the poor orphans and widows

When We Love the Least of These

Frank

A little over a year ago I was part of a book club reading Kisses From Katie by Katie Davis, which documents her time in Uganda eventually adopting many of the kids she went to care for. I was reminded of her when I first heard the story behind the award-winning Documentary Blood Brother. Similarly, this documentary tells the story of Rocky Braat who went to an orphanage in India for a “short term” missions trip to find himself and found much more instead.

This story is compelling enough but Braat’s friend, filmmaker Steve Hoover didn’t stop there and has made a new documentary, Gennadiy about a priest in the Ukraine who “rescues” homeless kids from the streets. I put rescued in quotes because his methods are unorthodox to say the least. Hoover is currently running a Kickstarter campaign that concludes tomorrow.
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So this is supposed to be a “music Monday” post, so I added the video for Audio Adrenaline’s song, Kings and Queens. As a parent, seeing children suffer tears at my heart but as a Christian, seeing people like Katie Davis, Rocky Braat, Fr Gennadiy, and the Hands and Feet Project from Audio Adrenaline encourage me that there is hope out there.

Without further ado, here are some videos. Grab a tissue.

.140 Millimeters

Frank

As the days are getting shorter and temperatures are dropping, I expect my kids to come home from school with the sniffles. All it takes is one child in a room full of thirty to sneeze on a hand, touch a doorknob, drool on a toy, or stick fingers where they have no business going to spread germs that ultimately find their way home and require me to take a sick day. (The other night my children kept me up as my daughter suffered through a stuffy head as my son coughed with such fury it could be measured on the Richter scale. How do I feel today? Don’t ask)

But I’m lucky. I have health insurance. I can afford over the counter cold medicine. And my job allows the flexibility to take a sick day now and then. Not everyone is so fortunate.

A month ago at church we had a guest from one of our local school districts describing a need that seemed trivial on the surface, but has significant impact. Her schools represent an underprivileged demographic in our community, so you would expect the need to be school supplies, classroom volunteers, etc. Instead she expressed a single need: tissue.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 22 million sick days will be taken this year due to the common cold. That’s one day for every other student in America. For an impoverished community, missing school means missing at least one if not two meals, missing being inside with heat during the winter and air conditioning in the fall and spring, having running water if that only means a toilet and sink, and most importantly receiving an education to help raise them out of their socioeconomics.

So my congregation set out on “Operation Bless You” where we took donations of boxes of tissue. Donations of winter coats, backpacks, etc can cost tens to hundreds of dollars. A box of Kleenex at Wal-Mart costs a little more than a buck. Our goal was 1000 boxes. I think we blew that out the first week. I haven’t heard a final number, but even after a couple of deliveries I think we have more tissue than we know what to do with!

.140 millimeters is all it takes to stop a sneeze. This comes to 42 millimeters total in a box (for single-ply laid flat). It isn’t much, but it goes to show that every little bit adds up. .140 millimeters can prevent the common cold. .140 millimeters can keep a child in school one more day where there basic needs can be met.

No effort so small goes unnoticed. Any little act can have big impact. No need is too trivial to meet.

‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

Father of Mine

Frank

In the Holman Christian Standard translation, “fatherless” appears 40 times. The first instance reflects God’s passion, “You must not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.” (Exodus 22:22) Elsewhere, we read that God is the defender of the fatherless, he executes justice for the fatherless, and so on.

From The Mentoring Project, they estimate 25 million children are growing up in fatherless homes. Children from fatherless homes are more likely to be involved in violent crime, more likely to join a gang, more likely to become addicted to drugs, more likely to drop out of school, and so on and so on. You could argue correlation does not mean causation, but the statistics are too strong and broad to ignore. If you don’t think not having a father around affects our youth, check out the comments left yesterday, Father’s Day, on the YouTube page for the above video.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. God “defends the cause of the fatherless” (Deuteronomy 10:18). If we are after God’s own heart, then we should also be defending the cause of the fatherless. Here are just a sampling of online resources, blogs, and friends who have taken up this cause. Some are focusing on the fatherless, others are strengthening the fathers who are present. My prayer is that together we can reflect God’s heart and his character as the perfect Father. Not every father will be faithful, but God always will be. Perfect father of mine.

The Mission Field in Front of You

Frank

Yesterday I talked about world missions with the desire to preach the World until the whole world hears. But doesn’t the “whole world” include the world right outside our doors? Take my co-worker, whom I mentioned organizes mission trips to Russia and Mexico. During his 4-5 hour drive on the way down to Mexico, he will drive by on the order of ten million first-generation Mexicans. Most of us will never get the chance to take a missions trip, but how hard would it be to board a bus to the inner-city?

Last week I had the blessed opportunity to visit the headquarters of World Impact and take a tour of their Teen Center. I find it funny that an urban missions organization calls itself “World” Impact and is headquartered in the heart of Los Angeles. Until I consider the above. The truth is, the whole world is represented in LA, so I can spread the gospel to the “whole world” by driving only an hour or so. I like World Impact’s vision: they consider urban areas a mission field, “missionaries” move-in to run their programs, and they plant house churches in blighted neighborhoods where they then train up local pastors and lay-leaders. An inspiring model, quite honestly. In the process they’ve opened up schools, recreation centers, and medical clinics just as you would on the foreign mission field.

Completely coincidentally, I had the opportunity to  hear World Impact’s founder, Dr. Keith Phillips, speak at a National Day of Prayer function. His short talk blew my socks off. He started by himself in Watts in the mid 60’s. (think about that for a second) Once he realized the Projects were too tall a task for only him, he solicited the help of Biola University and soon he and 300 students were reaching out to more than 3000 inner-city youth.

If your vision has been focused on the mission field overseas, consider: in LA 45,000 people slept in garages in want of a home while 45,000 more slept on the street in want of a garage (citing Dr. Phillips’ numbers to the best of my recollection). A million and a third people in the inner-city of LA do not have access to a hospital. On average, most children who grow up in the inner-city will never travel further than five miles from where they were born. Those stats stirred my heart and Dr. Phillips didn’t even mention crime rates, average income, the number of children growing up without fathers and mothers without husbands (the modern-day orphan and widow), the ridiculously low life expectancy, and I could go on and on.

Yes, foreign missions are important. And if we don’t have the opportunity to go, we should generously give what we can to support those who do. But at the same time, we cannot neglect the needs right in front of us.

“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)