A Mother’s Heart for the Orphans of Africa

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:

to look after orphans and widows in their distress

and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

James 1:27

Liberia

You’ve probably noticed by now that I love Nancy Campbell’s Above Rubies Magazine (www.aboverubies.org), which I have received for about 14 years.   (That’s the longest I’ve ever subscribed to anything!) Now you’re going to hear even more.  When the new issue came out two weeks ago, the endearing picture of a little African girl leapt off the cover into my heart.   Turning to the first page, I started reading Nancy’s narrative of her visit to the orphanages of Liberia -- and the tears flowed freely.

“It felt strange to not see the familiar lights of a city as we flew into Monrovia.  Instead, apart from the runway lights, we flew into darkness.  With the power grid wiped out at the beginning of the way in 1989, the only lights in the city are those who can afford generators.  This is Liberia. No electricity.  No functional sewer systems.  No running water (except in a few places).  No garbage pickup.  Thousands of homes don’t even have toilets.  Once the “sweet land of liberty” and “the gem of Africa,” it is now the land of poverty because of the 14-year long and bloody civil war – the most ravaging war fought in all of Africa.  But the greatest devastation of this war is more than the poverty.  It is the children who are left orphans.

There are many orphanages in Liberia, all seeking to house, care for and educate the greatest victims of this terrible war.  I have just returned from this country, having the privilege of spending a week in three of these orphanages run by African Christians Fellowship International (ACFI).  We spent time with the children at the orphanage for the deaf, the orphanage for older teenage boys, but mostly at their largest orphanage at Dixville, where there are nearly 400 children, aged five to 15.  When we first arrived, it was overwhelming to see the children running from every direction toward the van.  There were ten of us in the team, and as we piled out, we were swarmed by children.  From the time we arrived each day until the time we left, we sat with, walked with, read to, talked with, played with, cuddled and loved children.  It was the greatest joy.  How could I serve the Lord more fully?  I thought of the Scripture in Mark 10:13-16 where Jesus became indignant and rebuked the disciples for sending the children away from Him.  He reminded them that children are at the very heart and center of life in the kingdom of God.  We deceive ourselves that we belong to God’s kingdom when we do not embrace children.”

I really had no clue that Liberia had suffered so much from a civil war.  I do try to stay “up” on world affairs, but obviously not “up” enough!  Nancy's article is much longer than this.  She pleads for Christians to pray for these little ones, send money for food and medical supplies (which are very meager), and ADOPT!  Yes, Liberia has one of the least expensive international adoptions.  Here are three organizations you can contact:

§         Children Concerned (an affiliate of ACFI)  www.childrenconcerned.org – matches families with adoptable children in the ACFI orphanages

§         Acres of Hope -- www.acresofhope.org -- an orphanage with many children available for adoption – you can also send checks to Acres of Hope, 29525 Four Corners Store Rd, Mason, WI 54856 or call (715)76504118

§         West African Children Support Network (WACSN) www.wacsn.org

P.S. The little girl on the Above Rubies cover, Grace, is a triplet, adopted with her brothers Nathan and David by an American family through WACSN!  Yeah!

Malawi

Last week, I received a much-awaited letter from Pastor Headson Makazinga in Malawi.  If you’ve been reading the Hope Chest for a while, you will know that he contacted our family after reading an article on “Motherhood Mentoring” that I wrote for Above Rubies a few years back.  We have been using book profits to supply him with money for Bibles and conferences, as well as producing Chichewa language tracts.  I was relieved to hear that the “Christmas” box of supplies I sent arrived in January and that the check I sent for the Easter conference actually arrived in time to help with food expenses and Bibles.  (Thousands of people came – what we sent was just a tiny little drop in the bucket and certainly was not enough!)  He also sent pictures of the women cooking outdoors beneath the trees, and of the children singing in the conference choir.   What I did not know is that since February, Pastor Makazinga and his wife Regina have been caring for 10 orphans.  There are so many more orphans in the home villages of Malawi and Mozambique where they minister -- little ones with no food or clothing or medical care.  Pastor Makazinga is trying to bring them all together in one place.  Unfortunately, Malawi is in the midst of a drought – it hasn’t rained since January and the crops are dried up in what should be the season of green pastures.   How is he going to continue to feed and care for these 10 little ones?  Pastor Makazinga is not supported by any other organization – to my knowledge, we are the only foreigners sending him any financial support.  If you would like to send a word of encouragement or a cashier’s check (the safe way to send money) you can do so at:

Pastor Headson Makazinga

P.O. Box 178

Nsanje, Malawi, Africa

Talk About It!

Here are several ideas of how to talk to your children about this article.  Be sure to visit the web sites with them, too!

• Locate Liberia, Malawi and Mozambique on your world map or in an atlas.
• Who founded Liberia and how did it gets its name?  Click here:
  • http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107718.html
  • http://www.childrenconcerned.org/index.php?customernumber=844694880606629&pr=About_Liberia
• Look at the Liberian flag on the web pages listed above.  How is it similar to the USA flag?  How is it different?
• What is a civil war?
• What is an orphan?  What is life like for an orphan in Africa?
• What are poverty, malnutrition and malaria?
• What will we do to help orphans?

For elementary and middle school students, please read the book Star of Light by Patricia St. John (published by Moody Press).  It’s an excellent children’s novel about Hamid, a young Moroccan boy whose blind little sister is about to be sold to a beggar by their heartless stepfather.  In order to rescue her, he takes her to a missionary nurse in a faraway town.  What will happen next?

If you have older, mature teens, I highly recommend that you watch the movie Hotel Rwanda with them.  It is a very graphic movie which realisitcally portrays the genocide in Rwanda, and what one courageous man did to shelter others at the risk of his own life.  Thad and I saw this in the movie theater a couple of months ago, and just rented the DVD to watch at home.  Visit www.HotelRwanda.com for more information. 

May we all have a heart for the orphans of Africa!