and show his love to the kids every morning. He embraces the kids as his own, and others are following his example.

Kids whose parents have died… Little girls who’ve been defiled in orphanhood… They now stir each morning to mommas eager to see them, and then later to Obed’s huge smile.

There’s no fancy stuff in the kids’ material trappings. They now live in standard mud brick homes. But it’s not what the kids go into that matters most; it’s what goes into the kids. And what’s going into them is a great deal of love and hope. One of the little girls (age 6) lost her parents and was abused in the hut she had to stay in before she was found. Of the change in her life, she exclaimed to her house mother, “I am in heaven!”

This local church is embracing its ministry. They are already in high gear to make sustainability a reality. Here’s how one of the leaders has explained the local church’s view of our partnership:

“When we were young children, we took water pots to the river to get water. Carrying the water back was a tremendous burden. The most difficult part of that burden was getting the full water pot from the ground to our heads. After that, we could manage quite well. What you are doing is helping us lift the burden of these children upon our heads. With that, the burden rightly belongs with us. They are our children. And with God’s power, we can more than manage.”

The local church is rising-up to meet this great challenge, and the fruit’s all over the place.

We’re now on the way to Kampala, and then to Lira in northern Uganda.

Have a great weekend.

Joe

Photos from Uganda

Just another day in Haiti.

Hello from Uganda.

Hello from Uganda.

What a great day yesterday. We started our day in Masaka with the first 30 children we brought into care in Uganda 2 years ago. It was the end of their school term. At the end of term, students have a program: singing, praise, thanksgiving. We were so fortunate to be here to see it.

I can hardly believe what 2 years of deep love can do for kids in the most difficult circumstances. I remember Day 1 for these little ones, most of whom lost their parents to AIDS. Grim. Yesterday, they were fully alive. In the program, they beamed with confidence in the love of Christ. There is a security there that they know cannot be moved or removed. That message lived out shook all of us on the team.

These kids have become pillars in their community. They’ve remained integrated in the community by serving others. Orphans serving and giving to others: how about that?

They are all from a nearby area called Mbira. Their pastor, JJ, and his wife, Harriet, have taken the lead in the care and nurturing of the children. JJ has planted a church in Mbira – a little wooden church that now overflows with 150+ members. JJ takes the kids there to serve others in this very poor community.

One person they serve is an 85 year old widow who can no longer tend her land. The kids farm her garden for her, so she has food to eat, and regularly tend to her care. That dear woman repaid this kindness by giving the church a large piece of family land. The kids farm that land and are producing maize. The church now operates a maize mill. Now the kids grow and the church processes their own staple food, from the land given by this widow.

Another person in Mbira sold 15+ acres to the church for $2500. Great land. Fertile. That site will now become a full blown children’s village around the bustling and growing Mbira church. The village will bring a school for 250 kids and homes for 100 orphans who are scuffling to survive. JJ and Hariet will move to the site and lead this effort. More homes will likely be needed. We’ll start with homes for 100. The surrounding villages (the people) will embrace this step to help their own children.

The first 30 kids from Masaka – the kids who came from Mbira – will move to the Mbira village. This is huge for them. The older kids especially are excited, as they view this as an opportunity to serve so many other kids like them in the same area where they once suffered. They now know what the love of Jesus Christ can bring – complete transformation of the heart, soul and mind. They’re not too little to understand. They’re living it.

Sorry to go on and on… It’s just amazing to see God’s work and creativity, and we want to share it with you. This work is about more than orphan care.

Today we are in Kabale in the mountains of SW Uganda. This new village recently welcomed the first 60 children. A women’s group led by Marsha Campbell funded this entire village. (Ladies, we’ll take lots of pics!)

Pure and faultless religion…

Wish you all were here with us.

Joe

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