2000 Verses About the Poor, Orphaned and Widowed

Blog post by Krysta S., Team Haiti 2012

Deuteronomy 15:7 says: “If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them.” In regards to this command from the Lord, why then does almost half the world – over three billion people – live on less than $2.50 a day? Why do 22,000 children die each day due to poverty? Why are thousands of children orphaned because their parents perish because they cannot afford to eat? Whose responsibility is it to tend to this issue of poverty?

According to Deuteronomy, and the over 300 other Bible verses on the poor, it the church’s responsibility. We are called by God to stop the oppression of the poor. The economic aspects of poverty focus on material needs, typically including the necessities of daily living, such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water. Poverty in this sense may be understood as a condition in which a person or community is lacking in the basic needs for a minimum standard of well-being and life, particularly as a result of a persistent lack of income. Analysis of social aspects of poverty recognizes that poverty may be a function of the diminished “capability” of people to live the kinds of lives they value. This may include lack of access to information, education, health care, or political power. Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships. This inequality often explains the lack of relationship care to those experiencing poverty. In third world countries, the poor are excluded and powerless in society. They must do everything that they can to simply survive. This environment often results in the poor becoming enslaved as indentured servants or entering into prostitution in order to provide for their family. Poverty causes the poor to have lower life expectancy due to malnutrition, AIDS, violence and disease. As a result of their parent’s disease and death, the children of the poor become orphaned and abandoned. In order for the children to survive, they will do as their parents did (servitude or prostitution), resulting in a vicious cycle of poverty.

This vicious cycle needs to be stopped. This cycle is the leading causes of orphans worldwide. If we are commanded by God to help the poor, why don’t we help them? Why don’t we extend our reach to help the widows and orphans that need someone’s help? There are over 2000 verses that demonstrate God’s love and mercy toward the poor, the orphan, and the widow. What can you do to help?

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

Ethiopia Journey Inspires Teacher to Do More

Nathan Livesay, a teacher at Sumter High School and former basketball coach, spent nearly two weeks of his Winter Break in Ethiopia with Journey 117, a ministry of World Orphans.

BY JADE ANDERSON janderson@theitem.com  The Item

A trip out of the country can change a person.
“I wouldn’t trade those two weeks for a state championship,” said Nathan Livesay, a former Sumter High School basketball coach.
Last month, the English and credit recovery teacher traveled to Ethiopia with World Orphans, an organization that brings churches in Third World countries together with American churches to help supply basic needs of the children being cared for by the indigenous churches. He learned about the organization through the Willow Creek Global Leadership Development Summit simulcast held at Alice Drive Baptist Church in the fall.
“I was reading the statistics about HIV and AIDS, about people dying in extreme poverty, and the numbers really bothered me,” Livesay said. “I was compelled to go on this trip to put a name and face with the statistics. … Even with basketball, I’ve always had a heart for kids that don’t always have everything they need.”

Aging out of the System….Then What?

Blog post by Janice O., Team Uganda 2011             

A child growing up in a loving home has hopes, dreams and desires of the life they will eventually live, the person they will become some day, and their future as a happy adult.  How is that different from an orphan child in Africa? In Africa 11 million children die each year before the age of 5.  Many of these orphan children don’t think of their future adult lives, because most are thinking of when they will eat their next meal, where they will sleep tonight, or how they will survive another day.  There are approximately 143 million orphans worldwide and in Africa, 2,102,400 children are becoming orphans each year.  The lucky ones may enter into an orphanage system, to be cared for by strangers with the hopes of being adopted some day by a loving, caring family.   With only 250,000 African adoptions annually, there is a desperate need for a change. 

They did not get to choose….

Blog post by Stephanie J, Team Uganda 2011

They did not get to choose….

They did not get to chose to watch their parents die a slow a painful death.  They did not get a choice in becoming an orphan.  Their childhood has been stolen from them.  These children orphaned by AIDS do not have a voice loud enough or strength strong enough to fight for themselves but we do!

UNICEF 2009 statistics estimate that 1.2 million children (0-17 years) in Uganda have been left orphaned due to the AIDS.  UNAIDS 2007 statistics estimate that 12 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa have lost one or both of there parents to AIDS.  AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa account for 37% of parental loss from all causes (Richter, 2008; UNAIDS, 2008*) [1]

Child Trafficking

Blog post by Mike S., Team Moldova 2011

Slavery is forcing someone to work under the threat of violence without pay and no way to get out. As Europe’s leader in human trafficking, Moldova is the center of the slave trade. The main forms of slavery are sexual exploitation, forced begging, and forced physical labor.  Thousands of Moldovan young people, many underage, are sold into slavery each year. 

How Diseases are Affecting Orphaned Children

Blog post by Heidi G., Team Haiti 2011

There are many diseases that take the lives of parents living in poverty around the world. This causes their children to become orphans, and then these same diseases also plague the children. The most common of these are HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and diarrhea-related illnesses.

Poverty: Leading Cause of Orphans

Blog post by Saundra P., Team Haiti 2011

Poverty is the leading cause of worldwide orphaned and abandoned children.

What is poverty to an orphan you might ask? Would you say it is a lack of basic human needs such as food, clean water, clothing and shelter? Or would you say it is a lifestyle of deprivation, a denial of choices and opportunities and a violation of human dignity? Worldwide poverty to an orphan is all of these things. An orphaned and abandoned child is impoverished and subject to hunger, homelessness, and disease. Because of their poverty, an orphan receives little or no education and poor or nonexistent healthcare. The orphan feels unloved, insecure, and destitute and is generally shunned by society.

Helpless and Broken-Hearted in India

Blog post by Heidi G., Team Haiti 2011

I have loved children for as long as I can remember. I started getting involved helping in the nursery and children’s classes at my church when I was in middle school. Also, for the past three years I have been a nanny, so children have been a major part of my life! Because of my love for children, the fact that there are so many children with no home or family breaks my heart. My eyes were really opened to how sad this is on my trip to India. I would like to share with you how the Lord put the burden on my heart for orphaned children and how this lead me to join the Journey 117 Haiti team.

In the summer of 2009, I went on a mission trip to India and spent a month there. The focus of this trip was not orphaned children, but as we traveled through the poorer areas of the cities there were several occasions where we came upon orphans begging for money and food. The food vendors would sell food cards that were good for one meal, so we would buy several of these cards and pass them out to the children. We would not give them money because we were warned that often these orphans are used by someone who will give them glue to sniff in exchange for any money they collect. Every time I saw these children all I wanted to do was take them home, and it broke my heart that I couldn’t!  There was one night in particular I was feeling this way that I will never forget.

Loving Christ Through Loving the Orphans

Blog post by Lauren P., Team Haiti 2011

Lauren P. will be serving on the Haiti 2011 Journey 117 team in May.

A Dollar a Day Challenge

Lacey Howe, recent Journey 117 team member, felt challenged to learn what it truly means to live in poverty. Check out this video she made along with friend Amanda Walton to watch their Journey.