Baptist Global Response

A Southeast Asian Christian orphanage presently serves around 15 children … most of whom are from an island off the coast that was devastated by a major earthquake. The majority of the children come from poverty-stricken, nonfunctional homes due to the loss of one or both parents.

BGR field partners are helping to provide basic needs (food, clothing, etc.) as well as medical care for the children. The focus is to provide a safe, nurturing environment for them. They are taught to read and then placed in public schools. They are also taught life skills which will help them assimilate back into the community upon graduation.

Local support for the orphanage is growing. The orphanage has planted palm oil plants on their land. BGR field partners will help them produce an advocacy brochure this year. The goal is for them to be more self supporting in the future.

Ask God to continue to strengthen the relationship between this orphanage and the local community. Pray that the children will learn of God’s love for them as their basic needs are met.

—–
For information on how you can get involved with this project, contact BGR at info@gobgr.org.

The item above comes from “BGR to GO,” a prayer bulletin issued by BGR prayer coordinator Lori Funderburk. To subscribe to BGR to GO send an e-mail BGRtoGO@gobgr.org. A children’s prayer letter also is available. To subscribe, send an e-mail to BGRtoGOforKIDS@gobgr.org.

By Mike Creswell

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe — The orphan girls stood silently as the brown paper parcels were opened, their eyes widening as they began to think maybe this was something for them.

They squealed with delight when colorful new dresses were handed to them to try on.

A new dress is a remarkable and precious thing in this impoverished country. Zimbabwe has been battered by economic collapse, political turmoil, violence and disease in recent years. A cholera outbreak in late 2008 killed more than 4,000 people and sickened at least 10,000.

But those numbers are small compared to the ongoing AIDS epidemic, which has killed millions across central and southern Africa, leaving countless children orphaned — like those in the home in Bulawayo, which is assisted by the Baptist Union of Zimbabwe.

“The kids are all smiles,” said Ann Mitchell, executive director of the Baptist Union of Zimbabwe. “The materials used are a constant cause of amazement. They will last for ages, even if they are pounded on a rock in the washing process. The designs are so very different from anything seen here. What a blessing!”

Getting the dresses delivered was made possible by Southern Baptist missionaries who partnered with staff from Baptist Global Response. General relief donations — given by Baptists across the United States through their state conventions, North American Mission Board and International Mission Board — paid for 600 dresses to be delivered to Zimbabwe.

The dresses themselves, however, came from the hands of Addilene Leonard of Louisburg, N.C., a smallish town about 30 minutes from Raleigh, the state capital.

Baptists use Bibles, puppets, videos and many other tools for missions. Leonard uses her sewing machine.

Click here for the rest of the article and photos

From BGR prayer coordinator Lori Funderburk’s “BGR to GO” newsletter:

In South Africa many babies are born to very young girls. Unable to care for the babies, the young girls often abandon the babies in places where they hope they will be found and cared for.

BGR partner Tabitha Ministries has placed a “Moses Box” in one of the villages where this has happened often. They also do school presentations telling girls they can leave their babies in the box. Currently they have 30 orphans, most of whom are HIV-positive.

Will you pray for the volunteers that raise these children? Ask God to continue to provide for all of their needs. Pray that a Ministry Home will be built quickly for the most vulnerable children.

To subscribe to BGR to GO send an e-mail BGRtoGO@gobgr.org. To subscribe to BGR to GO for KIDS send an e-mail to BGRtoGOforKIDS@gobgr.org.

Southern Baptists in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee have reached out to families in Sub-Saharan Africa that are caring for terminally ill loved ones.

A total of 1,378 five-gallon plastic buckets filled with supplies to help caregivers were packed by congregations and delivered to the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia’s human needs program and to Tabitha Ministries, an outreach that provides care to more than 1,300 HIV-positive children in a district of South Africa that has the highest per capita rate of HIV-positive individuals in the world. Earlier this year, workers at Tabitha Ministries reported they were seeing 85 to 105 people die each week.

The buckets contain a wide range of everyday supplies needed by a caregiver – from lotions, ointments, and vitamins to bedding, bandages, and thermometers. The total cost of each bucket ranged between $100 and $125.

Mark Hatfield, Baptist Global Response’s area director for Sub-Saharan Africa, sends a note to say the second shipping container of buckets has arrived in Lusaka. 

“Please pray for the Baptist Fellowship of Zambia as they begin to clear the container through customs. Pray for duty-free status and an easy process,” Mark writes. “Pray that the use of these items by loving caregivers will show the love and compassion Jesus Christ has for the terminally ill. Pray that they would come to know the True Hope that comes from a personal relationship with him.”

The items in the buckets will be a tremendous blessing to families that must care for terminally ill relatives at home because access to health care is so limited. And although there are more than 22.5 million adults and children in Sub-Saharan Africa who are living with the HIV virus, the need extends beyond even those families. Thousands of people in the region die at home each year from sicknesses like cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, and other life-ending diseases. In-home care is all the care they will receive.

So to the churches in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee that helped with this pilot project, almost 1,400 families in Africa shout a hearty “Thank you!”

If you or your church would like to participate in the 2009 phase of this project, please e-mail Dennis Eastridge at deastridge@gobgr.org.

Mark Hatfield, BGR’s area director for Sub-Saharan Africa, sent us a statistic the other day that just really rocked me back on my heels. He picked the item up from a prayer newsletter he receives.

“Concerning AIDS orphans: 30 percent of the children in Swaziland are either single or double orphans [meaning either one or both parents have died of AIDS]. The number of orphans in the country has increased from an estimated 12,000 in 1999 to 70,000 in 2005 with a projected increase to 120,000 by 2010. The number of child-headed households [children living in homes without adults] is increasing.”

It staggers the imagination to think of the grief and responsibilities these children are bearing at a time in life when they ought to be playing happily and enjoying their friends and families. I’m grateful we have ways to help them – and people who care enough to reach out to them from the United States. It’s always gratifying to see that so many believers understand that caring for orphans and widows in their troubles is “pure and genuine religion” in the sight of God the Father. (James 1:27)

Many of us can touch the lives of these orphans by giving, and some of us are in the position of actually going to help them personally. But every one of us can help them by praying.

The note Mark sent ends like this:

“Pray the many orphans in Swaziland will have someone to care for them.  Pray for an intense awareness by the Swazis of the causes and problems of AIDS and the responsibility of protecting friends and family members.”

—–
To learn more about Baptist Global Response, visit our website at gobgr.org.