Looking through the lens of my mind’s eye, I see two children.
Two children separated by continents.

One sitting pretty clothed in family,
A backdrop of abundance….
A broad smile…
Eyes of hope…
A triumphant shout…
A life of promise.

The other -
Utterly alone.
A backdrop of empty…
A vacant look…
Eyes of misery…
A silent scream…
A life lost.

Two children made in God’s image, precious in His eyes, worthy of respect, dignity and a opportunity.  Two lives- one full of hope, the other hanging in the balance.  I ask myself what I would do if this was the plight of one of my children.  One life lost is tragic enough, but over 16 million children have been orphaned by AIDS.  14.8 million of these children live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The scale of the orphan crisis is beyond my imagining. The problems faced by AIDS orphans are massive creating a domino effect leading to orphans being marginalized, stigmatized, malnourished, uneducated and psychologically damaged.

AIDS orphans suffer emotional and physical neglect long before they are orphaned.  Sick parents unable to work aren’t able to provide for the basic necessities of food, clothing, health and education.   Many children end up having to care for their sick parent, having to take on more household responsibility or care of other siblings, interrupting their schooling.  Then there is the trauma of when the parent/s dies, not only having to deal with the loss, but at the same time having to adjust to a new living situation.  Those orphans who are placed in large female-headed households are often forced to contribute financially to the household and may be driven to the streets to beg or seek food.

To make matters worse, children grieving for the dying or dead parent are often stigmatized by society through their association with AIDS,  leaving them to deal with shame, fear and rejection.  They are less likely to receive healthcare, schooling and other needed services.  Deprived of protection, education, support and love, they face malnutrition, illness, HIV infection and are easy prey to many forms of exploitation: forced labor, prostitution and child soldiering.

The demand for care and support of these large numbers of orphans is simply overwhelming.  Orphanages are no longer sustainable due to the scale of the problem.  Communities with a high prevalence of AIDS orphans are experiencing a deterioration of services and high levels of stress. The goal now is to care for orphans in family units through extended family networks, foster families and adoption.  But some families are no longer willing or able to continue care.  There are not enough resources to meet the need.

Literature says the way forward is three fold:  1. prevent HIV infection; 2. provide access to antiretroviral treatment; and 3. care for the orphan.

So I sit here wondering what the answer is and where even to start.  But I realize behind all the numbers and the span of miles, there is a real child desperate for love, for a family, for a future.  The place to start is my hand and heart reaching out to theirs in some fashion or form.  I wait on the Lord with open hands.

Wendy will be serving on the Haiti Journey 117 Team leaving in March 2012 along with and others from her church in Evanston, IL. She hopes to discover her role as an advocate for the orphan as a result of this experience.

This verse, penned in Hebrew Scripture as early as 740 BC, speaks to God’s heart for the orphan and commands us as believers to take action on their behalf. The charge wasn’t given to government authorities, non-profits or celebrities….it was spoken to the CHURCH, to believers of the faith. These commands still ring true today as we see these statements repeated over and over in the Old and New Testament. And this command is the heartbeat and foundation of a program we call Journey 117, a ministry of World Orphans that seeks to empower and equip believers to live out this calling in their own lives.

Now, in light of this truth, we are delighted to present an opportunity for believers to get on board with World Orphans this summer to incorporate all of these things into one trip….to seek justice and encourage the oppressed, to defend the orphan and care for widows, to learn to do right.

We are organizing a Journey team to serve in Iraq in the Kurdistan region to assist our in-country staff that is working to care for orphans and widows. World Orphans has helped to build a community center called the Refuge that is being used to host events for the people in this region, most of which are displaced peoples that have migrated north to escape the war-torn regions in other areas of Iraq.

This area where the Refuge is located is called the Freedom Martyr’s Village and was established by the Kurdistan Regional Government to provide a safe haven for families whose relatives died in the war. Since adoption is prohibited and “outsiders” are not allowed to care for orphans, this facility allows our staff and teams to practically serve a desperate, hurting community with grace and love.

Would you consider joining our Journey 117 team this summer to help serve the orphans and widows in this community? Our team will use the community center to relationally engage the children by organizing VBS-style activities, sports and recreational games, arts and crafts, and music and drama, to name a few.  We are praying that God brings a variety of people to join this team, those with unique gifts and abilities, to help us organize a well-rounded outreach program for this community. The team will also visit nearby orphanages to gain a better understanding of what the realities are for the fatherless in this country.

We are so excited about what God is doing in the hearts and lives of people in Iraq and how He is equipping World Orphans to serve these people in such a real, practical way! We invite you to join us this summer as we extend His love and grace to the people in the Freedom Martyr’s Village.

If you would like to apply for this team or wish to contact us with questions, please visit www.journey117.org.

How many kids with HIV/AIDS do you know that have been adopted? Do you know that a large portion of the world’s population does not have updated information on HIV/AIDS?  If the world was properly educated on HIV/AIDS, they would learn a person with this disease does not have a death sentence.  The truth is, “HIV is considered a chronic, but manageable disease with the proper treatment.”

Thanks to a nonprofit organization, Project Hopeful, we have learned the truth of this disease and God’s heart for these children.  If you’d like to learn more about how these children can live a normal life, with medication and a family to love them, visit www.projecthopeful.org.

I saw the effects of HIV/AIDS on orphans while in Jamaica recently.  We spoke with the head of adoption in Jamaica and asked about HIV orphans, like how many have been adopted.  Sadly, she said none.  This woman was asking us what the life span is for a child with HIV.  These orphans are in a remote area of Jamaica, at a special needs orphanage.  They are essentially put in a “back room”.  HIV is so widespread there due to rampant drug use. These children are outcasts; they may not even be educated on their disease. They may have no hope.  This is wrong.  God has plans for these children, other than never seeing anything besides a “back room.”

Melissa and daughter, Karis, will be serving on the Haiti Journey 117 Team leaving in March 2012 along with and others from their church in Evanston, IL.

As a college student living on campus, it’s so easy to be wrapped up in a bubble of classes, friends, and on-campus fellowship; it’s so natural to turn a blind eye to all the injustices taking place in the world in the midst of all my busyness. But this summer, I realized that I have only a very short time left in college and that there is a bigger world out there. I didn’t know what to do with that until, one Sunday morning, I heard a sermon about serving those in need, during which this opportunity to work with orphans [with Journey 117] was presented. This was it.

As I prayed over the trip, I felt God really encouraging me to go. I felt uneasy because I wasn’t too familiar with a lot of people at church and didn’t know who I would be going with, but I still felt so excited about the trip that I decided to apply.

So, why does God want me to go on this trip?

As a pre-med student who is seriously considering the field of pediatrics, I think that this mission trip is an ideal preview of what I can do in the future. As a doctor, I’d imagine that I would be even busier than I am now and would be prone to being apathetic toward things that don’t affect my life directly. But I don’t want to be that way, and I don’t think God wants me to be that way either. Preparing for this mission is helping me vaguely visualize how to engage in the community in which I will be placed in the future.

I’m excited to continue to discover what God has in store through the preparation process and during/after the trip!

Jane L. will be serving on the Haiti Journey 117 Team leaving in March 2012 along with and others from her church in Evanston, IL.

I have been involved with various Christian ministries since childhood. Along with my family, I have been — whether voluntarily or not so voluntarily — a part of international ministries, children’s ministries, and college ministries as both participant or organizing team. I’ve always been hesitant to start mission work, though.

I’ve had a friend throughout middle and high school whose family always went on mission trips for the summer to Africa, but I didn’t really see why it was necessary to go abroad in order to do what we can do right here where we live. Yet, I found that I was drawn to the work that was being done in areas where “bare necessities” quickly became luxuries that many couldn’t afford. Through sermons at Evanston Bible Fellowship and learning more about the scriptures, I became interested in exploring overseas mission work. This trip to Haiti is a first step for me to determine how I can fit into mission work and how, in turn, mission work can be part of my future plans.

Curie C. will be serving on the Haiti Journey 117 Team leaving in March 2012 along with and others from her church in Evanston, IL.

Hello everyone. I am in fifth grade and this winter me and my family hosted an orphan from Latvia and we now are interested in adopting her. Something I learned from this experience was that I am really lucky to have parents, a house and people who love me. The reason I am going on this trip is to help and care for those who don’t have any family, home, or people who love them. I want to try help as many orphans as I can.

Elizabeth B. will be serving on the Haiti Journey 117 Team leaving in March 2012 along with her mother and others from her church in Evanston, IL.

Orphan care has been a backdrop of much of my adult life.  My husband is adopted and for as long as I’ve known him I’ve been intrigued by the concept of adoption and have grown in my understanding of my own adoption into God’s family.  In the past few years as our family and many close friends have adopted children into their own families, orphan care and adoption have moved to the front lines of my life.

As I’ve been reading all I can on God’s heart for the fatherless, blogs recording the adoption journeys of many family and friends, God has increased my compassion towards the fatherless.  As a family we have been praying about how God would have us move from the sidelines to being in the game and caring for orphans in tangible ways.

When this opportunity to study God’s heart for the orphan and participate in on a team serving orphans in Haiti came up, I knew I wanted to be part of the team.  I’m excited to have my oldest daughter, Elizabeth, join me on this journey.  It is my prayer that God will continue to break our hearts for the fatherless and show us how we can be part of the solution.

Laila B. will be serving on the Haiti Journey 117 Team leaving in March 2012 along with her daughter and others from her church in Evanston, IL.

Before Keren and I met, we both desired for adoption to be part of the way that we built our family. I can’t say there was one “moment” where I felt God calling me to this. It simply has been one of those things that just makes sense to me.

In preparation for this trip, a few things in particular excite me:

• Watching my wife’s heart be filled by the Spirit with love and compassion for kids, especially those in difficult circumstances
• Learning what God is teaching the other members of the team. How will we as a team encourage each other in this journey?
• Praying expectantly for God to surprise me. As I said, we already want to adopt. But how else might the Lord be calling us to serve, especially in the here and now?

Dave C. will be serving on the Haiti Journey 117 Team leaving in March 2012 along his wife and others from his church in Evanston, IL.

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” –James 2:26

Since beginning my walk with the Lord, the book of James has always been a favorite of mine. This particular verse always stood out to me, mainly due to my confusion about why I needed to “complete deeds” if my salvation came from Jesus. As I continued to learn more about my Savior and His character, I continually observed acts of humility. Not only did I witness a humble attitude in examining the nature of Christ, but also in those who followed Him. Through the actions of my youth leaders, disciplers, and other Christians in my life, I saw a willingness to serve, not to gain merit because of pride, but because they truly loved Jesus and wanted to serve Him. It was through realizing this that I began my journey to love my God with all my heart and desired to worship Him through humble service towards others.

Over the years, my family has had the privilege to support a number of long-term missionaries or believers attending short-term mission trips. One family friend in particular, only a few years older than me, traveled to Haiti immediately after his high school graduation and served in an orphanage for approximately 2 years. He was there when Haiti was struck by the earthquake and I remember reading his blog frequently about the work God was doing in the devastated nation. Haiti has been in my prayers for a number of years and I was overjoyed when I heard about the trip with Journey 117 through my church, Evanston Bible Fellowship. After spending a few weeks in prayer, I realized that God was calling me to serve the orphans of Haiti by demonstrating His love and compassion to them.

I am looking at this trip as an opportunity from God to fall in love with Him more. Far too often I take my relationship with Him for granted. I believe that this trip will be very challenging, but also rewarding, and, most importantly, humbling. My service should not come from prideful ambition or a need to “complete deeds,” but from a love for my God and a longing to share His love and compassion with others.

Krysta S. will be serving on the Haiti Journey 117 Team leaving in March 2012 along with others from her church in Evanston, IL.