Feeding and clothing orphans
For some years now, teams have been going out to rural areas that
have been hard hit by HIV/Aids. As you would probably know, tens of thousands of children
are being orphaned every year because of this dreadful pandemic. We have registered about
2,000 orphans as being in dire need. It has been necessary to establish the facts about
each child, with the local authorities (the “Nkosi” or Chief and his
councellors), because we want to be sure that the “bread and fishes” will reach
the right people. Vehicles go out with co-workers to distribute food, clothing and other
essentials.
Just one quick recent example: one of the teams which had gone out to some orphan “homes”
on the 24th December last year, discovered a “family” of 6 children (deserted and abandoned), had a only a
handful of beans to cook for Christmas Day. It was their very last bit of food from our
previous food distribution there. How excited and thrilled they were to receive food and
some Christmas gifts!
These
orphan “homes” are very far from the conventional home of father, mother, and
children. In most cases, if there isn’t a grandmother to care for them, children find
themselves totally deserted because of losing their parents through Aids. Often, family
and friends have abandoned them as well because they too need to fend for themselves in an
increasingly hungry environment. Just imagine the trauma, the heartache of a teenager (or
younger child) needing to be the parent, the breadwinner and the defender of his or her
siblings! Consider the pressure on little girls to sell their bodies for something
to eat! Sexual abuse of little children is happening all the time. Only changed hearts,
through the Gospel, can bring about a lasting change to these precious lives. Feeding and
clothing orphans (and anybody else in dire need) is part of the proclamation of the
Gospel. It must never replace the real prize – salvation through Jesus Christ our
Lord – but it must not demerited because of the
physical aspect. In Romans 12 we are explicitly commanded to keep the physical and
spiritual together: “present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.” |
