Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Pure Religion

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27)

So instead of complaining about something going wrong, how about I encourage you to support something going right. That would be a welcome change, for you and for me. It is way too easy to complain about the ways we waste money and in doing so overlook the quiet work being done that is for the Gospel.

I was made aware of a group that is working with Haitian orphans in the aftermath of the earthquakes, The Haiti Orphan Project. Honestly Haiti wasn’t the easiest place in the world to grow up before the earthquakes and I can’t imagine the conditions since. There was a lot of attention paid to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake but with the short attention span of Americans we have moved on to the next crisis. The world may have looked away but the need in Haiti is still as serious and nowhere is that need more acute than among the children who are basically fending for themselves. To try to grasp the magnitude of the problem, consider this:

15% of all children in Haiti are orphaned or abandoned (“practically orphaned”). Most estimates put the number of orphans in Haiti prior to the January 2010 earthquake at about 380,000. Experts now estimate that the number of orphans has doubled to about 750,000 since the earthquake.

Instead of looking forward to summer break and three months of fun, they are facing a of summer with no parents and bleak prospects. The good news is that there are still Christians in Haiti who are engaged in works of mercy in the name of Christ and those folks need financial support. I know one of the individuals involved in The Haiti Orphan Project and trust his discernment. Here is a summary of what they are doing in Haiti:

Our Vision may be best summed up as:

The Haiti Orphan Project seeks to meet the incredible need for housing, education and physical as well as spiritual nourishment for orphans and abandoned children in Haiti. Haiti continues to see huge numbers of children who have been truly orphaned or abandoned (practically orphaned). These children, therefore, lack even the basic human needs such as nourishing food, adequate housing and education. Most, if not all, also lack any Christian nurture.

The Haiti Orphan Project intends to play a vital role in addressing these needs. We partner with the Global Orphan Project and local, Haitian evangelical churches to meet these basic and essential needs. The model consists of establishing a “village” to provide adequate housing, a school for the orphans as well as other children in the community and a local church building where the children are exposed to Christian teaching and love in an evangelical congregation.

The Haiti Orphan Project also seeks to help facilitate self-sufficiency through Microfinance and/or Microenterprise Development


Now that is something that makes sense to me, something that seems like a worthy use of our resources. Just imagine if some of the half a million a month that goes to support one informational ministry were to go to Haiti? What could half a million a month do for these children? I would encourage you to check out the webpage for The Haiti Orphan Project and support them however you can. I made a small donation this morning and plan to continue to do so. It is not much compared to the enormous need in Haiti but God’s grace is sufficient.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2: 14-17)

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2: 3-6)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Arthur, I'm really glad you posted this. I'm going to show it to Randy and see what he thinks. When I brought up to him what I thought about how much money goes to our church and what that money actually does vs. what we are specifically commanded to do with our money, he actually agreed with me. When we sat down to do our budget this month, when it came to the "charity" line in our budget, he said, "Well, I think we both think we should change some of what we do with that money. Let's go ahead and put in (x amount) and see if we can figure out what we should do with it." I've personally felt burdened that we need to be specifically helping widows and orphans, and I've been convicted that helping orphans doesn't necessarily mean adopting them. Anyway, sorry for the long comment, but I'm really glad you posted this.

*Oh, and I know it may seem a little stiff to budget out your charitable giving. We have a certain amount that we are committed to giving every month, but we do sometimes give beyond that if we both feel led to do so. I didn't want to give the impression that the budget, and not the Holy Spirit, decides how much we give. :)

Arthur Sido said...

April,

I think it makes perfect sense to budget charitable giving. Otherwise it is easy to forget to set money aside for it. I agree that helping orphans is more than adopting them. For the cost of adopting one orphan you can help dozens more right where they live and God willing these kids will grow up and become salt and light in Haiti. I still would like to adopt some children from Haiti but until we can afford that I can help support those who are on the ground.

BTW, these folks are in Missouri as well so you could maybe help them out more directly as well!