One at a time

I spent this morning listening to guests here at Orchard Hill who are with Food for the Hungry, the Christian community development organization we are partnering with in Mozambique, Africa. (http://www.fh.org/) I was inspired by their vision and by the strategies they have in place to help walk with a community into sustainable change.

Currently, twenty-some thousand people die daily due to hunger-related causes in our world. That number can seem overwhelming to us, yet when Food for the Hungry was founded back in 1971, the leader heard God's call in this phrase, "They die one by one, and they can be saved one by one." Part of Food for the Hungry's development strategy lies in child sponsorship in a region. This sponsorship allows for Food for the Hungry to reach out wholistically to children in the region. Orchard Hill has the privilege to partner with Food for the Hungry and with the children of Mucodza, a village in the region of Gorongoza, Mozambique. One by one our families can impact children there, one by one by one. Over the next three Sundays, we'll be offering the opportunity for you and your family to sponsor a child. This child will value your prayers, your letters, your assistance, and as I heard today, it's common for the child and his/her family to pray for your family as well. Prayerfully consider if this is something God would place on your heart to do.

On another note, today's prayer request asks us to pray for the thousands of children in Africa and around the world who have lost their parents to AIDS. In actuality, more than 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS. By 2010, that number is expected to reach 25 million. OVC stands for orphans and vulnerable children. It's an abbreviation used frequently in literature about AIDS. The historic strategy for caring for OVC was to place children in orphanages. Because of the expense and the enormous numbers of OVC, the strategy has changed in recent years to training community members in a program called Community Care Coalitions (CCC). Community members commit to visiting regularly and monitoring the well-being of children who are heading households. This program of community-based care allows for children to stay rooted in their communities and has been identified as the best strategy to date to care for orphans and vulnerable children. Today, as you pray for the children who are orphaned due to AIDS, also pray for the Community Care Coalition programs and the caregivers within every community who are shouldering enormous burdens.

As we commit to praying, let us remember that talking to God is only half of the communication. I pray that we will be listening as well throughout this time. And if you get a hankering, please feel free to post a comment by clicking on "comments" at the bottom of any post.

Follow the way of love (1 Corinthians 14:1a),
Laura Hoy