This summer, the Orphan Care PEACE team did some heartbreaking home visits in Kigali, Rwanda. Their job was to identify potential orphans in need who were not yet on the sponsorship program. They witnessed first-hand widows and orphans in distress, families struggling each day for survival. Words cannot describe the conditions they live in, and the problems they face each day. It was on this trip that they met Odetta.
Odetta’s husband was killed in the genocide 19 years ago. She then watched, horrified and heartbroken, as her daughter and son-in-law died of AIDS, leaving her two baby grandchildren parentless and alone. Odetta stepped in, becoming a mother to the infants so they would not be sent away to the orphanage. Remarkably, she has also taken in three other orphans from the community, raising all five children as her own.
The Orphan Care PEACE team visited Odetta’s home for the first time with members of her local church. As they were talking, her grandson would not stop crying. Nothing would calm him. Finally, one of Odetta’s older kids made some rice meal from a bag of staples the team had brought. The sweet little baby ate so fast – he couldn’t get enough! Odetta informed the team that her family was out of food and hadn’t eaten in a day. The team was shocked that their little meal was feeding this entire family for a day!
Friends, because of Saddleback sponsors like you, the Orphan Care PEACE team was able to get Odetta connected to our sponsorship program. The sponsorship funds she receives through her local church allow her to provide her family with enough food to survive from day to day, and her little boy no longer cries from hunger. She thanks God that she has also been able to enroll all her children in medical insurance and pay for their school fees.
Your $38 makes a difference EVERY month in the lives of orphans in Rwanda. Even though we can’t link you directly to a child, we hope you feel connected to families like Odetta’s who need your help.
“GETTING TO ZERO” UPDATES
ZERO CHILDREN IN ORPHANAGES, BECAUSE EVERY CHILD DESERVES A FAMILY.
· The Rwanda PEACE office has a full time person on staff to coordinate Orphan Care efforts across the country.
· Pastors from one of the largest churches in Rwanda came to Saddleback this month for training in Purpose Driven, PEACE and Orphan Care. They are returning home excited to begin implementing Orphan Care in their church.
· Saddleback families from all the Saddleback campuses united on Orphan Sunday to learn about God’s heart for the orphan.
PRAY FOR ORPHANS
O God, when I have food, help me to remember the hungry children;
When I am with my family, help me to remember the orphans;
When I have a home, help me to remember the children who have no home at all;
When I am without pain, help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering, help me to destroy my complacency;
bestir my compassion, and be concerned enough to help;
By word and deed, those who cry out for what we take for granted.?Amen.